Why Administrators Don’t Care about Content-and Why It Matters
A reader responds to our discussion about the importance of content and explains how administrators matter in relation to content. If they are indifference to content it shapes their vision and their behavior:
I am a professor of educational administration and I’m struck by how little content area knowledge is required to become a principal or superintendent. Standards related to administrator certification seldom (if ever) include anything related to the need for developing even a basic understanding of math, science, reading, etc. Most preparation programs do not include any instruction at all in this area, and are instead committed to an organizational perspective rooted in a very specific kind of business-thinking that emphasizes efficiency and equality over a sensitivity to difference and equity.
This makes administrators particularly susceptible to the sirens of standardized “accountability” because
I am a professor of educational administration and I’m struck by how little content area knowledge is required to become a principal or superintendent. Standards related to administrator certification seldom (if ever) include anything related to the need for developing even a basic understanding of math, science, reading, etc. Most preparation programs do not include any instruction at all in this area, and are instead committed to an organizational perspective rooted in a very specific kind of business-thinking that emphasizes efficiency and equality over a sensitivity to difference and equity.
This makes administrators particularly susceptible to the sirens of standardized “accountability” because
