Journal 1
During my first year at Columbia Business School, I immersed myself in the education industry, and I learned a lot about federal initiatives like Race to the Top and how they help drive innovation in the way states think about important issues in the education reform movement. This summer, through Education Pioneers, I am working at the New York City Department of Education on a project funded through Race to the Top. My project focuses on how to effectively communicate new policy decisions to teachers — regarding job performance and evaluations. The new evaluation system, which is being tested in 100 schools this upcoming school year, changes the way teachers are evaluated from a binary system to a four-point scale with more observations and feedback, recognition for great teachers, and professional development focused on growth.
After conducting several focus groups, I have learned that in order to buy into the changes being tested in the new evaluation system, teachers need clearer communication regarding how new policies affect their day-to-day jobs. Unlike working in marketing and communications in the private sector, working at the NYC Department of Education means that I am a one-stop shop consumer insights team, marketing and communications team, planner, and copywriter. It also means that there are a lot of different challenges and limitations to what you can say to teachers and how creative you can be in your strategic communications approach, given budget limitations and union restrictions.
However, even with all of these challenges, I strongly believe in the work I am doing. Teachers are the most important stakeholders in furthering the education reform movement, and fostering greater understanding and sparking engagement with policy decisions is critical.
Journal 2
This summer, I have the opportunity to think outside the box in approaching both teacher and principal strategic communications. The new teacher evaluation system changes the way teachers are evaluated from a two-point scale to a four-point rating system, which means teachers will be differentiated from each other for the first time. This seems normal for any profession, but until now all teachers simply received a satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating (with 98 percent rated as satisfactory). The new system definitely requires a new engagement strategy — targeting both principals and teachers — to sell the program.
This week, the NYC Department of Education team, along with The New Teacher Project (TNTP), is conducting day-long training sessions for principals, to teach them how to conduct more robust and fair evaluations. Teacher ratings depend, in part, on six classroom observations conducted by school leaders. Therefore, enabling and empowering school leaders to build evaluation skills is a crucial part of our work.
Similarly, to engage teachers with the work of the NYC Department of Education, we are planning to conduct informational meetings, launch a new website, create unique media coverage opportunities, and pioneer a new, email outreach program to share key program updates.
I am learning that it is not only important what you say, but how you say it. In communicating with teachers for example, focus groups revealed that teachers want to learn not only how they are being evaluated in the new system, but how their principals are being trained and supported to implement the evaluations. This key insight will shape a lot of the communications surrounding the program.
Journal 3
As my summer experience comes to a close, I am even more interested in working with the education sector to better manage programs, people, and processes. It amazes me how much cultural change needs to happen in order to change the teaching practice from a job into a profession. This summer, I led teacher focus groups on how teachers want to interact with the new evaluation system, attended principal trainings focused on empowering school leaders to be leaders of their workforce, and created communication strategies that focus on improving communication messages to teachers.
The public sector is very different from my previous experience in the corporate world, but, I am finding that there are many parallels between the two when thinking about leadership in the education sector. The largest school system in the country has many similarities to a large, private-sector organization:
- Cities do not have all the answers, so they need consultants too. I have been intrigued by my interactions with education-focused consulting groups like The New Teacher Project. Their work focuses on consulting with school districts on the best way to train and build capacity among school leaders to better assess teacher capabilities and communicate the goals of teacher effectiveness.
- Innovation is an important game changer. Companies like Wireless Generation use technology to create new ways that teachers can communicate about student progress and new models of classroom learning. And federal incentives, such as Race to the Top, promote innovative thinking at the state and city levels.
- Functional business expertise is important, which is why many charter schools create leadership positions focused purely on management. The idea is that because principals need to focus first and foremost as curriculum leaders, business-focused roles are necessary to run schools effectively and efficiently. I have been pleasantly surprised to find so many Columbia Business School alumni working as finance managers, operations directors, real-estate managers, and human capital and strategy directors, at the top charter school networks in New York City.
Overall, I have learned that in education there is no one right solution. In order to ensure that all students have access to a high quality education, it takes a lot of strategic change, effective implementation, and a lot of smart people coming up with new solutions to tough problems.
