Governance Team Training: An Investment in Student Achievement

The Springfield Public Schools governance team is comprised of the superintendent of schools and the school committee. With four new school committee members (out of a seven-member committee) taking office this past January, it seems prudent that we would look for opportunities to build capacity and strengthen the effectiveness of our governance team in Springfield.

Thanks in part to the generosity of the Springfield Business Leaders for Education, this past weekend members of the school committee and I spent considerable time training on team building and collaboration with Don McAdams from the Center for Reform of School Systems (CRSS). The mission of CRSS is to teach school board members and superintendents how to transform their districts to deliver high student achievement through governance.

The training was conducted Friday evening through Sunday afternoon and held off-site at Cranwell Resort in Lenox, MA. While the setting was certainly tranquil and relaxing, it was also conducive to working on the tough issues of governance. We spent considerable time going deep in our understanding of governance solutions to high performance through team building, collaboration, core beliefs and commitments. More importantly, the training was action oriented in that each module ended with critical discussions and the beginnings of a work plan to make actionable the implementation of promising practices of governance policies, reform leadership, and acknowledgement of the school effect as a lever to school achievement.

This was the first installment of nine sessions to be completed over the next 18 – 24 months. As we move forward with our reform work of Springfield Public Schools, I’m confident that our work with CRSS will serve to accelerate performance, improve student achievement and help to close the achievement gap.