Ian M. Mette

Supervision, Systems Thinking, and the Impact of American School Reform Efforts on Instructional Leadership:

This case was written to encourage educators to reflect on what it means to provide high-quality instructional supervision in an era of accountability when the American public education system is heavily influenced by reform efforts that affect how students learn and how teachers are supported as instructors, and pressures school systems face to produce student achievement. The intent of the case is to help leaders explore the difference between supervision (formative feedback intended to help teachers grow as instructors) and evaluation (summative feedback that determines employment decisions) 15 years past the introduction of No Child Left Behind. Educators using this case should also examine how systems thinking can be applied and/or misused to drive school reform and improvement initiatives.

Partnering with schools for community development: Power imbalances in rural community collaboratives addressing childhood adversity

Abstract Complex challenges such as toxic stress and childhood adversity require cooperation and collaboration between organizations – particularly schools – and communities in order to be addressed. However, schools can be challenging partners in place-based collaborations because of the ways in which they are beholden to external mandates and pressures from state and federal agencies. This qualitative case study examines how stakeholder groups participating in a community collaborative frame the goals, opportunities, and challenges of collaborating to address childhood adversity and toxic stress in a remote, rural context. Using a technique called affinity networks to visualize the valence of ideas and beliefs across their collaborative network, we identify shared frames for their work as well as specific sites of frame competition between school-based stakeholders and others. We suggest that these patterns indicate the importance of explicitly framing community collaborations that include schools in ways that ensure equitable participation, particularly of historically marginalized groups.

Poverty, Privilege, and Political Dynamics within Rural School Reform: Unraveling Educational Leadership in the Invisible America.

This case was written to help prepare teacher-leaders, principals, and central office administrators, particularly those in rural and economically marginalized settings, who are expected to lead teachers and stakeholders in their community through increasingly stressed economic conditions. The intent of the case study is for educators to examine the impact privilege has on the often White, middle-class mind-set of educators, particularly when supporting economically marginalized communities. Educators studying this case should examine the role that poverty, privilege, and politics play in school leadership, specifically when thinking about school reform and community improvement efforts.