In Defense of Collaboration
Collaboration has been getting a bad rap lately, and that's unfortunate. First, there are the pundits who say that it figured too prominently in the selection of Race to the Top winners. Then there was this from Jeanne Allen:
Trained educators believe that collaboration leads to results. But that is not always the case in public education. Excessive collaboration often leads to--frankly--nothing.
Allen's larger point is that outsiders--business leaders and the like--make better school system leaders than career educators do. She notes that "some have never taught. Again, that's fine--and, in fact, often preferable." Best to keep our leaders free of that school taint, she suggests.
Though she doesn't name names, Allen knows who we're all thinking about: Michelle Rhee in DC and Joel Klein in New York City. Like so many other advocates and pundits, she seems to rest her whole case on events in those two cities. Whether you love Rhee/Klein or hate them, you have to admit that there are a whole lot of other reforms going on out there that don't require the outsider's iron fist. And career educators are leading many of them, maybe even most of them.
Let's have a look, for example, at districts that have won the Broad Prize for Urban School Leadership. Six of the eight are led by people who began their careers as teachers and made their way up the administrative ladder. Other successful urban superintendents, like Beverly Hall of Atlanta, followed a similar course. Collaboration didn't hamstring these leaders. In most cases, it enriched their reforms and gave them staying power.
And I'm not sure the commando style of leadership Allen favors is really all that effective in the end. Even supporters of Rhee's reforms worry that her take-no-prisoners style might get her bounced out of the district and put an end to those reforms. Alan Bersin, the outsider who became head of the San Diego City Schools in 1998 left amidst drama and acrimony in 2005. In her most recent book, Diane Ravitch argues that Bersin's dictatorial style did serious damage to the district.
The big theme that emerges from so many news stories on school reform is war. If a leader doesn't leave blood on the floor, the common thinking seems to go, then he isn't doing his job. DC and New York City are becoming the models for all districts. Rhee and Klein, the models for all system leaders. Allen's comments feed this unfortunate trend. There are just so many other models out there.
In the end, long-term improvement might be worst casualty of the war.
(Hat tip to Nancy Flanagan for citing the Allen piece.)
SIGN UP
Visionaries
Click here to browse dozens of Public School Insights interviews with extraordinary education advocates, including:
- 2013 Digital Principal Ryan Imbriale
- Best Selling Author Dan Ariely
- Family Engagement Expert Dr. Maria C. Paredes
The views expressed in this website's interviews do not necessarily represent those of the Learning First Alliance or its members.
New Stories
Featured Story
Excellence is the Standard
At Pierce County High School in rural southeast Georgia, the graduation rate has gone up 31% in seven years. Teachers describe their collaboration as the unifying factor that drives the school’s improvement. Learn more...
School/District Characteristics
Hot Topics
Blog Roll
Members' Blogs
- Transforming Learning
- The EDifier
- School Board News Today
- Legal Clips
- Learning Forward’s PD Watch
- NAESP's Principals' Office
- NASSP's Principal's Policy Blog
- The Principal Difference
- ASCA Scene
- PDK Blog
- Always Something
- NSPRA: Social School Public Relations
- AACTE's President's Perspective
- AASA's The Leading Edge
- AASA Connects (formerly AASA's School Street)
- NEA Today
- Angles on Education
- Lily's Blackboard
- PTA's One Voice
- ISTE Connects
What Else We're Reading
- Advancing the Teaching Profession
- Edwize
- The Answer Sheet
- Edutopia's Blogs
- Politics K-12
- U.S. Department of Education Blog
- John Wilson Unleashed
- The Core Knowledge Blog
- This Week in Education
- Inside School Research
- Teacher Leadership Today
- On the Shoulders of Giants
- Teacher in a Strange Land
- Teach Moore
- The Tempered Radical
- The Educated Reporter
- Taking Note
- Character Education Partnership Blog
- Why I Teach
Agreed. Schools are not
Agreed.
Schools are not businesses. Students are not customers, nor are they products. I would say they are something in between, but that's not exactly true either.
The newest catch phrase in education news seems to be "the teacher is the most important factor in the classroom." This comes with an obvious-seeming solution: Let's get rid of bad teachers.
Career educators understand it's not that simple.
I interviewed teachers around the country for my book, "See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers." An overwhelming majority said their favorite thing about teaching was the relationships they were able to build with students, plus the little moments that showed those relationships were leading to student progress. As a teacher, that rings true for me as well.
That is also why I believe former teachers make better school and district leaders than business people do. Business people, in their constant quest for a calculator-ready "bottom line," often take steps that undermine the relationships between teachers and students.
A few examples include reshuffling class lists during test "crunch time," and telling teachers to focus only on "bubble children" who are only a few points from passing... but there are many, many more. Ask any teacher.
Allen says "excessive
Allen says "excessive collaboration" is bad. That seems reasonable to me. You shouldn't give in to everyone's demands and wishes.
Roxanna--Thanks for your
Roxanna--Thanks for your message. I sometimes think business people get a bad rap. In past years, I've worked with business people who have a passionate and sincere commitment to school improvement. And many have been quite suspicious of what cheap multiple-choice tests can really tell us about students' learning. Some business leaders have in fact been in the vanguard of people calling for much better assessments. After all, they have a pretty strong sense of what it really takes to succeed in the work world. Many of our current tests can at best set a floor for skills, and they know it.
What's happening in education policy, it seems to me, is that a caricature of business methods is being applied to education. For example, Allen's celebration of "outcomes" and her disdain for "process" (which is the province of "educators and administrators") seems odd, given that successful business leaders are passionate about improving process and capacity. They also have to be passionate about the quality of their success measures.
Anonymous--You're right that Allen is critical of "excessive collaboration." Well, we don't want to do anything to excess, do we? "Excessive domination" sounds even more unsavory to me. The problem, I think, is that Allen's piece tips the balance too far away from collaboration, which is becoming code for "capitulation." There are a lot of models out there demonstrating the value of collaboration, but the media don't give them enough attention in my view.
Post new comment