Thinking Differently
Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievemen
By Richard H. Goodman and William G. Zimmerman, Jr.
Copyright 2000 Educational Research Service and New England School Development Council
Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement was supported by a Ford Foundation grant to the New England School Development Council. It was published by Educational Research Service.
The New England School Development Council (NESDEC) was founded at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1945. NESDEC is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to work with school districts to develop schools as high performance organizations. NESDEC fulfills its mission through program and service offerings in four major areas: Professional Development, Planning and Management, Executive Searching, and Research Development. Today, NESDEC represents more than 300 school districts in the New England states. For more information about NESDEC, please contact: John R. Sullivan, Jr., Executive Director, NESDEC, 28 Lord Road, Marlborough, MA 01752. Phone: (508) 481-9444. E-mail: nesdec@nesdec.org.
The Ford Foundation, established in 1936, is a private, nonprofit institution that serves as a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide. Its goals are to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. A national and international philanthropy with assets of more that $12 billion, the Foundation has provided more than $10 billion in grants and loans worldwide. The Ford Foundation maintains headquarters in New York, offices in countries in Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and an office in Russia.
Educational Research Service (ERS) is the independent, nonprofit research foundation sponsored by seven national school management associations to serve the research and information needs of education leaders and the public. ERS produces a broad range of resources that provide a solid foundation of information and research for important policy, operational, and instructional decisions in local school districts and other educational agencies. For more information about ERS, please contact ERS Member Services Information Center, 2000 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-2908. Phone: (800) 791-9308. E-mail: msic@ers.org. Web site: www.ers.org.
Questions about this report? Contact Richard H. Goodman or William G. Zimmerman Jr., New England School Development Council, 28 Lord Road, Marlborough, MA 01752. Phone: (508) 481-9444.
Additional copies of Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement are available from Educational Research Service, 2000 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-2908. Phone: (800) 791-9308. Fax: (800) 791-9309. Single copies are $7.00; ERS Comprehensive subscriber price: $3.50. Add the greater of $3.50 or 10 percent of purchase price for postage and handling. Quantity discounts available. Stock No. 0360.
Preface
In 1996-1997, supported by a Kellogg Foundation grant to the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), we conducted a nationwide study of school board/superintendent collaboration for high student achievement. The results of that study were reported in Getting There from Here (1997), published by NESDEC and the Educational Research Service (ERS). Over the past year, supported by a Ford Foundation grant to NESDEC, we have examined more deeply the concept of board/superintendent team leadership. Our goal was to pinpoint just what is needed to create and support the kind of school district leadership that will contribute to achieving the goals of healthy development and high achievement for every child in America.
The recommendations in this publication evolved over many hours of discussion with members of the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement and reflect its collective wisdom. While not everyone will agree with every recommendation, it is our hope that this report will lead to positive change in every state and school district, with the result being strong local leadership for children.
As Anne Bryant, Executive Director of the National School Boards Association, and Paul Houston, Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators, have said: "Strong school board/superintendent leadership, governance, and teamwork are the foundation for raising the achievement of every child in America."
We express our sincere appreciation to members of this Committee, to Joseph Aguerrebere of the Ford Foundation for seeing the need for strong leadership for children, to Luann Fulbright for her research and writing in support of our work, to Karen Rookwood for her insightful editing, and to Bruce Boston for his assistance. Special appreciation is extended to a strong supporter of public education, Fred Whittemore, for his contribution to assist with the publication and wide distribution of this report.
The research on which we based this publication, including seven case studies of successful board/superintendent teams from a variety of communities across America, is available through NESDEC.
We welcome each reader’s comments and suggestions.
Richard H. Goodman
William G. Zimmerman, Jr.
Foreword
Dear Colleagues,
Until recently, discussions on educational reform have given scant attention to one area vital to educational improvement: the quality of school district leadership and governance—specifically, the effectiveness of the processes by which superintendents and school boards work together to establish good policies and to carry them out.
This important new publication, Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement, follows up on the work begun in 1997 with Getting There from Here, which published the results of a nationwide study of school board/superintendent collaboration for high student achievement. That 1997 report clearly established the importance of teamwork and leadership in effective school governance.
In this current report, Richard Goodman and William Zimmerman, Jr. address the specific steps that must be taken to develop and strengthen local school board/superintendent leadership by local school boards and superintendents, by state political and educational leaders, and by university deans and faculty.
Dr. Goodman and Dr. Zimmerman bring a wealth of board/superintendent experience and expertise to this topic. In their current roles with the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), they were two of the researchers and authors of Getting There from Here.
The recommendations they present in this report are all based on one idea, that school districts cannot effectively raise student achievement without strong leadership and teamwork from the school board and superintendent. Although readers of this report may not agree with every single recommendation, we believe that they will endorse the central recommendation reached by the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement—that effective school board/superintendent leadership, based on teamwork, communication, and trust, is key to quality education for America’s students.
We have been proud to serve on the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement. We believe that the recommendations contained in this report provide a valuable starting point for immediate discussion and action, which will ultimately lead to our common goal: high achievement for all of America’s children.
Signed,
The 36 Members of the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student AchievementMembers of the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement
1. Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools, Washington, DC
2. Gregory Anrig, Jr., Vice President, The Century Foundation, New York, NY
3. Robert H. Beach, Executive Director, National Council of Professors of Education Administration, University of Memphis College of Education, Memphis, TN
4. Evelyn Berry, Executive Director, South Carolina School Boards Association, Columbia, SC
5. Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association, Alexandria, VA
6. Davis Campbell, Executive Director, California School Boards Association, West Sacramento, CA
7. Benjamin Canada, Superintendent of Schools, Portland, OR, and President-elect, American Association of School Administrators
8. Joseph Cirasuolo, President, American Association of School Admin-istrators, and Superintendent of Schools, Wallingford, CT
9. John Forsyth, President, Educational Research Service, Arlington, VA
10. Charles Fowler, Superintendent of Schools, Hewlett-Woodmere Union Free School District, Woodmere, NY
11. Susan Fuhrman, Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
12. Ellen Galinsky, President, Families & Work Institute, New York, NY
13. Harold "Bud" Hodgkinson, Center for Demographic Studies, Alexandria, VA
14. Paul Houston, Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators, Arlington, VA
15. Harold "Doc" Howe II, Former United States Commissioner of Education and Retired Senior Lecturer in Education, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Hanover, NH
16. James A. Kelly, Founding President, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Grosse Pointe, MI
17. Justin P. King, Executive Director, Michigan Association of School Boards, Lansing, MI
18. Michael Kirst, Professor, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
19. Charles Kolb, President, Committee for Economic Development, Washington, DC
20. Timothy G. Kremer, Executive Director, New York State School Boards Association, Albany, NY
21. Quentin Lawson, Executive Director, National Alliance of Black School Educators, Washington, DC
22. John T. MacDonald, Senior Advisor, Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, DC
23. Floretta McKenzie, President, The McKenzie Group, Washington, DC
24. Ernestine McWherter, Executive Director, Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents, Nashville, TN
25. Robert Peterkin, Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
26. Peter Relic, President, National Association of Independent Schools, Washington, DC
27. James J. Renier, Retired Chairman and CEO, Honeywell Corp., and Chairman, Institute for Educational Leadership, Loretto, MN
28. Nina Sazer O’Donnell, Vice President, Families and Work Institute, Durham, NC
29. Richard Schwab, Dean, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
30. Harold P. Seamon, Deputy Executive Director, National School Boards Association, Alexandria, VA
31. Eugene R. Smolley, Jr., President, The Cheswick Center, Rockville, MD
32. Miles Turner, Executive Director, Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, Madison, WI
33. Michael Usdan, President, Institute for Educational Leadership, Washington, DC
34. Johnny L. Veselka, Executive Director, Texas Association of School Administrators, Austin, TX
35. Brenda Welburn, Executive Director, National Association of State Boards of Education, Alexandria, VA
36. Arthur E. Wise, President, National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, Washington, DC
Thinking Differently:
Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement
By Richard H. Goodman and William G. Zimmerman, Jr.
The last quarter of the 20th century saw many vigorous efforts to rethink and improve education for America’s children and youth. There were countless attempts to improve public schools, from new state standards for student achievement, including high-stakes testing, to charter schools legislation. But one important dimension has largely been overlooked: school district leadership, governance, and teamwork.
Strong, collaborative leadership by local school boards and school superintendents is a key cornerstone of the foundation for high student achievement. That leadership is essential to forming a community vision for children, crafting long-range goals and plans for raising the achievement of every child, improving the professional development and status of teachers and other staff, and ensuring that the guidance, support, and resources needed for success are available. If this country is serious about improving student achievement and maximizing the development of all of its children, then local educational leadership teams – superintendents and school board members – must work cooperatively and collaboratively to mobilize their communities to get the job done!
While politicians and corporate leaders clamor for state tests that link minimum scores to high school diplomas, educators are teaching students who, particularly in urban and remote rural areas, are weighed down by issues of poverty, health, and safety that obstruct and defeat learning. America’s leaders at all levels must understand and address the current needs of children, families, schools, and communities and adjust social policy to today’s realities, however daunting they may be.
Leadership for High Student Achievement
This report spells out what the authors, guided by a broad panel of national educators – the National Advisory Committee on School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement – believe must be done to develop and strengthen local board/superintendent leadership to attain the overriding goal of high achievement for every child. The need to focus on leadership for improving achievement comes at a time when:
• Public school enrollment is at an all-time high of 53 million. This number will continue to rise steadily due to increasing birth rates and immigration.
• School districts face a critical shortage of teachers. The U.S. Department of Education projects that 2.2 million new teachers are needed over the next 10 years to meet enrollment increases, reduce class size, and offset the large number of retiring teachers.
• Many communities face a critical shortage of citizens willing to serve on school boards.
• Fewer educators with leadership potential are willing to serve as principals, district-level administrators, or superintendents of schools.
• At an average age of 42, one-third of our public school buildings are in desperate need of repair or replacement. More than $112 billion is needed to repair, replace, or modernize public schools.
• The dropout rate remains unacceptably high, with rates for black students (13 percent) and Hispanic students (25 percent) notably higher than for white students (8 percent).
While we recognize that the challenges facing school district leaders are very different in large cities in comparison to suburbs, towns, and rural areas, there is no doubt that public school leaders are up to the challenge. Throughout the history of American public education, our schools have successfully met and overcome challenges just as weighty and complex as those now facing them. Effective, collaborative, and courageous board/superintendent leadership teams are needed today to carry on and enhance what past leaders have accomplished. At the turn of a new century, the heightened public concern about education represents an opportunity to focus attention and gather the resources necessary to reach the ultimate goal: high achievement and healthy development for all children.
For our part, we remain undismayed by the critics’ incessant chant that the system is broken and must be rebuilt. Rather than lament public education’s shortcomings, we prefer to build on its achievements, and we urge all Americans to join us in this outlook. Public schools carry the lion’s share of educating the nation’s children. They are the primary and fundamental contributors to America’s successes – in learning, business, the arts, science and technology, and a host of other endeavors. Led by school boards and superintendents who are accountable to the public, the current system has educated nearly 90 percent of America’s workers, inventors, authors, scientists, corporate leaders, artists, and computer technicians. For more than two centuries, the American public education system has thrived on local experimentation and avoided excessive centralization of power. It has absorbed much of the nation’s anger and angst regarding racial issues and desegregation. It has responded positively to the call to educate children with special needs. Through it all, America has grown and prospered through the brainpower and productivity of its people. Indeed, our nation currently enjoys the highest standard of living and the greatest degree of prosperity the world has ever known. It is good to recall that the vast majority of us are products of public schools.
These successes, and the fact that millions upon millions of students still thrive in our public schools, cannot be ignored. Yet these accomplishments, impressive as they are, are not enough. Children throughout our nation who are beset by poverty still face formidable obstacles to the kind of learning they need to succeed in a fast-paced society and a global economy. Too many children continue to fall through the cracks. Too many young people leave high school ill-prepared to enter either college or the workforce. If we are to prepare tomorrow’s workers and citizens to succeed, we must educate all of our children to high levels.
Strengthening Board/Superintendent
Leadership Teams
Our research has identified a number of successful school systems that are distinguished from others by school boards and superintendents that function as true leadership teams. In an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual support, an effective leadership team can focus on student, teacher, and community needs and achievements; policy development; long-range planning and progress toward goals; and an effective allocation of resources. Essentially, the board/superintendent leadership team, if freed from political distractions, can work successfully on its most critical task: promoting high achievement for all students.
This publication recommends what we believe must be done to create strong board/superintendent leadership teams. We make recommendations for major changes in state laws, in local policies, in the graduate and continuing education of superintendents, and in developing local board/superintendent leadership teams. All are aimed at supporting the optimal development of every child.
We have identified seven key strategies to strengthen school board/superintendent leadership and teamwork. They are:
1. A redefinition of student achievement to include a broad array of educational goals
2. A strong, unified leadership and governance body at the school district level, with the overriding goal of providing quality education for all children
3. New state laws on school district governance to support the unified school board/superintendent leadership team
4. Mobilizing communities and staff to focus on high student achievement
5. A new approach to preparing and training school boards and superintendents that will support their coming together as unified leadership teams
6. Public consciousness-raising for high student achievement
7. The establishment of a National Center for Board/Superintendent Leadership, which will be responsible for advocating and implementing these strategies and for carrying out research to support continuous improvement in the leadership of local school systems
We explore these strategies in the following discussion and incorporate them in the recommendations.
What Is Student Achievement?
Achievement all too often is defined simply as passing a standardized achievement test. That definition leaves out too much that we want for and from our children. In response to the problems documented first in A Nation at Risk (1983) and in a barrage of education reports since, many politicians and policy makers have turned to a "quick fix" school reform approach based entirely on test scores. In contrast, the National School Boards Association in Raising the Bar: A School Board Primer on Student Achievement (1998) suggests a much broader definition of achievement. Among its educational goals, this definition includes:
1. Academic attainment reaching beyond what a state test or other standardized test currently measures (e.g., higher order thinking skills, intellectual curiosity and creativity)
2. Job skills and preparation
3. Citizenship (e.g., volunteerism, voting, community service, abiding by laws)
4. Appreciation of the arts
5. Development of character and values (e.g., integrity, responsibility, courtesy, patriotism, and a work ethic)
To this definition, we must add two significant items:
1. Sound physical development and optimal health of all children throughout their formative years to prepare them for healthy, productive lives as adults
2. Helping our children and youth understand and value the growing diversity of American society
The Challenge
Even with a talented and visionary board/superintendent team at the helm, reaching the goal of high student achievement depends upon thinking differently about teaching, learning, public engagement, self-development, and teamwork. The meaning of achievement for the whole child must be rethought by the entire community, led by the board/superintendent team, and embraced by teachers, principals, parents, students, and other citizens.
As we examine the challenge of strengthening school system leadership, let us look at individual areas in which educational leadership is struggling to meet long-term goals and improve student achievement:
• Creating public engagement and community mobilization
• Attracting and retaining qualified school board members
• Attracting and preparing outstanding educators to become outstanding superintendents
• Achieving continuous board/superintendent education and development
• Revisiting laws that may inadvertently impede effective school governance
• Awakening students and teachers to the diversity in our changing society
Creating Public Engagement and Community Mobilization
A board/superintendent leadership and governance team must develop a plan for creating (and regularly updating) a vision that "fits" its community and is consonant with high standards for children. Public engagement and community mobilization are keys to defining priorities, setting goals, and creating an educational vision, all of which must be tied to quality education for all children.
Leadership from the board/superintendent team is essential for inspiring and implementing the community’s vision for children. In his landmark book, Leadership Without Easy Answers, psychiatrist and professor Ronald Heifetz of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University points out that leaders not only "mobilize people to face problems because leaders challenge and help them do so," but also that mobilization and "getting that work done is the essence of leadership." Sustaining a community and staff vision for the healthy development and high achievement of all children over the long haul is a primary challenge of the board/superintendent leadership team.
Attracting and Retaining Qualified School Board Members
Despite the increased public focus on education, public involvement in education has steadily declined. Busy Americans place an increasingly higher premium on their free time. One price paid for this shift in priorities is an unwillingness to spend time serving on school boards. Many boards experience significant turnover at each election, with members often serving only a single term. Compounding this problem, the alarmingly limited tenure of many superintendents leads to significant discontinuity in goal and program direction and to a near-complete loss of long-range institutional perspective. Such deficits quickly pervade the entire community and can just as quickly lead to a loss of confidence in the schools.
To attract citizens to serve on a local school board, state laws and local policies must make clear that the roles and responsibilities of school boards, in collaboration with the superintendent, should focus on leadership and governance for high student achievement. Citizens will be more inclined to continue to serve on a school board when more time at board meetings is spent on developing goals and policies for quality education for all children and less time on administrative details such as personnel matters, bus schedules, roof repairs, and selecting an athletic coach.
Attracting and Preparing Outstanding Educators to Become Outstanding Superintendents
The complexities of modern-day education, together with today’s political realities, economic constraints, and social problems, make the job of the superintendent one of the most challenging of all chief executive undertakings. Perpetually changing technologies, a proliferation of state and federal regulations, and an avalanche of pressure-packed factors (e.g., changing demographics, board member turnover, conflicts between board members and citizens, school privatization, mayoral takeovers, decentralization, teacher empowerment) have dramatically changed the role of the superintendent. Most university programs for preparing educators for the superintendency have been caught unprepared to address these issues.
Given these factors, the critical shortage of qualified superintendents should come as no surprise. Further, compensation of superintendents is disappointingly low when compared to that of university presidents or CEOs in private industry, many of whom manage comparable or smaller budgets and staff. America needs to ensure that its most outstanding educators, those with leadership potential, are well prepared to become superintendents of schools, well compensated for their leadership skills, and well supported in their efforts to bring about change as part of an effective leadership team.
To do that, three critical changes must be made. First, the superintendent position itself must be made more appealing to top educators. Appeal can be generated by making sure that superintendents and school boards function as collaborative leadership teams, with appropriate community, administrative, and political support, including executive compensation tied to the demands and scope of the job. Second, active development and recruitment of educators with leadership potential must become a priority. Third, superintendents must be better prepared for their jobs, through both initial university graduate-level programs and continuing education throughout their careers.
Achieving Continuous Board/Superintendent Education and Development
Schools, like all institutions, need continuous renewal to fulfill their mission of educating all children to high levels of achievement. We strongly support and recommend high-quality, state-mandated instruction each year for the school board/superintendent team. We believe that the board/superintendent team will become more effective when board members and the superintendent participate together in leadership renewal. The topics for instruction should be tied directly to the key responsibilities of the school board and the board/superintendent team, and to the needs of children and the educational process as these change over time. This kind of instruction and stimulation will help a true leadership team develop collaborative skills, create trust, and inspire its community to support high student achievement.
State associations of school boards and administrators should be major providers of such orientation and instruction, as many have well-established programs that have proven to be highly effective.
Revisiting Laws that Impede Effective School Governance
Most school board members and superintendents take on their roles because they are dedicated to improving the education of children. Often, these public-spirited citizens and educators are frustrated to find that local and state laws hinder them in getting their real work done. Too many state laws require or allow boards to engage in the operational detail of a school system – expecting them to hire and fire staff, adopt textbooks, adjust school bus stops, and approve field trips. In addition, the processes established by these laws too often result in an adversarial "Me-Them" relationship between superintendent and board.
State law should make clear that a key task of the board of education is to hire, oversee, support, and evaluate the work of the superintendent, who in turn recommends policy and oversees personnel matters, budget, and financial matters, with accountability to the board for implementation. Typically, the superintendent recommends, the board members deliberate with one another and the superintendent, and then they reach a board decision. The potential for controversy is always present. State laws should be rewritten to delineate clearly the key policy role of the school board, the overarching leadership role of the board/superintendent team, and the executive/managerial role of the superintendent.
"Sunshine laws" in many states require all school board sessions to be open to the public. Despite certain clear advantages, we believe such laws can sometimes impede the smooth working of a collaborative leadership team. While the important work of school boards should certainly be open to the public, there are situations that require executive sessions. Public scrutiny, although obviously important in most instances, can often restrict candid communication and get in the way of team building. State laws should ensure that board/superintendent teams are authorized to meet privately from time to time, exempt from open meeting laws, to evaluate the work of the team and of one another, but not take action regarding district policy matters.
The Illinois legislature has long recognized the need for boards and superintendents to meet privately to evaluate and improve their teamwork for children. Illinois law includes an exception to its open meeting law, enabling a public body to hold a closed session for "self-evaluation, practices and procedures or professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of a statewide association of which the public body is a member."
Awakening an Understanding of America’s Diversity
Because the economic and cultural settings of school districts vary widely, each district faces its own challenge in defining its obligation to assist students and staff with understanding and valuing America’s growing diversity. Professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University, describes this elusive but significant element of our lives as follows: "Ours is a society that simply won’t survive without the values of tolerance, and cultural tolerance comes to nothing without cultural understanding."
School board/superintendent leadership teams must take on the task of providing opportunities for building that understanding…in classrooms, in social settings, in extracurricular activities, and in school, community, and family relationships. These opportunities must be centered around the goal of building respect for each other across the differences that too often result in suspicion and tension. Underscoring the importance of such initiatives in public schools, Professor Gates remarks:
Ours is a late-20th century world profoundly fissured by nationality, ethnicity, race, class and gender. And the only way to transcend these divisions…is through education that seeks to comprehend the diversity of American culture.
Recommendations
What can leaders who are dedicated to children and committed to effective, collaborative, participatory governance do to think differently about their mission? The remainder of this publication focuses on specific recommendations designed to guide superintendents, school board members, governors and legislators, graduate program staff, and all concerned citizens in pursuit of the goal of excellence in public education, namely, high achievement and healthy development for all children in all schools. Each recommendation offers an opportunity for superintendents and school boards to think differently about educational leadership.
Thinking Differently about Standards for Leadership Teams
First and foremost, the board and superintendent must become a unified governance and leadership team, with unity of purpose, a clear mission, and a sense of responsibility for action to achieve a long-term vision. Inspired by standards developed by the Alaska, California, Georgia, and South Carolina School Board Associations, the Texas Education Agency, and the "Four Thrusts for Leadership" created by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), we list here five standards for board/superintendent team leadership. We recommend that these standards – vision, structure, accountability, advocacy, and unity – be used as criteria for continuous development and self-evaluation of a team’s leadership and governance performance:
1. Vision: The board/superintendent team, using a participatory process, involves the community and staff in creating and continually developing a shared vision for all children. This team leadership mobilizes the community to give the highest priority to children, and keeps the schools and community focused on meeting the needs of all children. Further, the board/superintendent team uses the vision to guide its deliberations, decisions, and actions.
2. Structure: The board/superintendent team provides policy, goals, a management plan, and financial resources to support the vision. The team sets high standards for teaching and learning based on the best available information about the knowledge and skills students will need in the future. It ensures progress toward the vision through feedback from students, staff, parents, and the community at-large, as well as by providing the necessary financial resources. The team establishes a management system that results in participatory decision making and encourages and supports quality approaches to teaching and learning.
3. Accountability: The board/superintendent team adopts an accountability plan to evaluate community and school progress toward accomplishing the vision, and reports the results to the public. The team receives regular reports on all students using a variety of measurement tools to evaluate the quality and equity of the educational program. It makes sure that long- and short-term plans are evaluated and revised with the needs of the students as their top priority. The accountability plan holds students, teachers, parents, and administrators accountable for progress toward the goal of high achievement and healthy development of all children.
4. Advocacy: The board/superintendent team becomes the community’s leading advocate for children, insisting on the necessary resources to support the educational system, and celebrating the achievements of students, quality teachers, and the accomplishments of others who contribute to the education of children. The team establishes partnerships throughout the community and ensures effective communications with students, teachers, other employees, media, and the community. The leadership team supports the professional development and professional status of all teachers and other staff. The board and superintendent find opportunities to build relationships with other local leaders and state and federal legislators to help them understand the need for adequate funding for children.
5. Unity: The board and superintendent work as a unified team to lead the district toward the vision. The leadership team develops skills in teamwork, problem solving, and decision making, and is committed to continually improving its collaborative work for children. The board and superintendent periodically evaluate the effectiveness of their leadership, governance, and teamwork for high student achievement, and report to the community on aspects of the vision that need more attention and support.
Thinking Differently about Public Engagement
In his book Leadership Without Easy Answers, Ronald Heifetz reminds us that leaders "must challenge their community to face problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions – problems that will require learning new ways." Perhaps the most important task of every board/superintendent team is to lead the community to face the problems and assault the barriers that are blocking the potential of its children. That kind of leadership can inspire and engage citizens, staff, and students – neighborhood by neighborhood, using whatever means possible – to create a community vision and long-range plan.
We recommend promoting such a dialogue using a variety of strategies, such as monthly coffees, town meetings, focus groups, written surveys, meetings with other boards and agencies in the community, Web sites, and the use of the press, radio, and community television – in short, whatever works.
Thinking Differently about Board/Superintendent Leadership Team Development
Becoming a leadership team is not necessarily something that comes naturally. This is a tricky relationship, one that requires careful development and nurturing. A number of guidelines can help create and maintain a stable and unified leadership team.
First, state-mandated continuing education of school leadership teams will help ensure that all board members and superintendents are prepared for the job at hand, are aware of its challenges, and are clear about the mission. Yearly instruction, particularly when given to individual board/superintendent teams, will enable continuous renewal and commitment to fulfilling the mission of educating all children. Several states have already mandated such instruction for both new and veteran school board members, and the results have been enormously positive.
Second, in addition to continuous education and renewal, we recommend that team evaluation and development workshops be held in a private setting four times each year – led by an experienced facilitator whenever possible. Exempt from open meeting laws, the team can hold candid discussions about what it must do to keep the school system and community focused on high student achievement. The team can also take an honest look at the progress and problems associated with board/superintendent leadership and governance in reaching annual and long-range goals. The results of these meetings should be shared with the public.
To augment the benefit of these workshops, the board/superintendent team should take advantage of the wealth of printed and video material available through national and state school board and administrator associations geared to helping local school boards and superintendents. The Internet has greatly facilitated access to such materials, and board members and superintendents should not miss out on the information and guidance that these materials provide.
Finally, to advance the concept of board/superintendent teamwork, state associations may wish to consider holding a joint conference for school boards and superintendents each year, as currently practiced in several states.
Thinking Differently about Roles of School Boards and Superintendents
When board members and superintendents are unclear about who is responsible for which duties, conflict, inefficiency, and frustration are inevitable. Above all else, an effective leadership team requires that the board and superintendent establish and maintain a constructive working relationship with one another.
To prevent board members and superintendents from stepping on each other’s toes, state laws must codify specific tasks. State laws should make clear that only when a majority of the board and the superintendent meet together in a duly-called meeting is the board empowered to take governance actions. The roles of the board, the board/superintendent team, and the superintendent should be delineated in state law as follows:
Responsibilities of the School Board
• Selecting, working with, and evaluating the superintendent
• Serving as advocates for all children, teachers, and other staff by adopting "kids first" goals, policies, and budget
• Maintaining fiscal responsibility and fiscal autonomy, with the authority to appropriate local funds necessary to support the board-approved budget
• Delegating to the superintendent the day-to-day administration of the school district, including student discipline and all personnel matters
• Evaluating their own leadership, governance, and teamwork for children
Responsibilities of the Board/Superintendent Team
• Having as its top priority the creation of teamwork and advocacy for the high achievement and healthy development of all children in the community
• Providing educational leadership for the community, including the development and implementation of the community vision and long-range plan, in close collaboration with principals, teachers, other staff, and parents
• Creating strong linkages with social service, health, and other community organizations and agencies to provide community-wide support and services for healthy development and high achievement for all children
• Setting district-wide policies and annual goals, tied directly to the community’s vision and long-range plan for education
• Approving an annual school district budget (developed by the superintendent, adopted by the board)
• Ensuring the safety and adequacy of all school facilities
• Providing resources for the professional development of teachers, principals, and other staff
• Periodically evaluating its own leadership, governance, and teamwork for children
• Overseeing negotiations with employee groups
Responsibilities of the Superintendent
• Serving as chief executive officer to the board of education, including recommending all policies and the annual budget
• Supporting the board of education by providing good information for decision making
• Providing continuous leadership to ensure that the board policies and responsibilities of the board/superintendent team are addressed each day
• Overseeing the educational program (curriculum, instruction, co-curricula, textbook adoption, field trips, etc.)
• Taking responsibility for all personnel matters (hiring, assigning, evaluating, developing, firing, etc.)
• Developing and administering the budget
• Managing business and financial matters, bids and contracts (up to the minimum established by state law or local board policies), facilities, transportation, etc.
• Developing and supporting district-wide teams of teachers and other staff working to improve teaching and learning, and supporting local school councils of staff, parents, and students
• Taking care of day-to-day management and administrative tasks, including student discipline and personnel issues
John Gardner has commented that "Every general should go to the front lines… Firsthand contact with reality reminds them of their original purposes."
To help create and nurture a school culture that motivates student learning and supports staff professional growth, we recommend that superintendents spend the first hour of most mornings in a school. During this time, a superintendent could confer with the principal, teach a class, talk with teachers over coffee, visit classrooms to see teaching and learning first-hand, or chat with other staff (custodians, secretaries, lunchroom staff, etc.). The very presence of the superintendent in a school building is symbolic of a leader who cares, who wants to know about the teaching-learning environment, who listens, and who strongly supports all staff and recognizes the importance of everyone’s work for children.
Thinking Differently about State Legislative Reform
Certain changes to improve the quality of leadership for children are needed at the state level. State legislatures should authorize a review of state laws that dictate the responsibilities of school boards and superintendents. Key legislative changes should include:
• Establishing a foundation for strong board/superintendent leadership with roles and responsibilities as outlined above
• Mandating orientation programs for school board candidates, and continuing education for the board/superintendent team
• Authorizing private board/superintendent self-evaluation and team development workshops that are not subject to open meeting laws
• Authorizing the board to establish the annual school district budget, with the authority to raise the necessary local share
• Requiring at-large, non-partisan elections to three- or four-year overlapping terms for board members
• Changing financial disclosure laws (in states that have them) so that they are not a barrier to public-spirited citizens who want to serve on a school board
Some states have already taken the lead in this kind of reform effort, enabling board/superintendent teams to focus on helping students achieve their highest potential. These reforms provide a framework for governance teams to meet the five standards of leadership detailed earlier: vision, advocacy, accountability, structure, and unity. Some telling examples of the kind of intelligent reforms various states are making include the following:
• Kentucky education statutes require from four to twelve hours of annual instruction for school board members, based on their level of experience. The law focuses school board work on policy, and assigns personnel matters to the superintendent and local school leadership.
• Tennessee state law assigns to the superintendent (renamed Director of Education) the general day-to-day operation of the school system, including all personnel decisions except granting tenure to teachers, which remains the job of the board. The law requires every member to participate in seven hours of annual instruction provided by a School Board Academy, plus seven hours of orientation in the first year of service. During the first four years of service, members must participate in Academy programs in (1) school board policy, (2) board-superintendent relations, (3) board advocacy for children, and (4) vision for excellence. Tennessee school boards focus on policy and budget.
• Texas requires new board members to participate in a local district orientation session to familiarize themselves with local board policies and procedures and with district goals and priorities. Texas also mandates that board members receive a basic orientation to the Texas Education Code and relevant legal obligations. Each school board, including all board members, is required to participate with their superintendent annually in a team-building session designed to enhance the effectiveness of the team and assess the team’s continuing education needs. Texas also spells out the requirements and goals of continuing education for board members.
• Massachusetts law establishes the school committee as a policy board, with the superintendent as the chief executive officer, similar to the legislative reforms of Kentucky and Tennessee, and vests personnel matters and other operational details with the superintendent.
Thinking Differently about Teaching and Learning
Improving student achievement requires high-quality teaching. That statement is a truism, but no less important because it is obvious. Teachers, superintendents, school board members, parents, and students have always known that the teacher is the most important resource that school districts provide to students, and that teacher quality is the most important determinant of student achievement. Accordingly, the board/superintendent leadership team must attach the highest priority to recruiting and selecting high-quality teachers and to creating an environment that fosters high-quality teaching and learning.
Finding high-quality teachers, however, requires a sufficiently large pool from which to draw. Board/superintendent teams have an important role to play in encouraging more talented people to become teachers, and in guiding future teachers toward quality schools of education that meet the standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). By creating an environment in which teachers are valued, in which teaching to the high standards set over the past decade is rewarded, and in which professional development is encouraged and facilitated, board/superintendent leadership teams can elevate the professional status of teachers, making the profession more appealing and fulfilling.
Distinguished educator and former United States Commissioner of Education Harold Howe II notes, "Until recently, establishing professional standing for teachers who deserve it has been a game with no adequate rules. There has been a general tendency to accept seniority as the measure of professional status rather than measures of knowledge and skills." The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), which was established in 1987 to set high and rigorous standards for America’s teaching profession, is a vigorous response to that concern. National Board Certification, as summed up by Dr. James A. Kelly, founding president of the NBPTS, involves three critical elements:
• Standards: Establishing a unifying vision for what accomplished teachers must know and be able to do and what accomplished teaching practice is, and codifying these standards in specific teaching specializations
• Assessments: Creating reliable and valid performance assessments tailored to specific subjects taught and development levels of the students being instructed – assessments that are also powerful learning experiences for teachers
• Professional Development: Providing a learning curriculum for excellent teaching and a repertoire of strategies to incorporate the substance of this vision into teaching practice
Board/superintendent teams can take a huge step toward elevating the status and professional development of educators by encouraging teachers, through financial incentives and other support, to pursue NBPTS certification.
In addition, both the team and the teachers would benefit enormously by strong connections and open communication between the team and the teachers. The board/superintendent team owes it to the teachers, and ultimately to the children, to build such connections.
"The nation now has nearly 4,800 teachers who have met the standards for accomplished practice set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards…. The states that offer teachers the handsomest rewards…produce the most certified teachers. In North Carolina, the state pays the $2,300 fee for teachers, provides three days of release time for them to complete assessments, and gives 12 percent raises to National Board Certified Teachers.…Florida pays 90 percent of candidates’ fees and gives certified teachers a 10 percent salary increase. Board Certified teachers who become mentors or lead teachers can earn an additional 10 percent."
—Education Week, December 1, 1999
Fully half the nation’s teachers are already offered financial incentives to seek, and rewards if they obtain, National Board Certification.
Thinking Differently about Technology
The pace of technological change is forcing practically everyone to think differently. Board/superintendent teams must be leaders for change, harnessing the positive force of technology to strengthen teaching, learning, and school governance. They have a tremendous resource at their disposal: students, some of whom are undoubtedly more comfortable with and more knowledgeable about current technologies than the average school board member or superintendent.
As a starting point, the board/superintendent team must allocate sufficient financial resources for keeping technology current in the schools, so that children and teachers have access to the tools that are critical for developing skills for today’s world – and tomorrow’s. Computers enable a level of analysis, a supply of information, and a means for presenting ideas that were impossible only a few years ago. Board/superintendent teams must see to it that these tools are kept current in the schools and that ample opportunities for keeping up-to-date with their use are provided to all teachers and students.
The Internet raises the educational power of computers to ever-higher levels. Thousands of Web sites can enrich a child’s education and provide resources to parents and teachers. Board/superintendent teams must provide financial and logistical support to enable teachers to keep abreast of Internet resources so that they can guide their students through the Web’s maelstrom of information.
Board/superintendent leadership teams should also tap into these resources, supporting the entire community’s use of technology, and using it themselves to access materials that can aid in developing board/superintendent leadership and governance. The Internet provides a wealth of opportunity for school districts to enhance teaching and learning, promote community involvement and mobilization, and facilitate communication among school board/superintendent teams, parents, teachers, students, and others. An increasing number of school districts and many individual schools and classes have established Web pages with information ranging from school profiles and budget information to school board agendas, school district policies, school programs, and information on the entire K-12 curriculum.
New technologies and new ways of looking at the intersection of business and education are creating a variety of superintendent preparation programs. As one recent article has noted, "Even institutions like New York University and the College Board have formed for-profit subsidiaries to produce and market on-line courses and other educational services, some of which might be the source of public stock offerings." The article concludes by quoting Arthur Levine, President of Teachers College at Columbia University: "I don’t know whether these companies can do a better job of educating people. But they are the most aggressive and creative actors in higher education today. Some of them have shown they can make a profit. And that means that much of this industry is up for grabs."
— The New York Times, November 4, 1999
Thinking Differently about Superintendent Recruitment and Education
Recruitment of top candidates for the superintendency will be enhanced greatly by solid support from a stable, knowledgeable, team-oriented school board focused on improving student achievement; role redefinition as outlined in this publication; and increased executive compensation. A special effort must be made to actively recruit female, Hispanic, and African American educators with leadership potential.
Sweeping changes are necessary in graduate programs that prepare superintendents. Such programs must include a strong focus on: community-wide collaborative leadership; high-level skills in school governance (especially in collaborative leadership with a board of education); teaching, learning, and child development; and community and staff engagement. In fact, we suggest the term "Superintendent of Schools" be changed to "Superintendent of Education," because the job requires community-wide leadership for children, not just the administration of schools.
Oddly enough, despite the importance and complexity of the superintendent’s position, there are no national professional standards that all superintendents must meet. Nor are superintendent programs tied to specific professional standards, a lack that must be quickly remedied. The establishment of national standards for the superintendency can serve as the basis for criteria that quality graduate programs can – and should – apply when choosing degree candidates.
Since 1997, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has applied standards to educational leadership programs that prepare both principals and superintendents. In the last several years, a number of states have used standards created by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC), and a test based on them, as the basis for the licensing of principals. Currently under study by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) is a proposal to align the standards used by NCATE for the review of educational leadership programs with the ISLLC standards for licensing principals. The associations representing school administrators and school boards should work with NCATE and appropriate state licensure authorities to achieve substantively consistent and aligned standards for what school administrators need to know and be able to do.
We strongly recommend that new standards for the preparation and certification of superintendents be established as soon as possible. Those involved in preparing future superintendents must be willing to think differently about the job and the training of superintendents of schools. Training must be focused beyond the degree candidate alone to the needs of the children, for whose high achievement and healthy development every superintendent is ultimately accountable. Based on new, 21st century standards for superintendents, NCATE could hold colleges of education to the task of providing leadership candidates with a specific level of knowledge and skills. In turn, states could use these same standards to base their determination for licensing individual candidates. This symmetry of accountability will strengthen preparation programs, licensing procedures, and leadership practice.
Another critical change that is needed is the manner in which educators are identified for leadership potential and supported while their training is taking place. To both attract qualified leaders and to prepare them properly, we believe that the school system and the university should jointly plan programs and select candidates that the school system wishes to groom for leadership positions. The school system would then have reason to invest in their preparation, make scheduling accommodations, and provide for high-quality internships. Working in tandem with universities, school systems would have new ways to demonstrate their commitment to new and better trained leadership.
In turn, universities would be expected to develop coherent programs of study and articulate them with carefully planned and supervised internships. The result would be a strong program of academic and clinical work, occurring perhaps over a two-year period, during which the candidate would study and provide intern-level administrative services to the school system. The internship must be a demanding and rigorous experience, immersing the candidate in the day-by-day work of the leadership team. Because the superintendent-intern would be providing services, it would be appropriate for the school system to have her or him on the payroll, as is done in medical internships. We recommend that doctoral graduate programs for school leaders include a year-long, supervised, paid administrative internship with an experienced, outstanding board/superintendent team.
Thinking Differently about a National Center for School Board/Superintendent Leadership
The creation of a National Center for School Board/Superintendent Leadership can contribute significantly to ensuring that all children have the best possible leadership to govern their schools. We therefore recommend that the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) begin now to develop and operate such a Center jointly, guided by a national board of directors that includes leadership from national organizations representing teachers, principals, parents, students, private corporations, higher education, government leaders at all levels, and representatives of state associations of school boards and superintendents.
Mission. The primary mission of the National Center will be to support the development of board/superintendent leadership teams for high student achievement. The Center should be futuristic, continually evolving as governance needs change, in order to keep its focus on improving leadership for high student achievement. The Center is needed to ensure that future boards and superintendents are equipped to be leaders for the changes called for in this publication – by setting standards for superintendents, boards, and board/superintendent teams; by ensuring that state certification of superintendents is linked to national standards; by creating materials to help guide board/superintendent teams; by sponsoring research; by advocating funding for the development of superintendents and board/superintendent leadership teams; and by encouraging educators and citizens with leadership potential to become leaders for education. These are significant undertakings, and existing university-based programs of preparation and professional development alone are inadequate for this challenging task.
Standards. The National Center would be responsible for setting and advocating standards for superintendents, boards, and board/superintendent teams. This task would include recommending changes to graduate programs and recommending state certification requirements and standards. The Center could use its national prominence to ensure that state certification and graduate preparation of superintendents are in harmony with the new national standards.
Programs and Materials. The Center would be well positioned to bring together state association leaders and other experts to create model workshop programs and materials for use by state associations of school boards and school administrators. The Center can also serve as a national clearinghouse for such programs and materials, and make them available on the Internet. State associations of school boards and school administrators and others will be empowered by the National Center to reach out to the nearly 14,000 school board/superintendent teams across the country.
Sponsored Research. Another function of the National Center would be to sponsor research on board/superintendent leadership, governance, and teamwork for high student achievement. Such research could help to develop a better understanding of school board/superintendent relationships, board/superintendent turnover, school board meetings, the board chair/superintendent relationship, and many other factors associated with the work of school boards and superintendents to improve student achievement.
Funding Support for Leadership Development. To make leadership for high student achievement a national priority, we recommend the Center urge the federal government, state governments, and private foundations to provide funding to support the graduate education of future superintendents, local board/superintendent team development, and leadership/governance research. Funds for graduate preparation of superintendents should be provided only to candidates enrolled in programs that meet the new national standards.
Encouraging Leadership. Finally, we believe such a National Center will have the prestige and capability to work through AASA, NSBA, and the other national organizations represented on the board of directors, and their respective state affiliates, to encourage outstanding educators to become superintendents of education and outstanding citizens to serve on boards of education.
A Final Word
These recommendations are ambitious, deliberately so. They are not likely to be accomplished in a year or perhaps even a few years. But certainly they will not be accomplished at all unless we make a beginning. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done, but it can be done. Nothing proposed here is beyond either the imagination or the resources available to us today. What we propose, we believe, is a matter of commitment – of will. We believe that today’s diffused public concern about education can, at last, be shaped in a way that makes student achievement a national priority. What is called for is the ability to think differently about the leadership needed to strengthen public schools so that every child can achieve at a higher level. In short, what we must do is:
• Develop strong local board/superintendent leadership teams.
• Reform the graduate programs for preparing superintendents.
• Revise state laws to create a strong legal foundation for board/superintendent leadership and teamwork for children.
• Create an ongoing National Center to assist and maintain a national focus on the leadership issue.
And, as we seek to bring a different vision of our children’s future, it would be wise to remember the words Abraham Lincoln wrote nearly 150 years ago:
A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone, attend to those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations…the fate of humanity is in his hands."
About the Authors
Dr. Richard H. Goodman is Project Director at the New England School Development Council. He served as Director and Principal Investigator for the study that resulted in the 1997 publication Getting There from Here. His career in education has spanned 40 years. During the past 20 years, he has served as adjunct Associate Professor and Director for the Center for Educational Field Services at the University of New Hampshire and as Executive Director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. For much of that time, he was Executive Director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association. Prior to this, Dr. Goodman was a school superintendent in rural New Hampshire and suburban Boston, Executive Director of the New England School Development Council, and Chairman of New England Education Data Systems.
Dr. Goodman has spearheaded many activities to advance education leadership, but one that he is most proud of is the chairmanship of the National School Boards Association committee that oversaw the production of Becoming a Better Board Member, a virtual "bible" for many school board leaders.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Goodman received a master’s degree in teaching from Wesleyan University, and a doctorate in educational administration from Harvard University.
Dr. William G. Zimmerman, Jr. is Senior Associate in Planning/Management and Executive Search for the New England School Development Council. He recently retired as Superintendent of Schools in Wayland, Massachusetts, a position he held for 23 years.
Dr. Zimmerman has served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Educational Administration at Northeastern University and Dean of the Graduate School. In the early 1960s, he was Superintendent of Schools in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he established in 1963 the nation’s first interstate school district between Hanover and Norwich, Vermont. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and his master’s and doctorate in educational administration from the University of Miami.