Just in time for a real-life analogy.

        The fictional musical is about a man who convinces kids he can teach them to become musicians, even without instruments. Then he convinces reluctant businesspeople, skeptical parents and even cynical teachers to rally around their youth.

        In the process, the con man's heart turns into a heart of gold.

        It's an endearing story. But it's a fairy tale.

        Cincinnati has emerged from a similar, though less melodramatic, fairy tale.

        This one hasn't yielded a happy ending. Our music man is marching out of town long before his work is finished.
       

He's got credentials

        Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Steven Adamowski said Monday he intends to leave the 42,000-student school system. He'll teach educators about school reform instead of heading up the reforms he began here.

        To be clear, Mr. Adamowski is no sham. Unlike the musical's hero, Mr. Adamowski is loaded with credentials.

        But like the pretend bandleader, Mr. Adamowski sold the community on big promises. He even delivered on some. He helped yank the district out of its disastrous “academic emergency” status. Graduation rates and test scores have improved.

        He helped divide low-performing high schools into smaller schools-within-schools. He pushed to reward teachers more for superior performance and less for seniority.

        He says now is the “natural” time for him to leave, to plan what “I'll be when I grow up.”

        He speaks too soon.

        I disagree that most of what he was hired to achieve has been accomplished. The reforms he launched are just beginning to unlock Cincinnati's bulky public schools bureaucracy.

        Graduation rates, which improved last year from 51 percent of high school seniors graduating after four years to 57.6 percent, is a blip upward — but not yet a trend. Same goes for some upticks in proficiency test scores.

        What is less disputable is that Mr. Adamowski has marshalled unprecedented support from business and community leaders for the troubled school system.

        But that further demonstrates why his departure rankles. Probably this fall, Cincinnati voters will be asked to scrape together half of the funding for a $1 billion building construction plan. He was to have been the point man.
       

The professor's escaped

        Mr. Adamowski ought to have stayed until that was accomplished, to see if the reforms he'll be espousing at the University of Missouri will even work long-term in a major urban setting.

        The redesigned high school strategy, for instance, is a hallmark of the Adamowski era. These newfangled education institutes are experiments in smaller class size, with a focus on college or careers. Only one, the technology school at Taft, has been operating a year; five more will open this year.

        Mr. Adamowski is bailing out just when it's getting interesting.

        Leaving now also means he concedes defeat to the Cincinnati teachers union, which voted down his plan to pay teachers based on performance.

        Union leaders say the plan is still a good idea, but they want to change it and re-pitch it to teachers. Mr. Adamowski won't be a part of the compromise to keep heat on the teachers.

        Like the Music Man, Mr. Adamowski boosted many people's belief in our children's futures and in ourselves.

        But unlike the Music Man, Mr. Adamowski is leaving us with doubts about our choice of leaders.

        Call Denise Smith Amos at 768-8395, or e-mail damos@enquirer.com.

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