Leadership Matters - February 2013

Vision 20/20 ————————————————————————————

 Governance , including finding the proper partnership and balance among local school districts, the Regional Offices of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education.  Digital Learning ,

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the Schlechty Center in Louisville, Ky., to brief the IASA Board of Directors about a public education visioning project they helped facilitate in Texas. Dr. Schlechty also addressed our entire membership at the IASA Conference in October. Several of Dr. Schlecty’s public education observations seemed to hit the mark, including the following:  Public sentiment regarding public educators goes something like Framework

including exploring what public education should look like in the future with regard to technology in the classroom, online learning and virtual schooling.  Assessment and Accountability , including possible alternatives to current testing models, methods of assessment and looking at the effectiveness of the new

 Finance  Leadership  Governance  Digital Learning

“We know what you’re against, but we have no idea what you are for…”  Over time, schools have been transformed into government schools, not community

 Assessment & Accountability  Organizational Transformation

reform measures.  Organizational Transformation , including

the development of partnerships between educators and community leaders at the local level. This initiative will be discussed further during our “Leadership Week,” scheduled for February 26-28 in Springfield. The framework we plan to submit to the board calls for each of our 21 regions to select a representative to serve, with that representative to be assigned to one of the subcommittees. Those representatives would be supplemented by at-large appointments so that we would have seven or eight members on each subcommittee. The six subcommittees will work with a subcommittee chairperson, the Education Consultants and Research Associates (ECRA) and other research resources to finalize and formalize a new vision for Illinois public education. The timeline for this project is to have “Vision 20/20” completed by June of 2014. That is a very ambitious schedule, but an important one given the fact that we will elect a governor in November of that year. It will require an extraordinary effort on the part of the leaders, staff and membership of IASA. Please consider in advance your commitment and willingness to take part in this important initiative if called upon to serve on one of the “Vision 20/20” subcommittees or to share your ideas with those who are on the subcommittees. It will take a team effort, but the end result will benefit the children of our state.

schools, and it is time to harness the power of teachers and local educational leaders to take back more control of their schools.  The bottom line is mission transformation to create “student-centered schools.” One of his political observations also made sense: Politicians generally are followers more than they are leaders. They follow many things, including the wishes of large campaign donors. But the thing they follow most is public opinion. School districts must be the standard bearers of public opinion as it relates to public education in their communities. Our strategy is to arm teachers, principals, administrators and school board members with a vision that will resonate with parents and citizens at a grassroots level. The framework for the visioning process is to form six working subcommittees to deal with the following categories:  Finance , including the issues of foundation-level funding, adequacy of funding and the development of revenue.  Leadership , including what the jobs of superintendents and principals should look like going forward, as well as training and professional development, licensing and the certification process as education undergoes a metamorphosis.

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