Cohort Learning for School System Leaders

Amy Sichel serves as lead superintendent for the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program, which promotes collaborative learning among superintendents. PHOTO COURTESY OF ABINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT

The superintendent wears so many leadership hats — curriculum, operations, equity, finance, strategic planning and more — and responds daily to a wide array of stakeholders, including government officials. By connecting with fellow superintendents who face parallel decisions and actions, the superintendent can ease or lift the weight of this multifaceted role.

Often, superintendents mention how no one within their district understands the experiences and issues they must navigate and address. While cabinet members may understand the issues at hand and be collaborative, the burden of decision making rests with the superintendent. The board of education, as the governing body, will take interest that sometimes can lead to overinvolvement or even micromanagement of district affairs.

Cabinet members and board members may not be the resources to which superintendents can turn for critical input and feedback on proposed decisions. Connecting with job-alike peers — superintendent colleagues and leadership mentors — never has been so important as during trying times.

Nurturing Relationships

Bridget Weiss, the fourth-year superintendent of the Juneau School District in Alaska, has made those connections for her professional growth as a graduate of the recently completed West 2021 cohort of the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program®. Weiss recognized how important learning as a professional can be. She has experienced firsthand why working together with superintendent colleagues from across the country created critical friends and supported her work in times of certainty and uncertainty.

Through her involvement in the superintendent certification program, Weiss experienced a high-level curriculum focused on real-time issues that superintendents and educators were encountering. Her experience over 18 months in the program encouraged her to nurture and develop similar collaboration among her superintendent colleagues statewide. As a function of her adult learning, she is now a men-tor to other superintendents in Alaska, which is a learning experience for her and gives her the satisfaction of “paying it forward.”

Weiss’ commitment to professional growth, collegial collaboration and response to the pandemic contributed to her recently being named the Alaska Superintendent of the Year for 2022.

Being the only superintendent in a school community or working in a state like Alaska where considerable distances separate neigh-boring districts leaves no one to turn to, no other educator with a total view of this role. That often leaves an unmet need when superintendents want to bounce ideas off colleagues, as the medical profession does routinely in many places through its use of grand rounds. During a grand round, a team of doctors uses an experience with a patient to educate by presenting the medical problem and diagnoses and then discussing treatment options.

This practice started with junior clinicians and has since morphed into a multifaceted team approach with doctors, pharmacists, residents and medical students. The process has helped doctors and other medical professionals learn from each other and stay up to date, while providing on-the-job training.

Studying Practices

For superintendents and those aspiring to the superintendency, a similar approach to grand rounds is a concept called leader rounding or the consultancy model. These approaches for executive learning by educators provide both simulations and engagement with problems of practice.

In the consultancy model, an educator presents a problem of practice, and the team of educators asks clarifying questions, followed by peer feedback and reflection and dialogue with the individual who presented the issue. This approach is used in many of AASA’s Leadership Network programs, including the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program.®

Patricia Greco, senior director of Studer Education and a mentor in the superintendent certification program, is a master at teaching adult learners. She uses leader rounding in her work with educator learning and used it previously in her role as a superintendent.

By meeting individually with many school-based faculty and support staff, administrators and superintendent cabinet members, and sometimes with parents and community members, the superintendent obtains a pulse on what is going on within a school or district and can provide support to individuals for their professional and personal growth.

Using leader rounding, the superintendent forms closer relationships, becomes more approachable to colleagues and other stakeholders, shows a willingness to work side by side with others and increases the efficacy in the school or the district. Greco believes that continuous school improvement is best accomplished through leader rounding. 

As a participant in AASA’s East 2020 cohort, George Fiore of Downingtown, Pa., said he benefited from confidential discussions with superintendent peers. PHOTO BY ASHLEY BOYD/CHESTER COUNTY, PA., INTERMEDIATE UNIT

The consultancy model and leader rounding are just two effective strategies for administrators to use that are modelled through group interaction in AASA’s Leadership Network programs.

This approach for creating rich group interaction has been particularly important as the education field was forced to adopt a virtual and hybrid model of learning for children as well as the adult learners.

Using breakout groups with virtual learning and tabletop discussions with in-person learning supports the use of simulations, problems of practice as well as leader rounding and the consultancy model. Quality breakout groups and tabletop discussions create both interactive and reflective discussion, important components for both online and in-person adult learning.

A Setting of Trust

Professional learning must provide a safe and confidential environment for the superintendent. Typically in school district-based learning, a top-level administrator is not free to share openly on pressing issues, owing to the confidential nature of the issue or the superintendent’s discomfort and vulnerability.

An analog to the medical profession would be where a medical provider would not be comfortable sharing with a patient his or her uncertainty on how to proceed with a proper diagnosis or a treatment plan. Rather, that medical provider would consult with a job-alike colleague to engage in that discussion.

In education, an atmosphere of confidentiality and trust must be created for those in leadership to learn from each other. In adult learning that is truly focused on problem solving and high-level learning, these parameters must be created and maintained with ground rules in place from the onset of the programs. As the saying goes, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!”

George Fiore, executive director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit in Downingtown, Pa., and a graduate of AASA’s East 2020 cohort, savors the professional opportunities he had had with fellow superintendents. The confidential discussions with other system leaders helped him to clarify issues and provided direction to his work, he said.

Fiore credits the valuable collaboration with job-alike peers in supporting him in his former position as a superintendent and in helping him with interviewing and landing his current post overseeing an intermediate agency. He says his colleagues and mentors were always just a phone call or Zoom chat away.

Top-Shelf Talent

Bridget Weiss, superintendent in Juneau, Alaska, and her state’s 2022 Superintendent of the Year, graduated earlier this year from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. PHOTO BY KRISTIN BARTLETT/JUNEAU SCHOOL DISTRICT

Another key facet to effective professional learning at the superintendent level is the quality of instructors and mentors in the cohort programs. Those handling these responsibilities are a special pedigree breed. They need to be the best of the best or better yet, the best in show. 

A cohort program for superintendents is not a sit and get experience but rather a setting for creating a collaborative atmosphere where learning, whether virtually or in person, connects and networks participants. Too often, we model what we do not want to see with our teaching staff, the so-called “sage on the stage.” Executive learning requires careful preparation and a knowledge of our audience.

Faculty who are selected to lead professional learning experiences must be master facilitators for the best learning among participants. The facilitator provides small chunks of knowledge through presentations and informational resources so the learning comes from within. This is a key factor and why AASA hand selects each lead teacher and mentor. In the Leadership Network, our experiences have demonstrated to us that show with discussion is more effective than show and tell.

This approach to learning in a collaborative fashion provides a practical model or simulation for school system leaders. It can be used when dealing with a polarized community or with parents and guardians with divergent points of view.

Real-Time Learning

Learning at the executive level never has been more important and needed than during these trying times. Every superintendent and educator needs to sustain their professional growth. We know that professional and continuous improvement of a school or district creates the best learning environment for the students. We do this for staff, faculty and parents/guardians, so we need to be doing this for those at the executive level.

During my experience as the lead superintendent for AASA’s superintendent certification program, I’ve worked with more than 300 superintendents from across the country. I know firsthand that superintendents and those aspiring to the superintendency must learn together. AASA and its state affiliates carry a mission to serve, and individuals can lean on these organizations for quality, real-time adult learning.

AMY SICHEL, a retired superintendent in Abington, Pa., is the lead superintendent for the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. Twitter: @SuptAmy