Education Week - March 18, 2015 - S15

EDUCATION WEEK MARCH 18, 2015
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The Chief Academic Officer > www.edweek.org/go/CAO
| S15
Duval County, Fla., schools
Superintendent Nikolai P.
Vitti, front, visits R.V.
Daniels Elementary with
Chief of Schools Addison
Davis, who oversees
academics for the
125,000-student district.
PHOTO BY
MELISSA LYTTLE
FOR EDUCATION WEEK
Superintendents Want
CAOs They Can Trust
A chief academic officer can have unusual power in a district
BY COREY
MITCHELL
A
ndrés A. Alonso has a
three-dimensional view of
the relationship between
superintendents and chief
academic officers, built
largely around his experiences
as the top academic
administrator for the
New York City schools,
the ceo of the Baltimore
schools, and in his current role as a professor
in the Harvard Graduate School of
Education.
There isn't a handbook on what makes
the two leadership positions click, because
"it takes all kinds of combinations and approaches,"
Mr. Alonso said.
But one constant is vital: trust.
The cao is not only a chief central-office
deputy but also interpreter and oracle,
someone the superintendent relies on
heavily to shape and communicate a vision
for improving teaching and learning. That
can give the cao position unusual power in
a school district, experts say.
"Smart superintendents spend time
hiring a person they can trust," Mr.
Alonso said. "That [cao] is their line to
the principals and their line to teachers
and classrooms."
Great responsibility comes with that
power. While caos need independence to
expand that vision and execute the schools
chiefs' plans, their philosophies must remain
aligned with the superintendent's.
Otherwise, they will begin sending mixed
signals to the school community. And not
being on the same page could be a big
problem as schools work to implement
the Common Core State Standards, manage
federal testing mandates, and search
for better ways to evaluate principals and
teachers.
Polk County, Fla., schools Superintendent
Kathryn M. LeRoy and Duval County,
Fla., schools Superintendent Nikolai P.
Vitti are both former chief academic officers.
The two agree that while caos need to
be empowered, they also must ensure that
the superintendent has the final word.
"They shouldn't be sending mixed messages,"
said Jody Spiro, the director of education
leadership for the New York Citybased
Wallace Foundation. "They must
share values for teaching and learning and
have a shared vision of how to go about
making it happen." (The Wallace Foundation
supports coverage of leadership, arts
education, and extended and expanded
learning time in Education Week.)
FAILED PARTNERSHIP
When a superintendent and chief academic
officer don't see eye to eye, chaos can
ensue, Mr. Alonso said.
"You lose coherence in the work, and
instead of intelligent nuance and understanding
of complex options, you get micropolitics,"
he pointed out. "It sabotages
the vision of the superintendent and the
board."
In one public spat from 2003, former San
Diego schools Superintendent Alan D. Bersin
scaled back the role of his chancellor of
instruction, Anthony J. Alvarado, and eventually
engineered a buyout for him amid
mounting public criticism of their reform
plan, Blueprint for Student Success.
Education researchers and foundations
had praised the blueprint, but Mr. Bersin
felt the wrath of teachers, administrators,
and school board members in the
132,000-student district, who argued that
Mr. Alvarado was much too inflexible in
implementing the plan, with its intensive
professional-development requirements,
double- and triple-length reading classes,
and extended learning time for struggling
schools. Opponents eventually forced the
district to roll back the improvement plan,
and it rolled out a new plan that was very
different from its predecessor.
In the years since the San Diego leadership
conflict, more districts have created
cao positions, but the job expectations have
varied from system to system. Some caos
operate independently with free rein to
take the lead on teaching and learning policies.
Others take a backseat to the superintendent,
operating more like compliance
officers rather than trendsetters. However,
in recent years, the trend is heading more
toward caos as trendsetters rather than
compliance officers.
Regardless of the model, disagreements
between the superintendent and the cao
can lead to "misery every other day," said
Ivonne G. Durant, the chief of academics
and school leadership for the 61,000-student
El Paso, Texas, schools and a former
cao for the 157,000-student Dallas schools.
Ultimately, it is a strong ceo/cao partnership
that leads to good decisionmaking,
superintendents say.
"Ideally, the superintendent clearly understands
the work of the cao," said Mr.
Vitti of the 125,000-student Duval County
schools. "That eliminates many of the potential
barriers and obstacles," such as
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