Superintendent's Cabinet
Leading by teaching and learning
Superintendent and Cabinet leadership are essential to realizing central office transformation for equity, but that leadership too requires transformation. DL2 research shows that these executive-level leaders seed and support central office transformation when they:
- Lead the ongoing development and use of a theory of action
- Foster staff leadership and learning
- Strategically bridge the district and its staff to external and internal resources and buffer them against distractions.
To realize these shifts, Cabinet leaders must shut down long-standing routines of focusing their meetings on reports and non-strategic work and directing staff in largely hands-off ways and invest in their own capacity-building to lead transformation across the central office relentlessly and collaboratively.
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 Superintendent's Cabinet (Chapter 6) as well as Teaching & Learning, Human Resources, and Operations.
Order From tinkering to transformationBook Here
Research use as learning: The case of fundamental change in school district central offices (2017)
In this American Educational Research Journal article, we share research findings about how central office administrators use research (including the central office transformation research) to fundamentally shift their work to support districtwide teaching and learning improvement.
Read Research Use as LearningArticle HereTools
AASA Podcast: From Teaching to Telling on the Superintendent’s Cabinet (2024)
This episode of AASA's Principal Supervisor Podcast Series focuses on DL2's research on the importance of transforming Cabinet to drive equitable teaching and learning. Leaders from Broward County Public Schools (FL) share their experience using those ideas in their district.
Listen to From teaching to telling on the Superintendent’s CabinetPodcast Here
Central Office Transformation for Equitable Teaching & Learning Self-Study Guide 2.0 (2025)
Part 6 of this tool helps superintendent's cabinet 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 HereMedia
Meredith Honig: Beyond Setting an Instructional Vision (2018)
Watch this video about DL2's research on the school district superintendent as lead instructional leader.
Watch Meredith Honig: Beyond Setting an Instructional Vision Video HereCentral office transformation is…. “not a policy or a program. It’s about rooting out racism and laying down new roots."
-Urban district superintendent