The wrong — and right way — to manage a school district

08-15-2011

Guest blog by George Wood/Washington Post

I believe the current conventional wisdom about school district leadership is flawed. Many of the current education “reformers” are betting on what I would call “management from afar.” It goes like this: Find an executive from an area other than education, train them in the business of schools, and turn them loose to cut budgets and drive up test scores. Oh, and keep the old model of district leadership with orders coming from “downtown” and the district leadership knowing little, if anything, about the real life of classrooms. That may work in some places, and fail in others. (If it does work then we need some similar approaches to the leadership of our medical system, Congress, and the home mortgage and banking industries.) But I am willing to bet that the impact will be limited. As an alternative, I believe that: *Administrators who are still involved in the day-to-day lives of teachers, students, staff, and families would better serve districts. *Leadership should not be “downtown” but should be down the hall (more...)

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The wrong — and right way — to manage a school district

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