Mark Robertson, director of the Northwest Suburban Integration School District and a former superintendent, said he uses his experience as a former superintendent to work with TIES in bridging the gap between the organization’s mission and what superintendents do in the field.
“It’s going great so far,” he said. “It gives superintendents an opportunity to really talk about things that are meaningful but aren’t related to budgets, staff, and day-to-day operations.”
He said the participating superintendents appreciate the research-based approach and value discussions focused on helping them become technology advocates.
“[The program has] provoked a lot of good discussions that superintendents bring back into their own districts once they leave,” Robertson said. “Technology has to be embedded in the way superintendents do things.”
“The more involved the superintendent is with the actual IT planning is helpful,” Schweizer added.
CoSN’s superintendent framework presents a “third wave” technology challenge in today’s districts. The first-wave challenge for education technology is infrastructure, such as networks, hardware, and access. The second wave is the supportive and enabling applications, such as student information systems and distance learning. The third wave, CoSN says, is transformative applications: integrating technology into every aspect of teaching and learning.
While superintendents don’t necessarily need to have in-depth involvement with the first two waves, their participation is essential for the third wave.
“It’s hard for superintendents to jump in, in the third wave, when they historically haven’t been involved in the first or second,” Schweizer said—which is where TIES can help.
“The world of superintendency, truth be told, can be very isolated,” Robertson said. “This is really helping model the 21st century. The collaborative dialog between districts is becoming powerful.”
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