Seattle Schools' Administrative Governance: "Culture of Bureaucracy"

Melissa Westbrook

There are sometimes days doing this watchdog work that are defeating, sad and frustrating. Today is one those. I'll get to the issue at hand but a few thoughts first.

I've said this before - I do truly believe we have some good and decent people working in SPS. There are several up the food chain who are almost great but, like many a bureaucracy, have those whose work either drags them down or mires them in place.

I've also said this before - anyone who works in leadership at SPS who does not read and heed the words in the Moss-Adams report of 2002 is doomed to failure. Or, at least doomed to frustration.

The echo in my head from that brilliant report (and I paraphrase here) -

It does not matter what structural or systemic change you bring to an institution, if the culture of bureaucracy at an institution does not change, nothing changes.

Related: Deja Vu: A Focus on "Adult Employment" or the Impossibility of Governance Change in the Madison Schools.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 1, 2013 3:56 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas