Richard Hyatt: Muscogee County Superintendent David Lewis fulfills his promise
Educators should be happy now. Their leader has a Ph.D.
From the moment David Lewis was hired as superintendent of schools in Muscogee County, people in a profession that sometimes reveres the number of diplomas on a person's wall more than it does the knowledge in their head snickered that the new guy didn't have a terminal degree.
The day he was hired 17 months ago, Lewis said he was enrolled in a doctoral program at National Louis University in Florida, and since then he has made lonely weekend drives between Columbus and Tampa. This week was his final trip.
His thesis was completed and Thursday morning he faced a faculty panel that required him to defend his work. After lunch they congratulated Dr. Lewis.
You might want to pick up a copy. The title is "Applying Social Return on Investment Analysis in Polk County Public Schools" If the document lives up to its catchy title, it must be a good read.
In serious tones, this is a monument to his staying power as much as anything. He could have quit; when he moved, a 50-mile drive to class became a 400-mile journey down Interstate 75. More than anything, finishing that degree was the fulfillment of a promise he had made to his late parents.
It is the final hoop that Lewis has to jump through in a self-perpetuating world that insures the existence and prosperity of schools of education.
At his level, it does not mean a pay raise, but for lower-level educators, additional diplomas are gold. The more degrees an educator collects, the more money he or she gets on payday.
Lewis deserves applause for his persistence, but in reality his doctorate does not mean he will be a better school superintendent just as it does not guarantee that teachers or principals who earn such degrees are better performers in the schoolhouse.
But in this close-knit fraternity, it was awkward for the top administrator not to have an advanced degree when nine of his principals and a score of others in the chain of command have doctorates.
This tradition dates back as far as Dr. William Henry Shaw, who became superintendent in 1945. Since then, eight of the system's nine chief administrators have been doctors of education.
And once again, there is a doctor in the house.
-- Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. Reach him at hyatt31906@knology.net.
This story was originally published December 6, 2014 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: Muscogee County Superintendent David Lewis fulfills his promise."