Flypaper, a blog on “ideas that stick” is the latest from the Thomas Fordham Institute’s Gadfly team.
“Who’s the boss?” looks at principals who see themselves as middle managers not CEOs.
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Joanne Jacobs
Free-linking and thinking on education by Joanne Jacobs
I don’t think I would’ve chosen “Flypaper” as the name for a blog about “ideas that stick” given what one finds stuck to flypaper.
Re: article on principals
Leadership is nearly impossible in politically governed bureaucracies in a pluralistic society overdosing on theories of democracy and inclusion. The power belongs to organized complainers, so administrators opt for maximum invisibility as a survival strategy.
We have designed schools that won’t tolerate strong leadership. NCLB is emblematic. It puts in charge sets of procedures and sanctions and a lot of legal language. The vague and contradictory blather leads. Below that are vast phalanxes of managers.
Nobody is in charge.