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School autonomy key to portfolio model
Written by Todd Engdahl on Sep 29th, 2009. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org
Greetings,
For public schools, school autonomy is an oxymoron. A public school cannot be autonomous from the school district, nor should it be. School districts are and must be heavily invested in school policy and practices because the superintendent and central office are legally and ethically responsible for the outcomes. When foundations push for school autonomy, what they really want is reduced district oversight so that they can have the kind of influence over the school that the district typically does. When foundations attempt to ignore, circumvent, or eliminate district oversight, it puts school principals in a difficult position and creates political challenges that can kill a reform. This is, or should have been, the abiding lesson of the Manual Complex school reform, underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. When foundation fights district, district always wins. If school reformers want to be successful, they must accept the reality of public school administration. The only way to institute a successful and long-lasting public school reform is to continually collaborate and negotiate with the central office on all matters pertaining to personnel, curriculum, and instruction.
Sincerely,
Gary Lichtenstein
Quality Evaluation Designs
(formerly Director of Research & Evaluation at the Colorado Small Schools Initiative)