Ken Mitchell and AASA's Higher Education Journal

Inside AASA

AASA keeps its hands in the affairs of higher education these days through the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice. The quarterly e-publication seeks to provide peer-reviewed, user-friendly and methodologically sound research that school administrators can apply in their day-to-day work and higher education faculty can use to prepare future school administrators.

Kenneth Mitchell has been editor for the past four years and was co-editor for two years prior. He is an associate professor of educational leadership at Manhattanville College and executive director of the Chief School Administrators, a group of 31 districts in Westchester County, N.Y. Mitchell has worked in education for 42 years, including the superintendency of New York’s South Orange-town Consolidated School District.

Mitchell uses current events and his wide-ranging experiences to help guide the journal’s content. An article in the Spring 2018 issue discussed gun violence research and recalled an incident in 2009 when he was held at gunpoint by a disturbed parent in his school district office.

He answered questions about the journal from freelance writer Joetta Sack-Min. His responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Please tell us a little about why superintendents should read the journal and how they should use the articles to inform their day-to-day work?

When I was a superintendent, I continued to see myself as a teacher. My classroom – and platform – was the school district. I had a responsibility, therefore, to stay informed. This is especially important in the broader environment that is becoming less reliant on the logic of empiricism – knowledge that is based on observation, experimentation and inductive logic – where leaders are willing to rely on instincts for decision-making that sometimes appear to be opinion-based rather than reason-informed.

They need to stay informed. Op-ed pieces or anecdotes about best practice are great for stimulating thinking and ideas about ways to improve student learning, but without an empirical process to test these, we risk wasting time, money and our credibility as a profession.

Our journal provides evidence from the work of scholar-practitioners. We have superintendent authors and researchers, as well as university researchers with the time, resources and, in some cases, professional experiences to test and challenge that which is happening in schools. We select research that we believe directly relates to the work of the superintendent or can expand superintendents’ perspectives about related issues in the field or their districts. As an example of the latter, last spring we had an article entitled, “Building a Networked Improvement Community to Promote Equitable, Coherent Systems of Science Education: How a State Level Team Can Support District Level Change Efforts.” While the majority of our work tries to directly connect to superintendents, this provided them with an example of an initiative that has the potential to enhance the district and perhaps serve as a template for other changes.  

When I was a superintendent, I would send the articles or summaries of them to my school leaders, colleagues, staff and school board. The journal was one of a few resources that I used to help educate my school-community about what works.

How does your experience as a superintendent help inform your work as an editor?

It goes beyond my work as a superintendent. I have always been reflective about my practice, seeking out ways to improve my craft as a teacher and leader. This practice led to my involvement in various professional organizations. For example, during the ‘90s and early 2000s I was a middle school principal and active in the New York State Middle Schools Association where I served as the director of research. I wrote, researched and presented workshops.

In addition, it was my long career as both a teacher and principal before moving into central office and, specifically, the superintendency that has provided me with a broad and varied perspective about issues and challenges across the K-12 universe. I have also worked as both a teacher and school or district leader in places with varied socio-economic and cultural backgrounds: rural; suburban; urban; affluent; and poor. These experiences have helped me understand the various issues facing today’s leaders.

I have had a range of leadership experiences that have included school construction, program redesigns, leadership entry, school board development, redistricting, responding to fiscal crises, dealing with armed intruders (multiple times, including my own hostage situation), and so many of the multiple challenges that superintendents and other school leaders face every day.

Could you tell us about some of the “hot topics” in administrative research now, and what superintendents might find interesting?

Wow! So much is “hot,” so where do I begin? Schools systems are microcosms of their local communities and, to some extent, reflect what is happening on regional, state and national levels. As school leaders, we need to react to the micro- and macro- indicators while staying focused on the missions of our districts, which typically reflect timeless and universal principles, such as respect for others and self, passion for learning, opportunities to enhance creativity and curiosity, the development of critical-thinking skills, and so forth.

As our country’s demographics change, as our technology evolves, as our knowledge of cognitive and educational psychology develops, and as our political leaders bring their ideas to improving society (all of which have and always will spark the “hot” topics) we need to be empirically vigilant as school leaders. Without using science to inform our choices, we feed into the assumption that educational institutions can be run by those with credentials beyond that of the educator. We are seeing that in large school systems, such as Los Angeles, where a business leader has been hired to run the system. Imagine the reaction if we were to propose that Bill Gates run our military or other business leaders run our law enforcement agencies. 

There have been and continue to be debates about equity and access. There are folks clamoring for choice. Legislators make important funding decisions based on rhetoric about the effectiveness of charters and vouchers, in spite of evidence that contradicts their success. Superintendents need to be armed with the evidence, especially when they are facing funding cuts because monies are being diverted from public to private schools. It is my personal belief that public education is one of the few common experiences that we have in our democracy. They serve the common good and should be supported rather than splintered into socio-economic, racial and ideological sub-systems. The current administration in Washington is steering us towards a privatization model that has the potential to expand an already segregated public school system. Superintendents have a responsibility to stay current about what works, and also understand and be able to defend the sources of the evidence. 

What are some of the more memorable topics you’ve covered in the journal in recent years? Has there been any recent research that surprised you?

I cannot say that I have been surprised by any research. That is probably because I have been looking at it for more than 40 years – I have had an interest since I was an English teacher. I remember reading George Hillocks Jr.’s Research on Written Composition and then the late Gerald Bracey’s work on defending public schools from so much misinformation about public school performance. I have stayed current.

I really cannot think of one article that has stood out. Our authors have been passionate about their interests and patient with us during the review process. What I have enjoyed is reading what is happening in Wyoming, Texas, Louisiana, California, Georgia and so many places across the country. Our scholar-practitioners have similar yet different problems in their quest to make their schools the best possible learning environments. I guess it is that universal theme that has not surprised me, but has actually encouraged me.

What’s your advice for AASA members who might want to submit an article or become a member of the editorial board?

First of all, we use a blind review process. After an initial screening by a small editorial team, articles are uploaded to a database where they go through a blind review. Reviewers provide specific critiques and a rationale for why the piece needs to be revised or may not be acceptable. 

The worst part of this work is sending the rejection notice. While there is an automatic and prepared response, I often get feedback from disappointed writers. Yet we have a high standard with about a 20 percent acceptance rate.

That said, I encourage writers and researchers to review the process on our website, be sure to follow the stipulations for submissions and give it a shot! The readers of AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice need to hear from their colleagues who are not only practicing, but are researching what is need to enhance our public schools!

This work is done on a pro bono basis by our editors and reviewers. We have a small team of supporting editors, such as Barbara Dean, who receive meager stipends for the clean-up and preparation.

What subjects do you teach at Manhattanville College?

My primary teaching responsibilities are in the doctoral program. I teach courses in policy and qualitative methodology; in addition, I have taught the following leadership courses: The Superintendent; Data-informed Strategic Planning; and School Finance. I am currently chairing 15 doctoral dissertation committees and serving on another nine as a reader. A major focus of my work is helping students develop a research design and then supervising their work before their final defense. Their research is varied as are their roles. We have superintendents, other central office leaders, many principals and assistant principals and some classroom teachers.