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Taking charge Quiet start, big finish mark Duncan's first year page 3 of 3 |
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TAKING CHARGE Quiet start, big finish mark Duncan's first year Smoke on the horizon Politics strain board, union
relations CTU in Springfield
Scott's community, political ties round out mayor's school team |
Chief of Staff Peggy Davis concedes that “bureaucracies don’t change overnight.” Efforts to change the organizational culture, getting people to collaborate across departments, for instance, have proved a mixed bag, she says. “Arne has been saying since he came in that we need to work as a team, and it’ll take a while for that to sink in and change.” Those seeds are beginning to bear fruit, says John Easton, who oversees research and program evaluation. “There’s more alignment of what to look at across the organization,” he notes. For instance, the criteria used to determine which schools to close for poor performance are also being used to evaluate schools for three other new initiatives: revamped school report cards, incentives for high-performing schools and a retooled principal evaluation process. Within the inner circle, “the flow of communication is quite steady,” says Albert Bertani, who left the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association last fall to head up the Office of Professional Development. “It’s not uncommon for my assistant to come in and say, ‘Arne’s on the line—he wants to talk to you for a quick two minutes,’” he says. ‘Find their own way’ In recent months, Eason-Watkins has been leading a charge to tackle bureaucratic gridlock head-on. By summer, she plans to begin reshaping the configuration of regional offices to enhance their ability to provide instructional support to schools. Her plan could break the district’s current six regions into as many as 24 smaller units. Her guiding mission is to ensure that principals have access to an administrator who would be readily available and more focused on instructional support. Now, region officers are administrative jacks-of-all-trades who, among other things, oversee food service and transportation, reconcile LSC disputes and handle school crises, Eason-Watkins explains. Some of those functions might be centralized, she notes. “We’re approaching it thoughtfully and collectively, and [we’re] engaging a lot of people in conversation,” she says. In April, Eason-Watkins led a group of 20 administrators from various departments on a retreat to discuss the plan. “The last thing any of us would want to create would be … a situation where someone would have to go through more of a bureaucracy to get the information that they needed.” The plan gets a thumbs-up from Margaret Harrigan, a retired school board administrator who made her name as a subdistrict superintendent in the late 1970s. “It’s wonderful that it’s being considered,” she says. Regional administrators have too many schools to work with effectively, she says. “I couldn’t have done anything if you gave me 100 [schools]. … The only downside is if they don’t get real leaders in those positions.” Meanwhile, some voices at City Hall are counseling even more caution. “We all have to be convinced that it’s gonna improve the situation as opposed to just reshuffle the deck,” says Ald. O’Connor. “When you do these massive overhauls, there’s a certain amount of time that you lose, because everybody gets re-situated, and the new system takes a little time to shake out.”
There’s no clear-cut model for re-organizing a big bureaucracy to support instruction, says Michael Kirst, a Stanford University professor who studies the management of large school districts. The strategies districts often try—decentralization to the subdistrict level or to individual schools—generally don’t work. “The bottom line is, there’s no clear way to do this, or more people would be doing it,” says Kirst. “They’re gonna have to find their own way.” Power centers Tony Bryk, director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, says the idea of “re-inventing line authority” is appealing but presents institutional challenges. “Historically, central offices have operated on seniority and loyalty and patronage,” he says. “Now, you’re talking about a system that’s expertise-based. To move in this direction would entail a major cultural shift. Many of these people who are there because of personal and political connections may not be that easy to move.” Keeping political peace was one of Vallas’ strengths, notes LQE’s Ayers. “Vallas set up a lot of things that kept the power centers in place,” he says, pointing to the jobs, contracts and favors Vallas doled out to keep peace with the teachers union, central office staffers and community constituents. “It was usually all above board,” he says. “Not always pretty, but what the hell, it’s Chicago.” This is one arena where Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott comes in. He keeps the field clear for Duncan and his team to focus on education, Ayers concludes. “He’s a great choice for...managing community expectations and doling out goodies and solving problems. That’s the game, and he’s very, very good at it.” CATALYST staff contributed to this report. |
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