School Districts Need Chief Innovation Officers Now More Than Ever
New Report: The Chief Innovation Officer Toolkit
By Miho Kubagawa, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund
In the early 1980s, as enterprise computing became a more sophisticated, complex function, a new corporate leadership role emerged: the chief information officer. In 1986, Businessweek magazine ran the headline “Management’s Newest Star: Meet the Chief Information Officer.” What was once a novel addition to the C-suite is now a commonplace and indispensable role four decades later.
In the late 1990s, a new CIO role emerged — a chief innovation officer — someone who leads the innovation and change management processes within an organization. As is often the case, practices originating in the private sector eventually make their way into public agencies and nonprofit organizations. The emergence of chief innovation officers in the education sector is no exception.
Chief innovation officers began cropping up in school districts over the last decade. Still, the responsibilities they held in their roles varied widely and often included non-innovation-related tasks, which led to a healthy skepticism about their added value. Others wondered whether innovation could even happen in large public bureaucracies designed mainly for compliance-related tasks. However, many CIOs have been extremely effective when their role is clearly defined, they engage their community, and have support from their superintendents. Now, amid radically shifting learning environments caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, CIOs’ knowledge, skills, and mindsets are critical for shepherding school districts through this time of enormous change and uncertainty. As one superintendent shared, “Maybe ten years ago it was optional to have a CIO role; now it is critical and necessary.”
For these reasons, we’re excited to release the Chief Innovation Officer Toolkit in partnership with Education First and The Broad Center. We spoke with the district leaders in our portfolio and others across the country to create a toolkit that outlines key work streams, competencies, and mindsets that a CIO needs to be effective. Superintendents, school board members, current CIOs, and aspiring CIOs will all find that it makes a strong case for a CIO’s need and an outlay of what goes into the job.
Why is NewSchools a partner in this effort? First, our organization believes that innovation has a critical role in making schools and school systems more equitable. Second, we believe that school districts can create nurturing and challenging learning environments that lead to academic and social-emotional success for all students, especially low-income students and students of color. Lastly, school districts managed one out of every five of the new schools that we invested in last year, and our most successful teams benefitted from a CIO who directly supported and managed their system’s new school development.
We’ve seen firsthand the tremendous impact that CIOs can have on school systems and believe they’ll be instrumental figures as schools respond to the pandemic and translate the lessons they learn into new, effective, and engaging learning environments for students.
