NEW YORK (May 12, 2010) – Central offices of urban school districts have been able to shift their focus from administration and compliance to improvement of teaching and learning district-wide by making five key changes, according to a new report by University of Washington researchers.

The report fills an important gap in knowledge about strengthening teaching and learning throughout school systems. Decades of experience and research have shown that districts generally fail to realize district-wide improvement in teaching and learning without powerful leadership from the central office, but until now the field has had few positive examples of such leadership to draw on.  

The study, Central Office Transformation for District-Wide Teaching and Learning Improvement, uncovers the daily practices of administrators in three districts with transformation efforts under way: Atlanta Public Schools; the Empowerment Schools Organization in New York City; and the Oakland (Calif.) Unified School District.

“All three districts were making significant investments in strengthening leadership throughout their central offices to support powerful teaching and learning not in some schools but in all schools,” says Dr. Meredith Honig, Associate Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington College of Education and the lead author of the report.“The engagement of all central office administrators in focusing their work on those results represents nothing short of a transformation of longstanding ways of doing business in many school district central offices.”

The report was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and published by the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) at the University of Washington College of Education. The report was co-authored by Michael A. Copland and a team from the University of Washington.

Another University of Washington College of Education entity – The Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) – has already been implementing the findings in school districts around the country, and will be a collaborator on future on-the-ground work stemming from this research.

Rather than remain in the background focused on “buses, budgets and buildings,” central offices must work closely with school principals and turn the attention of all staffers to teaching and learning improvement, the report finds...Read more