The School Administrator

February 2009 Number 2 Vol. 66Rethinking IntelligenceSternberg and Gardner on cultivating enterprising minds

Features

Wisdom, Intelligence & Creativity Synthesized
by Robert J. Sternberg
How is it that smart administrators who want to do a good job often find themselves in situations that degenerate into confrontation and, ultimately, termination? The author, a leading cognitive psychologist now at Tufts University, discusses why in terms of a model of leadership that combines wisdom, intelligence and creativity.
Similar Reading: Teaching for Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity and Assessing for Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity
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The Five Minds for the Future
by Howard Gardner
The Harvard psychologist best known for his theory of multiple intelligences looks to cultivate and integrate new ways of thinking to empower the education enterprise.
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Applying Multiple Intelligences
by Joanna A. Christodoulou
The silver anniversary of Howard Gardner’s learning theory provides an opportunity to reflect on the ways multiple intelligences theory has taken form and consider what might be its future course. What has emerged in schools from the notion of parsing the mind into types of intelligences?
Similar Reading: Multiple Intelligences Defined and A school built on the multiple intelligences and Additional Resources
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Learning Profiles & Achievement
by Carol Ann Tomlinson
The premise behind intelligence preferences and learning styles is that students learn in different ways and that teaching and learning would be more effective if students could explore content in ways that work best for them. So, asks one of the acknowledged authorities on the subject, do learning preferences have a place in promoting success in the classroom?
Similar Reading: A Vermont School’s Rebirth via Four-Quadrant Intelligence and Two schools apply learning profiles and Additional Resources
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Profile

Committed to Individual Worth by Jay P. Goldman

Len Rezmierski, superintendent in Northville, Mich., is at an age when most colleagues have called it a career, but he insists he still has more to learn in his drive to prize the individual’s merits.

Departments

Punchback: Answering Critics

The Myopia of Testing Basic Skills Alone by Richard Rothstein

The Economic Policy Institute fellow recalls when the National Assessment of Educational Progress once measured performance in the broad range of knowledge and skills we want students to master today.

Board-Savvy Superintendent

Top 10 ‘Guarantees’ for a Great Relationship by Donald R. McAdams

Our school governance columnist starts at the bottom and works his way up the line to identify 10 things superintendents can do to almost guarantee wonderful working relationships with their boards of education.

Guest Columns

Whatever Happened to My Job Description? by John A. Whritner

After 26 years as a superintendent, the author figured he knew the business pretty well. But now in early retirement, he wonders whether someone rewrote the job description when he wasn’t looking.

Superintendent Gets Taken for a Ride by Marilou Ryder

To get the “real straight facts” about apparent troubles with student transportation, the superintendent accepted a novel challenge — ride one of the buses for a 60-minute, 45-mile trip from a high school campus at the end of the school day.

Hailing Mr. Wizard: My Connection With Students Through Science by Nic Clement

Fearing his leap to the superintendency after 26 years as a teacher and building administrator would lead to the severe “disconnect syndrome,” the author created a weekly science challenge that he administers every Monday to his school district’s 5th and 6th graders.

A Superintendent’s Vote for MVP: The Secretary by Sandra Tonnsen and Kay Barr

Each spring superintendents make florists extremely happy as they order flowers for their secretaries. Or they should.

President’s Corner

Dear Mr. President … by Randall H. Collins

Seldom does a chance come along when, for a brief and shining moment, anything seems possible. We are in that place now as a nation.

Executive Perspective

An Alliance Model for Boosting Our Youth by Daniel A. Domenech

When America’s Promise, chaired by Colin Powell, cited the 100 communities that best supported young people, the group recognized a collaborative model that works for local school systems. For too long, educators have felt alone in solving problems confronting our youth.

Systems Thinking

A Balanced Scorecard To Plot Our Progress by Roy D. Nichols Jr.

To keep its momentum going in an environment of decreasing revenue and increasing expectations from stakeholders, the Mobile County, Ala., school system borrowed an idea from the corporate world that links current actions of an organization to long-term goals.

People

People

Recent appointments and retirements in the superintendency and three death notices. The Sidelight features Melindo (Mel) Persi and his lifelong pursuit of stock car racing.

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