Childress, Stacey, Elmore, Richard F., Grossman, Allen S. & Johnson, Susan M. (Eds). (2007). Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership. Reviewed by Sharon Harsh, Edvantia, Inc.

Childress, Stacey, Elmore, Richard F., Grossman, Allen S. & Johnson, Susan M. (Eds). (2007). Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press Pp. 496         ISBN 978-1-891792-49-6 Childress, Stacey, Elmore, Richard F., Grossman, Allen S. & Johnson, Susan M. (Eds). (2007). Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership . Instructor’s Guide. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press Pp. 192         ISBN 978-1-891792-76-2 Reviewed by Sharon Harsh Edvantia, Inc. April 15, 2009 School districts occupy a unique and interesting niche in the organizational hierarchy of the education system. The district level represents a midpoint in the hierarchy where the regulations and expectations from the two ends of the spectrum converge. As a result, school districts must develop and implement policies and procedures that will address the needs of students and schools and simultaneously meet the regulatory expectations established at the federal and state levels. This midpoint position creates a challenge that is exacerbated by accountability targets that require the district to be accountable for both individual school and district-wide performance on designated student achievement measures and to sustain high performance once the targets have been met. Successful districts that have been able to reverse persistently low-performing schools and maintain high-performing schools are concurrently visionary and reactive, compliant and proactive, stabilizing and transformative. District leaders need to understand and reinforce effective school-level instructional practices and foster system-wide collaborative leadership to ensure sustainability in productive policies and procedures. To accomplish this essential operational duality, district leaders need to have a wide range of multi-disciplinary skills and knowledge to under gird their administrative practices. Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership addresses the need to have information that is targeted at the district level. The editors highlight management principles that are drawn from authentic cases, rather than fictional scenarios, to illustrate a point, and use principles that represent effective processes that emerge at the intersection of successful business and educational practices. Moreover, Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership offers a text and accompanying instructor’s guide that can be used to strengthen district-level administration at several levels – as a text for university courses that credential and certify emerging leaders, as study material for professional learning communities, and as a manual or handbook that can be used to transform the work of practicing district administrators. Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership and the Instructor’s Guide are organized into five modules. Each module describes an essential dimension of district management for high performance and presents actual case studies that illustrate the dimension in operation. The first module examines the need to establish coherence across all programs. The second module discusses the need to find and support personnel, and the third module describes effective steps to build a high performing organization. Modules four and five tackle the complex processes of managing the differences across schools and sustaining district-wide high performance. Each module establishes specific learning objectives and provides a set of questions that can be used to facilitate discussion and case method teaching. Both books are organized around the elements critical to high performance that were identified in the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) at Harvard University. The PELP data, which emerged from the work with urban school districts, resulted in the development of the PELP Coherence Framework, a five-part model that helps district leaders use organizational design (structure), human capital management (stakeholders), resource allocation (resources), accountability (culture), and performance improvement systems (systems) to implement coherent improvement strategies. Module I examines the concepts of strategy and organizational coherence, describes the PELP Coherence Framework (PCF), and demonstrates how the PCF can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify needed reforms. This module uses three case studies, one from business and two from education, to illustrate the following management principles and achieve the case-specific learning objectives. Module I Cases Management principles illustrated Learning objectives Making Coherence Concrete Taco Bell, Inc. Changing and transforming the managers role Changing incentives Creating safety nets Developing the information infrastructure Organizing to manage complexity Creating a learning organization Pushing down decision-making Expanding information access Building an intellectual network Encouraging ongoing innovation Identify a clear strategy linked to results Develop organizational coherence Achieve a culture change Understand the role of headquarters Bristol City Schools Piloting and evaluating a professional development program Recruitment Performance evaluation Develop analysis skills Deepen understanding of PELP Coherence Framework Demonstrate how to build a coherent organization Practice action planning San Francisco Unified School District Executing a strategy to achieve equity Implementing a weighted student formula and site-based budgeting Accountability system Develop an improvement strategy grounded in a theory of action Apply strategic coherence Define organizational change Module II explores the challenges that districts have in implementing an effective human resources (HR) management system. This module uses three case studies, one from business and two from education, to examine the tension between system needs and school needs, identify the myriad of factors that impact the recruitment, hiring, and retention of staff, explore the use of technology to facilitate hiring and placement, and investigate approaches to the preparation of principals and compensation of teachers. Module II Cases Management principles illustrated Learning objectives Finding and Supporting Personnel Southwest Airlines Leadership Recruiting Training Understand and apply organizational coherence Illustrate human resources and culture as managerial levers Understand how to inspire by example School District of Philadelphia Reform Human Resources Contract and partial site-based selection Recruiting, interviewing and hiring Analyze the human resources function Understand the importance of effective HR leadership and management Understand systemic coherence Boston Public Schools Recruiting and retaining teachers HR reorganization Identify and understand the factors that shape staffing practices Analyze the extent to which the components of the staffing process are aligned Identify opportunities to act effectively in the HR role Module III considers the organizational and management elements that districts need to have in place to ensure that systems and structures support and reward standards of high performance. The module presents five case studies, one from city government and four from education, that examine creating and implementing effective systems and structures, operationalizing a clear organizational culture that values excellence, identifying the characteristics of a school and district performance culture, and transforming and sustaining performance expectations and beliefs. Module III Cases Management principles illustrated Learning objectives Building a High-Performing Organization NY Police Department Process and organization reengineering Managing with data Rewarding performance Increasing productivity Understand that culture can be changed with deliberate action Understand that culture is interdependent with systems, structures, resources and stakeholder relationships Recognize that managerial control does not have to be either/or Duval Public Schools Developing the data-driven principal Managing with data Developing and implementing an action plan Understand the concepts of data management, system alignment, implementation and performance standards Understand the complexities of data management, the elements of a PMM system, and whether the elements of the system complement or conflict Boston Public Schools/Mason School Providing schools with information, tools and resources Teacher collaboration and common planning time Becoming a pilot school Teacher leaders Culture change and use of data Excellence at scale Recognize different types of assessments Explore technology challenges and choices Understand the need for alignment among departments Identify school-based needs Develop an understanding of effective data use Denver Public Schools Experimenting with compensation Improving data infrastructure Balanced compensation system Analyze factors involved in organizational change Understand compensation and incentives Understand systemic coherence and capacity Long Beach Unified School District Accountability system Professional development Develop operational and strategic understanding of managing organizational culture to enhance performance Demonstrate how coherent organizations can reinforce organizational culture Deepen understanding of successful management of a system with opposing management structures Analyze integrating and differentiating mechanisms Develop appreciation for crafting and implementing an accountability system Module IV addresses the complexities of managing differences across schools while simultaneously neutralizing the factors that give rise to the school-level differences and resultant achievement gaps and performance variations. This module uses five cases, one from a community-based organization and four from education, to delve into a differentiated approach to achieving a common performance goal. Module IV Cases Management principles illustrated Learning objectives Managing Schools across Differences Mercy Corps Envisioning change Managing the field Building capacity Measuring impact Supporting operational functions Introduce the concept of differing needs , supports and capabilities Identify the challenges to implementing new management approaches Understand differentiation and integration Understand the relationship of coherence and high performance Chicago Public Schools Strategy to scale high performance Setting clear expectations Providing effective and targeted support Creating consistent accountability mechanisms Understand the rationale for differentiated treatment of schools Identify dimensions of differentiation Understand integration mechanisms Diagnose system capabilities and culture Develop appreciation for the complexity and intensity of differentiated management Star Schools of San Francisco Unified School District Selection criteria for STAR schools Instructional resources and district support Funding and hiring processes Striving for consistency; managing complexity Deepen understanding of PELP coherence framework Illustrate how intervention strategies become refined Develop proficiency for identifying, building and managing a multisite organization Illustrate the management of a decentralized system Montgomery County Public Schools (A) Raise the bar, close the gap Leadership and organizational structure Targeting the achievement gap Reexamining district policies and procedures School-based initiatives to close the gap Managing expectations Understand that effective diversity initiatives are embedded in an organization’s overall strategy Identify what leadership is needed to address race and equity issues Montgomery County Public Schools (B) Discovering and removing institutional barriers related to racism Shaping expectations and designing accountability Module V examines the strategies and processes involved in implementing continuous improvement and achieving sustained high performance across all schools in the district. The module presents three educational case studies that explore the factors that enhance or inhibit sustainability, describe district management of social and political changes, and investigate the effective steps involved in transforming the culture to ensure support and sustainability of desired practices. In addition to the exploration of sustainability factors, this module discusses the use of the PCF to appraise the strength, weakness, and success of sustainability strategies. Module V Cases Management principles illustrated Learning objectives Sustaining High Performance over Time Aldine Independent School District Setting objectives and measuring progress Vertical and horizontal organization Curriculum and instruction reforms Attracting talent and growing leaders Balancing autonomy and organizational learning Develop an appreciation for the value and complexity of managing for coherence Explore the concept of differentiation and the relative degree of autonomy that managers should afford Analyze the role of multisite managers Appreciate the requisites of effective leadership and management at all levels Long Beach Unified School District (A) Implementing changes in governance Implementing reforms Changing the role of the central office Understand that the elements of an organization must be coherent Deepen understanding of the obstacles and opportunities for change Understand the importance of leadership and that outstanding practices can be learned and improved Long Beach Unified School District (B) Managing evolving stakeholder relationships Ongoing instructional reform and sustaining improvement Gain insight into effective leadership transition Refine understanding of change management Gain insight into organizational change Understand forces and factors that enable or impede coherence Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership presents a thoughtful analysis of the effective management of high-performing urban districts. The critical elements identified in the PELP project and the resultant coherence framework provide powerful tools that district administrators can use to examine their own practices. To make the information in these books universally applicable, supplemental case studies should be included on high-performing small and rural districts where resource limitations and economies of scale create additional challenges to coherent management practices. On a final note, the learning objectives in the Instructor’s Guide are not written in a consistent format across cases. In many of the case notes, the learning objective statements provide background material or describe concepts connected to the principles illustrated in the case. As a result, the instructor or PLC leader will need to rewrite or modify many of the learning objective statements to reflect the desired participant knowledge or skill to be obtained. About the Reviewer Sharon Harsh currently serves as director of the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) and co-director of the Center for Education Services at Edvantia, Inc. As ARCC director, she manages state liaisons and content specialists who provide technical assistance to the state education agencies in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. For CES, she co-directs Edvantia’s professional development and technical assistance work with schools and districts. Prior to joining Edvantia, Dr. Harsh was an assistant superintendent of schools for 24 years in West Virginia. She also worked as a teacher, school psychologist, attendance director, and director of special education. She holds certification in elementary education, music, developmental reading, public school administration, social services, and attendance, and is certified as a school psychologist in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania. She has a doctoral degree in education administration and instructional leadership. Dr. Harsh received an international scholarship for doctoral study, was a Fulbright Seminar Abroad scholar to South Africa and Zimbabwe.