Alia Smith ’13
My Experience
In 2013-14, if the City and the UFT (teachers union) can come to an agreement on terms, all city teachers will be evaluated and developed under a new, more rigorous system. For now, a few schools are participating in an advanced version of this system called the Teacher Effectiveness Program in order to work out the kinks and get a head start. Last year, about 50 schools participated; in 2012-13, over 200 schools are participating. My goals for the summer were to craft and begin implementing a communications strategy for teachers and school leaders participating in the Teacher Effectiveness Program. The overall project goal is to ensure that every student in every classroom in New York City public schools will have an effective teacher. My project supports that goal by ensuring that teachers buy into the new system and engage in the work of improving their practice, their colleagues and their schools.
The Department of Education, for all its size, is actually a very relationship-based organization. Because of that, in order to get anything done I had to leverage various networks, something that’s frequently discussed in business school. I thought of my Leadership Development and Organizational Change courses frequently throughout the summer. In each of those courses, I broadened my perspective on how to create change. Then, this summer I got to apply what I’d learned about leadership, change in large organizations, and always managing “the human side of change.” Also, for what it’s worth, I also had a vastly better grasp on the wonderful things that Excel can do than anyone else in my office.
Having been a leader in my organization before school, and then becoming a leader in various organizations on campus during my first year, I became accustomed to a certain level of autonomy and initiative. Perhaps my biggest challenge this summer was adjusting to being an intern and having several bosses! It was a humbling experience, and one that I think was good for me.
Practically, one of the other challenges was just learning the lingo and context – the DOE is a very different animal than my small charter school back in Boston, and the context in which it has to operate is so highly politicized that good communication is a huge part of getting the job done. I had to learn how to navigate and create materials and strategies that suited that context.
Finally, because of that context, I had to work in various levels of ambiguity. For example, this summer, a decision about several schools designated for “turnaround” – closing schools and reopening them with new leadership and teaching staff – affected not just my work but also the work of any field-facing DOE staff. I learned to have a plan for the best, the worst and an option in between.
My big takeaways are: keep student success at the forefront of every project, every conversation, every time. It’s too easy to think of the adults and the politics, but only by keeping the students at the center will good decisions ever get made. I also learned that there’s an inverse relationship between accessibility and quantity of communications –less is more! My supervisor was ruthless in cutting down my verbosity and my communication skills are so much the better for it. Finally, navigating the political context takes both skill and time and when communicating with teachers, one cannot underestimate the importance and power of showcasing teacher voice.