Joshua Frisch
ELAD635
Fall 2016
The Effect of Administrative Turnover on Curriculum
Introduction Even while 15-30% of schools in the United States experience administrative turnover each year (Béteille, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2011, p. 3), it is very rare for schools to experience it on a continual basis where it occurs every other year. Yet, this is the case in the school where I work. Over the past 8 years, the school has had four different administrators in charge of the building and district (the district is made up of one K-8 school). Each change in leadership has brought with it a change in educational focus, philosophy, and goals. Though the staff has hailed some changes and hated others, people’s major concern is that there has been little to no consistency in curriculum over the past decade, particularly in the elementary classrooms. The purpose of this literature review is to identify the different ways teachers can overcome administrative turnover in order to maintain current curriculum. This review will also identify the optimal amount of time administrators should remain at one school and district in order to positively affect student achievement through curriculum development.
Background
Because the Moonachie School district consists of one K-8 school, it has a superintendent/principal in charge of all aspects of the district and a director of curriculum who acts more as an assistant principal than a director of curriculum. Over the last 6 years, the district
While salary is a contributing factor to poor retention, administrators must investigate measures to adequately support their teachers. Greiner et al. (2005) created a five step plan to increase teacher retention. Their plan included designing collaborative training programs, developing flexible scheduling, strengthening relationships between experienced teachers, and developing partnerships between schools and local school districts.
Based on my experience in the classroom and my educational background, I want to pursue a certification as a K-12 administrator because I want to help and work with a larger population of students. My desire to enhance the culture and community in a school building has come from working with three amazing, passionate, and dedicated administrators (one principal and two vice principals) in my school building. Their drive to positively influence the lives of students, collaborate with parents, and enhance the teaching styles of all the faculty members in the building, has motivated me to want to do the same. A new challenge is presented every day in a school building, and I want to be part of an administrative team that will successfully work together to overcome each and every obstacle in order to better the educational experience of students.
The purpose of this Literature Review is to examine the literature related to the question: Does a relationship exist between school superintendent tenure and student academic success? Through this research, the researcher discovered that there is very little research on the topic. Moreover, the research that does exist is focused on large, urban districts. Thus, there is a gap in the literature as it relates to rural schools, such as many of those found in the state of Kentucky.
The text states that it is essential that superintendents and school board members communicate effectively to find the best solutions to problems. Effective communication requiring everyone to be heard in an honest and forthright exchange of viewpoints has proven to be best for children. Therefore report on Curriculum by Dr. Byron Haynes and reports on start of the year were given by Principal J. Griffin, Principal B. Cleark and Principal M.
When dealing with larger school districts, there are several different positions in which play vital roles in the success of the school ‘s in the county. Deputy superintendent, chief financial officers, executive directors, and chief technology officer, are the crucial four. From there smaller roles are delegated to address issues based on needs and situations that may happen with schools, students teachers and
I teach in the Westside Consolidated Number Five School District in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The school district is a consolidation of three small rural town school districts Bono, Egypt, and Cash, Arkansas in 1968. I met with my mentor Mr. Scott Gaunt the school district superintendent on January 18, 2017 between meetings with district leaders and countywide superintendents. We met and discussed the community relations plan and identified the two most important issues for our district as identified in the poll by the Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallop poll. The issues were the lack of financial support for the school district to provide an adequate education for students and the testing and regulations imposed on school districts that lower educational time for students while in school.
Overall, high rates of teacher turnover have direct monetary costs and alter the distribution of teacher experience and skill across districts. Dr. Maxwell, the Superintendent of PGCPS formed a Transition Team from which four subcommittees were formed one being the Teaching and Learning Committee (TL). The TL examined research on professional literature to answer the question and determined that in order for students to receive the high-quality education that prepares them to succeed in post-secondary opportunities, staff members must have instructional resources and professional learning opportunities to build their capacities
Like leadership turnover in other professions, turnover rates at more challenging schools are on the higher end of that spectrum (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Boyd, et al. 2008, Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). For instance, large, urban districts have similar turnover rates: Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) is 22%, Milwaukee is 20%, San Francisco 26%, and New York City is 24% (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Boyd, et al. 2008, Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). However, within MDCPS, the turnover rate is higher for the district’s highest-poverty schools (28%), versus lowest-poverty schools (18%) (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011). New York City school findings were similar (Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). Low-performing, low-SES schools that lose an effective principal, often struggle due to having a replacement that is less-experienced and less-effective (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Branch, Hanushek and Rivkin 2012).
The RSPS website reveals an organizational structure that looks to be very bureaucratic with a significant number of administrators and directors of various departments. The employee count for RSPS is also much higher than competing schools such as #1 ranked private school Brophy College Preparatory with 1,275 students and 150 staff (8.5 students per employee) ; #2 ranked private school, Northwest Christian School with 1,410 students and 92 employees on one campus(15 students per employee); and # 4 ranked private school, Xavier College Preparatory with 1,163 students and 155 employees on one campus (7.5 students per employee). Comparatively, RSPS has 1,137 students and 200 employees (5.7 students per employee) (Top 10 Arizona Companies: Private Schools, 2014). This is not a horizontal organization that is becoming more and more common in today’s business world. The teacher subsystem should be changed into an adaptive organization or organic design (Schermerhorn, 2011, p. 355). In the adaptive design, authority would be decentralized, with fewer rules and procedures, wide spans of control, shared tasks, more teams and task forces, and more informal and personal coordination (Schermerhorn, 2011, p. 355). The planned change would result in improved interpersonal connection with students, their parents, and other teachers. Administrators, while serving an important function would not be the focus. In the case of RSPS, one could argue that administrators have
Change is inevitable and for any school district to be success change is necessary. My school district is constantly going through changes; curriculum changes, assessment changes, teacher evaluation changes, and more, each year it’s something different.
76). The administrators at Liberty High School were actively seeking out ways to make PD more beneficial and viable for its teachers and to allow time for collaboration. Administrators must seek ways to develop teachers and influence student achievement as this article reflects Liberty High School was doing. The fact that school went through a two year process to give educators a voice and improve PD for its staff reflects the priority that was placed on collaboration and developing best practices at the school. Giving up a day of PD in order to allow teachers autonomy and collaboration, such as in the FedEx Day and letting go of the scheduled staff meetings, requires an administrator to release the reigns and trust the educators to develop in to teacher leaders. “To be the best leader you can be, don’t hoard power; give it away” (Dufour & Marzano, 2011, p. 207). A vision for a school can be communicated in a large faculty meeting, but ought to be developed in a PLC process, making it a priority to schedule PLC time with faculty in meaningful groupings and ensure that teachers are collaborating instead of working alone (Hammonds, Kunders, & Galow, 2013, p.
The Suburban Public School District (SPS) is a relatively small district. The student population has a total of about 11,000 students divided between six elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. Diversity is not a problem, since the community represents more than twenty-five countries around the world. However, the change readiness of all stakeholders will be tested due to the district administrators’ decision of transforming the foreign language curriculum. From four foreign languages, only English and Spanish will be instructed within a two-years period. This change has created the necessity of re-training or let go educators due to need of a reduction in force (RIF). Nevertheless, the SPS relies on a big and well-structured administrative team who successfully supports every school.
This chapter discusses the topic of politics and reviews the reasons a superintendent must become “political.” According to Johnson (1996), “Politics is central to the work of today’s superintendents, who cannot succeed as educational leaders without also being active political leaders. They must build coalitions, negotiate agreements, and force concessions when necessary all without hitting political land mines that may cost them ground” (p. 153). Proper funding is vital to the existence of any district. Superintendents are often required to rally for funding and support. In districts where the majority of the taxpaying population does not have children and/or grandchildren in the school
One of the most important professions in around the world has some of the most unbelievably wicked problems one could only imagine. Could it possibly be the beloved, hardworking, underpaid professional school teacher sub coming to the wicked problems established and maintained by their under qualified Administration? Upon entering the field of education, for the first time professionally, this year, I often find myself overwhelmed by the number of wicked problems present in my work environment that I now am convinced is a widespread phenomena throughout the district and state, maybe even the country. One prevalent issue that raises concern to many others and myself is the inability for schools, let along districts to retain some of their highly qualified teachers and staff.
The beginning years of my administrative experiences as an educator presented some turbulent, and challenging times. I was extremely young as an administrator, and as I have previously mentioned, had no idea as to the challenges and crisis I would be presented with at the beginning of my career.