Political Leadership in the Superintendency

• In Event: School Districts in Precarious Times: The Extreme Politicization of School Board Governance and the Superintendency

Abstract

While public education has always been political, today's political landscape has become starkly partisan. As Henig notes, the political landscape in education was once smaller and non-partisan, composed of local stakeholders (e.g., board, union, parent groups). Today, however, decision-making has moved to new venues, like courts, special counsels, and state legislatures led by politicians. Superintendents are desperately searching for more nuanced strategies, attentive to personal identity and local context, given today’s challenges.
We aim to address the needs of superintendents who are committed to increasing educational equity and excellence in their school districts despite politically tumultuous environments. In this proposed paper, we will provide an overview of today’s political landscape, offer an emergent theoretical framework that describes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for superintendents to be successful as political leaders, and present concrete recommendations on what is most needed in the field to support the superintendency.
The working draft for this paper was deeply informed by two nationally funded Collaborative convenings over two years. The convenings brought together 30 prominent Collaborators (superintendents, leaders of major programs that prepare and support superintendents, and politics of education scholars) and provided an opportunity to hear from superintendents how national partisan politics influences school systems.
Based on scholarly literature and practitioner experiences shared during the convenings, the theoretical framework in this proposed paper considers the education politics as an ecology environment (see Appendix A). We assert that today’s superintendents must consider what is happening at the federal and state levels (the MACRO political environment), the local school district level (the MESO political environment), and their own viewpoints and other identities/affiliations (the MICRO political environment). There are specific knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to navigate each of these inter-related dimensions of the political environment. Superintendents must hone these skills at every stage of their careers given that the political landscape continues to change and is different depending on context.
Given the political challenges superintendents face today, our Collaborative will take immediate action and offer a set of implications in the following areas.

1) Superintendents need spaces that promote resilience and emotional support.

2) Superintendents, and the organizations who support them, need new tools for analyzing the political realm.

3) Superintendents need a playbook with specific ideas for navigating today’s politics.

4) Superintendents leading mid-sized or smaller districts with changing demographics need more access to support networks.

5) Superintendents need executive coaching from proven political leaders.

We will further develop the framework through the work of the Collaborative, analyzing both superintendent practice (through the pilot of a safe space/focus group and follow up consultation/visitation) and the specific work of superintendent preparation and support organizations on political leadership (through a survey, document analysis, and observation). This work serves as a touchstone for those who prepare and develop superintendents nationwide, prompting much needed change in the quality of superintendent support.
The paper ends with a call to action given our belief that political leadership in the superintendency is crucial to the future of public education and democracy.

Authors

• Jennifer Cheatham, Harvard University

• Bonnie Lo, Harvard University