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Posts Tagged ‘How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time’

Some Final Thoughts on Time and Why It matters

Posted in Change, tagged , , on August 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

This is the eighth and final post in a series  sharing some of my findings and reflections from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about time over the last three years – how I spend my time at work and how my superintendent colleagues spend theirs.  I was fortunate that 59 of the 60 school superintendents participated in the study that gave a comprehensive insight into answering the question – just what do BC school superintendents do?  And while the results are interesting, the obvious next question is, OK, now that you know what you and your colleagues do, so what?   Before wrapping up this summer series of eight blog posts, I will share what I see as some of the implications and thoughts on the shifting nature of the job. 

It is also worth considering the role that the learning transformation agenda is having and will have on the superintendency in British Columbia. Superintendents are being expected to lead major changes in curriculum and assessment that are intended to ensure British Columbia maintains its standing in global education. While all school jurisdictions in North America have ongoing reform efforts, those in British Columbia have been exceptionally broad and ambitious. British Columbia has built as Tim Hopper and Kathy Sandford describe as “a landscape of innovation, personalization, and inquiry in classrooms, schools, and districts.” These transformation expectations, which have increased over the last decade, could lead to differently skilled individuals aspiring to the superintendency and to boards making different selections in their hiring for this position. The Ministry of Education in British Columbia has been clear about its vision, “to truly transform education, the BC education system must empower innovation throughout the province.”. Being a passionate learning leader with a strong background in curriculum and assessment, with a vision around transformation, is now mandatory for the superintendent position. Tracking how this focus might impact who is hired into the superintendent position will be interesting to follow.

There are several implications from this study for various educational partners. For superintendents, this study allows them to put their work in the context of their colleagues. With the high participation of superintendents, the study gives a complete picture of the entire province. Particularly for newer superintendents, the ability to compare their experiences to others in the role is valuable. I would encourage current superintendents to look at their use of time in relation to their colleagues and use this as an opportunity to consider other approaches to their work. This study can act as a conversation starter for superintendents who often do not ask each other how they allocate their time.

For the British Columbia School Superintendents’ Association, this study makes a strong case for adding additional supports for newer superintendents and for differentiating support for superintendents based on the size of school districts. It does seem that being a superintendent of a district of fewer than 6000 students is far different from a superintendent of larger districts. Typically, support for superintendents has been similar, but if the jobs are different, small and large districts’ superintendents should be offered different types of support. There is also an opportunity for the superintendents’ association to support female leaders currently in other district positions who may aspire to the superintendency. It can be an uncomfortable question, but what can the superintendents’ association do to ensure greater diversity in its ranks. More generally, for aspiring superintendents, this study shows that if they have seen one model in their district of how a superintendent spends their time, it is not the only model. As these individuals move into the role, they should seek out others in the province to consider different approaches to how they allocate their time and areas that get their primary attention.

For boards, there is an opportunity to reflect on their interactions with their superintendent. The wide range of time commitments is worthy of follow-up. Numerous superintendents referenced the distraction some board behaviour can be to the organization, and this issue is worth additional study. Boards also have a role to play in supporting new superintendents and ensuring they have the professional development in place to be successful. Both boards and the BC Ministry of Education should be looking at how they could make fewer urgent requests and be more strategic in their asks of superintendents.

Finally, this study provides a useful look into the superintendency for those in the community. This study helps to humanize the position.  The leaders in these positions are experienced educators spending long hours both managing and leading the school system.

I recognize my bias, but I was impressed by the complete and unwavering commitment that my colleagues have to the important goals of our system.  BC superintendents are driven by purpose—to enhance learning opportunities and outcomes for their students in their districts.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  And here is the full list of posts with links from this summer on the various topics.

Gender and the Superintendency

The Impact of Student Populations on the Work of the Superintendent

The Majority of BC School Superintendents are New to their Jobs

Learning Leader vs. Community Leader

The Impact of Boards on How Superintendents Spend Their Time

All Urgent All the Time!
Controlling Time is a Matter of Perspective

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Controlling Time is a Matter of Perspective

Posted in Change, tagged , , on August 17, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the seventh in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

Picking up on last week’s post on the rabbit hole of urgency many superintendents fall into in British Columbia, it was interesting to see how superintendents responded to the basic question of whether they felt they had control over their time.  

Different superintendents sometimes described two almost identical situations, and one would use it as an example of how they had no control over their time, while the other would use it to show how they were masters of their own time. The experience might be best summarized by one superintendent who argued, “In some ways no and others yes” when asked about the control of time.

Many superintendents acknowledged that they do have some choice on where they allocate their time. The views were often like those of this superintendent, “I feel I have control; however, there is limited time and those items that are deadline driven or urgent in nature get prioritized.” Another superintendent also took a reflective view of time: “Control is about juggling planned versus unplanned – and also find time for reflective practices and vision to sustain innovative practice.” Many of those who felt in control pointed to strong governance structures with their board, highly effective management teams, and their willingness to extend the workday to deal with the urgent during business hours but still make time for areas of passion in the evening and on weekends.

Those who did not feel in control felt their primary objectives around student learning were being hijacked by the demands of the Ministry, the board, and urgent emerging issues in the district. They would see themselves entering each day and week with a clear list of priorities, but this list would quickly shift to other items that would require their time and attention. Many described the superintendency as a “reactive” job that required continuous shifts.

It is important to note that the study of BC’s school superintendents was done in the midst of their dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.  There were numerous negative comments on how COVID-19 had impacted the work of the superintendent. As one superintendent said, “It has had a major negative impact, and it has taken priority over many other issues on my desk.” Others described COVID as all-consuming, and as another superintendent lamented, “I work seven days a week to support schools and our health authority responding to the pandemic.” It was definitely clear that many felt similar to this superintendent, “It really limited what we were doing and detracted from the momentum we had going.”

The pandemic has placed an increased role of the superintendent as the communicator-in-chief. Many reflected on the pandemic similarly to this district leader, “My attention has now become focused on communications: when, how and what. It requires considerable effort to continue to shape a narrative that allows staff, community and students to feel safe, supported and cared for.” Superintendents described new communication skills they built, often through video platforms, and there are opportunities to find ways to continue to use these communication skills and platforms in the post-pandemic world.

Most interesting is how superintendents describe the change in meetings and travel. The travel changes seem particularly helpful for superintendents from more remote districts, like one rural superintendent, who said, “It has actually reduced the amount of time I spend traveling and allowed me more time to focus on student learning.” A number of superintendents said it has adjusted the work week, with meetings that used to be at night now in the day because they are virtual and the work week now being a seven-day week.

While many positions in the school system lack the opportunity for flexible hours since they are currently governed by the traditional school day, the superintendent position has some greater flexibility, which has been utilized by some superintendents during COVID. Rather than shifting hours, many have simply added more hours to their day and week with the growth and ease of virtual meetings. Going forward, having some greater flexibility with remote meetings, they may be able to focus better on student learning during the traditional school day.

For future study, rather than simply looking at the impact, it would be useful to reframe the question and look at the changes made during COVID that had a positive impact on the work of the superintendent and the success of the district. Given that British Columbia has not had the lockdowns and a complete shift to remote learning as some other jurisdictions in North America, some of the changes that others have seen may be blunted in BC. It is challenging to see the forest for the trees, and still being in the midst of the pandemic at the time of this survey has definitely limited the ability to see silver linings that may emerge.  Some of the changes in time-use that emerged during the pandemic may disappear in a post-COVID era, while others may be permanent.  

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will take a final look at implications for superintendents based on the findings around their use of time.

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All Urgent All the Time!

Posted in Change, tagged , , on August 10, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the sixth in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

British Columbia school superintendents described the frantic nature of running from crisis to crisis in their daily work.  Whatever plans they might have for the day, week or month were often quickly derailed by something urgent – and there seemed to almost always be something urgent.  It was striking that while some saw their job as a very proactive job, one where you are looking around the corner to what is coming next, many see their work as reactionary, each day responding to a new item of top importance.

“The tyranny of the urgent” was commonly used as a comment when BC school superintendents were asked to reflect on their ability to control their own time. Whether it was human resources issues, health and safety, or very often board topics, superintendents were challenged to stay focused on their plans, and they are often derailed to deal with an emerging crisis.  One superintendent argued, “My to do list is usurped the moment I arrive at work with other urgent issues.” This view was corroborated by a second superintendent, who said, “I feel like I am trying to put out fires all the time. When something comes up in the district, it takes over everything.” And a third superintendent also shared a similar sentiment, “Priorities are often dictated by emergent situations.”

One BC superintendent described experiences that were common among many of the respondents:

I do have control over how I spend my time. Each day I have a list of the things that I need and want to accomplish and for the most part each day I achieve that list. The complexity is that each day a large number of things get added to that list, which I also accomplish. The result is that the day continues to get longer as I seek to achieve those things that I had put on the list. As I reflect on my eleven years as Superintendent, I think the days, weeks and years are getting longer with new additions and rarely anything being removed from the overall list. So, I guess I have control over how I spend my time, what I am not sure I have control over is the amount of time needing to be spent. This is because I do not want to shift focus from what is a priority for the team and district to accomplish tasks for outside systems and/or organizations.

Many shared this view that the time needed to be an effective superintendent was growing as the tasks that were viewed as urgent took more time. Community concerns and board matters were the drivers of the urgent on the list of items that superintendents identified as most commonly having primary responsibility. 

One superintendent described the experience as “a crisis every day” that needs to be dealt with. Superintendents recognized the political significance of certain issues that required their specific attention. While many items could be delegated, if the issue involved local or provincial government or had a media angle, they often took responsibility.

While many of the tasks of the superintendency, like budget planning, strategic planning, recruitment, and working with partners, appear to be the kind of tasks for which one could close their door and work on for eight hours in a day, the reality of the experience that superintendents describe is one that is often a frenzied pace moving from item to item.

There was a sentiment among respondents that outside officials, like board trustees and BC Ministry of Education officials, were creating unrealistic timelines with often changing demands that needed the superintendent’s attention. For further study, it would be useful to look more closely at the specifics of the tasks that are falling into the urgent category and whether they truly require urgent attention. It is also important for outside agencies who interact with superintendents to know that they are looking for greater predictability, so they can plan with their time appropriately on various tasks.

While there was a lot in the data and commentary from my colleagues that was invigorating and exciting, this impact on the urgent was depressing.  I do think some superintendents crave the urgent and run towards the problems.  For others, it may be passivity or just difficult circumstances.   My bias is that I see a key job of the superintendent is to play the long game, while others around you are focused on the immediate wins and losses.  If our job is simply keeping the balls in the air and trying to do that again tomorrow, the longer term shifts and innovation in education will be impossible.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the question of whether BC School Superintendents actually have control of their time and the impacts of COVID-19 on the work. 

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The Impact of Boards on How Superintendents Spent Their Time

Posted in Change, tagged , on August 3, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the fifth in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

The sometimes rocky relationships between superintendents and school boards are often well covered in local news and many researchers have dug into the importance of the relationship between the local elected officials, and the hired lead for the education system.  As with many other parts in the education system, there are multiple right ways for the two entities to work together.  I have written before on my blog thoughts on this topic, like here in 2014, on how boards and superintendents support each other.

For this current study, the focus is on the time of the superintendent, and in part on the number of hours they spend with the board and / or on governance issues.  My study got feedback from 59 of the 60 superintendents in British Columbia on their use of time.  My bias going in to the study was that the larger the district, the more hours a week the superintendent spends on governance and with trustees.

My prediction was partly, yet not completely true.  There were dramatic differences in the time that superintendents spent with their boards. Superintendents were asked in one part of the survey to identify the number of hours in an average week between September and June they spent on governance.  Six of the seven districts where superintendents spent five hours or fewer each week on governance had populations of up to 6,000 students (these were categorized as small districts for the study), but the final one in the group was a district of more than 22,000 students (these were the largest districts for the study). Looking at the other end of the spectrum, and those superintendents that spend more than 21 hours a week with on governance, three of the seven districts are from the highest student population category of more than 22,000 students, and there is one each from districts from the four next categories in population.  It was not simple to say that it was only in the large districts that superintendents spent most of their time with boards.

There was also a dynamic with superintendent gender and time spent with the board. Twenty of the 28 superintendents that indicated they spent ten or fewer hours a week over the year with their board were men, while five of the seven that spend more than 21 hours a week were women. Similar to educational leadership, there was not a dramatic difference between superintendents in their first five years and more experienced superintendents on the time they spend with their Boards. Both the newer and experienced superintendents had comparable numbers at both ends of the spectrum of less than five hours and more than 21 hours a week.

Working with boards is a task that virtually all superintendents take primary responsibility for. This area scored the highest among the 33 tasks for which superintendents take the highest level of direct responsibility. The second highest task was strategic planning, a task that is often done in concert with elected trustees. Other high-ranking tasks for direct involvement by superintendents included working with government organizations, working with parent organizations and citizen complaints, all of which are often tasks that have some level of shared responsibility between the governance and administrative sides of the organization.

In written responses, many superintendents lamented about what they saw as excess time that they spent with the board, as this was time taken away from working with the school system and focusing on student learning. Several superintendents referenced general guidelines they try to come up with to divide their time between governance and working with the board and all other time working with the rest of the system. Superintendents referenced goals of 20-30% of their time working with trustees, but the data shows some are working more than this, and others are working less.

While not the purpose of the study, the relationship between superintendent and trustees was front of mind for many superintendents when reflecting on their use of time.  Said one superintendent when responding to a question on control over their time, “Yes, with the current Board I do. They understand their roles very well, and minimize the time taken on governance and related issues that are not a part of the plan for student success.”   But for others the opposite experience was true, like this superintendent, “At this point my board continues to create an ongoing crisis where I am continually trying to respond.”  When superintendents reflected on their ability to control their time, their thoughts on their current Board were often central.  

This study was not intended to determine what the ideal number of hours per week is for superintendents to spend with trustees on governance work, but the range of hours clearly opens up this question.

Superintendents expressed some frustration about how they work with their board. It is also important, particularly given how inexperienced so many superintendents are in the province, that they need support around governance, and not just the trustees. In their 2019 book, The governance core: School boards, superintendents, and schools working together Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan argued, “many superintendents simply view the board as an external power source, important and legitimate but not a part of the superintendent’s team.” (as an aside, this is a great book study for trustees and senior executive members)

There needs to be continuous ongoing work to support superintendents to understand the crucial role that boards play in the system and how superintendents support the work of the board and boards support the work of the superintendent.

For further study, it would be interesting to ask each board how many hours a week they spend with the superintendent to measure that time and see if there is an alignment in their views. There is probably no perfect answer, and this study did not set out to determine if five hours or thirty hours is more appropriate, but the vast differences are worthy of more discussion to understand the range of governance models better and determine what the successes and drawbacks are for the various number of hours that superintendents spend with their trustees.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the urgency and reactionary nature of the superintendency.

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Learning Leader vs. Community Leader

Posted in Change, tagged , on July 27, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the fourth in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

BC school superintendents want the E in CEO to be Education and not just Executive. More than half of the province’s school superintendents report that they spent at least 11 hours a week on work that they would describe as educational leadership (supporting teachers, principals, working in classrooms, leading learning). Given that superintendents in British Columbia and across Canada were trained as teachers, this inclination should not be surprising.

Of course, there are competing demands.  BC school superintendents in my study, as well as those referenced in other research, report that they are often consumed by their board, administrative work, and community commitments. Being a learning leader and being a community leader compete for the time of the superintendent.

For my study, superintendents were asked to consider their level of involvement in 33 leadership and management tasks – everything from tasks within facilities, human resources and student services to financial management, curriculum and instruction and community relations.  Of the 33 tasks considered, 10 of the top 11 tasks in terms of the level of responsibility for superintendents were either in the curriculum and instruction category or community relations category. The top 5 (from 5 to 1) were:  Indigenous Relationships, Parent Organizations, Government Organizations, Strategic Planning and Board Relations.  Truly, a very unsurprising list of areas superintendents are most directly involved.  It likely would surprise few that the 2 areas at the bottom of the list for direct involvement are payroll and transportation.

In a similar, but slightly different task in my study, superintendents were asked to rank seven areas (facilities, human resources, business operations, student services, financial management, curriculum and instruction and community relations) based on the importance in their daily work.  Thirty-eight of the 59 superintendents surveyed ranked curriculum and instruction as either first or second, and 32 superintendents ranked community relations as either first or second.

Knowing that at some point, time is finite, these two areas do compete with each other for the attention of the superintendent. Superintendents seem torn, they want to spend their time on educational leadership, but they are taken away from this by administrative tasks and work with trustees. Superintendents often commented that they would extend their workday and week and are working more hours now than in the past to continue to be educational leaders in their district.

A Virginia study by Eric Armbruster of superintendents in that state over a decade ago had similar findings:

Superintendents today must be communicators, collaborators, consensus creators, community builders, child advocates, champions of curriculum and masters of teaching and learning. At the same time, they are expected to fall in with the bureaucrats, carry out mandates for the policymakers. School leaders today need to be versatile enough to respond effectively to these varied pressures while staying focused on the crucial mission of improving student learning. 

BC school superintendents in my study emphasized the key importance of relational capital in their work. Many of them noted their strong ties with various partner groups, their ability to move items forward because of relational trust, and how long-standing relationships were helpful. While superintendents felt the pull of community vs. educational leader, in the end, for most, it was not an either-or proposition. It needed to be both, and the tension of time was exacerbated by this conflict.

One BC superintendent when describing the pulls on her time nicely described it, “I do have control over how I spend my time. What I am not sure I have control over is the amount of time needing to be spent.” 

One of the great challenges for BC school superintendents, is one shared by others in various jurisdictions across North America – they were often high performing teachers who are committed to being leaders of learning for which they are accountable, and they also have the enormous set of commitments that come with  running a complex organization and being a community leader.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the impacts of Boards on the work of BC School Superintendents. 

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The Majority of BC School Superintendents are New to their Jobs

Posted in Change, tagged , , , on July 20, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the third in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

Before doing this research, I definitely had some pretty clear ideas on the experience levels of the 60 BC school superintendents.  I had assumed most superintendents had at least five years in their current job, and had between 10-15 years of experience in their districts.  I was very wrong on both counts.

Fifty-nine percent of BC superintendents are in their first five years in their current job. This high percentage is stunning. While there may have been a particularly high turnover in recent years, having such a high percentage of superintendents new to their job offers a huge challenge and opportunity in support for these leaders.  The narrative I often have heard is that rapid superintendent turnover is an American phenomenon and Canadians superintendents tend to spend far longer in their positions.  The data does not support this.

While the study did not look at the reasons for such a high rate of change in the last five years, given the level of experience of superintendents when most assume the position, it is likely that many superintendents retire out of the job in under five years. Those who support superintendents, including universities, boards, and their own association, must recognize the high level of newness in the group and the need for ongoing support and mentoring.

I assumed that many superintendents had experiences similar to mine, which would have seen them move into the district in a board role and advance to the superintendency, thus often having between six and 15 years of experience in their current district. The data shows that almost three-quarters of BC superintendents fall into two categories—they are either in their first five years in the district, which likely means they moved into the district to become superintendent or have more than 16 years of experience which likely means they grew up through the system in their district from teacher to school administrator to district administrator and superintendent.

There are likely very different kinds of supports required for superintendents who are newcomers to a school district compared to educators who have spent their career in a district and move into the position.  For those new to a district, there is an entire culture to learn on top of a new job, while those who advance in the same district have the experience of redefining themselves in a new role as a key challenge.  This career trajectory for superintendents is important for the Superintendents’ Association and Ministry of Education to understand as they support their leaders.

The level of experience of BC superintendents was largely unsurprising. Most superintendents have worked from 16–35 years in the system. It is interesting to see that nine of the leaders have worked for more than 35 years. Educators reach their full pension at 35 years in BC, so it is often discussed that there is little financial incentive for them to continue working beyond this point.

One regret in this part of the research was not asking for superintendents’ ages, whether they thought this job would be their final job, and how many years they planned to work until they retired. All of this data would be useful for further study to understand the position better. Given the data around experience, one could assume that almost 75% of superintendents definitely plan to retire in the next decade, but it would be useful to have this information more specifically.

While there were striking numbers of new superintendents, their experience with how they spent their time was not much different from their more experienced colleagues. In looking at 33 management and leadership tasks, the level of involvement of superintendents in their first five years was largely the same as those who were more experienced.  Whether it is human resources, facilities or student services, the differences between the level of direct involvement from superintendents in their first five years and those more experienced was minimal.

It was noteworthy in looking at the time new superintendents reported spending each week on educational leadership that four of the five who indicated they spent more than 21 hours a week were in their first five years, and 10 of 14 who spent at least 16 hours a week were in their first five years. This data may indicate a shift in the type of people being hired into the superintendency that are more focused on making time each week for educational leadership related activities, or it may indicate that superintendents early in their tenure invest more time in educational leadership activities.

Of all the data in the survey, learning that so many of the BC superintendents are in their first five years is something that really stands out.  There are real needs to support a group of superintendents who are often new to districts and where over half of those in positions are new to them in the last five years. Superintendent recruitment and retention is an ongoing issue. It is also worthy of further study to learn more about the commitment of less experienced superintendents to educational leadership activities and whether this potential trend indicates any changes in the focus of educators being hired into the position.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the struggle superintendents have between being a community leader and an educational leader.

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The Impact of Student Populations on the Work of the Superintendent

Posted in Change, tagged , , on July 13, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is the second in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

It won’t surprise anyone that the size of a school district impacts the work of the superintendent.  It is true in likely almost any organization, the smaller the organization the more hands-on the boss is in the daily work.   

While BC has 60 school districts, they have a tremendous range in student populations. Two districts, Surrey and Vancouver, combine for a greater student population than the combined population of more than 50% of the other 58 school districts in British Columbia.  The 60 districts range in populations from a few hundred students to more than 70,000 students.  As an example of the diversity, the Stikine School District (School District 87) has fewer than 300 students in an area of over 80,000 square kilometers—twice the size of Switzerland.

It seems that providing all 60 superintendents with the same support when their populations are so different is a poor idea. Superintendents in the smaller districts regularly commented in the study that they had to take on a greater number of roles, as there are just not enough staff to take the different responsibilities. Often, superintendents of the smallest school districts described a job that seemed completely different from those of the larger school districts.  In many ways, it seemed as those the superintendents in the study were reporting on two different jobs – those done by superintendents in the largely urban, higher student population school districts and those done by superintendents in the largely rural, lower student population school districts.

In looking at 33 management and leadership tasks, my study confirmed what other researchers had found before, the unsurprising finding that those in smaller student population districts are more directly involved in the daily operations than their large student population colleagues. In mapping the data though, it was not as simple as plotting all 60 districts by population and you would see the shift in levels of direct responsibility continuously decline from the smallest to the largest district.  

Superintendents with student populations below 6,000 and particularly below 2,000 students had higher levels of direct involvement in tasks, but above 6,000 students, there was not very much difference. Superintendents of districts with between 6,000 and 10,000 students reported a lower level of direct responsibility than each of the three higher population categories.

Superintendents in districts of 2000 students or fewer averaged 2.77 on their level of involvement on the 33 management and leadership tasks (this is based on a 4 point scale, where a 4 would indicate primary responsibility for all tasks). The next highest were the districts of up to 6,000 students, at 2.48. All of the remaining superintendents in the other four population categories averaged between 2.23 and 2.38. It appears there is a threshold at which superintendents’ direct involvement drops, and then it levels off.

A superintendent of a district with a population of about 8,000 students would likely have the same level of direct involvement in activities as a superintendent of 18,000 or 28,000 students. It seems that at a threshold of about 6,000 students, a district is large enough that it has senior-level staff that can be delegated some of the specific tasks that take place in the board office. The remaining tasks stay with the superintendents as a primary responsibility even in the largest school districts.

Superintendents from smaller districts were far more likely to spend additional hours each week on educational leadership than those from larger districts.  Educational leadership includes tasks like spending time with teachers and administrators focused on learning initiatives, being in classrooms, and supporting the district efforts around curriculum and assessment.  Thirteen of the 14 superintendents who spent at least 16 hours a week on educational leadership related activities were from districts with student populations of no more than 6,000 students. Conversely, three of the six superintendents from the largest districts of more than 22,000 students indicated they spent more than 21 hours a week on average with their Board.

Moreover, superintendents from smaller districts had more time for educational leadership activities than those from larger districts, who often spend a lot of their hours with their board and on governance issues. In the districts of up to 6000 students, 25 of the 31 superintendents reported they spent more than 10 hours a week on educational leadership activities, while only seven of the remaining 28 superintendents in districts with more than 6000 students reported they spent more than 10 hours a week on educational leadership activities.

So, if you want to be a superintendent and spend time on educational leadership, one of the conclusions you could make is that you want to be a superintendent of a school district of with a population of no more than about 6,000 students.  Of course, if you want to be immersed in board governance, one of the large districts may be the right spot for you.   

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the level of experience with BC School Superintendents.  

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Gender and the Superintendency

Posted in Change, tagged , , on July 6, 2021| 2 Comments »

This is the first in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

For my study, I surveyed all BC school superintendents, collecting demographic data and information on how they spent their time.  Following the data, I wrote more on gender that I had anticipated I would.  The data showed a real gap in the gender of superintendents, and also a difference in the work that male and female superintendents do in the job.

A critical factor in understanding the work of superintendents is who they are and what experience they bring to the job. And while women occupy a higher share of superintendent positions in BC than in the United States, there is still a dramatic difference between the percentage of female superintendents in British Columbia relative to teachers and principals and vice-principals.

In BC, 64% of school superintendents are men, which is lower than the 76% in the United States but far higher than the percentage of male teachers (25%)  and school administrators (40%). While both teachers and administrators are continuing to become more female-dominated professions, the gender mix of the superintendency has stayed quite consistent for at least a decade. Researching for a blog post in 2011, I found that 67% of superintendents were male, so this gender divide is basically unchanged in a decade.  Of the 60 school districts in BC, 21 had female superintendents in the spring of 2021. 

Female superintendents lead some of the smallest districts in BC, 15 of the 21 women head-up districts of 6000 students or fewer. They also lead some of the very largest, as three of the six districts with more than 22,000 students are led by women. However, mid-size school districts seem to lack female leaders, as only three of the 21 districts in size from 6001 – 22,000 students have female superintendents.

In looking at the work of female superintendents, four of the five superintendents in the province that reported spending at least 21 hours a week on educational leadership related issues were women. In American literature on school and district leaders, female leaders were far more likely to have a background in teaching or curriculum. This background may help explain the time female superintendents spend on the topic.

Considering time with their Board, five of the seven BC superintendents that spent at least 21 hours a week on governance were also female. It would be worth further exploration to consider why female superintendents were more likely to spend higher numbers of hours both on curriculum and on governance related issues than their Board.

For the research, all BC school superintendents were surveyed for their level of involvement in 33 management and leadership tasks – everything from purchasing and busing to facilities decisions to interactions with governments.  Superintendents scored their direct involvement on a four point scale.

Female superintendents were slightly more likely to be involved in the 33 leadership and management tasks than male superintendents, with an average score of 2.59 versus 2.45 for males (on a 4-point scale in which a 4.0 would mean they had primary responsibility in all areas). However, with female superintendents occupying the position in many of the province’s smallest districts, the district population could also be the driver, not gender, for their higher level of involvement. It is true that, on average in BC, female superintendents have more direct involvement in leadership and management tasks and are more likely than their male counterparts to spend 21 hours a week or more with their board and on educational leadership activities.

There are real opportunities to understand better how more women can move into the superintendency. Tom Glass, writing for the AASA in 2000 on the US experience, argued, “The two most widely cited reasons for the paucity of women in the superintendency are that women are discouraged from preparing for the superintendency and school boards will not hire them”. It would be useful to understand if American experiences for females aspiring to the superintendency are similar in British Columbia. Further exploration would also be needed to understand the findings that such a high number of female superintendents are the heavy time spenders with boards and on educational leadership.

If our teaching staff and principal and vice-principal pools are becoming increasingly female, it is important for organizations like the those who support superintendents and the Ministry of Education to look at how they can ensure females are supported into the superintendency.  And I was left with other questions, like why are women superintendents in the smallest and largest districts but not in the mid-sized districts?  Why do female superintendents spend more time in a week both with their boards and on curriculum and instruction than their male counterparts?  While not data collected in my study, is there ethnic and racial diversity in the female superintendent pool (for that matter the superintendency in general) in BC?  If the pool of candidates (teachers and administrators) is increasingly female will this change the make-up of the superintendency?

There is a lot of useful American literature looking at gender and the superintendency.  My research has nothing truly profound to say to answer the question why there are not more female superintendents or what we should do about it (that was not within the scope of the research).  It does seem clear that the public dialogue about gender and the superintendency in the United States is one that we should also be having in British Columbia and Canada.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the impact of student populations on the work of the superintendent.  

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Lessons of an Adult Student

Posted in Professional Development, tagged , , , , on June 29, 2021| 11 Comments »

It had been a while since I had been a student. I finished my Masters degree in 1999 – that was last century! At the time, I had imagined continuing on immediately into my doctorate. I actually visited a school and did a lot of research on programs, but other things began to take priority and I moved on.

The opportunity re-emerged about five years ago in conversations with my friend and mentor Dr. Yong Zhao, who was then at the University of Oregon, now at the University of Kansas.  And all the sudden, by the fall of 2018, we had a cohort of 17 students ready to do a Doctorate in Education through a Vancouver cohort of the University of Kansas. My fellow classmate, Gerald Fussell (I guess it is Dr. Fussell now) recently wrote a very good summary of our experience HERE that is a great read for anyone looking to better understand the doctoral experience or maybe join the next cohort.  I won’t cover the same ground, but here are some of my student lessons from my experience:

Sometimes You Need to Start Over

I wrote about eighty pages of my dissertation over the Christmas break.  It was most of my first three chapters.  I knew it wasn’t great.  It felt like I was pasting together a bunch of different ideas and trying to make it coherent.  I needed someone’s opinion, so I sent it off to my advisor.  He got back to me quickly, and we set up a Zoom call.  His advice – don’t try to fix it, start over.  I had assumed he would give me a list of things to fix, and that would give me a good to-do list.  I was not so lucky.  Well, actually I was.  I had all the ideas, my paper just lacked voice or energy.  It was bland.  Not trying to fix it was the absolute best advice.  Two weeks later, 70 pages had become 50 pages and it was a completely different paper – one that was something I was proud to have written.  We always try to fix and edit papers, but sometimes we just need to start over.

Don’t Lose Your Voice

The biggest problem with that first draft I discarded is that I was trying to write how I thought it should be written and not in my voice.  I write a lot.  On this blog and elsewhere, I publish thousands of words each month. And I know I have a casual tone, but I thought I needed to abandon that for my doctorate.  My advisor told me just the opposite was true.  So, in version two, my dissertation read more like my blog posts with my voice coming through. At first it was excruciating not to write in my own voice, and then the words just flowed when I could “just write.”

Grades Don’t Matter as Long as They are Good

I know grades in grad school don’t matter.  And I have spent much of my 25-year teaching career trying to elevate the importance of learning, and decrease the obsession with grades.  But . . . when all of a sudden you are getting grades again, it is the first (and sometimes only) thing you look at.  I was guilty.  I appreciated ongoing feedback until I got my grade and then I was done.  As long as the grade matched the expectation I had, I was no longer interested in ongoing feedback, I was ready to move on.

Professors Want You to Succeed

Again, remember it has been a while since I have been in school.  I think I have been jaded by television and movie characters of college professors over the last two decades. Every professor I worked with really wanted all the students to do well.  None of them wanted a bell curve, or for some to succeed at the expense of others, they just wanted everyone to do well.  Professors challenged me, pushed me, and made me defend my positions.  Especially as I approached some key deadlines over the last six weeks, they went above and beyond to help me hit targets, so I could graduate now.  

Study What Interests You

It sounds simple that you should study what interests you, but I hear from many people that they are not  even interested in their research.  I knew early on what I wanted to study, and it was something I had been wondering since I started as superintendent more than a decade ago, just what do superintendents really do?   I know what I do, but it is that the same as everyone else?   As I began to collect my data, I became obsessed by it.  I had the good fortune of having 59 of 60 BC School Superintendents respond to my survey so I had a complete picture of the province.   If I am going to invest so much time into research and writing, it should be something I care about.  And full credit to every professor along the way in the program who allowed us to design papers and projects that had direct relevance to our work in our school districts.  

Enjoy Challenging and Being Challenged

Having people disagree about ideas was one of the best parts of the program.  I find we don’t debate ideas well in the school system.  We debate people most of the time. Of course, this is so true in the state of world politics and is true in education, that we struggle to take an issue with ideas and we decide if someone disagrees they must be a bad person.   I also find in education most staff are fairly like minded.  So even our disagreements are superficial.  In the program, professors challenged me about my ideas, my data and my future vision.  And they encouraged me to pushback.  I can’t remember another time in my life this has happened.  Even my dissertation defense was loud and tense but engaging and never felt personal.   It is a skill I need to continue to work on as challenging others and being challenged made me better.

Break It into Smaller Chunks

We have all given this advice as teachers to students.  Take a large project and divide it up into smaller parts so you are not overwhelmed.  And a doctorate works with this strategy as well.  There are obvious milestones along the way to work towards.  In addition to individual courses, there is the comprehensive exams, the proposal approval and ethics approval that all serve as useful smaller benchmarks.  I would hear a new term to me often used – ABD – All But Dissertation.  This describes students who finish all the course work but never finish the dissertation.  I see different percentages cited online, but it looks like up to a 1/3 of all doctoral students might fall into this category in some programs.  I know there are a lot of reasons for why this fact is true, but the act of dividing a seemingly overwhelming 100 page research project into small, manageable tasks with obvious small victories sure helped me along the way.  We definitely build up the mystique of the dissertation. 

You Get Out of It What You Want

There are no financial or professional incentives for those of us in the K-12 sector in British Columbia to finish our doctorate degrees.  In some jurisdictions, you need a doctorate to be a superintendent, or you get a pay bump with the added credential, this is not true in BC.  It was interesting for our professors in the program as they universally described our mindsets and engagement as completely different from many of their usual students.  We were there because we really wanted to learn, be challenged, work together, and were driven by intrinsic motivators.  When your motivators are your own, you get out of the doctorate what you want.  You don’t have to do all the readings, or participate in all the discussion boards, or revise a good paper into a great paper.   But you can.  And apparently, we did far more than “regular” students. The program balances the old world of letter grades and credentials, and the new world of personal bests and ongoing improvement.  

Conclusions

I was thrilled earlier this month to successfully defend my dissertation, How British Columbia School Superintendents Spend Their Time, and complete the doctorate process.  I had the sense of accomplishment that Gerald wrote of in his post. I have heard comments before like “a doctorate doesn’t make you smarter.”  I get it and that is true at face value.  But doing my doctorate has made me smarter – it has allowed me to look at issues differently, read papers I would never have read, connect with experts I never might have known, be exposed to new ideas and write, write, write.

My full dissertation is available HERE under the Research tab on my blog site.  Over the summer I am going to take some of my main findings and share them in short, more casually written, and hopefully user friendly posts that will create conversations.  

Next Week . . . . a look at the gender differences in the superintendency.  

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