Key qualities for next superintendent
by thenotebook on Oct 03 2011 Posted in Blogger commentary
This piece was originally published in thePhiladelphia Social Innovations Journal.
by Marc Manella
This fall our colleagues in the School District of Philadelphia are faced with some significant challenges, including the important task of conducting a search for a new superintendent. While there is much being written and spoken about this abstract idea of “leadership,” I wonder if enough thought is being given to the specific qualities and behaviors that comprise effective leadership.
In the year 2000, when KIPP first considered expanding beyond the original two KIPP Academies that had started in Houston and New York, our co-founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin realized that they didn’t want to expand with a traditional franchise model. They didn’t believe that if you simply told schools what curriculum to use, and what color to paint the walls, that the result would be schools that were significantly better than the status quo. In the years since, KIPP has grown to 108