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By Mike Ward, Former President, CCSSO, and former North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
I believe in local control, but how do you keep schools focused on central aims under such a leadership approach?
This question is often heard among school leaders in one form or another. It captures the conflict inherent in simultaneously seeking focused effort in a large, complex organization while delegating responsibility to those closest to the organization's core activity. In North Carolina's public schools, the answer to this question was found, in part, in the power of a strong vision and a strategic plan to move toward this vision.
During his biennial address to the North Carolina Legislature in 1999, Governor Jim Hunt issued a challenge to his state-a challenge to have the nation's best public schools, to be first in America by 2010. It was an audacious vision for a state that had historically trailed the nation in educational attainment-Governor Hunt acknowledged as much even as he uttered the challenge. Our state was blinking in the glare of a national spotlight shined upon us for making some of the nation's greatest progress. While we were pleased to be leading in performance improvement, it was altogether a different thing to say that we would lead…period.
And then there was the matter of buy-in. Schools in North Carolina had become accustomed to a system in which there had been significant freedom of action. Empowering an organization's members with significant discretion is a practice that has broad support in the organizational, administrative, and management literature, and it had been statutory in North Carolina since the late 1980's. It is a practice that seems especially appropriate in the educational system, where there typically is respect for academic freedom and the capacity of those closest to students to do what is in the best interest of children. Empowerment makes sense in such a context, but also creates great challenges to focused organizational behavior.
Significant responsibility fell to the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction. The strategic plan that has become the vehicle for fulfilling Governor Hunt's audacious vision includes five strategic goals linked to student achievement, quality professionals, safe and caring environments, effective business practices, and the involvement of family, community, and the business sector.
The Board does far more than simply give this plan lip service. The monthly Board meeting agenda is built around the strategic goals. The Board's budget proposals and legislative policy agenda are likewise closely linked to the strategic goals. The work of the Department of Public Instruction is also linked to the goals. And progress is examined through a system of data that tells the Board and the State Superintendent whether the state is indeed fulfilling these strategic aims and, more importantly, whether North Carolina is making sufficient progress toward its intent to be first in the United States.
The State Board has developed a strong system of accountability for results. The focus on product, while providing much greater local discretion over process, helps to assure focused organizational behavior within a strategic framework. But the quid pro quo isn't as simple as an exchange of flexibility for greater accountability. The Board recognizes that the formula has to include local capacity. Thus, one of the key priorities of the Board and its partners in higher education has been professional development. And these strategic commitments are paying off. North Carolina is continuing to make some of the nation's most rapid educational progress.
That is the power of a strong vision and the strategic planning elements that provide a framework for action toward the vision. These strategic elements serve as an anchor for activity, and help to focus organizational behavior when local control might otherwise create a system bent upon countless divergent objectives.
So how does the story end? North Carolina is not there yet-but closer than ever before. Even if the Tarheel State doesn't make it by 2010, the state will be better for the effort. And her citizens will have hard-working teachers, students, and community leaders to thank-just as they'll owe a debt of gratitude to a Governor who dared to dream big, and to a State Board that had the foresight to build a powerful strategic plan around that vision.
Mike Ward was the North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1999 - 2004. For more information on North Carolina's strategic plan visit, http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/accountability/reporting/abc_plan/abcsplus.html
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