Principals or Agents? How State Education Agencies Build Trust to Balance Support and Accountability in Turnaround Policy Implementation

IF 2.4 2区 教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Educational Administration Quarterly Pub Date : 2024-02-24 DOI:10.1177/0013161x241234329
A. Chris Torres
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Abstract

In recent years, policymakers and scholars argued that state education agencies (SEAs) should move away from simply acting as compliance monitors and take on more prominent roles as providers of technical support to schools and school districts. Scholars find that SEAs have struggled to do so, yet there is little empirical work to explain what SEAs do or why they struggle. This study looks at Michigan's Partnership model for School and District turnaround, which began in 2018 and includes the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) as a formal partner in building the capacity of school districts to craft and meet ambitious student learning targets. Analyzing interviews with MDE “liaisons” and turnaround leaders, I find that Partnership leaders reported a deeper sense of trust with the SEA compared to prior years because liaisons were more focused on support and understanding individual school/district contexts. However, supports were generally “passive” (e.g., sending standardized emails with resources/links; helping navigate compliance issues) rather than targeted technical assistance that helped Partnership leaders build capacity. I argue that this was in part due to the SEA's conflicting role as both accountability monitor and technical assistance provider. I show how SEAs navigated this dynamic and provide suggestions for how SEAs can balance district autonomy with support through trust building, ideas of “controlled autonomy,” and “flexible specificity,” which recommends highly specific technical guidance paired with ongoing processes of feedback and experimentation from implementers so that guidance matches context.
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校长还是代理?州教育机构如何建立信任,以平衡转机政策实施中的支持与问责
近年来,政策制定者和学者们认为,州教育机构(SEA)应摆脱单纯作为合规监督者的角色,而更多地扮演为学校和学区提供技术支持的角色。学者们发现,州教育机构一直在努力做到这一点,但很少有实证研究来解释州教育机构做了什么或它们为什么在努力。本研究考察了密歇根州的 "学校和学区转机伙伴关系模式",该模式始于2018年,密歇根州教育部(MDE)作为正式合作伙伴参与了学区的能力建设,以制定并实现雄心勃勃的学生学习目标。通过分析对密歇根州教育部 "联络员 "和转机领导者的访谈,我发现,与前几年相比,"伙伴关系 "的领导者表示与密歇根州教育局有了更深层次的信任感,因为联络员更加注重支持和了解各个学校/学区的具体情况。然而,这些支持一般都是 "被动的"(例如,发送带有资源/链接的标准化电子邮件;帮助解决合规性问题),而不是有针对性地提供技术援助,帮助 "伙伴关系 "领导人进行能力建设。我认为,这部分是由于教育部 门既是问责监督者,又是技术援助提供者,两者角色相互冲突。我展示了教育部 门是如何驾驭这种动态的,并就教育部门如何通过建立信任、"有控制的自治 "和 "灵活的特 殊性 "来平衡地区自治与支持提出了建议。"灵活的特殊性 "建议在提供高度具体的技术 指导的同时,不断从实施者那里获得反馈和实验,从而使指导与具体情况相匹配。
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来源期刊
Educational Administration Quarterly
Educational Administration Quarterly EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
6.90
自引率
3.00%
发文量
9
期刊介绍: Educational Administration Quarterly presents prominent empirical and conceptual articles focused on timely and critical leadership and policy issues of educational organizations. As an editorial team, we embrace traditional and emergent research paradigms, methods, and issues. We particularly promote the publication of rigorous and relevant scholarly work that enhances linkages among and utility for educational policy, practice, and research arenas.
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