Interview with a District Leader

Interview with Dr. Pedro Galavis

Director of Secondary Education, Round Rock Independent School District

June 12, 2012

What is your definition of leadership?

“It’s relational.  It’s about building teams, about collaboration and dialogue.  It’s about bringing diverse perspectives together to bring about student achievement.”

How do you work to develop a shared vision?

“Listen more, speak less.  Listen to the needs.   Use data.  Value diverse perspectives.  Bring people to the table.  Invite dialogue.  Communicate through action and words that none of this is about me, it is about us.”

How does the Superintendent or district leader accomplish wide range strategic planning?

“First of all, it begins with results – what are you shooting for?  Is there a three to five year plan?  How many stakeholders are involved in the plan?  The plan has to be benchmarked and it is important to progress monitor along the way.  I like to have the plan highly visible – put the goals on every agenda.  This is where we are going as a district.  We need to talk about it often.”

How does a Superintendent or other district leader promote and sustain a district culture that emphasizes student learning and professional development?

Dr. Galavis spoke to the importance of a positive district climate.  He believes it is important for districts to seek feedback from the community through climate surveys, but also sees a need for an external evaluation of a district’s “organizational health.”  Dr. Galaviz talked about a research study citing organizations that may have high morale but limited results, meaning that everyone gets along well and enjoys working with one another, but little work is getting done.  Conversely, you may have a “taskmaster” type of district in which everyone gets the work done, but are miserable in the process.  The ideal situation is an organization with high morale and high results.  District leadership sets the tone for this culture to develop.  When people are energized and excited about their work and come together for a common, higher purpose, the possibilities are endless.  District leaders need to always be learning, modeling this for our teachers and students.  We can always learn and get better.

How should Superintendents and district leaders approach the management of everything from budgets to technology applications?

“You have to have a high level of organizational coherence.  Whatever you are doing, the money has to follow it, and it has to follow kids.  Our vision, mission, professional development, goals….it all has to be aligned and targeted to students.”  He referenced the Harvard framework for organizational coherence and the importance of common language in a district.  Everyone in the district needs to know what we are about, and everyone needs to be on the same page. 

In our time together, Dr. Galaviz also referenced a study from the Vanaburg Institute from Brown University.  He shared that three important functions exist in every district:

·         Servicing – putting students as number one priority, customer service for teachers/community

·         Safeguarding – compliance, policy, regulations

·         Shaping – curriculum, professional development.

Reflection

One of the reasons I chose to spend time with Dr. Galaviz (besides his availability to meet this week!) is that I am consistently seeking ways to grow my knowledge of secondary education.  My whole career has been in elementary education, so I often put myself in situations to try and expand my experiences.  Ironically, when we are talking about leadership, it seems to transcend all grade levels.

 A definite theme in his responses was one of being student-centered, focused on clear goals, and all activities in the organization aligning toward those goals.   I chose the above five responses to share because I think all of those responses reveal this sort of thinking.  Dr. Galaviz is truly about kids and learning, and utilizing his leadership skills to bring out the best in principals and teachers so that they may do the best work possible for students.

I especially appreciated Dr. Galaviz sharing some of his current “reading list” with me.  I felt that I walked away with somewhat of a “to do” list to research and study.  I have been aware of Harvard’s educational leadership initiatives for quite some time, but feel prompted after this interview to spend some time on their web site.  I am also interested in the work he referenced from Brown University.  I connected with the idea of “Three S’s – servicing, safeguarding and shaping.”  Frameworks like this help me organize my thinking about a district leader’s role.

Professional Vita

Here is a link to my professional vita -
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bxc1QGePQmTqNWhFMThzVFQyanM

Thoughts on Transfer Theory

As I was listening to the interview lecture between Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins, I made many connections between transfer theory and 21^st century learners.  In the simplest terms, I would describe 21^st century skills as those that require students to think – to analyze a problem, develop an approach for solving it, and to be able to communicate effectively with others throughout the process.  Gone are the days when only learning content matters; students have to transfer their knowledge of content to a wide variety of contexts.  This is also the essence of transfer theory as described by Dr. Arterbury.  In the transfer theory of learning, a student must be able to take knowledge gained and apply it to new and different situations.  For example, if a student is only taught an algorithm for solving addition problems, it is unlikely he will be able to use his understanding of addition to solve a multiplication problem.  However, if the student is taught addition through manipulatives and pictures, the likelihood increases that the student’s understanding of addition will transfer to new understandings of multiplication.

In this course we are required to have some leadership experience as a prerequisite.  It makes great sense that this will help us transfer the content/knowledge we gain from the course to our professional working roles.  Already as I am reading the text, working on assignments, watching the lectures and utilizing the blog I am making connections – or transferring – between the teachings of this course and my professional work.

We used to only be consumers of knowledge and content.  Now, as learners, we need to create, collaborate, and make many connections between that content and new contexts.  Transfer theory supports this concept.

Educational Leaders & Blogs

Currently I only subscribe to one blog from an educational leader – Steve Barkley.  I think my draw to his work stems from hearing him speak in person several times, so I hear the personality and “voice” in his writing.  The power of his blog is that he “pushes” the most current literature he is reading right to my inbox, and often will provide me with discussion starters for my team on current educational issues.  I believe the power of the blog for an educational leader is just that – pushing timely information to your subscribers in a forum that makes it easy for them to view and interact with the content.

Action Research

Action Research

Action research has been a core component of the teacher and administrator professional development and appraisal process in our district for many years.  Educators create a banner question at the beginning of an academic year that will address a need in their work.  For example, a teacher with low scores on writing assessments may focus her action research on, “How can I more effectively facilitate independent writing in my classroom?”   An administrator with a high at-risk population may pose the question, “How will building a school-wide intervention time into the master schedule affect the progress of our at-risk students?”  Educators must begin with the end in mind, specifying what type of data will be gathered and how they will know if they are successful.  This may include the quest for quantitative and/or qualitative results.

Action research is a process of inquiry.  A participant in action research gains new information and understanding in a variety of ways, which may include participating in professional development, working with an instructional coach, reading professional literature/blogs, observing other educators, reflecting in a journal, analyzing student work samples, or any other learning activity.  Along the way the action researcher should discuss his learning and progress with colleagues who may ask clarifying/reflective questions or serve as a critical friend.

Action research follows the plan-do-study-act cycle of continuous improvement.  Educators plan for their own professional learning with a desired result in mind.  Then they do the research and learning activities.  Then they study their data to see if the desired results were obtained, and then act on the data accordingly.

I see the potential of action research in this online learning forum to study the superintendent competencies.  Through these initial assignments, I already have an idea of where my opportunities for growth and deep understandings are, and I anticipate that I will be formulating an action research project through this course that revolves around those weaker areas.