 Phyllis Hudecki said it’s difficult to get the
salaries needed to attract top talent to SEAs.
| Moderator:
Christine Campbell
Senior Research Analyst, Center on Reinventing Public Education Panelists:
Cynthia G. Brown
Vice President for Education Policy, Center for American Progress Phyllis Hudecki
Oklahoma Secretary of Education and Executive Director, Oklahoma Business & Education Coalition
Frederick M. Hess
Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
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Moderator Christine Campbell of the Center on Reinventing Public Education opened the session by describing how the role of SEAs is changing, as states seek to achieve more gains for students with less money. But she asked, “Are states up to the task? The answer from all of us is no.” Campbell added that most states are finding that, “their reach is pretty thin.”
Moving from compliance to reform
Phyllis Hudecki has a dual role as Secretary of Education for Oklahoma and Executive Director of the Oklahoma Business & Education Coalition. She said in her experience of working at education departments in different states, she has found state education leaders all came from local school systems, where the focus was on compliance. “When you walked the same path as the people you are trying to help, it becomes difficult to ask these same folks to be reformers,” she said.
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Cynthia Brown said there’s been a “lack of imagination” in tackling silos at SEAs.
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Hudecki said Oklahoma has tried to get rid of the silos in the education department and get more cross fertilization. “We’re putting the focus on literacy, college and career-ready graduation, and distributing special ed staff.”
Difficulty of attracting talent
Hudecki said in the current political climate it is difficult to get salary increases needed to attract top talent. “We tried to recruit people who are reform-minded,” she said. “We are trying to get them decent salaries, and gradually trying to get them full-time positions.”
State education agencies that have existed for thirty to forty years, said Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. He described them as small shops dedicated to tracking federal dollars. “They pay poorly, when compared to district jobs,” said Hess. “They are offering people less money and often asking them to move to a less desirable location, and adding to this, they get further away from schools and classrooms. None of this is appealing.”
Cynthia G. Brown of the Center for American Progress said some states have created separate entities to raise salaries. “The chief state school officers want to do the job when they come in,” said Brown. “Most have been very successful superintendents and they get to the state agency and shockingly, it’s a totally different job.”
Transforming the bureaucracy
Brown said there’s been a “lack of imagination” in tackling silos at state agencies, adding that the federal government says nothing about how they have to be organized.
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“The SEA is profoundly more important today.” -Rick Hess
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Hess said the environment at state education agencies has changed dramatically. “The SEA is profoundly more important today,” said Hess. “They're more important because of what they're being asked to do, and what they can do. For instance, you simply couldn’t build value- added systems a few years ago.”
Hess said the SEAs have “baked-in elements in their DNA—culture, routines and norms.” He said energetic chiefs have to figure out how to transform the bureaucracy despite these. “We need politically savvy, skilled, passionate leaders to come in and figure out how you reengineer reforms,” said Hess. “People who can work with reform-minded superintendents to figure out where they are getting bottlenecked by the SEA. That's the challenge.”
