Openings in the windy city!

The Office of School Turnaround at Chicago Public Schools is currently hiring a Director of Curriculum & Instruction and a school principal. See our website for the position descriptions and more information about how to apply.

Principals as CEOs

A new U.S. News podcast series, Leadership for the Next Decade, recently featured Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan as the special guest. Duncan discusses how troubled some of our schools are and that principals need the same skills as CEOs to turn those schools around and run them efficiently and effectively. Listen to the podcast here. Acknowledging that some principals require a different set of skills than is taught in most traditional leadership programs is the first step, actually training principals through alternative programs (see profiles of this type of program) and supporting them in the most challenging schools is where the real work must happen.

Three States Looking for a Few Good Partners

Illinois, Massachusetts, and Virginia all released Requests for Proposals/Responses (RFPs and RFRs) for turnaround partners over the last two weeks. While the purpose  and role of the partners is slight different for each state (as are the timelines for response), it is clear that the demand for partners who specialize in school turnaround (and are willing to exchange increased authority over conditions for accountability of results) is growing. The big question is, where’s the supply of partners who are ready to take on this work?

Check the links below for more information on each states RFP/RFR.

• The Illinois RFP was released in mid-October by the Illinois State Board of Education. ISBE is establishing a list of pre-qualified Lead and Supporting Partners to work in the “Illinois Partnership Zone” — the State’s effort to establish  human capital/school intervention partnerships with a limited number of school districts throughout the State. 
• In Massachusetts, the RFR can be accessed through the state procurement system, document #10APAJP1. Specific information about the types of partners and partnerships can be found here.
• The Virginia RFP  process is being run by the Virginia Department of Education. VA is seeking proposals from qualified sources to serve as Lead Turnaround Partners (LTP) on an as needed basis, to develop and implement academic programs for one or more of the core discipline areas of math, science, social studies and language arts for students in persistently low-achieving public schools.