Wanted: Chief State School Officers

Recruiting leadership candidates, selecting the best fit for the job and onboarding new school leaders is always a challenge. But, how does the process change when the leader is a Chief State School Officer? This week's EdWeek details the current challenges facing 9 states seeking new ed leadership at the state level, see State-Chief Turnovers Squeezing Talent Pool. Like in any high-profile position, there is a necessary mix of mix of educational acumen and political savvy, especially since most search committees (if they exist) are appointed by an elected Governor. Even so, two of these positions are posted on TopJobs, so get your applications in early!

When we think about hiring new leaders, GLISI attends to the entire Leadership Performance and Supply (LP&S) system. Search committees and national postings in EdWeek may be a necessary part of the process, but a systemic solution includes competency maps, clear job definitions, selection criteria and, of course, an aligned performance appraisal system. Districts throughout Georgia have created these LP&S systems, which will help them weather the inevitable transitions in senior leadership. See here and here (pdf).

Is such a systemic process possible for the State Chief? Perhaps not. But LP&S systems would create a strong bench of leaders in State Departments of Education and expand the available talent pool.

Urban School Principalship

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality just published a new research brief, Paving the Path to the Urban School Principalship. It's solid work, highlighting findings from focus groups of aspiring principals in three urban districts and making a number of policy recommendations. It's a good reminder of some of the basics, such as:

1. There is a shortage of quality future leaders.
2. The job is stressful.
3. There are many different types of leadership.
4. Preparation matters.

GLISI gets a nice shout-out (page 9) and there is a neat graphic showing a pathway that goes step by step. Click here to read the full report online.

The report concludes with some recommendations, which we've seen before:

1. Divide managerial and instructional responsibilities.
2. Support principal networks.
3. Pair empowerment with accountability.
4. Increase principal salaries.

The authors note that these recommendations are "not new, but they remain untested." True. From GLISI's perspective these steps may be necessary for a performance culture but they are not sufficient. Without a systemic succession strategy that clearly defines and supports performance at all levels of leadership, we'll still be tinkering around the edges.

Finally, this report begs the question: What about the rural and suburban principalship? You can't ride the subway to most of this nation's high-needs schools.

Falcon Scouting

I'm no football expert, but it seems like the Falcon's GM, Thomas Dimitroff, is all about developing a performance culture. In an AJC interview, he described his scouting system and how he is building staff capacity to implement that system.

Then we had an interactive setup where we were all on our laptops. We have what we call a scouting matrix. Each position has 17 to 20 different criteria that we grade on a 1 to 9 scale. After we watched a certain player, we'd all get on our laptops and type in our numbers and it would project onto the screen. You were able to see the matrix in front of us. It precipitated discussions. It was a really good interactive exercise, to make sure that everyone was moving in the right direction and getting on the same page.

Could the same kind of specific criteria be done for teaching and leading positions in our schools? Definitely.

Succession or Progression

At GLISI's quarterly Coordinating Board meeting on August 7th, we had a interesting "a ha" discussion about the term succession planning. Ed Bankston, one of the GLISI Scholars at UGA, noted in his report to the Board that a more appropriate and politically palatable term might be progression management.

This new term better reflects the fact that good succession planning doesn't just fill vacancies. Rather, it is a more systemic strategy that identifies competencies and performance criteria for current and future positions and current and future personnel.

"Progression management" has currency as a term in the UK (see here and here), but does not come up in recent management texts or in a Google search. That's good news if we need a new term to help with local adoption. However, I'm inclined to make the term succession work for everyone because it has resonance with both education and business leaders and has long legs in the business literature.

Test Blog

This site is a place for Ann to experiment with the new blog concept. Suggestions encouraged and welcome!