How can Central Offices of School Districts best help schools, their administrators and teachers, and their students and families?

Response: 'Authoritarian-Style Mandates' From Central Offices Don't Work

By Larry Ferlazzo on July 20, 2018 10:33 AM

(Today's post is the first in a two-part series)

The new question-of-the-week is:

How can Central Offices of School Districts best help schools, their administrators and teachers, and their students and families?

Response From Dr. Patrick Darfler-Sweeney

Dr. Patrick Darfler-Sweeney is a retired Superintendent of Schools from New York State after 33 years in K-12 education. He currently teaches for SUNY Oneonta in the Masters of Education Technology Department. He also is the author of The Superintendent's Rule Book: A Guide to District Level Leadership by Routledge Press:

A bad system will beat a good person every time.

-W. Edwards Deming

Structure/Start with great ingredients

In a single word, structure. People talk about leadership, but, that is hard to define. If you can't describe it, how do you know you have it? A far simpler approach is one that has been used by great chefs and coaches for generations: good ingredients make for great eating (there is another saying that has something to do with not being able to make chicken salad out of something other than chicken...). What constitutes ingredients for a school? Personnel; the quality of the people that you hire determine how successful your school will run. You only control what you can control. The day to day authority of the Central Office is that of the Superintendent. The legal power of recommendation for hiring and firing is the linchpin of the superintendent's successes and failures of their administration. How the leader uses this authority will determine if the structure will have a positive or negative outcome. It becomes the responsibility of the teachers, staff, and administration to ensure the goals of the school district.

On the other side of the equation, the central office needs to train all of its administrators how to effectively, humanely, and professionally evaluate and counsel teachers and staff.

Personalize PD and training for teachers, staff, and administrators

Personalizing professional development within an environment that does not demonize this approach is important, though, not always easy. Most individuals have no problem in engaging in PD if it is their idea to do it in the first place, the challenge comes with someone (read: administrator) who tells a teacher or staff member they need the PD. Central Office has to develop a duality when it comes to PD. First encouraging those teachers, staff, and administrators to consistently seek out opportunities to enhance student engagement skills and to make it an active part of the evaluation process for administrators and supervisors to assist in customizing a PD approach that reaches into their role as chief engagement officers.

Rule: We work with people, there are no simple solutions

At the heart of the belief that people are not simple is the myriad of different experiences, support, and grit that any one person brings forward. Therefore, the idea of forming an army of one marching toward the lofty mission and goals of the district is ridiculous. A Central Office must develop a team of marines to fill its ranks of teachers, staff, and administrators. Highly trained, fully engaged, who understand and act independently to adapt and execute the world-class education system we demand. What we know about how to educate students is not very lengthy (read: if you do x you will have learning outcome y). What we do know is that when students are engaged, we have a much higher yield in a student's ability to apply and gain new knowledge. Teachers, staff, and administrators must understand that they have "permission" to use their tremendous skills to go beyond the prescriptions of the state education department.

The Central Office is responsible for staff and developing the structure and environment that encourages this approach. Teachers, staff, and administrators act to create greater student engagement based on the student performance and individual needs.

Serve with compliments for their efforts and show appreciation often. Enjoy the chicken salad!