The research base on effective school districts consistently demonstrates that high performing school boards/school committees make a serious and ongoing investment in leadership training. It is a part of the basic belief system and culture of the organization.
A proposal was brought to the SORICO Collaborative Council in May 2001
to request regional training on school governance and leadership practices.
A task force, comprised of three school committee members, one superintendent,
and the executive director of SORICO, developed a plan around superintendent
and school committee roles/responsibilities guided by two questions:
What sustainable governance and leadership practices would lead to a better focus and commitment to improve student achievement?
What methodology would be most useful to provide timely and productive training opportunities for school committees and superintendents?
The Collaborative Council approved a commitment to training for the nine SORICO district leadership teams: 61 school committee members and 9 superintendents. The training provides regional opportunities to share and exchange ideas, strategies, experiences, and best practices.
Some outcomes of regional training include:
- regional listserv to facilitate communications among districts
- regional legislative committee to impact statewide issues
- regional feasibility study to consider consolidation opportunities
Key Work reflects the National School Board Associations (NSBA) agenda to focus the work of school boards on student achievement through community engagement. School committees, as they are called in RI, are responsible for providing the conditions for excellence in teaching and learning. A basic premise of Key Work is that excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom.. Key Work provides a framework for leadership and governance that promotes systems thinking around eight key actions. The challenge is to recognize the interconnections between the action areas and synthesize them into a unified view of the whole system. Key Work serves as the guding philosophy underlying SORICO governance and leadership training.
| VISION |
Reflects the community's commitment to student achievement as the priority |
| STANDARDS |
Identifies community expectations for what students should know and be able to do |
| ASSESSMENT |
Determines how well students are meeting the standards |
| ACCOUNTABILITY |
Assumes responsibility for student results using explicit criteria and regular monitoring |
| ALIGNMENT |
Ensures support and resources for district priorities to improve student learning |
| CLIMATE |
Understanding that environment influences behavior and performance as well as community perceptions |
| COLLABORATION |
Enables networks of individuals to solve problems and achievecommon goals for student learning |
| CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT |
Attitude of questioning, reflecting, monitoring, evaluating, to achieve excellence |
Useful Links National and State Organizations:
NSBA Key Work
RI Association of School Committees
RI Board of Regents
RI Department of Education
RI General Assembly
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