Leader search
HISD trustees need to list the qualifications they want in a new superintendent.
Graduation rates have risen in the Houston Independent School District, the winner of the coveted Broad Prize for Urban education in 2013, as has the percentage of students taking Advanced Placement exams. Even as the 2012 $1.9 billion bond issue has hit bumps, the district’s robust magnet-school program has helped it stop the attrition of middle-class families leaving district schools. The forward march is threatened, however, if HISD trustees fail to find the right replacement for Superintendent Terry Grier, who is stepping down from his post in two weeks.
So far, the process is off to a rocky start. As a first step, the school board — including two trustees who are no longer on the board — late last year hired the search firm Ray and Associates to assist in its hunt for a replacement for Grier. The board, now with two new members, had its initial meeting with the firm on Feb. 4. Today, two weeks later, the board will consider firing the search firm at a special meeting. “There was just some uneasiness,” board president Manuel Rodriguez Jr., told Chronicle reporter Ericka Mellon (“School board will consider firing search firm” Page B1, Feb. 15).
If there is a do-over, or even if there’s not, here’s our advice to the board.
Don’t expect a search firm to provide direction. The trustees on the internal search committee for a new superintendent need to come together around a template of qualifications. This list would be preliminary, of course, and could be refined as the process progresses. But the trustees should give clear guidance before any search firm can conduct meaningful community engagement.
The initial faltering steps of Iowa-based Ray and Associates demonstrate what happens when a search firm operates without sufficient input. This month, the search firm sent out a “33 Qualities Survey” via email to parents and community members.
The survey is a cookie-cutter: The search firm used the same questions in its search for superintendent of Joliet District 86 in Illinois. Joliet has 21 schools to HISD’s 283. Nothing in the survey gave us any confidence that the search firm understood HISD or its unique needs.
The survey listed 33 apple-pie qualities and asked each participant to mark the 10 characteristics “you believe are most important in your selection of a candidate.” The 33 qualities are not clearly grouped according to leadership, management or communication skills, just listed in mind-numbing order.
A few of them are in educationspeak and hard to decipher. Take No. 20: “Has experience in the selection and implementation of educational priorities consistent with the interests and needs of students, staff, board and community.”
Process is important. Without a transparent and thoughtful process, the chances are low that the board will hire a superintendent who will move the district forward. But enough with the gobbledygook.
The qualities needed are clear: HISD needs a leader who is a creative thinker and a good listener; who is unafraid to forge and support bold paths to boost sagging reading scores and improve overall student achievement; who has a demonstrated accessibility to educators, parents and community leaders; and who understands Houston’s 21st-century workforce needs.
HISD needs a leader who can do more than meet the basics — the future of our city depends on students receiving a quality K-12 education. Our city’s need is urgent, and the search needs to reflect that.