David Noer, Frank S. Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership, wrote an op-ed column which appeared in the Sunday, Sept. 19 edition of the Greensboro News & Record.
Noer’s topic was the complex job faced by public school superintendents and the recent push by some to remove Guilford County Superintendent Terry Grier. The complete text of his article appears below:
I recently saw a sign on a lawn imploring us to “Get Terry Grier Out of Here.” I couldn’t help but wonder if the property owner had given any thought to who we could get “in here” to do a better job. This article provides four perspectives of the complexity and magnitude of the leadership challenges facing large-system school superintendents. When we viewing Terry in the light of these dimensions, we may be tempted to find ways to keep Grier “around here.”
- Large-system superintendents lead a nomadic existence. According to a study of over fifty large systems – places like Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and our own Guilford County – the average tenure of a school superintendent is 2 years! This is an absurdly short time for any leader to build an agenda and implement any lasting change. Behavioral scientist Elliot Jaques articulated the concept of “time span of discretion” which postulates that the higher you reside in an organization, the longer it takes to assess your impact. Given their short tenure, most large-system superintendents are gone before they can accomplish meaningful change.
- Large-system superintendents are servants of bureaucracy. They must exercise their leadership responsibilities within often stifling and constraining bureaucratic constraints. Large public systems have multiple procedures, committees, and regulatory bodies. The Guilford County superintendent must navigate in the crosscurrents of a less than smooth relationship between a school board heavily influenced by single-issue perspectives, and an often dysfunctional group of county commissioners. Almost any decision is bound to irritate someone. We are reaping what we have sewn. A large, consolidated, county wide system breeds bureaucracy. This is the price we pay when we begin with the assumptions that bigger is better, and efficiency leads to quality. The school superintendent operates in the environment created by these dubious assumptions.
- Urban School Superintendents live and die – most often die – by their response to parochial issues. One of the reasons for the exceptionally short tenure of large-system superintendents is that school boards, teacher’s unions, and parental associations are strongly influenced by members who are elected, or appointed by advocating, and tenaciously holding on to one, narrow, galvanizing perspective. As the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, the whole world is a nail! Be it test scores, magnet schools, community autonomy, or the ratio of teachers to administrators, recrimination replaces dialogue and the superintendent becomes the convenient target. The large-system superintendent faces the delicate task of handling these potentially derailing issues while maintaining focus on longer term strategies.
- Large-system superintendents have complex and under-appreciated jobs when compared with others. CEO’s of private businesses with jobs of similar scope and scale keep their jobs longer, have only one board to satisfy, and receive substantially more compensation. Professional football coaches and baseball managers have a similar nomadic existence, but they make more money and their bottom line is clearer – just winning. College presidents remain in their jobs longer, have an academic community as a support system, and can move back into a faculty role when burned out.
Before we board the “Get Grier Out of Here” bandwagon, we need to reflect on his performance within the unique environment of large-system school superintendents. Here are three observations. First of all he has retained his sanity and optimism, no small feat considering the stresses of his role. Secondly, some of the seeds he has planted are beginning to grow. Why change farmers and plant new seeds? Finally, he has exceeded the tenure standard and is still here. We would do well to remember the homely wisdom of two old adages: the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, and a bird in the hand does tend to be better than two in the bush.