|
Education Leadership of Local Elected Officials
Background
If you were to ask an audience what group of elected officials affects schools the most, the typical answer would be school board members. In reality, a wider range of elected officials has become more and more active in public schools. Takeovers of schools by mayors in urban areas are a high-profile example of increased leadership of elected officials. Yet other officials at the local and state levels also are actively involving themselves in education and becoming partners with school and district leaders. In fact, because of the public release of data about schools and districts, there is greater public awareness of how well students in a given school are performing. Research results show that effective partnerships between local elected officials and school leaders can create better schools, cities, and communities. These efforts can take many forms.
We have narrowed the topics we introduce in this document to those that are addressed in PEN's Civic Index Poll. This poll is based on a series of public forums and surveys carried out across the nation over a five year period. As a result of this effort, we have identified indicators or common qualities that encourage meaningful involvement in public education. As you read through the information in this series of support tools, carefully consider your community's situation.
How can you use the information and suggestions included in this material to help you build stronger civic involvement in education in your community?
PEN's Civic Index Indicators for Education Leadership of Local Elected Officials are that:
Elected officials take on difficult issues, regardless of political consequence Elected officials demonstrate a continued commitment to education and make education a top priority Elected officials advocate for adequate funding Elected officials effectively communicate with constituents on education issues Elected officials promote a clear agenda that advances student achievement
Using this Resource
As you explore the ideas presented in this material, you will find ways to strengthen the education leadership ability of local elected officials as well as support partnerships between local governments and public schools. You will have an opportunity to:
Explore the roles that local elected officials play right now in education leadership Explore the factors in your local situation and issues that affect the ways that elected officials can help improve local schools Plan ways to use this information to support more effective participation of local elected officials in education issues
Remember that by making use of this material, you have taken a first step in your new role as advocate in supporting new Educational Leadership opportunities for Local Elected Officials in your school community. However, the most important thing in exploring new materials is in deciding how to use the materials. You can choose to study them as an individual or you can look them over with others who also are interested in this topic.
Click here to download the Education Leadership of Local Elected Officials worksheet to help you work through the new things you have learned. You can use this as a tool to take down your own thoughts or as a worksheet for group discussion.
Exploring and Organizing the Indicators
Though each indicator is a separate statement, each connects with all the others. Schools and communities can develop and support leadership roles for local elected officials in different ways. Though performance on standardized tests or overall school performance often bring about the involvement of local elected officials, advocacy groups and other interested organizations or individuals can also create pressure for their involvement.
No matter the source that creates the need for involvement, those who encourage involvement need to provide tools and information that help local elected officials:
understand why education should be a priority support effective educational methods make decisions that are based on research and proven successful methods, and create policy that supports the educational success of every child.
In order to make our exploration of the Educational Leadership of Locally Elected Officials simpler, we've combined them into three large topics.
Making education a community priority
Professional home organizers will tell you that any item temporarily stored out of sight is likely to still be there years later. When elected officials sideline an issue for later attention, this same thing can happen. Education needs to be a "squeaky wheel" for all public officials. If education is a top priority and if elected officials actively seek information and act on that information quickly, they become full partners in public education. Therefore, the community needs to make education a part of every election and every public agenda. Activities that increase the involvement of elected officials in supporting and providing resources for education will increase your Civic Index score.
To make sure that local elected officials make education a community priority, efforts should include strategies to:
establish regular and scheduled opportunities for elected officials to involve voters and public educators in discussion on key educational issues take time to network with other elected officials who also play an important role in education at the local, regional, state, and national levels make public forums on education for candidates a common practice and then hold them responsible for what they have said, and make education an issue in every election, for every official.
When local officials understand what the community expects for education and their role in supporting what the community expects, they will become partners and leaders in education.
Increasing the flow of information about educational issues to and from local elected officials
We elect officials to perform many kinds of tasks. All of these share one common goal - to meet community needs. For our communities to grow and remain strong, we need educated citizens. Therefore, creating opportunities that occur regularly throughout the year to make sure that all local officials stay informed on issues related to public education is important. Not only will officials learn more about key educational issues, they will learn how the public feels about these issues. This knowledge will help them make decisions that connect with the needs of our schools and our children. Routinely providing information and deepening the understanding of local elected officials on educational issues can increase your Civic Index score.
To keep local elected officials informed, efforts should include strategies to:
Provide opportunities for the public to express their thoughts about the role of local elected officials in improving education Create activities and forums that help local elected leaders better understand the needs of children, local schools, and districts Help local elected officials understand what they can do as leaders and how they can become education leaders.
When local officials take part in information-sharing activities, they develop new understandings and experiences that help them support local schools.
Support partnerships between local elected officials and school district leaders.
When local elected officials and school district leaders work together, the result will be extra funds and support for the education of every child in a community. Many times these efforts are created through official partnerships, but unofficial partnerships also can produce benefits. When all community leaders, school and non-school, create meaningful partnerships to support education, communities can raise their Civic Index score.
To help build partnerships between local elected officials and school or district leaders, efforts should include strategies to:
create opportunities for local elected officials and school officials to meet and discuss the things they share in their work that can support public school, help local elected leaders and school leaders understand how school and local services can support each other support partnerships between local elected officials and schools
When community organizations reach out to schools, districts, parents, and other organizational support groups to form cooperating groups and partnerships to address the needs of the children in the community, they also build relationships that lead to greater support for education.
Overview of Research and Best Methods of this Field
In the early 20th century, local citizens provided the funds to build schools and hire staff. The goal for these schools was simple - education of children. These efforts are the foundation for the local control of schools we have today. Yet over time, local elected officials have given the running of public schools to local school boards, superintendents, and district and school staff.
This has led to isolated school systems that encourage a strong separation between public education and control by city and town governments. Because of this long-standing pattern, most school districts now operate with little or no control from local elected officials and without connections to other local agencies serving youth and children (Kirst & Edelstein, 2006). Recent changes in school law and the release of performance data to the public now offers local elected officials an opportunity to once again take on a leadership role in supporting education in their communities.
Educating a child in the 21st century is more complicated than it was in the early 20th century. Children need exposure to a greater body of knowledge and experiences. With the rapid growth of technology, the skills and knowledge students need also are continually changing. For schools to succeed, they need to draw on a wide range of resources. Elected officials typically control many of those resources. When schools and elected officials work together, research shows the positive effect of elected officials becoming a part of the educational leadership team.
In this category more than any of the others, the local situation is an important part of how local officials are involved in education. In smaller communities, the structures are often looser, more open, and unofficial, while in large urban areas, involvement tends to be more structured and official. Though smaller communities also will benefit from the involvement of local elected officials, current research and examples of successful methods describe large urban settings. For example, there are a number of studies about the role of the mayors and governors in large urban areas (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006; Kirst & Edelstein, 2006; Wong, 2006; Usdan, 2006). High stakes public responsibility for certain groups and public report cards are a contributing factor to the involvement of mayors in large communities.
A small body of information is becoming known about the challenges and benefits of mayoral involvement in public school politics and how schools are run. Mayors in many large cities (e.g., New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, Harrisburg, PA, and Philadelphia) have gained control over the school districts in their city. In these places, mayoral control is different from city to city.
Full Mayoral Control: In Chicago, the mayor was given nearly full control of the city's school district, and the education system became a department of the city government. Shared Mayoral and Gubernatorial: In Detroit, the mayor and the governor share partial control of the district and appoint its school board members, but the mayor has no direct control of the schools. In Baltimore, the mayor and governor work with the state board of education to appoint a board of commissioners. Political Pressure: In cities such as Akron, OH and West Sacramento, CA, mayors have no formal control of schools but have used political pressure to change school policy (Kirst & Edelstein, 2006).
Data from some of the cities that have effectively put some level of mayoral control into action give important information about what benefits and challenges local elected officials bring to education leadership. Mayors can contribute in a number of ways to school improvement efforts. The strength of the mayor's political position in the community can activate a large number of voters in terms of turnout and partnerships with local organizations, businesses, and institutions. Mayors also can offer a new structure and culture as to how schools are run to increase public responsibility, managerial ability, and efficiency. The political experience of the mayor's office also can help with intergovernmental relations, lobbying efforts, and finding new funding sources (Wong, 2006).
While some research has found evidence of the benefits of mayoral participation in at least a few cities, other research suggests that mayoral involvement in some instances cannot be connected to academic achievement. In these communities, deeply rooted issues of racial inequality and poverty, as well as low levels of school funding, create layers of problems that make it much more difficult to decipher whether a single factor influences school improvement. When researchers try to sort through information about existing school support structures, available resources, and other factors, they have difficulty identifying a single approach that will produce results. However, there are questions that can help elected officials and school staff decide what factors to look into and how to begin an effective partnership.
Before taking any action:
Does the mayor or local official have the ability and power for leadership in education? Is the approach or belief of the official based on making public education a political issue rather than creating meaningful education reform? (Usdan, 2006)
To look at the possible effect that these efforts can have:
Do state laws or city charters allow citizen authority over schools? Will the elected official be in office long enough to see education reforms through? Is the way the city is run and funded in good enough shape so that the city can take on additional programs? Are the boundaries of the school district the same as city boundaries? Has the local elected official had previous successful partnerships with schools and school leaders? (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006)
Answers to these types of questions can help one look at the extent and character of education leadership that local elected officials can take on.
Key Issues
The information in this section is designed to provide an understanding of key issues related to efforts to encourage Educational Leadership of Local Elected Officials in public education. As we said in the first section, we have limited the key issues to those related to the indicators.
The participation of local elected officials in education leadership holds possible benefits for improving schools. However, as elected officials consider their efforts to take a leadership role in education, they need to step back and consider the activities and influence made possible by their elected position. They need to look at needs and unique characteristics of their community educationally, socially, and economically. As well, they need to consider the possible support for education in their community - created political support, and business networks at the local, regional, state and national levels.
Key Issue 1: Diverse Local Environments, What Factors in the Local Situation Have an Effect on Meaningful Involvement?
The strengths of our nation come from the wide variety of knowledge and experiences of our population. As you travel across the United States, you will find not one approach to Educational Leadership of Elected Officials, but many, many approaches and strategies. The ways in which local elected officials can contribute to education will be different depending on local government and community culture.
For example, mayoral control of school districts has happened only in large cities where managerial and financial ability is high. These abilities make it possible for mayors to step in when there is a pressing need like dysfunctional systems or continuous low performance of students over a long period of time. However, in small or rural areas, local elected officials typically already play important roles in public schools. The remote nature and relatively small number of services to families and children in these areas naturally builds partnerships across organizations and agencies. There are numerous local issues such as political divisions, policy or control regulations, physical distances between agencies, economic factors, cultural and language differences among families and children, resources available to schools or districts as well as the local governmental agencies that must be considered when deciding how an elected official becomes involved in education.
There is no one model for local elected officials to take on if they are to become Educational Leaders. Each elected official must take stock of the community situation and decide how to proceed. However, when local elected officials think ahead and build on the many different qualities of their communities, they will find the right leadership roles in supporting education.
Key Issue 2: Creating a Meaningful Role, What Defines the Educational Leadership Role?
Participation of local elected officials in addition to school board members in education can benefit the city and community as a whole. However, each elected position has a certain set of tasks or goals to accomplish. Often their role as an educational leader is either not a priority, or it is not clearly defined. However, research has shown that effective involvement of elected officials is clearly linked to well-defined and tightly focused leadership activities, such as providing resources, bringing resources together, establishing priorities, communicating expectations, building partnerships, and other well thought-out available actions. The key to building a clearly developed role as an educational leader is to tie into educational issues that affect the entire community - improved economic development, attracting new residents and businesses, reducing the effects of poverty, reducing crime and increasing public confidence in local leaders.
Indeed, because local elected officials often control a range of resources and services that school populations and their families need, leadership of elected officials can lead to the creation of community schools and other efforts to provide comprehensive services.
When local elected officials are able to bring together the tasks and goals of their elected positions with the educational needs of the community, they will begin to define their role as educational leaders.
Key Issue 3: State and National Elected Officials and Education Leadership, Where Does the Local Leader Fit In?
While individual districts and schools do maintain a large amount of control and authority over their systems, there are clearly educational effects that come from regional, state, and national influences. In the distant past, educators would have said that other than special education and additional funding, there was limited national influence on the day-to-day operations of schools. More recently, state departments of education have begun to influence daily school operations. Today, few schools would say officials at the national level do not affect their daily operations. While many might see these state and national efforts as interference, these efforts can offer help to local elected officials by:
Providing universal guidance in addressing the needs of every child. Providing a motivation for educators, parents, community members, and all elected officials to become partners in supporting education and giving the resources needed to support effective educational practice.
Educational goals and needs that are shared by all these groups can become the glue that holds together efforts to advocate for the needs of children.
To create a meaningful educational role, elected officials need to decide how their possible contributions as an educational leader fit into state and national education plans.
Once you've completed the Civic Index Poll in your community find out how you can improve your score in this category by visiting the Tips and Strategies section.
|
