9486 in the collection
Minneapolis Superintendent Choice Raises Questions
It's been called one of the toughest jobs in America: running a large public school system in a major city.
The job calls for a person with a rare blend of leadership, management, instructional and political skills, said the creators of a 2001 report on urban superintendents by the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest school districts.
Even tougher, perhaps, is a school board's task in finding a good urban superintendent. Experts say it's a seller's market; good candidates are in demand. Minneapolis school board members say that's part of the reason they chose to look no further than their own chief operating officer, who they felt was the right person to replace veteran educator Carol Johnson.
The board's recent decision to hire David Jennings, a noneducator who is best known for his political and business savvy, outraged some in the city's black community and some district employees. Scores of people showed up at last week's board meeting to decry the decision and to demand that the board withdraw its offer to Jennings.
The board has held firm.
One of the key issues in the debate over the Jennings appointment centers on whether he has the necessary skills to be the superintendent of Minnesota's largest school system.
Examples elsewhere
While most superintendents in Minnesota and across the country came up through the ranks of education, there are notable examples of nontraditional superintendents running large urban school districts.
In Los Angeles, the school board hired a politician -- former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer -- to run its behemoth of a school system. The San Diego superintendent is a former federal attorney. And Seattle has had two superintendents in recent years who came from nonacademic walks of life.
One was John Stanford, a retired Army general and legendary superintendent who served until his death nearly five years ago. His replacement, Joseph Olchefske, did not enjoy the same success. The former investment banker is resigning amid questions about his leadership and a financial mess.
While many see the superintendent as the district's top teacher, the duties are much broader.
"Your job is to help the policies that will help the district operate effectively from within," said Charlie Kyte, head of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.
"Secondly, your job is to care for the educational needs of the children under your charge. That requires some pretty good knowledge of what levers to pull in creating the programs that will help all the children.
"Another part of the job is to look to the state level of government to look for the kind of resources necessary to get the job done and to build coalitions with other school districts."
What's needed
A good superintendent also must be able to communicate with his constituents both inside and outside the system, Kyte said. That includes teachers and other district employees, as well as different groups in the city and state. The question that arises in hiring a noneducator is whether that person has had significant experience running complex organizations that are political, where he or she has gleaned the skills needed to be an effective superintendent, Kyte said.
Jennings has probably picked up many of those skills, Kyte said. But in other areas, "he doesn't have much exposure."
In large school districts the superintendent typically has access to administrators inside the district who are well-versed in some area of education, whether it's curriculum or teaching children whose first language is not English, Kyte said.
Jennings has said he will hire a chief academic officer. Critics question whether paying two administrators to do a job done by one superintendent in other districts is wise.
The Minneapolis school board is negotiating a contract with Jennings, so his salary has not been set. A salary estimate for the unnamed chief academic officer also is not yet available.
In a recent report called "An Impossible Job? The View from the Urban Superintendent's Chair," University of Washington researchers surveyed superintendents in 100 of the country's largest school districts. The study's authors found that the politics of the job and limits on the superintendent's authority make it difficult for school chiefs to change school systems.
The survey found little difference in the frustration felt by traditional superintendents or those who came from the military, legal or corporate worlds.
But nontraditional superintendents were more likely to see "constituency conflicts" as a problem. Career educators, in general, were less satisfied with the quality of their academic training for the job.
— Allie Shah
Jennings appointment raises questions about what makes a good superintendent
Star Tribune
2003-10-06
http://www2.startribune.com/stories/462/4137444.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
