What does it take to be an urban schools superintendent?
A whole lot more than you think.
By Christina Heitz
From Denver to D.C., communities throughout the country are rethinking the traditional public school district model, moving from a system that automatically assigns students to their zoned local schools to a “portfolio”-style system that offers a range of school options — neighborhood, magnet, public charter — empowering each family to choose the best fit for their child.
A recent paper by Paul Hill and Shannon Murtaugh of the University of Washington’s Center for Reimagining Public Education argues that this different type of school system requires a different type of leadership, one for which few aspiring or even experienced superintendents are prepared. For example:
- They need to demonstrate that they can think and act strategically; propel system-wide change; authentically engage employees and communities; and foster and sustain constructive relationships both inside and outside the organization.
- They must be able to make hard judgments; create the conditions that attract top talent at all levels; guide complex planning and execution; and have the political savvy to choose battles wisely.
- They have to be willing to challenge structures and policies that hinder progress; rethink central-office roles to boost resources for teachers and classrooms and develop capacity for performance-based oversight; be transparent about decisions and needs; and pursue excellence and equity for the students and families they serve, even when times get tough.
We couldn’t agree more.
But while there is a very short list of skills that are specific to leading a portfolio-style system, the vast majority of strategies outlined by Hill and Murtaugh — including all of the ones listed above — are needed to successfully meet the demands of transforming any urban public school system, particularly large, traditional ones. Indeed, if we are going to make real, sustainable changes that support strong educators and help students achieve at high levels, the current constructs for the preparation and support of urban system leaders simply won’t get us there.
The realities of the job are monumental—often managing billion-dollar budgets, hundreds of facilities and decisions that affect tens of thousands of teachers and other employees as well as hundreds of thousands of students and their families. After more than a decade of recruiting, preparing and supporting big-city superintendents around the country through The Broad Academy, we’ve found that even the most effective leaders working with communities to make dramatic improvements in their districts still have a long way to go to ensure they are meeting the needs of all of their students.
For the vast majority of school-system leaders, progress — when achieved — is incremental and expectations for improvement remain tepid. As Hill and Murtaugh note, in far too many cities across the country, “traditional school superintendents are not expected to lead profound changes in schools and their central offices.” That dynamic needs to change.
A few years ago, we took a deep, reflective look at The Broad Academy’s first decade to assess how we might better support aspiring urban school-system leaders in their drive for excellence and equity. As we talked with Academy Fellows, we found that they wanted and needed more:
- To develop breakthrough strategies that propel greater, faster improvement.
- To ensure that those improvements are both system-wide and sustainable.
- To nurture the kinds of relationships and partnerships that better help them do this work with people and communities.
- To closely collaborate with colleagues across the nation, sharing resources and learning from each other’s successes as well as their mistakes.
So while remaining steadfast in our commitment to boosting student outcomes and closing gaps in opportunity and achievement, we made significant shifts in the program to better support our Fellows’ leadership development and their efforts to grow high-performing school-operating organizations — in traditional urban school district settings as well as in portfolio districts, public charter school systems, state recovery-style districts and even state departments of education.
One of those Fellows is New Orleans native Patrick Dobard, who was named superintendent of Louisiana’s Recovery School District in 2012. While running the nation’s first all-charter school system, he is balancing the need to give school operators autonomy to make decisions in the best interests of students and families with ensuring high expectations for excellence and equity across the system. One of the issues that requires this balance is student discipline.
Public charter schools’ standards for discipline can vary dramatically, and parents and community leaders in New Orleans were concerned that too many students — particularly black males — were being systematically pushed out of class and, in some cases, out of school entirely. In some of the city’s highest performing charter schools, for example, student suspension rates were well over 50 percent. Dobard knew suspension and expulsion rates were a critical issue, in terms of both student learning and social justice. But the agreements the RSD had with the school operators didn’t give the district primary authority over most student disciplinary practices.
To ensure that students were not subject to very different or extreme consequences for minor infractions, the RSD centralized expulsion procedures to make sure that all students were being held to the same standards and were receiving due process. Dobard also launched a series of community conversations about student discipline — inviting the leaders of the city’s charter schools, faith-based organizations and social justice advocates to come together and discuss issues related to student discipline, what was working and what wasn’t working.
In just the first year, RSD schools reduced expulsions by one-third overall, dropping its annual expulsion rate below the state average. What’s more, after implementing restorative practices and partnerships with local juvenile justice organizations, the schools with the highest rates of suspension in the previous year were notably at the bottom of the following year’s list.
The community conversations continue, with participants learning from each other’s work and sharing best practices for creating a supportive learning environment for all scholars. As Dobard says, “We can have high expectations and results… and we can reduce suspensions and keep students in school. It doesn’t have to be either/or.”
It’s no coincidence that, during that same year, the Recovery School District made greater gains in student achievement than any other school district in Louisiana. Its high school graduation rate is among the fastest improving in the state. The RSD still has a long way to go, but Dobard’s work with the charter operators and broader community is helping to create stronger opportunities for the students they serve.
Working in urban public education is one of the most important jobs in the country. That challenge requires that even the most talented leaders need both the right kind of preparation as well as ongoing support and development to rise to that task. For all of our school systems — whether traditional, portfolio or charter — to be strong options for the students and families they serve, we need a monumental shift in the expectations of their leaders.
Christina Heitz is managing director of The Broad Academy, a program of The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems.
