Superintendents whose young children attend public schools in their school district face a special challenge. This article shares the author's experience as the son of a superintendent. Throughout his years in primary and secondary school, his mother, Jean Chrostoski, served as the superintendent of the schools he attended in the small Illinois…

If world religions courses are created at all in public school districts, they often are designed to encourage cultural fluency and tolerance. It is a teachable moment for the teacher to witness in an hour these far-flung students moving beyond tolerance to collaboration. Taking on a world religions program typically is viewed as a risky…

As the superintendent of a school district, how do you establish yourself as a leader of learning? This question was paramount to the author as he began his first year as superintendent in Kelso, a 5,000-student district in southwestern Washington. He wanted his staff and all stakeholders to know he was serious about instructional improvement and…

After two decades of steady growth and financial stability in the Rio Rancho Public Schools, New Mexico's fastest-growing school district found itself face to face with a $3.8 million budget deficit going into the 2008-09 school year. Because people in the district hesitated to change anything that would cut into student programming, and nobody…

America is blessed with two river systems that feed and nourish the country by their periodic flooding. One mighty river is "individualism" (the entrepreneurial drive to advance and make a difference). The other river is "community" (wherein communal interests strengthen the whole community over the parts). Monitoring and regulating these two…

A growing number of teachers across the U.S. are comfortable using the Bible as a teaching tool. Public school courses involving study of the Bible have spread to at least 43 states, and at least seven state legislatures have approved laws encouraging some form of Bible study. High schools now offer elective courses on the Bible that adhere to a…

When the Minneapolis Public Schools first set out to hire turnaround school principals, administrators followed their usual process--which focused largely on reputation and anecdotal support and considered mainly internal candidates. Yet success at the complicated task of turning around the fortunes of a failing school depends on exceptionally…

It was in March 2010, just months after the author's retirement as a superintendent, when she received a phone call from state Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock asking if she would be interested in working for him as an education policy staffer in the upcoming 82nd Texas legislative session. Aycock was set to serve a second term on the House's education…

Squeezed by four consecutive years of budget cuts as the nation's greatest recession wears on, the country's public schools have found themselves operating under increasingly tighter fiscal constraints while facing ever-changing demands and enrollments. Reductions in financial support to schools at the federal level have compounded cutbacks at the…

The author spent years in central-office administration, most recently in an interim position. Some interim administrators simply see themselves as placeholders until the real deal is hired, giving the organization the opportunity to coast. There are others who see themselves as change agents and cannot wait to undo or redo what their predecessor…

"Terrorist," "son of bin Laden," "camel jockey," "raghead," "towel-head"--variations of the same epithets resurface in each generation with the same painful impact. While Muslim students in public schools were objects of derision and harassment long before 9/11, the situation in the past decade has become markedly worse. Bullying and harassment…

The word "religion" sends shudders down the spine of superintendents, as conflict over religious values can be one of the most unpredictable and emotional issues arising today in public schools. Dealing with religious belief in public schools need not be full of emotion and conflict. In this article, the author shares his strategies for…

When L. Brooks Patterson, the executive of Oakland County, Michigan, publicly called for the county to become the first in America to teach Mandarin Chinese in every public school district, the Oxford Community Schools responded immediately. Over the past four years, the school district of 5,030 students in southeastern Michigan has elevated the…

The proposition that competition will spur public schools to perform better is now familiar to most Americans and self-evident to many. It is a compelling idea. While much attention has focused on student performance in charter schools, a distinct and important policy question relates to how increased competition from charter schools affects the…

Escalating conflicts over issues involving sexual orientation in public schools often pit conservative Christians against proponents of gay rights--with school leaders caught in the crossfire. Some beleaguered school administrators attempt to put a lid on the controversy by censoring student expression on one side or the other. But that tactic…