Central Office-School Relationships in Support of School Improvement: Reconceptualizing the Problem and What’s Promising

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

For decades, research on school districts has cast relationships between central offices and schools as curbs on school improvement. But what do more productive relationships entail and what conditions foster them? This symposium presents papers from a recent body of research on districts that aims to shine new light on this essential question. In a departure from past research, the featured studies take central office-school relationships as the main unit of analysis and draw on rich theoretical frameworks that uncover dimensions of these relationships. We examine these relationships in the context of accountability policy, teaching and learning improvement initiatives, and portfolio management. Attendees will participate in a discussion of study implications for districts in research/reform and educational policy/leadership more broadly.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Districts in Research & Reform

Chair

• Meredith I. Honig, University of Washington

Papers

• Exploring the Space Between: Social Networks, Trust, and Urban School District Leaders - Alan J. Daly, University of California - San Diego; Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester

• District Central Office Leadership as Teaching: How Central Office Administrators Support Principals’ Development as Instructional Leaders - Meredith I. Honig, University of Washington

• Portfolio District Reform Meets School Turnaround: Early Findings From the Los Angeles Public School Choice Initiative - Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California; Katharine Omenn Strunk, University of Southern California; Susan C. Bush, University of Southern California

Discussants

• James P. Spillane, Northwestern University

• Richard R. Halverson, University of Wisconsin - Madison