With every decision feeling more divisive, technology evolving at hyperspeed, and the needs of school communities getting greater, leaders today have to adapt, innovate, and communicate in fundamentally different ways.
The growth Superintendent Jesus Jara is seeing in the Clark County School District is the result of building a leadership team that "can deliver on the mission."
"The current environment is very tumultuous for educators, particularly superintendents," said Sharon Contreras, former superintendent at Guilford County Schools. "It is tumultuous and stressful. I think the stress sometimes impedes innovation, and steals the joy that many once had in the profession."
"They're looking for quantity and not quality," Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson told KHOU regarding Houston ISD's suggestion to hire uncertified teachers to fill vacancies.
Even before the pandemic, he believes Georgia was already in a pretty good spot in terms of leveraging innovative technologies in the classroom, says Keith Osburn, deputy superintendent for technology services and chief information officer for the Georgia Department of Education. So by March 2020, teachers and administrators already had a variety of tools in their wheelhouse.
Across the nation, educator shortages continue unabated. But leaders in these three states are hoping to change the narrative through teacher-centered reform.
"Our focus turned from educational leader to a position of protector of public education," says Dave Wick, superintendent of Columbia Falls School District 6 and president of the Montana Association of School Superintendents.
In 2019, the superintendency was changed for good. The profession is now a multifaceted and complex job that no one could have anticipated, and it requires intense training and preparation, one expert says.
