In Life expectancy of a superintendent: A lot of bullets and little glory, https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/life-expectancy-of-a-superintendent-a-lot-of-bullets-and-little-glory/ moi wrote:
Just about anyone in education has a tough job these days, from the building staff to the superintendent. There is pressure to perform in an environment of declining resources. Lately, the job of superintendent of large urban school districts has been characterized by turnover. Thomas E. Glass in The History of the Urban Superintendent writes:
The twenty-first century finds one-third of America’s public school children attending one of ten large urban (large-city) school districts. By 2020 approximately one-half of public school enrollment will be clustered in twenty districts. The educational stewardship of a majority of the nations youth rests uncomfortably on the shoulders of a very few large-city school superintendents. Their success and the success of their districts may very well determine the future of American democracy.
Urban districts are typically considered to be those located in the inner core of metropolitan areas having enrollments of more than 25,000 students. The research and literature about large-city school districts portray conditions of poverty, chronic academic underachievement, dropouts, crime, unstable school boards, reform policy churn, and high superintendent turnover.
The typical tenure of a superintendent in the largest large-city districts is two to three years. This brief tenure makes it unlikely a superintendent can develop and implement reform programs that can result in higher academic achievement–let alone re-build crumbling schools buildings, secure private sector assistance, and build a working relationship with the city’s political structure.
The large-city superintendency is a position defined by high expectations, intense stress, inadequate resources, and often a highly unstable politicized board of education.
Read more: Superintendent of Large-City School Systems – History of the Urban Superintendent, The Profession, School Boards,
Characteristics of the Large-City Superintendent http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2470/Superintendent-Large-City-School-Systems.html#ixzz0p6HySmU0
See, District Administration’s article, Superintendent Staying Power http://www.districtadministration.com/article/superintendent-staying-power
Mike Bowler of the Baltimore Sun writes the article, Urban Districts Struggle to Find Qualified School Superintendents: Pool of `Messiahs’ is quickly drying up, which was republished at SF Gate:
It’s becoming harder and harder to find chief executives for the nation’s school districts, and the reason is distressingly clear: a shortage of saviors.
Dozens of districts are dipping into a pool of candidates that has been evaporating for more than a decade. For example, Baltimore, looking for its 11th school leader since 1960, is competing with a dozen urban systems, all looking for someone who can perform the miracle of turning the schools around.
The nation’s largest and second- largest cities, New York (1.1 million students) and Los Angeles (711,000), are both looking for superintendents. So are Detroit (167,455), Memphis (111,200) and San Francisco (61,000).
The same candidates keep appearing on the same short lists, and superintendent musical chairs is a common game. The San Francisco spot, for instance, has been vacant for almost a year, since Superintendent Bill Rojas abruptly left for the superintendency in Dallas.
The Detroit school board tried to hire John Thompson, the school chief in Tulsa, Okla. When that appointment was blocked, Thompson went to Pittsburgh. Each lateral move leaves a vacancy behind; when Carlos Garcia was hired last month as superintendent in Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas), that opened the top job in Fresno, Calif., another urban district.
MANY TURNING TO PRICEY RECRUITERS
The game of musical chairs has created a growth industry in headhunters — companies, often founded by former superintendents, that recruit school chiefs for fees of up to $50,000. Baltimore eschewed the help of a search company this year after a terrible experience two years ago, when it hired Robert Booker from San Diego, Calif., as chief executive officer. (School officials were unhappy with the candidates the recruiters came up with and ended up finding Booker on their own.)
It’s also harder for job-hunting superintendents to keep their aspirations under wraps, a development that discourages some qualified candidates. The nation’s education writers are joined in a computer network, keeping a close eye on comings and goings. One day last month, Anthony Amato, the Hartford, Conn., superintendent, was “outed” on the network as a candidate for superintendent in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas….
NEW CHIEFS FACE THORNY PROBLEMS
The urban school superintendency might be the toughest public service job in America. In addition to managing 13,000 employees and an $800 million budget (while lobbying for more in Annapolis), Baltimore’s Booker faces overwhelming pressure to raise test scores. Everything he says and does is set against a backdrop of poverty, homelessness, crime, drug abuse, racial tension, teen pregnancies and the like….
The lack of talent development and the constant churning in big- city districts leads some experts to believe boards should look within for leadership. “The idea of turning to insiders is getting more currency around the country,” says Michael Usdan, president of the Washington-based Institute for Educational Leadership.
“It’s clear that the Messiah syndrome hasn’t worked particularly well.”
This article appeared on page A – 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/05/08/MN3255.DTL#ixzz1pUialNi7
There are no easy answers to solving problems in education and as Usdan says, there are no messiahs in education.
Art Stellar writes in The School Administrator, October 2010 Number 9, Vol. 67,The Search:Public or Confidential?The Changing Rules of the Superintendency Hunt: A veteran leader’s personal recounting of sundry changes in the conduct of the search process over three decades. Here are some of his comments:
Serving as superintendent, going into my 24th year, I have completed hundreds of applications and interviewed for nearly a hundred superintendencies. I have accepted seven superintendencies and, in more than 20 instances, have declined offers or withdrawn from consideration after being interviewed. This cumulative experience has produced a personal perspective of how markedly the process has changed over time — not necessarily for the better.
A Negative Swing
The most significant change in the way school boards search for a new superintendent over the years has been the shift from focusing on the positive to dwelling on the negative. In the past, the strengths and talents of individual candidates were at the center of the search process, and the search process emphasized what a candidate did well. School boards wanted to know what you have done in previous leadership posts and what you could do to support their schools’ students.The emphasis now has migrated into finding reasons to weed people out rather than why to consider them. Background checks, drug testing and standard professional referrals have been replaced by exhaustive hunts for whatever details may be negative about a person and his/her experiences. Digging for the “dirt” seems more central in today’s superintendent searches than the capacity to raise student test scores, to close achievement gaps or to reduce the number of dropouts….
Headhunter Proliferation
One interesting trend has been the proliferation of superintendent search firms. There are dozens of firms today, which has added complexity to the marketplace because school boards have many more options from which to choose…The best consultants also attempt to steer school boards toward particular candidates who will be impressive and who might be a good fit with the needs of the school district. The worst consultants have particular candidates in mind whom they would like to place due to personal relationships or because they are part of the consultant’s stable. (The latter happens a lot less frequently than it did 20 years ago.)
Some consultants pigeon hole candidates based on unique attributes or recognition. One consultant used to contact me regularly, but only for extremely difficult urban superintendencies owing to my successful experiences in Oklahoma City and Boston. Another consultant only wanted me to meet school boards interested in raising student achievement based upon my track record in this area. These stereotypes are hard to overcome when a consultant is at the wheel of the search vehicle….
Investigators Everywhere
The rise of the Internet and search engines has made everyone a private investigator, capable of pulling together bits and pieces of controversial actions involving public officials. Search consultants and newspaper reporters used to be the only parties with the resources to dig up anything questionable. Now, once the list of potential superintendent candidates is given to school board members and the public, the googling exercise commences.Experienced superintendents are at a disadvantage because there is bound to be one or more controversial decisions (school consolidations, changes in school boundaries, budget cuts, union negotiations, etc.) in a school district where they served. As a candidate for a position you should be ready to explain anything and everything that has ever happened in public over the course of your career….
Board Misbehavior
One would hope that school board members would be on their best behavior when interviewing candidates. Some are; others aren’t. Some boards just ask prepared questions without giving any feedback. On the other hand, some boards would appear more professional if all members stuck to a script. Common courtesies are less in vogue today than 20 years ago when board members were more civil and accommodating….
http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=16596
No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.
Peter Drucker
Resources:
Superintendent Search http://wssda.org/Portals/0/Resources/Publications/suptsrchman.pdf
Urban Superintendents, Characteristics and Tenure
Factors Impacting Superintendent Tenure
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
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