Excellence in Education: The Opportunity for School Superintendents to become Ambitious?

Abstract

This article briefly discusses the nature of the recent calls for educational reform and highlights difficulties researchers have had in explaining why earlier educational innovation strategies have not gone as expected. Subsequently, the argument is made that a crucial understanding of the historical development of the public school movement and its current situation is needed to better understand educational functioning and school reform in the United States. In particular, it is suggested that the historical role of the school superintendent is pivotal in predicting the direction of schoolpolicy in the "era of excellence. "A case study is provided in an attempt to show how current calls for school reform have been utilized by one metropolitan school superintendent tofacilitate educational innovation and to solidify his own organizational power within his district. The argument is made that the current context for educational reform provides a historical setting both to significantly alter school policy in the coming decade and as a renewed opportunity for many local school superintendents to become ambitious.