Operations
Becoming a strategic support
DL2's research shows that operational units—including Buildings & Grounds, Nutrition Services, and Transportation—support equitable teaching and learning when they:
- Ensure routine services maximize school time and other resources for instruction.
- Engage with school principals and others as a strategic instructional partner.
- Invest in the leadership and growth of operational staff members to serve as strategic supports to schools.
Resources
Research
From tinkering to transformation: How school district central offices drive equitable teaching and learning (2023)
In this book, available from Harvard Education Press, we share our latest findings on the work of Operations (Chapter 5) as well as Teaching & Learning, Human Resources, Principal Supervision, and Cabinet.
Order From tinkering to transformationBook HereTools
AASA Podcast: From Operations to Opportunity (2024)
This episode of AASA's Principal Supervisor Podcast Series focuses on DL2's research on the transformation of central office operational units to drive equitable teaching and learning and how Des Moines Public Schools (IA) has been using those ideas to anchor transformation in their district.
Listen to From operations to opportunityPodcast Here
Central Office Transformation for Equitable Teaching & Learning Self-Study Guide 2.0 (2025)
Part 5 of this tool helps operation central office leaders and their staff self-assess how they work in relation to the central office transformation research findings and develop action plans.
Download Central office transformation for equitable teaching & learning self-studyGuide Here"[Central office transformation] was humanizing. It helped our membership understand you don’t work for a building, you work for students. To help them understand how they can work in ways that truly matter to student success."
-Head of the custodian’s union in a mid-sized district