Stacy Childress, Richard Elmore, and Allen Grossman
Harvard Business Review
November 2006
This study, carried out by the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP), a partnership between Harvard's business and education schools, examined 15 urban districts in hopes of identifying management practices that are most effective in raising student achievement. It begins by noting that districts are not businesses and should not be run like businesses (unclear, though, why all the recommendations sound like material straight out of Management 101). Contrary to reformers who stress devolving power to individual schools, these authors argue that a strong central office is necessary. Look at charter schools, they implore, victimized by their own autonomy and in need of central organizations (authorizers, charter management organizations, networks, etc.) that construct "accountability systems, share best practices, and recruit and retain teachers." Recommendations follow for districts to get their acts together. On balance, there's little new here. The trick isn't identifying an effective framework; it's implementing it. And the major problem in these districts isn't lack of know-how, but politics. If you persist in wanting to read the report, you can find it here (but you'll need a credit card--this is Harvard, after all).