1) When I am willing to do the job our head does for his salary, I will
grumble, but not until then. The landscape of headship has so changed in
recent years that it demands a skill set and a mental attitude that are
exceedingly and increasingly rare.
2) Daniel Pink is a journalist who, like Malcolm Gladwell, has been able to
identify some trends and ironies in the way our society works. I tend to be
more impressed by the thoughtful identification of trends than the
gadfly-ish noting of ironies, although the theme has worked for the whole
freako- genre as it has for Gladwell and seems to be for Pink. I liked A
WHOLE NEW MIND because it posited some important ideas that educators should
be thinking about and packaged those ideas in a compelling way.
That said, this discussion isn't about Daniel Pink but about "innovation."
I'd be interested to know if anyone can identify a ten-year period in the
history of American independent schools when there has been as much change
and innovation in practice, program, management, and governance structures
as in the past decade.
- Consider, working backward from that list, the change in the
expectations for boards and board leaders in the degree of sophistication
they must have about everything from finance to educational practice;
consider the degree to which board leadership development has lept to the
fore as part of the critical work of effective boards. Consider the role of
the head in managing this process.
- Consider the financial complexity of operating an independent school
and planning and executing daily and long-term financial programs. A decade
ago only a few schools had even considered bond-issues, as one basic
example. Budgeting, fund-raising, and enrollment management now take place
in an environment when financial pressures (even pre-2008 crash) and
competition in the marketplace are extreme. Every successful head has had to
learn about these things more or less on the job or through other
administrative jobs. I think we can safely assume corporate MBA types
wouldn't want to run an independent school at what they would regard as the
"low" level of compensation, and so most of our heads are still rising from
the ranks of teachers and administrators, even if they have acquired other
experience in the for- or nonprofit worlds. We teacher-folk may not see
these changes as "innovation," but to a sitting head who started a career
before 1995 or so, I imagine these feel like a 100% turnover in management
technique.
- Consider curriculum. Sorry, but I think schools and teachers have
innovated amazingly, taking advantage of changes in technology as well as
understandings of cognition and child development. I will admit that much of
this innovation has been teacher-driven and catch-as-catch-can, but momentum
is growing for institutional change that is administratively led based on
board- and head-driven strategic thinking; the ideas are simply too
compelling and the value of such institutional innovation too great. Check
out the skill sets being sought in head and senior administrative job
listings. If we're just grumpy that schools haven't become all-Twitter-based
or that we haven't disrupted all of our classrooms by going online yet,
there is a wealth of innovation in curriculum and assessment that is being
generally implemented at the moment that was also "rare" in the 1990s: think
rubrics, problem- and project-based learning, "backwards planning,"
differentiated instruction, multiple-intelligence learning... The list goes
on. Where once these ideas were being implemented by enthusiasts at the
classroom level, many are now expectations at the school level. Heads have
had to learn about and lead in bringing these ideas into schools--often
battling traditional teachers and ideas about traditional education in the
marketplace (and on their boards, as has been pointed out) along the way.
Over the past year and a half classroom teachers at our school have had to
learn all about Web 2.0 and how to make the best use of laptop computers in
our classrooms. They've had to master Jing and to "digitize" their
previously "analog" curricula. Our head has had to learn these things (and
he has) to lead and communicate the change that they represent in practice,
and he's had to master a whole new level of financial information to lead
the institution through the financial crisis. When his phone has rung in the
past year or so I'm guessing there has always been the prospect of news that
could rock his--and the school's--world in ways that don't compare to what
phone calls to my office could portend. He's had to develop a whole new
understanding of enrollment management, tuition and financial aid
structures, and refine his work around development. (And this is in a school
that has weathered the crisis well.) In keeping our place moving forward
(and my job intact, FWIW), he has had to "innovate" more than any single
individual in our building. And I think that as a head he represents the
positive edge of the norm, not some abnormality.
If you see a lot of heads around who haven't kept up with this learning
curve, I'd submit that you are looking at a bunch of heads who aren't long
for their positions, at any pay level.
If we want to see more innovation, let's first make sure that this
innovation is educationally and operational sound, backed up by both
research (whatever the heck that means in education), experience, and common
sense. The hardest task is to convince the marketplace that any educational
innovation is valuable or even good, and this is where heads have to reality
earn their keep
- as educational leaders (or in some cases, where educational
administration has been placed in the hands of subordinates, managers)
within the building who are willing to demand that teachers grow in their
practice and professionalism to meet the needs of students and that programs
evolve along the same lines
- and as promoters of new and valuable educational ideas that will both
educate the community about effective teaching and learning in the 21st
century and draw to the school families and new teachers who are excited
about these ideas
- and, finally, as managers who can balance the traditions, heritage, and
missions of their schools against both conservative market forces that
obstruct innovation and the imperatives of change that writers like Daniel
Pink have identified but that educators like themselves, and like us, must
turn into effective practice.
I guess this is the longer answer.
But when Wickenden or the like call, I ain't answering, at any price--Peter
Gow
--
Peter Gow
Director of College Counseling and Special Programs
Beaver Country Day School
791 Hammond Street
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
www.bcdschool.org
617-738-2755 <callto:+16177382755> (O)
617-738-2747 <callto:+16177382747> (F)
petergow3 (Skype)
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