WPS summer reading on governance

Sent to the Worcester School Committee this Friday in our weekly update was a link to what district leadership read as part of their work when they met this week:

⁦@worcesterpublic⁩ district level leaders spent time today collaborating on common language focused on working together to serve schools & our brilliant scholars. This is the team to take WPS to the next level of excellence. From here anywhere…together #allmeansall pic.twitter.com/OmZb4ix0mB

— Rachel H. Monarrez, PhD (she/her/ella) (@drrmonarrez) August 11, 2022

The piece is called "Fighting Fires in Educational Administration" by Karl E. Weick; I found a non-paywalled version here. 

First, I just want to note that I appreciate getting homework from administration to keep us on the same page. This linked immediately in my mind to something Dr. Monárrez said to us in her interview regarding the role of administration: 

I could write paragraphs about this, but suffice for now to say that's a frame of governance that we've needed badly. 

I recommend reading the whole piece (especially if you work in/ think about organizational governance). The above, though, is also effectively proposition 4 from the article: effective firefighting occurs when people strive to manage issues rather than to solve problems. As Weick writes:

The things that come across the desk of an educational administrator can be labeled problems to be solved or as issues to be managed. When the interruption is labeled a problem, there is the expectation that people will hit it hard, that it can be solved, and that once it is solved it will stay solved. However, when an interruption is labeled an issue, once expects that it will be managed rather than solved, that it will take different forms over time, and that endurance and persistence will be needed to keep it under control. 

And of course, endurance and persistence are badly needed in education, in any case!