My editors and I are starting to comb through the wonderful nominations that we’ve received so far for our “Leaders to Learn From” package that will be published in February. But we’re still looking for more names!
As a reminder, Education Week will be profiling a number of school district leaders who have brought fresh and successful ideas to their school communities. These leaders might include superintendents who have forged new routes to higher student achievement, finance directors who have devised novel strategies to stretch district dollars, curriculum directors with effective, outside-the-box methods for improving learning districtwide—in other words, we’re looking for the central office staffers who have come up with good ideas and led the way in making those ideas work.
After combing through dozens of nominations at this point, I also wanted to add a few more tips that may help guide you as you consider potential nominees who should be featured in this special report:
- Please don’t forget to give us the name of your district and your location! A few nominations have come in with no indication of where the nominee works. In the same vein, please give us your nominee’s title.
- Think unique. Fortunately, there are many district leaders nationwide who have improved student achievement during their tenure. But what we’re looking for is one or two concrete achievements that can truly be lessons for other school administrators to adopt in their own communities. Specificity on why this person is worthy of recognition is always good.
- We’re only looking right now for administrators who work in central office positions—not to neglect the many wonderful principals in the country, but they’re not our focus for this special section.
- Also, our primary interest is in people who are currently working in public school districts. Several nominations have been submitted for charter leaders, or former superintendents who are now running advocacy groups or organizations that offer district professional development. Again, worthy work, but not the focus of this special section.
We hope to make final decisions on at least some of our candidates by August, so please get your names in soon! You may use the web form embedded below, and please feel free to email Assistant Managing Editor Debra Viadero with any questions.