"Organizing public schools in the image of industrial corporations or
military fleets is a default strategy that reflects the lack of
imagination that often permeates our schools and numbs the minds of the
children we hope to inspire. Top-down management in which teachers are
at the bottom assumes that teaches are interchangeable pieces of a
machine when, in fact, really good teachers are often really difficult
to replace -- and teachers are engaged in virtually the only work in any
school that has any direct impact on the outcomes of the entire
enterprise.
Trying to improve schools within the current leadership structure is
misguided and probably futile. We have to rethink the internal
organization. Teachers need to be at the top of the power structure.
Like the partners in a law firm -- experienced, proven, successful
teachers should be collaboratively in charge of the schools at which
they teach.
This is not really a new idea. Educators in alternative settings have
created leadership models in which the principal teaches at least one
class. Often this is a token effort and doomed to fail. What we need are
teacher-leaders with real authority over instruction.
Schools would still need an executive to perform non-instructional
administrative work -- a kind of CEO who need not be a teacher or former
teacher. Someone with a business background probably makes more sense.
Someone who can manage the plant, procure materials and supplies, get
the bills paid on-time and file all the paperwork to comply with the
education code. And leave teacher/partners to manage instructional
matters -- teacher personnel issues, curricular decisions."
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