Unless you’ve been stuck in a subway tunnel somewhere for the last few months, you know that NYC Chancellor Carmen Fariña has announced her 2nd retirement, Miami Supe Alberto Caravalho psyched out De Blasio and had an even shorter tenure than Cathie Black, returning to the bosom of weeping Miami-ans before he’d even left (telenovela style), and Houston Supe Richard Carranza has since stepped eagerly in.
Prior to the spectacle, you may have missed an interesting Politico/Shapiro piece on how Fariña operated as NYC Chancellor: This is how Carmen Fariña works: Outgoing chancellor led from inside schools. The piece provides insight into Fariña’s strengths, as well as possible weaknesses.
A while back in 2014, we examined how Fariña was leading from a socio-ecological perspective, and we rated her quite highly at that time.
I think those ratings still hold. Fariña has brought deep instructional and administrative experience to the role, and she has demonstrated many of the traits that we’ve examined as signs of a leader who recognizes the importance of schools as ecosystems, such as:
- Values inclusion and diversity (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- Consistently observes local conditions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Plays the long game (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Models active listening (1, 2, 3, 4)
- Applies intensive management (1, 2, 3, 4)
- Displays a willingness to try different things (1, 2, 3, 4)
- Utilizes the principle of obliquity (1, 2, 3)
- Sweats the small stuff (1, 2, 3)
- Demonstrates humility (1, 2)
- Facilitates the confrontation of the brutal facts (1, 2)
Yet I think, too, her administration has demonstrated some of the downsides of a few of these aspects when operating a system as vast and complex as NYC’s.
Take “consistently observes local conditions.” As Shapiro’s article highlights so well, Fariña’s great strength as a leader is her ability to step foot into a school and see what’s going on and speak from her expertise as an educator.
Yet in operating a system as vast as NYC’s, it doesn’t make as much sense to attempt to direct the system from such supervision alone. As Shapiro points out in the article, despite all of the visits she’s conducted in her tenure as chancellor, she still has only been “inside fewer than half of the city’s 1,800 schools.”
Fariña’s theory of change, as articulated in this piece, seems to be that she and her superintendents will ensure better outcomes in NYC schools by visiting schools.
I think there’s sound logic to this–it aligns with the idea that context is key and that stepping foot in schools is essential to see past the numbers–but what I find interesting is that at no point have I heard this theory of action clearly articulated by either the Chancellor or her administration.
I find this problematic because if we are talking about a theory of action, we are acknowledging that it’s a hypothesis, and that we need to keep checking to see if it’s accurate. This is fundamental in the administration of a public system — the public needs to know what is happening so they can hold the administration accountable.
Under Joel Klein, the theory of action that governed his administration was pretty clear — by breaking up the ‘fiefdoms’ of the districts and empowering principals and holding them accountable, student outcomes would improve. You could disagree with this theory of action and how it was implemented, but at least you knew what it was.
Under Fariña, it has not been so clear what her theory of action has been.
Klein’s strength as a chancellor lay in systems thinking, but his weakness was lack of experience and expertise as an educator. It might be said that Fariña flip-flopped these strengths and weaknesses.
Let me hasten to acknowledge that overseeing NYC’s vast and diverse system of schools is a tremendous challenge, and we are fortunate to have benefited from the deep dedication and service of Carmen Fariña.
Will NYC’s new chancellor be able to balance systems-level strategy with ground-level expertise?
Schools & Ecosystems 