With news of Alaska Commissioner of Education Mike Hanley’s departure, I’m wondering where our state is headed as the Board of Education forges a new path. As a classroom teacher for almost 27 years, and as 2016 Alaska Teacher of the Year, representing the teaching profession across the state, I consider the impact a State Education Commissioner has on the classroom. It is my hope that our new Commissioner will have years of classroom experience as well as administrative experience so that they, too, will keep decisions in check as they determine a wide variety of outcomes far-reaching in both our rural and urban schools. Following the #PublicSchoolsPublicGood this week, I’m convinced that Alaska deserves a top educational leader who also believes that, indeed, Alaska Public Schools are Alaska’s Public Good.
To that end, I’ve been reading studies on what qualities are found in successful education leaders. The Council of Chief State School Officers who sponsors the National Teacher of the Year Program has many resources identifying necessary skills and traits for best practices of education leaders. I resourced two sets of Professional Standards very similar to one another, 2014 Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards and 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, and used them as a basis to create a David Letterman-style “Top Ten” Qualities of an Education Commissioner.
Top 10 Qualities of an Education Commissioner:
10. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by ensuring the development of a culture of continuous school improvement.
9. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by ensuring the development of equitable educational opportunity and culturally responsive schools.
8. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by adhering to ethical principles and professional norms.
7. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by ensuring effective and efficient management of schools and districts to advance student social and academic learning.
6. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by engaging communities, tribes, families and other stakeholders in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways.
5. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by developing the professional capacity and practice of school personnel through fostering professional learning communities for teachers and other professional staff.
4. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by cultivating an inclusive, caring, and supportive state climate.
3. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by developing and supporting intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
2. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by enhancing instruction that maximizes student learning.
1. Promotes the success and well-being of every student by ensuring the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a child-centered vision of quality schooling.
(From the 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders and 2014 Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards and full credit to their authors.)
Notice they all begin with promoting the success and well-being of every student. Some standards are written in a way that end with this sentiment, but I believe it is what comes first. Children first. Always. As the Board of Education grapples with their decision, I hope they consider all Alaska’s children and the educational leader they deserve.
•Amy Jo Meiners is a lifelong Alaskan resident who currently lives in Juneau, and the 2016 Alaska Teacher of the Year.
