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De Pena-Ldrs 800-Organizational Assessment - Due 120113
De Pena-Ldrs 800-Organizational Assessment - Due 120113
De Pena-Ldrs 800-Organizational Assessment - Due 120113
Ruben E. De Pena
Fort Hays State University
Organizational Assessment
Organizational Assessment
Background
MNPS has a total enrollment of more than 81,000 students, making it the second largest
public school system in Tennessee and the 41st largest school district in the U.S. There are 153
schools, including alternative and charter schools. Total certificated staff is 6,539 and the number
of support personnel is 3,694 for a total of 10,041 employees. Almost 73% of the student body is
economically-disadvantage and 24% are English learners.
In addition to K-12 education, MNPS offers numerous Pre-K classes and has several
options for adult learns and offers a program for gifted and talented students.
MNPS is also one of the most diverse school districts in the nation. 120 countries and
nearly the same amount of languages were represented in the 2012-2013 school year. Here is a
demographical outlook of our student population by grade tier and ethnicity:
TOTAL ENROLLMENT
Pre-School
Pre-Kinder
Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Exceptional Education
Total
STUDENT ETHNIC COMPOSITION (DISTRICT
WIDE):
Asian
3, 260
Black
37,116
Hispanic
15,057
Indian
136
Pacific Islander
102
White
26,567
141
1,978
34,793
22,656
19,895
1,570
81, 033
4.1%
45.8%
16.5%
0.2%
0.1%
33.3%
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still lags behind other surrounding districts according to the most recent data from the Tennessee
Department of Education (2013 Report Card).
As a result, a sense of urgency to reframe the structure has emerged. With it, heightened
tension has occurred across the district. This tension has been particularly evident between the
central office and many school administrators. For years many principals have regarded the
central office as a distraction and even an obstacle to their school improvement efforts. As a
matter of fact, a recent study conducted by Shirley and Piazza (2012) reflects that tension: The
major obstacle to increasing capacity in the MNPS was viewed by principals as residing in the
districts central office and its personnel (p. 10). Another principal said, The folks at the
central office are very nice folks, so Im not saying anything bad about them. I like them. I dont
know why they would hire me to run the school if theyre not going to let me run the school. So,
Im willing to, you know, let me run the school. If I mess it up, fire me. Im okay with that. Im
willing to take that chance (2012, p. 15). That blame game is also reciprocal, as more than one
Central Office executive has attributed lack of progress at a particular school to lack of
consistency in implementation of a particular program. In fact, one central office administrator
justifies a micromanaging approach because of districts sense of urgency. Nobody wants to be
low performingso you actually get more dictates, more programs, more orders, you know,
more constraints (2012, p. 16).
This tension seems to exist lately between many social workers and the head of discipline
at the central office. Social workers contend they are overworked and the district ought to hire
more of them; the central office leader claims the social workers should learn to manage their
time more efficiently. No wonder Bolman and Deal say that finger-pointing attitude is nothing
Organizational Assessment
but a fallacy of human thinking and When it is hard to identify a guilty individual, a second
popular option is blaming the bureaucracy (2008, p. 27).
Structural fissures also exist in the English Learners (EL) department. According to a
comparison chart from Tennessee Report Card 2012-2013
(https://srcreports.measuretn.gov/views/TenneseeSchoolReportcard2013v2/Comparisons?:embed
=y&:display_count=no), English Learners achieved the least vs. other subgroups. That resulted
in removal of the departments Executive Director. That person is the second leader of that
department that has been either removed or reassigned to other positions in recent years.
Another characteristic for the structure is the short-lived nature of districts programs and
strategic plans that were originally conceived as a long term proposition. To illustrate this, over
the past eight years there have been four transformational initiatives touted as very promising
toward academic achievement, one under a previous superintendent and the other three under the
current administration: 1) Seven Year Strategic Plan in 2007; 2) MNPS Achieves/
Transformational Leadership Group Initiative in 2010; Inspirational Schools Partnership in 2011;
and in 2013 the MNPS Strategic Plan, Education 2018: Excellence for Every Student. While the
above initiatives were conceived with a sense of urgency and other change characteristics, it is
difficult to contend that they allowed Producing visible symbols of progress through shortterm victories or Sticking with the process and refusing to quit when things get tough, two
eight very important characteristics that are repeatedly found in successful change initiatives
according to Kotter (as cited by Bolman and Deal, 2008, 394).
Another criticism is that, while the district is very diverse as demonstrated earlier, it was
not until 2012 that it adopted a clearly detailed document based on an extract from the school
systems mission and vision on diversity:
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addition to the FIS, the department has 6 Community Outreach Specialists (COS), who besides
acting as liaisons between families, schools, and communities, they specialize in other aspects
including: professional development, immigrant and refugee outreach, event coordination, faith
community outreach, parental empowerment, communications, and public relations. Short-term
victories are celebrated as schools, families, and communities seem to be working more closely
together toward student achievement. This successful structural dynamic is clearly expressed in
figure 1, below:
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In spite of increased autonomy that principals have received over the past two years,
particularly with the promotion of Lead Principals to serve as liaisons between a cluster of
principals and the central office, tension is still prevalent; principals and teachers feel
overworked and micromanaged. Therefore, my recommendation for the district would be as
follows:
1. Starting the next school year, provide all principals with full autonomy in every
single area of contention such as recruiting, professional development, budget
allocation, etc. The only involvement of central office executive staff will be as a
coach in decision making, particularly for new principals. In other words, have
the principals create sef-managing teams from the bottom up. Why trying this?
Evidence suggest that self-directed teams often produce better results and higher
morale than groups operating under more traditional top-down control (Cohen and
Ledford, 1994; Emery and Fredendal, 2002) (2008, p. 113).
2. Because many principals also complain about the lack of time to read even a
fraction of the enormous amount of printed and/or electronic information they
receive every day across the district, I would recommend that the central office
simplify the communication process by creating and delivering short, yet relevant
announcements on key initiatives. These messages ought to be sent via the
principals medium of choice, such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, or even
scheduled voice messages through the districts internal callout system.
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While the HCS seems to be doing a very good job overall in focusing on welfare of
employees, there seems to be disagreement among many about the internal consulting portion
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of the mission statement. Additionally, there seems to be a lot of tension about the emphasis on
the centralized aspect of such statement. Being such a vast, complex, educational system,
Metro Nashville Public Schools is characterized by a highly competive interdepartmental
approach where everyone is trying to meet their own individual goals and objectives while
keeping lackluster focus on the overall mission and vision of the school district. This situation
has been more prevalent in recent years as pressures for academic achievement has resulted in a
multi-rubric, rigid evaluation processes. Consequently, many educators feel both
underappreciated and overworked, and exhibit a cynical view about job security.
In the past year, the accountability lever continued to rise as a result of subpar academic
results for certain student subgroups. That inevitably produced more tension among employees.
Additionally, budgetary constraints resulting from the recent recession that plagued the nation
have resulted in the elimination of certain school and district programs, which have resulted in
either job loss or job reallocation to other departments. In other instances, a significant number
of key central office executives have been sent back to the classroom as a way to maximize
efforts toward student achievement.
In spite of this perception by many employees in MNPS, the department of Family and
Community Partnerships which was previously mentioned as an example of functional structure,
has an Executive Director that clearly understands the importance of nurturing, developing, and
empowering her 25 employees. She is very accessible and, while she has high expectations for
each individual staff member, she has established a sense of camaraderie and collaboration
among everyone. She is very conscientious of the burden each employee has to effect academic
achievement and she makes sure to provide whatever professional development opportunity
toward victory. She makes sure that each employee feels valued within the team. As an incentive
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toward excellence, team groups are encouraged to compete for a special trophy and a gift card to
a local restaurant based on a series of pre-established measurable outcomes, such as truancy
reduction and number of community partners that contributed to the reduction of socio-emotional
barriers in our students. As a result, while other departments have been required to eliminate
certain positions due to ever-increasing budgetary constraints, the Department of Family and
Community Partnerships has actually added 2 new positions recently. Morale is very high and a
sense of family structure is easy perceived. Personal and professional accomplishments are
publically celebrated and it is not uncommon for the leader to pay for everyones lunch, out of
her own money, as a token of appreciation for everyones effort toward student achievement.
This success could arguably be attributed to her following mostly, if not totally, Maslows
hierarchy of needs that Bolman and Deal clearly illustrate and explain (pp.124-125).
Recommendations for human resource reframing in MNPS
While many positive things are happening in various MNPS department, the following
recommendations for overall reframing of Human Resources:
1. Create and maintain a culture of interdepartmental cooperation. One idea could be
encouraging each central office employee to spend one hour a month at a different
department to observe procedures toward a common district goal: Closing the
achievement gap.
2. Encourage each department head to allow each staff member for ongoing
volunteering opportunities at schools.
3. Require each employee to take a diversity/cultural competency class as part of the
hiring requirements.
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MNPS Officials and district advocates, the State reprimanded MNPS by imposing a penalty of
$3.4 million of promised administrative funding and distributed the funds to other school
systems. In response to criticisms by Charter advocates on the Districts refusal to approve Great
Hearts, District officials argued the States imposition on School Board decisions on charter
schools, usurp local authority and fail to take into account the financial and academic
consequences that new charters have on the regular public school system (Education Week,
2012).
The political confrontation between the School Board and Charter advocates has recently
intensified. In a 7-1 decision, the School Board restricted the expansion of new charter schools
for the 2014 school year to only those areas in town where traditional schools are over capacity.
As expected, there was reaction from the other side. In fact, Mayor Karl Dean, an outspoken
charter proponent, told The Tennessean that the plan concerns him, in part because some of the
citys highest-performing schools are charters. He continued to argue that the idea for charter
schools existence in not just for capacity purposes, rather to improve the education system and
provide an opportunity to those seeking the education they deserve (The Tennessean, 2013).
Nonetheless, many good things have been happening for a while in the district as far as
external coalition building. Programs like Family Resource Centers (FRCs), Parent University,
Poverty Simulation, and Bringing Justice to You are worth mentioning. As an example for the
latter, this District initiative has succeeded in partnering with the Davidson County Public
Defender, Criminal Court Clerk, and General Sessions Court to provide limited expungement of
records and fee and fine waivers to qualifying MNPS families. The sentiment on the good things
the district is doing and how politics often clouds them, particularly the FRCs, has been recently
echoed by the media (The Tennessean, 2013b). Other positive things that are happening from a
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political point of view include the expansion of magnet and other optional schools, particularly
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) schools as a counterweight to the
expanding growth of STEM charter schools.
Recommendations for political reframing in MNPS
1. Recruitment of an expert in government affairs and conflict resolution. That
person should be in charge of building powerful coalitions at local, state, and even
national levels.
2. Draft a memorandum of understanding for potential collaboration between
traditional and charter schools. That would contribute to easing of tensions.
3. To budget for year-round marketing campaign to showcase effective MNPS
programs and events.
MNPS Symbolic Frame
Based on observations and casual conversations with various employees (both support
and certificated) from different departments, the generalized view is that MNPS in actuality
lacks of a symbolic perspective where everyone can look to for either inspiration or solace, in
times of organizational prosperity or in times of crisis. There could be blurred symbols at
different departments, but are hard to articulate. Additionally, while symbolic aspects are part of
the culture in many successful individual schools, especially those nominated as national Blue
Ribbon Schools, the District, per se, struggles to create a unifying symbolic lens toward a
common objective: academic achievement for all students.
One possibility lies within the context of the districts mission statement:
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Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the
foundation of knowledge, skills, and character necessary to excel in higher
education, work and life. We embrace and value a diverse student population and
community. Different perspectives and backgrounds form the cornerstone of our
strong public education system. (Retrieved from
http://www.mnps.org/Page63178.aspx)
As one can see, it is very important for the district to embrace and value a diverse
student population and community. This could be a potential symbol to adopt and value. The
issue is that even in this day and age anecdotal evidence suggests that many minority students
and families are concerned about unwelcoming environments at certain schools. To complicate
matters, minority students (with the exception of Asians) have been academically lagging behind
their white counterparts for years (Tennessee Department of Education, Report Card 2013).
So, what can be done to change the status quo? The answer is not that simple.
Nonetheless, Cornfield et al (2013) recommend a series of steps that Nashville needs to take for
more inclusive and equitable practices in the next 25 years, including to Bring AfricanAmerican parents back into the Metro Nashville Public School system public
education system. Provide diversity training for MNPS teachers and administrators to make
schools safer and more welcoming for members of the African-American community (p. 28).
Consequently, because it is evident that creating a symbol around the strength of diversity
in school would be counterproductive at this time, it is necessary to think about other
possibilities.
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Figure 2
Source:
http://www.mnps.org/Sharedsites/234/templates/images/logo
withbkgrd609.jpg
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Conclusion
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools has the huge but necessary challenge ahead of
adopting significant changes in the way it conducts business. There are significant concerns in all
four leadership frames, particularly at structural level. The lack of a strong symbol to unify the
district has been labeled as troubling by many. While the district has made a slight improvement
in academic achievement for grades 3-8 (see figure 3) and a more notable progress for growth in
grades 4-8 (figure 4), (Tennessee Department of Education, 2013 Report Card), that has not been
enough to catch up with other surrounding school systems. Therefore, if MNPS adopts a
comprehensive transformation construct through visionary leaders willing to challenge the status
quo, a bright future lies ahead. To get there, reframing the current MNPS business model by
effectively combining all four leadership mindsets, is an imperative that cannot wait.
Figure 3
Source: http://mnpschildrenfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/screen-shot-2013-11-13at-10-30-21-am.png?w=604
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Figure 4
Source: http://mnpschildrenfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/screen-shot-2013-11-13at-10-30-30-am.png?w=604
18
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References
Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(4th ed.), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Cavanagh, S. (2012, September 18). Tennessee withholds Nashville funds after charter denial.
Education Week. Retrieved from
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/09/tennessees_department_of_educ
ation_announced.html
Cornfield, D.B., Newbern, A., Dixon, S., Eatherly, M., Fotopulos, S., Murphy, K., Williams,
A. (2013). Partnering for an equitable and inclusive Nashville. Retrieved from
http://www.tnimmigrant.org/storage/policy/FINAL%20Equity-and-Inclusion.pdf
Garrison, J. (2012, June 26). School board rejects Great Hearts, approves KIPP and Purpose
Prep. TheCityPaper. Retrieved from http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/citynews/school-board-rejects-great-hearts-approves-kipp-and-purpose-prep
Kerr, G. (2013, November 9). Gail Kerr: Politics often clouds Metro schools' good work. The
Tennessean. Retrieved from
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131110/COLUMNIST0101/311100064
Metro Schools Communications Department (2013). Facts 2012-2013. Retrieved from
http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=81681
MNPS Board of Education (2012). MNPS Diversity Initiatives. Retrieved from
http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=73186
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Shirley, D. & Piazza, P. (2012). A report on the inspirational schools partnership with the
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Lynch School of Education. Boston College.
Retrieved from
http://posting.nashvillescene.com/images/blogimages/2013/09/05/1378420651bostoncollegereport.pdf
Tennessee Department of Education, Kevin Huffman, Commissioner (n/d). 2013 Report Card.
Retrieved from http://tn.gov/education/reportcard/2013.shtml
Wilson, B. & Garrison, J. (2013, November 12). Metro school board limits '14 charter expansion
to certain areas. The Tennessean. Retrieved from
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131112/NEWS04/311120037/Metro-school-boardmay-limit-2014-charter-expansion-certain-areas?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1