Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Leadership capacity and RTTT.

Already there is talk in Tennessee about whether the state can find enough people experienced and savvy enough to fill the high-level jobs created by its successful Race to the Top bid. It stands to wonder, then, whether the talent pool can match the challenge once a dozen or so more states are in the mix for major reform. Oversight directors, accountability advisers—not sure what kind of people fill these jobs. Think tankers? CMO gurus? Superintendents? Do they need to have track records of large-scale success in education reform? Because, sadly, that rules out a lot of people. And how many of the ones who do are looking for new jobs, at state salaries?

2 comments:

  1. In light of Race to the Trough's---oops---"Top's" supreme reliance on value added teacher evaluation, qualification number one, absolutely, should be a master's degree in statistics. You folks in journalism had better start boning up in the field, too.

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  2. Great question. I've generally found that there are some excellent assessment and eval folks in large and even mid-sized districts. A lot of states will be hiring for roles of that sort. I'd rather see practitioners in those roles at the state level, but I'm concerned that think tank folks might be targeted. Unfortunately a lot of the best practitioner leaders don't have the political savvy for state-level gigs.

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