Jane Eichman is the superintendent of Rock Falls High School District 301 in Rock Falls, Illinois.
T he district superintendent often heads one of the largest businesses in the community, particularly in rural areas, a position that is not only highly political, but one that can be fraught with perils. Media relations, state regulations, legislative issues, contract negotiations, and personnel issues all place complex demands on a superintendent’s time and attention.
New superintendents in Illinois often enter the position devoid of essential training and adequate professional development that could be an asset to their administrative career. Veteran superintendents can rely on experience, but many new superintendents are left to thrive on their own as they wade through budget documents, contracts and school board relationships.
The skill sets that new superintendents bring to the job are often different than those needed for success in the new position of CEO. They may have been a building principal or assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, or even have a business background. But being superintendent requires skills not developed in other district jobs.
Despite a lack of experience, they still are expected to be competent and knowledgeable in their duties — regardless that they may never have performed many of them during their careers.
Daily decisions
According to a 2003 presentation at an American Educational Research Association meeting, new superintendents generally feel unprepared for the day-to-day activities of running a district. They are often surprised at how little time is spent on educational issues and how much of their day is consumed with the management of the district and of the board. Without the availability of a caring, experienced mentor, some superintendents may be left to fend — or to flounder — on their own.
In “Superintendent mentoring the state way,” published in AASA’s The School Administratorin 2007, author Kate Beem shares this all-too-familiar scenario:
Rick Rege arrived at his job as superintendent of his western Massachusetts school district the way most folks do — advancing from classroom teacher to mid-level administrator to the district’s top position.
In Rege’s case, he spent the nine years before becoming superintendent of the Chicopee Public Schools as a middle school vice principal and principal. He knew how to manage people and oversee a budget. He didn’t figure leading the district would be much of a change. Yet quickly after his appointment in summer 2005 to the superintendency in the district, … the blush wore off as Rege realized the enormity of the task facing him.
“All of a sudden you’re going from being directly in charge of 110 staff members and 700 students to being in charge of 800 people and 7,700 students,” says Rege, 53. “I woke up the day after I got the job and thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’”
Feelings of inadequacy
Patricia Schmuck, in Women Leading in Education, contends that school district principals and superintendents hold the most prestigious positions in public education. Yet new superintendents often struggle with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy.
Due to the prominence of their position, many are not comfortable admitting that they may not have an answer or a solution to a school district problem. In some cases, they do not even know what questions to ask.
During a superintendent mentoring survey, a new superintendent commented, “The toughest thing is that being new, you don’t yet know who you can trust. Who is reliable, who is experienced? Who is the right person to ask which question, and how much faith can you put in the answer?”
Need for collaboration
In The American school superintendent: Leading in an age of pressure, Gene Carter and William Cunningham stressed the importance of a need for support in the early years of the superintendency. New superintendents need to have someone with whom they can discuss emotions and concerns about the situations being faced.
In the May/June 2006 issue of The Illinois School Board Journal, Kent Johansen stated that school districts have embraced the concept of mentoring new teachers for years, and teachers often have the advantage of being mentored by colleagues within their own buildings. But, he asked: “Why would it be acceptable to provide mentoring for teachers but ignore the potential benefits for superintendents?”
School districts with multiple buildings have a ready-made community of principals who have the ability to collaborate with each other. In contrast, new superintendents find themselves hired to fill the top position in their district, and there are no other similar positions available for collaboration. The fact that there is only one superintendent in the district means that there is no one else within the district with whom the new leader can communicate on a superintendent-to-superintendent level.
Need for trusting relationships
Carter and Cunningham also stress that it is important for new superintendents to develop a few strong, trusting relationships with colleagues or other superintendents who can provide perspective — and a source of positive energy, inspiration and direction — when facing difficult issues or coping with the irritations and disappointments of the job. It is vital that new superintendents have someone in whom they can confide, someone with whom they can ask questions, and someone with whom they can share concerns.
New superintendents often desire a relationship with someone who has already walked the road ahead. As one expressive superintendent stated to Linda Searby in a 2007 issue of Illinois Women Administrators Newsline: “I need someone to make the ‘stupid’ statements to, someone who will tell me that I am professionally ‘all wet’ or that I am ‘doing it right.’”
2008 superintendent study
In February 2008, I conducted a study of all public school district superintendents in the state, a total of 868 superintendents. After five weeks, 559 surveys (64.4 percent) were completed and returned. Participating superintendents’ opinions regarding mentoring are reflected in the following data:
• 99.1 percent reported that their current school district did not require a formal mentoring program for superintendents new to the district.
• 89.7 percent reported they had never been involved in formal mentoring.
• 70.5 percent did not have a mentor prior to becoming a new superintendent.
• 29.5 percent did have a mentor prior to becoming a new superintendent.
• 74.5 percent wished that a mentor would have been available to them as a new superintendent.
• 60.7 percent believed they might have benefited from a mentor of the same gender.
• 89.0 percent believed they might have benefited from a mentor from the same type of school district.
The results indicate that a large percentage of superintendents in Illinois enter their new district administrative positions with inadequate preparation and a lack of formal mentoring.
Future needs
Preparing future superintendents should be a high priority for Illinois. The superintendency in the 21st century is changing both in the skills required and the arena in which those skills are practiced. Superintendents in the new century are likely to be spending much more time working with community groups, responding to state-mandated assessment programs, and acting as champions of public education in the face of school choice, vouchers, privatization, and home schooling, according to a study in 2000 by Thomas Glass, Lars Bjork and C. Cryss Brunner.
“The superintendency may be the final frontier for formal mentoring programs,” wrote Beem in her IASA article. “In the 1990s, teacher mentoring programs proved that supporting first-year teachers yielded better instructors who stayed [in the profession] longer. That success led to programs for building principals. Now mentoring programs are trickling up to superintendents, who by definition are the instructional leaders of their school districts.”
Conclusion
New superintendents could definitely benefit from the advice and camaraderie of a trusted mentor. This need is exacerbated by the fact that superintendents have no other individuals at the same administrative level within their respective school districts with whom they can collaborate.
Mentoring is an increasingly important aspect of any profession due to an ever more complex organizational environment. Formal mentoring opportunities for new superintendents will not only provide a necessary progression in the educational process, but they will also serve as a vital asset in the administrative preparation — and the ultimate success — of new superintendents.
“Mentors come in and out of our lives and leave us with an insight, a kernel of truth, a piece of wisdom,” wrote Lois Zachary in Creating a mentoring culture: The organization’s guide. “They plant seeds that germinate for a lifetime. They challenge us to move on and help us grow and embrace new possibilities. Their very presence enriches the workplace within which we work. They remind us of the profound power of learning and the promise of moving on.”
References
Kate Beem, “Superintendent mentoring the state way,” The School Administrator, 2007
Gene R. Carter and William G. Cunningham, The American school superintendent: Leading in an age of pressure, San Francisco, California, Jossey-Bass, 1997
Thomas Glass, Lars Bjork and C. Cryss Brunner, The 2000 study of the American school superintendency: A look at the superintendent of education in the new millennium, Arlington, Virginia, AASA, 2000
Kent F. Johansen, “Mentoring to keep a good superintendent,” The Illinois School Board Journal, May/June 2006
T. Rogers, An online tool for mentoring new superintendents, presented at the 2003 American Educational Research Association Meeting, Chicago
Linda Searby, “Fear factor: Why women administrators don’t seek the mentors they need,” Illinois Women Administrators Newsline, Fall 2007
Patricia Schmuck, “Advocacy organizations for women school administrators,” in Diane M. Dunlap and Patricia A. Schmuck, editors, Women Leading in Education Albany, New York, State University of New York Press, 1995
Lois J. Zachary, Creating a mentoring culture: The organization’s guide, San Francisco, California, Jossey-Bass, 2005
Methodology for the study
Robust sources of information and data were used to find predictors of school closure in order to get as clear a picture as possible of all the components that could be involved. Data was acquired from 1986–2005. The trends and predictors in the accompanying graphic were part of the analysis in order to determine the factors that could impact school closure.
Standard statistical techniques were used to determine which predictors had the strongest relative effect on school closure, with 25 predictors giving understanding to the closure of elementary schools. Furthermore, because of the power of this research methodology, models of what happens prior to school closure can be made. An individual variable can be modeled to show what is happening years before school closure.
This research was funded by a grant from the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).