Education Week - March 18, 2015 - Special Report - S16

EDUCATION WEEK MARCH 18, 2015
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The Chief Academic Officer > www.edweek.org/go/CAO
S16 |
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE S15
low expectations for students, staff
resistance to innovation, and an
unwillingness to get rid of long-tenured
principals who aren't effective,
he said.
ACCOUNTABILITY NEEDS
Beginning in the 1990s, many of
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the country's largest districts-including
Chicago, Los Angeles, and
New York-hired chief executive
officers with experience in business
or the military instead of superintendents
with traditional education
experience. Many smaller districts
followed suit, seeking leaders outside
the traditional K-12 pipeline.
The chief academic officer
emerged as a natural outgrowth of
the rise of the nontraditional superintendent,
because the new school
leaders needed a person schooled
in all phases of curricula, teaching,
and administration-from the classroom
to the central office.
"Instruction is the primary function
of a school system, and that's
the person that really knows the
business," said Daniel A. Domenech,
the executive director of the Alexandria,
Va.-based aasa, the School
Superintendents Association, and
a former superintendent of the
186,000-student Fairfax County,
Va., schools.
And experts say that function will
be increasingly important in the
years ahead.
"Education looks a lot different
today because of the focus on accountability
and student achievement,"
Mr. Vitti said. He was the
cao of the 350,000-student MiamiDade
County, Fla., schools in 2012,
before taking his current job, and
sees districts turning to people with
strong cao backgrounds to fill school
chief vacancies.
"In the [superintendent's role]
today, you need to be an instructional
leader," Mr. Vitti said. "In the
past, the superintendent was a political
and managerial job."
CHOOSING A CAO
When choosing a cao, many superintendents
opt for an experienced
educator who knows the local
terrain well.
"I don't think you can only rely on
people you bring with you," Mr. Vitti
said. "You'll never truly understand
the school district and community
you're trying to change."
Other school leadership experts
echo that sentiment.
"There's no substitute for understanding
the context, the needs of
the student population, the culture
of the district. That stuff is usually
hidden," said Ms. Spiro of the Wallace
Foundation. "This isn't something
you learn overnight. It takes
years sometimes to glean this."
But for some school chiefs, familiarity
breeds loyalty, as superintendents
and chief academic officers
arrive and depart as a package deal.
"It's always a good idea to leave
with your superintendent," said El
Paso's Ms. Durant.
Ms. LeRoy had the best of both
worlds-an experienced, local
leader in place initially, followed
by a trusted colleague later. When
she took charge of the 95,000-student
Polk County, Fla., schools in
summer 2013, she had a veteran
chief academic officer already on
the job. After the cao retired, Ms.
"
Smart
superintendents
spend time hiring a
person they can
trust."
ANDRÉS A. ALONSO
Harvard Graduate School of Education
LeRoy filled the slot with Jacqueline
Bowen, a colleague who followed
her to Polk County a year earlier.
Ms. Bowen worked in a different
job in the district for a year before
taking over as cao, and her predecessor
stayed on as a paid consultant
to smooth the transition.
In some districts, caos are the
clear-cut second in command, answering
only to the superintendent.
But Mr. Domenech of the aasa said
caos are often no different from
other top administrators.
In many cases, the associate superintendent
for instruction is at
the same level as the directors of
human resources or finance and
support services, with all of them
reporting to the superintendent.
But because of their skills working
with curriculum and instructional
issues, caos are more likely to
be superintendents-in-waiting than
other central-office colleagues, Mr.
Domenench pointed out.
In many large school districts, the
cao has to manage a team charged
with overseeing curriculum, assessment,
and principal coaches, Harvard's
Mr. Alonso said.
That experience reveals another
truth about the cao's leadership role
in a district, he said.
"It's less about the relationship
between the superintendent and
cao-it's more about the relationship
between the cao and the rest
of the central-office staff," Mr.
Alonso said. "They're the focus of
the instructional agenda. It's absolutely
key." l
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Education Week - March 18, 2015 - Special Report

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