Carol Corbett Burris

Carol Corbett Burris (born 1953) is an American educator, administrator, and author. From 2000–2015 she was principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York. Opposed to the Common Core curriculum, Burris has been an advocate of "detracking" the secondary school curriculum, not only to allow all students access and support in International Baccalaureate courses, but also to desegregate classrooms where minority students have not been given opportunities to succeed with a more challenging curriculum. She resigned in 2015, a protest over the "reforms that eat away at the moral fabric of our schools". Burris then became Executive director of the Network for Public Education.

Early life and education Burris earned a Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2003, with a dissertation titled, Providing accelerated mathematics to heterogeneously grouped middle school students: The longitudinal effects on students of differing initial achievement levels, sponsored by Jay P. Heubert.

Career In her early career, Burris served ten years on a school board, taught middle school and high school Spanish, and was vice principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York. From 2000 to 2015 Burris served as the principal at South Side.

In a 2007 article in Educational Leadership, Burris challenged the current pedagogy that limited the more challenging courses to schools' highest-achieving students, asking, "What would happen if all students were encouraged to enroll in the most rigorous classes available?" Advocating "detracking" students to allow participation of all in International Baccalaureate (IB) courses at South Side High School, Burris identified cultural and institutional barriers for minority students "to take the risk of signing up for the rigorous IB classes". Teachers also appealed to student interests to encourage enrollment in IB classes, and the IB coordinator held work sessions with every tenth grade student, explaining the advantages of achieving IB diploma requirements. Burris objected to the Loveless report's conclusion: "A brief overview of the experience with eighth-grade algebra for all in the district where the reviewer works yields findings consistent with the report's call for better math preparation but inconsistent with its call for fewer to take algebra in eighth grade." Burris offered "a brief overview of a research study of a successful program in which all students, including low achievers, take algebra in eighth grade". Bracey also objected to the unequal achievement data, which was not a normal distribution in the Rockville group, and concluded, "The kids in Rockville Center are not the kids in Loveless' study. Not by a long shot. We're comparing incomparables." Burris also vocally opposed a new system of teacher evaluations, portrayed by the state Education Department as "teachers and principals completing construction of an airplane in midair presumably to show the excitement of a challenging mission".

In 2015 Burris became an ardent opponent of Common Core standards, arguing that the Core testing harms disadvantaged students, writing that "high stakes testing – using tests for student promotion, teacher evolution, and even school closure – has certainly increased the controversy surrounding the Common Core". She also targeted teacher evaluations based on students' scores on Common Core tests, writing, "We know this will result in increased teaching to the test and a curriculum that narrows to those Common Core standards that are tested. In districts and states that chose to rely heavily on test scores in their evaluations, that has been the observed outcome." She argues that for-profit charter schools use damaging cost-cutting strategies:

Selected publications

Books

Review Reviews

Articles

Burris, C. C., & Welner, K. G. (2005). Closing the achievement gap by detracking. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(8), 594-598. Burris, C. C., Heubert, J. P., & Levin, H. M. (2006). Accelerating mathematics achievement using heterogeneous grouping. American Educational Research Journal, 43(1), 137-154. Welner, K., & Burris, C. C. (2006). Alternative approaches to the politics of detracking. Theory into Practice, 45(1), 90-99. Burris, C. C., Welner, E. W. K., & Murphy, J. (2008). Accountability, rigor, and detracking: Achievement effects of embracing a challenging curriculum as a universal good for all students. Teachers College Record, 110(3), 571-607.

Awards, honors

2003 – National Association of Secondary Schools' Principals Middle Level Dissertation of the Year Award 2010 – Named Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS) 2013 – Named SAANYS New York State High School Principal of the Year