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January 23, 2006
Secrecy and superintendent hiring
When school boards do the complicated work of hiring new superintendents, most choose to do so in secrecy.
One Virginia school board fears it got burned by following this tactic, the Washington Post reports.
Last year, neighboring Prince William County privately selected a superintendent, Steven L. Walts from Greece, N.Y., only to learn afterward that he left behind a trail of labor disputes at his old system that has resulted in federal lawsuits. Within the frequently fractious realms of the nation's 15,000 school systems, there is widespread debate over which strategy to pursue. Methods vary among states and within them, but leading education experts -- including the heads of the National School Boards Association, the American Association of School Administrators and the National Association of Secondary School Principals -- agree on one thing: An open search is ultimately best.
"We are in an era of accountability, and parents and the community want to feel engaged in their schools," said Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association.
"The advantage to an open search is that it creates a transparent process. In some communities, the school board and superintendent are more important than the mayor."
But most superintendents do not want their identities revealed during a search. If they don't get the job, it can show disloyalty to their current school system and wreck their relationship with the community. School boards swooning at the nation's top candidates often grant them confidentiality rather than risk the candidates withdrawing their names.
It's a seller's market.
With the No Child Left Behind law ratcheting up academic standards and community members pointing fingers at the superintendent for lagging test scores, the pool of qualified schools chiefs is shrinking, particularly for major suburban systems.
It is complicated stuff. As we say in Blogville, Read the Whole Thing.
Posted January 23, 2006 1:54 PM |
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