298 K-12 LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
Table 1. NJQSAC Scores for Instruction and Program and Personnel.Districts Instruction & Program DPR (117-120 points*) Personnel DPR (100 points)
% %
River City 9 5
2 53 88
3 39 32
4 15 38
5 15 24
6 52 63
7 71 96
8 28 45
9 57 68
10 62 83
11 47 80
12 24 70
13 8 38
14 69 88
15 14 22
Note. * Total points in Instruction & Program DPR depend on whether districts include Early Childhood
Program and High School. All descriptors for the Instruction and Program and Personnel DPRs can be accessed
from the NJDOE website at http://www.state.nj.us/education/genfo/qsac/
Add this loose-coupling to long established practices of teacher-directed or frontal
teaching, and you quickly acquire significant gaps between what is taught and what is
assessed. Next, keep changing classroom teachers by replacing them with this year’s novice
and you further undermine the learning process. With NCLB pressing for more students
meeting advanced benchmarks, any detour can result in declining scores and take a district off
course.
If what actually happens in a classroom represents the most important factor in improving
student achievement (Leithwood, Lewis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004), then surely hiring
the best teachers is critical for student success. Even more important, is the need to retain new
teachers, providing them with adequate support in the classroom, and as a cohort, building
their confidence and expertise in some of the basics, including classroom management, and
teaching strategies such as differentiated instruction and cooperative learning. With the
capacity of individual principals varying from building to building, some school leaders saw
mentoring new teachers as the primary responsibility of Central Office staff rather than at the
building level. Sadly, we observed multiple examples of sink-or-swim induction (Britzman,
1991) instead of efforts to build professional learning communities. Finally, district turnover,
administrative or faculty, can lead to a loss of organizational history and a mission that
becomes diluted by shifting daily priorities. With rapid administrative turnover, primary goals
easily become lost as districts initiate new initiatives without allowing sufficient time for full
implementation of earlier efforts.
What is Needed
With the absence of structures and effective strategies for improving student learning
evident across all 15 pilot districts, it seems to us that in order to turnaround a troubled
district, especially a high-poverty urban school system (Murphy & Meyers, 2008), district
leaders must understand the importance of having a clear road map for reform. Second,