Shared Challenges, Shared Answers

The AASA Collaborative provides superintendents with a unique feedback network

When Matthew Montgomery, superintendent of the Revere Schools in Bath, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, wanted to explore ways to change the physical learning space in his district to better meet the needs of his students, he knew where to go for practical ideas.

As a member of the AASA Collaborative, an initiative launched in 2014 by the association to help connect superintendents who have shared interests and similar challenges, Montgomery thrashed out ideas with his peers to learn from their experiences.

However valuable those encounters were, Montgomery had still another resource. Through the Collaborative, which offers access to national and international education experts, Montgomery benefited from sharing his needs with Heidi Hayes Jacobs, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College with extensive expertise in curriculum mapping. Jacobs connected him to an architect with loads of experience in K-12 learning and offered to work with him remotely on curriculum mapping.

“I’m developing relationships with folks and making contacts so I’m better equipped to do my job,” says Montgomery, a superintendent since 2013 who moved to Revere last July. “That’s what makes the Collaborative so special.”

Uncommon Approach

Forget the familiar notions of professional development, such as the one-time workshop model. Superintendents often require something more targeted to a systems-level perspective.

“There’s a common interest in really transforming schools and taking whatever they learn into action, from learning with one another as they establish new practices,” says Bena Kallick, an educational consultant for AASA who’s working with the Collaborative as a facilitator.

The issues that land on superintendents’ desks are diverse and complex: integrating the Common Core standards, expanding a school district’s digital capabilities, managing teacher assessments, coping with financial constraints and the smart way to develop a school for the 21st-century student.

Westchester Roots

Leslie Boozer, a second-year superintendent in Fontana, Calif., captures the shared desire of school system leaders eager to address complex questions about K-12 education when she asks “How do you take learning outside the traditional school day and classroom?”

The AASA Collaborative is a response to that need.

The roots of this distinctive model were cultivated by the Tri-State Consortium, a group of 45 high-achieving districts in the New York metropolitan area that came together in the past two decades to explore ways to transform schools. The Collaborative functions as a national network of superintendent peers eager to explore issues in a safe, thoughtful space.

As Stacy Scott, superintendent of the Framingham, Mass., Public Schools, says, the group “has a view of things that are happening and what needs to happen, that goes against the grain. It’s a re-visioning of what we do, to help us think about dramatic change. It’s more of a learning group, how we look at what we do, and the platforms and mechanisms to refigure our industry.”

Virtual Consultations

The AASA Collaborative is designed to help participating superintendents step back from the pressures of high-stakes testing and assessment concerns to explore larger issues around school transformation and improvement, says Morton Sherman, AASA’s associate executive director for leadership services and awards.

Unlike certification programs or even professional development experiences, Sherman says, “the Collaborative is member-driven. It’s a formal model where people work together.”

There are different methods to achieve those goals. Through the consultancy, individual superintendents can ask fellow members to offer a virtual consultation on the Eduplanet21.com platform about a problem of practice. Superintendents also can request a consultancy when the group is at an on-site gathering. In a facilitated study group, superintendents can explore a topic jointly, such as dealing with the pressures of student assessments.

As Boozer says, “Bringing in superintendents and experts from across the country on problems impacting us all” in a relatively intimate group “gives us a safe space to examine issues. Our jobs are very dynamic, with lots of politics, change and management pieces. It’s great to have a place to be vulnerable and explore these challenges.”

A signature element of the Collaborative, which convenes cohorts of about 15 superintendents, is its “critical friends” approach for professional feedback. “The idea of critical friends is ‘I’m invested in your success,’” says Sherman.

“These wonderful critical friends actually fine tune my future thinking with the result that I’ve been able to have more informed conversations about assessments with my community,” says Jill Gildea, a superintendent in her fifth year in the district in Mundelein, Ill. “It really brings the outside world in and helps innovate from the inside out.”

Accessible Expertise

The Collaborative invites national and international education thought leaders to present cutting-edge ideas and to be available for ongoing consultation. These have included Linda Darling-Hammond, Yong Zhao, Jack Naglieri and Ron Ferguson. Jacobs spoke with the group at last year’s AASA national conference about her work in reimagining schools and how to accomplish that goal.

“The real hook is the pairing of AASA expertise and superintendent members with access to thought leaders,” says Jere Hochman, who left the superintendency in Bedford, N.Y., last fall to become deputy education secretary in New York. “We have dialogue with national and international thought leaders.” He availed himself of the personal access to Jacobs to expand his knowledge of 21st-century literacy and curriculum approaches.

From her work with superintendents over the past two years, Kallick identifies three major benefits for Collaborative participants:

• removing the sense of isolation many superintendents feel;
• deepening the pedagogical and practical conversations with other superintendents; and
• stimulating intellectually rigorous experiences that have practical application.

The high quality of the Collaborative’s thought partners is a major attraction, says Scott, the superintendent in Framingham, especially when the consultants “challeng(e) us to start something outside the norm. It’s nice to have the horizon out there.”

Common Ground

The Collaborative’s scale helps accelerate transformation. Says Gildea: “The Collaborative is what you would do to push yourself. You have to keep learning.”

Adds Montgomery: It’s about “questions, not answers, that help to move toward resolution. Even though we are a diverse group, there are common themes that can be taken back to the district. I’m serving 2,700 students, another has 40,000, but we’re still serving students.”

Finding that common ground is a key aspect of the Collaborative experience. Some participants addressed the need to be more “creatively disruptive,” pushing a field designed for an agrarian society to something that serves a global economy

Consider something as basic yet complex as implementing the Common Core standards. Because states are not marching in lock step, superintendents can learn from their peers’ experiences.

“It’s useful to hear how other states have been approaching the work,” says Fontana’s Boozer. The conversation is incredibly useful about where they’re working and where they’re not working. We’re all preparing kids for college and career. The ultimate end goal is the same. What are the strategies to achieve our end goals, and be able to learn from other districts?”

Continuing Conversations

Still, the Collaborative should not be viewed as simply another professional development opportunity for superintendents. It’s “not about individual development,” Boozer says, “but about being a transformational leader moving a district forward."

Adds Deerfield, Ill.’s superintendent, Michael Lubelfeld, an educator of 23 years: “It’s about keeping the focus on continuous improvement.”

His district is in the second year of a one-to-one technology initiative, so Lubelfeld has been seeking the most effective digital resources to support that new curriculum. The Collaborative has helped him, he says, “clarify and crystallize the teaching and learning plan in a coherent fashion.”

Between face-to-face gatherings a couple of times a year, the school district leaders check in with one another through the Eduplanet21 platform, participate in targeted webinars and continue a conversation about challenges.

“People need to have some opportunity to meet and to know each other,” says Kallick. “You can’t have a group unless they come together and to recognize how important participation is to the experience. This is meant to be ongoing.”

Participants acknowledge that colleagues may not have the time or interest in something like the Collaborative.

“As an individual, you must prioritize this,” says Gildea. “If you choose to be involved, it’s a great place to be involved.”