Education Week - February 19, 2014 - Cultivating Leadership - (Page C6)

'Education Pioneers' Grooms Rising Corps Of K-12 Managers By Katie Ash Applications to Education Pioneers, a nonprofit group that brings high-performing leaders-particularly those from outside education-into K-12 administrative internships, are rising steadily, putting the 10-year-old organization in line to follow in the footsteps of other nontraditional talent recruiters such as Teach For America. Despite that recent growth, however, Education Pioneers remains under the radar of many education leadership and management experts and organizations. "[Education Pioneers] is able to leverage the huge benefits of cohort-building and humancapital and people pipelines, and they're getting smart, interesting, engaged people into these roles," said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. "The fact that they're off the radar is one of the key reasons why school improvement is having such enormous difficulties," added Mr. Hess, who also writes an opinion blog hosted on Education Week's website. The Oakland, Calif.-based organization experienced a 70 percent increase in applications this past year alone. For the 450 fellowships available for 2013-14, the group received almost 7,000 applications. The influx of applications has allowed Education Pioneers to become more selective, admitting fewer than 10 percent of those who apply. The organization's goal is to build a network of 10,000 alumni by 2023, said Scott Morgan, its founder and chief executive officer. Positions in Between Education Pioneers places early-career professionals in paid noninstructional leadership and management internships- such as administrative, analytic, and operational positions-in a variety of education-related organizations, such as charter schools, educational technology companies, school districts, and support organizations. The average fellow comes with about five years of professional experience. "Between the superintendent and the principal, there are a lot of people that are managing the finance and operations and human resources and professional development," said Julie Angilly, the vice president of external relations for Education Pioneers. "Those are roles that most people in the general public don't even know exist, but are just so critical to supporting teachers and successfully educating students." The organization has three different programs: a 10-week or yearlong internship for graduate students who are either finishing up their degrees or have recently graduated, and a 10-month-long analyst fellowship for those with a strong background in analytics, Ms. Angilly said. The fellows complete a twoday training session introducing them to some of the big-picture challenges in education, plus five full-day workshops with their cohort to focus on such topics as education technology or human capital in education. They also receive one-on-one coaching throughout the program to evaluate their progress. Seventy percent of fellows continue to work in education-related jobs after finishing the program, a recent survey indicates. Education Pioneers works primarily in urban areas in order to have the biggest impact on underserved communities, said Ms. Angilly, and when it comes to placing fellows in schools, the distribution is split fairly evenly between charter and district-run schools. PERSPECTIVE Why Would Anyone Want to Be a School Leader? S By Peter DeWitt chool leadership is hard, especially these days. There are point scales to contend with, evaluations based on test scores, and budget cuts that result in the layoffs of teachers and administrative colleagues. Some leaders have seen cuts to important programs. There is a constant need to find creativity in a very uncreative time. On top of that, leaders may have more students living in extreme poverty or who have social-emotional issues, and in some cases they are expected to take on the role of parents to students−and their parents. It can be very hard to navigate that terrain. So why would anyone want to be a school leader? Trying to do the right thing at the same time you are being guided by policymakers to do what seems like the wrong things may not seem worth the stress. If that is the way you feel, run away now. Schools need leaders who will fight the status quo 6 at the same time they fight policymakers who are making education worse. Students and staff deserve better. Building Trust I've found that effective-and personally rewarding-school leadership hinges on trust. And that's not a quality that can be taken for granted. When new leaders start a position, many staff members will be ready to support them and others will not trust them at all. It seems unfair, especially if the leader is new to the district. Shouldn't all staff give the benefit of the doubt to a person who is making a fresh start? As unfortunate as it may seem, it doesn't work that way, new leaders should understand why that is. Sometimes the lack of trust occurs because the staff had a previous leader who did not treat them well at all. At other times it happens just because of the position title. There are staff, parents, and even kids who won't trust a leader because of his or her title: principal. That has to be OK with a new leader if he or she plans on running a school building. You can't take it personal. The previous experience that the staff had with a school leader may have been negative. One of the first, and most important, aspects of the job is to build trust with staff, students, and parents. Emotional Bank Accounts So a leader may not walk into a building with a clean slate, but the pursuit of trust is an important one. Trust is something that is built one conversation and one action at a time. Every time you act on an issue, and every time you have a conversation whether with one faculty member or the whole faculty, you are building a basic sense of trust. These conversations go into our emotional bank accounts as leaders. As Stephen Covey said in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: We all know what a financial bank account is. We make deposits into it and build up reserves from which we can make withdrawals when we need to. An Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor Education Week 2 0 1 4 CA LENDA R O F EVENT S & P ROFESSIONAL DEVELOP MENT DIRECT ORY w w w. edw e e k.org/go/cal e n dar " Trust is something that is built one conversation and one action at a time, each going into our emotional bank accounts as leaders." http://www.edweek.org/go/calendar

Education Week - February 19, 2014 - Cultivating Leadership

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