Reading & Resources
School Administrator, April 2020


Book Reviews

The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality: Possibilities for Democratic Schooling
by Sonya Douglass Horsford, Janelle T. Scott, and Gary L. Anderson, Routledge Publishers, New York, N.Y., 2019, 240 pp., $155 hardcover $42.95 softcover 

School leaders have many variables that they have to consider on a daily basis as they support the various programs and services within their systems.  Often, “the immediate gets in the way of the important,” and issues such as inequality and inequities within school programs get lost in the logistical shuffle of the day. The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality: Possibilities for Democratic Schooling by Sonya Douglas Horsford, Janelle T. Scott and Gary L. Anderson allows educational leaders to step back, pause, and reflect upon how the structure of their programs align with local, state, and national policies and norms, and whether these structures support or hinder the performance of their staff and students.

Policy-related texts tend to be heavy, but this qualifies as an easy-to-digest text.  The structure of the chapters and their focus on practical issues and outcomes related to inequalities in schools allow the administrator to digest the ways that their adherence (or lack thereof) affects the types of programs offered to all students and the communities under their care.

The first five chapters delve into policy and its impact on programs from multiple perspectives.  This is an excellent foundational basis upon which a school leader can explore the complexities of how these policies affect their own school system’s programs. The remaining chapters focus on progressive education topics that support social responsibility and democracy issues, policy’s impact on inequalities in supported programs, the public’s impact on schools, the ways that power is built through communities through public accountability, and how the promise and practice of education can be reclaimed through democratic school initiatives.

The concepts discussed are supported by vignettes of various administrators and their experiences with how said policies impact their ability to meet the needs of learners and communities under their support, especially those often disenfranchised by various policy initiatives.  The perspectives provided are a strong reflective underpinning for the policy issues highlighted in the text.

It is difficult to do justice to the breadth and depth of this text in such a short review.  However, this text is one that administrators can use as a resource as they evaluate the ways their programs impact issues of inequality.  We utilize it in our doctoral program at the University of Mississippi for school administrators because it provides a practical and political perspective on the types of issues that school leaders face on a daily basis. It helps the students understand that the ways policies are written and implemented both have a significant impact on issues related to inequality and disenfranchisement.

Reviewed by Mark E. Deschaine, associate professor of education, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.


Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning
by Scott McLeod and Julie Graber, Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, Ind., 2018, 63 pp., $17.95 softcover 
                                                                                                                                                                           
One of the leading speakers and authors on instructional technology, Scott Mcleod, teams up with Julie Graber, an Authentic Intellectual Work coach, to prepare this easy-to-read book titled Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning.  It focuses on a 4 Shifts Protocol developed by the authors to help educators improve the integration of technology into the classroom, which consists of deeper thinking and learning, authentic work, student agency and personalized learning and, finally, technology infusion.

The authors identify the challenges that superintendents and finance directors face when proposing the academic return on investment for instructional technology, writing. “If the primary criticism of technology integration is that schools will continue to see limited impacts from their digital learning investments until they change, then the solution is to rethink learning and teaching and schooling, not to ignore or ban our powerful technologies.”  The 4 Shifts Protocol appears to provide the template to help educators integrate technology into current lessons and activities across multiple subjects and grade levels.

For a school or district that has invested heavily in instructional technology, this book will be a great start for their professional learning communities to learn about the 4 Shifts Protocol and begin working with it. 

Reviewed by Robert J. Gerardi Jr., director of finance, Minuteman High School District, Lexington, Mass.


Dancing with the Bear: Negotiating the Superintendent Employment Contract
by Ralph Baker, Delmar Publishing, Clifton Park, N.Y., 2018, 165 pp., $24.95 softcover

Will you be negotiating a superintendent contract in the coming weeks? Are you an aspiring superintendent who has always wondered what happens behind the scenes during Board of Education and Superintendent contract negotiations? If so, this book, Dancing with the Bear, by Dr. Ralph Baker, is written just for you. 

This book reads as a step-by-step guide for contract negotiations. From the “ask” to signing on the dotted line, many pre-contract and post-contract scenarios are included in the reading. Great advice is incorporated throughout. 

If you have only been privy to your own contract, Chapter 4 discusses many of the major components in superintendent employment contracts. From role clarity to creative benefit ideas, the reading will help you in your next negotiations. The author shares negotiating rules and strategies along with practical tips on how to negotiate while still approaching the board with a spirit of collaboration. 

The book includes several chapters detailing what happens after the contract is signed. Learn about the first 24 months of service in a position and how effective boards behave and assemble great board members. This read is a great primer for new superintendents or a refresher for seated superintendents.

Reviewed by Elizabeth L. Freeman, director of professional development, Community Unit School District 300, Algonquin, Ill.


Distrust and Educational Change: Overcoming Barriers to Just and Lasting Reform
By Katherine Schultz, Harvard Education Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2019, 175 pp. w index

Distrust and Educational Change: Overcoming Barriers to Just and Lasting Reform by Katherine Schultz, a faculty member at University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, serves primarily as a collection of case study analyses of several instances of distrust and its detrimental impact on attempted school reforms.  Citing some large urban examples (Chicago and Oakland) where community distrust led to extreme resistance (hunger strikes over school closures, lost confidence in leaders when financial stress struck) of administrators’ attempts to change their public schools.

Whether that distrust stemmed from historical, political or racial issues, Schultz presents an accurate portrayal of the reasons for such resistance, framed by a researcher’s lens through scholarly hindsight.  As many district administrators know all too well, balancing the need for change with maintaining the good graces of the communities, teachers and school boards is all too common across the U.S., and is not just limited to large, urban districts.

In addition to researching the issues surrounding (and inferred reasons behind) such distrust of educational reforms (contextual issues), the author is also able to highlight successful changes implemented in some schools. She also manages to isolate the issue of blame being a poor narrative with which to frame the need for educational reform.

However, most of this work is probably already known by district superintendents through either their own research or via administration-level policy courses taken at a university.  While it is undoubtedly interesting, this book would be an excellent resource for those researching failed policies in order to learn from the context of the selected case studies in order to learn from the contexts.  As far as being useful to most practicing superintendents in the field, most would probably agree that while the work includes accurate research and proposed methods of addressing community distrust (community engagement, respecting work of teachers), very little new practical advice for school district leaders can be found in this book.

The author, a well-respected college dean and professor, former teacher, principal, board member and concerned parent, has undoubtedly researched several policies and practices in order to assist leaders in avoiding the pitfalls that the leaders that were (or became) distrusted encountered.  Whether most leaders would benefit from reading this or not probably depends on the circumstances surrounding the leader’s efforts at reform.  For leaders engaged in serious reform efforts and dealing with extreme community resistance, this book could serve as a useful resource.  For the rest of us, our practice would probably not be significantly impacted (other than strengthening our background knowledge of historical reform efforts) as a result of reading this book.

Reviewed by Todd Dugan, superintendent, Bunker Hill CUSD 8, Bunker Hill, Ill. 

In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School
by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine, 2019, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine offers different perspectives of the efforts in the last 20 years to change the way public school supports learning for students in the Information Age.

The approaches analyzed in this book tell the stories of different strategies to student learning after hundreds of hours of observations in different high schools across our country.  Mehta and Fine offer deep analysis of four different school models: project-based learning, test preparation, International Baccalaureate and a comprehensive high school.  While each model offers a pathway for students to be successful, the variations between the way students engage with instruction are examined to provide a new set of recommendations for learning in American public schools to meet the changing landscapes of a future where information is always available at your fingertips.

Since the industrial revolution, schools have been organized around the “grammar of schooling” — characteristics of school that have become common place and unquestioned in American public education.  Organizational structures like age-based classrooms, content specific classes, and class sizes of about 25 students are so frequent in the way schools operate that few question if this is the right way to help students learn.  Mehta and Fine elevate the idea of a new grammar of schooling as producers rather than consumers of content.  Boundaries between content areas should be permeable.  Boundaries between the school and the world in which students live should also be permeable.  Learning is connecting application and transfer of skills across settings.  Assessment should not be focused on seat time or standardized tests but focused on demonstrations of learning through projects, portfolios, and oral defense of the products that students create.  School management would not be organized with a top down approach, rather a distributed leadership style that includes all stakeholders in decisions that impact the student body, including students.

Through their analysis of high schools across our country, Mehta and Fine elevate the certain characteristics that will prepare students for success through deeper learning.  Mastery, creativity, and identity are factors of deeper learning that need to be evident in the design of schools.  “Mastery because you cannot learn something deeply without building up considerable skill and knowledge in that domain; identity because it is hard to become deeply learned at anything without becoming identified with the domain; and creativity because moving from taking someone else’s ideas to developing your own is a big part of what makes learning deep” (p.299).  In a world where information is readily available as fast as you can search for it on the internet, students need to be prepared with skills that will help them to find success in their future.  

Mehta and Fine offer analysis and recommendations for the future of the American high school that will support the learners of the 21st century to be successful in a future only they can imagine.  

Deeper learning comes from deeper teaching.  Deeper teaching is born in complex tasks that are on the top half of Bloom’s taxonomy (analyze, synthesize, and create) rather than fact recall or regurgitation.  Currently, our education system is currently grounded in the academic behaviors of the past. Many states embrace an infrastructure that supports time in class, or seat time, as an indicator for student learning rather than competency-based instruction where students demonstrate an ability to apply learning in unique settings.  With a nation-wide emphasis on SAT and ACT as gatekeepers to college, AP courses, and other high stakes state exams that focus on one data point, we perpetuate a education culture that emphasizes one data point to determine success.  Unfortunately, many studies show that students do not retain the information tested on these assessments for very long. 

Just as Mrs. Hines realized after Johnny scored well on her end of week quiz without even participating in class, teachers will need to move to the role of facilitators of learning or mediators of student thinking rather than deliverers of information.  Students will need to use information, paired with skills, to create, defend, and produce in a learning system that will support critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and perseverance to find solutions to problems that haven’t been identified.  Mehta and Fine help to set the course for the next iteration of the American high school in their recent publication: In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School.  This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in what the future of American public education might hold.  

Reviewed by Matt Flores, chief academic officer, Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden, Colo.

Why I Wrote this Book…

“I partnered with a student illustrator on this project to encourage readers to find the power of their calling, be brave and love who they are, love what they do and help others do the same. We all have value. We all have the ability to change the world for the better. We have the opportunity to harness our passions and impact humanity for the greater good. Beyond Us is not just a book, it’s a passion project.”

Aaron Polansky, superintendent of Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School, Rochester, Mass., and AASA member since 2017, on writing Beyond Us: A True Story with Implications for All of Us (DBC Publishing, 2019)

Abstract

Equity Leadership

A newly completed Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison explored the roles and practices of superintendents that advance equity systems change.

Researcher Jeffrey Fleig undertook a single case study design of a school district engaged in equity systems change by interviewing 14 participants, reviewing equity-related documents and observing equity-focused professional training.

His research identified four roles of the superintendent that advanced equity change: (1) chief equity officer; (2) engager with equity efforts; (3) community leader for equity; and (4) partnering with principals in leading for equity. The superintendent engaged in practices that supported each role.

Copies of “The Roles and Practices of the Superintendent in Equity Systems Change” are available from ProQuest at 800-521-0600.

Bits & Pieces

Strategic Financial Actions
Education Resource Strategies has released a guide outlining three mindsets and five core functions of the role of chief financial officer in school districts. The report says CFOs must be innovative and strategic in prioritizing resources.

Chronic Absenteeism

Regional Education Laboratory Mid-Atlantic and the New Jersey Department of Education have co-developed resources to help educators reduce chronic absenteeism among prekindergarten and kindergarten pupils.

Adult Fan Decorum

The National Federation of State High School Associations has released “Beyond the Scoreboard,” the second installment of its new video series centered on correcting negative adult fan behavior at high school events.

The new video follows “The Parent Seat” as the second non-course production housed on the NFHS Learning Center website. It uses a list of 10 life lessons fostered by athletics and activities participation that are often forgotten by adult fans.


Research Paper Contest

Outstanding unpublished papers completed during pursuit of a graduate degree in educational leadership may be submitted for the 2020 Kenneth E. Clark Student Research Award, co-managed by the International Leadership Association and the Center for Creative Leadership.

The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize, travel, lodging and complimentary registration to ILA’s annual conference Nov. 5-8 in San Francisco.

The deadline for submissions (consisting of PDF formatted documents) is May 1. Complete entry details are at http://bit.ly/research-paper-contest.

Student Data

A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences found that providing schools with support for using student data to inform teaching had no impact on student achievement or how often teachers used student data.

GPA Predictors

Students’ high school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation, according to a new issue of Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

The study’s co-authors, Elaine M. Allensworth and Kallie Clark of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, found the predictive power of GPAs is consistent across high schools.


Tech Integration

The Consortium for School Networking has released its annual innovation survey results, revealing the top five hurdles, accelerators and enablers for integrating technology into K-12 education.

The CoSN report says digital resources such as collaboration platforms and online privacy and safety tools are helping schools address common obstacles.


Social Emotional Toolkit

AASA and the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning have developed a toolkit on social emotional learning.

“Districtwide SEL Essentials for Superintendents: A Toolkit To Support District Leadership in Systemic Implementation of Social and Emotional Learning” provides 10 high-leverage actions to promote systemwide SEL.

AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice

AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice’s winter edition starts with an editorial titled “Equity-Focused Leadership: From Acknowledgement to Self-Awareness” by editor Ken Mitchell.

Other articles explore alternatives to disrupt existing practices that fail to yield more racially conscious principals; research on the relationship between principals of color and the recruitment of teachers of color; and how PBIS can mitigate the damaging effects of the disproportionality of student suspensions by race and ethnicity.