District Administrator

AED 725

DISTRICT LEVEL ROLES AND FUNCTIONS

Interview/Reflection Paper (200 points)

Overview

For this assignment, you will interview a practicing district-level administrator currently serving in a public school district. In a five to seven page paper, you will summarize the results of your interview and reflect on your conversation with the leader, noting new insights you gained or ideas which will help you in your own practice as an administrator.

Paper Components

The Interview

Make arrangements early in this course to interview a district-level administrator (e.g., superintendent, assistant or associate superintendent, director, coordinator, supervisor). Explain the nature of this assignment, and set up an interview time conducive to her/his schedule. During the interview, ask questions and take notes to explore the dimensions of leadership related to course topics. Address at least 5 of the following questions.

· What do you perceive as the most important roles in your work? What aspects require the most time? What aspects are of the greatest value?

· Describe the legal aspects of the work which require careful attention.

· Describe how strategic planning is done in the district. What is your role in the process of strategic planning?

· What is your role in supporting student success?

· Describe some of the most challenging conflicts, problems, or situations you encounter in your day-to-day work.

· Tell me about your role in working with regulatory agencies at the various levels (federal, state, and local).

· What challenges do you encounter in human resource administration and how do you overcome these challenges?

· What are your main responsibilities related to fiscal management and budgeting?

· Discuss concepts for effective management of pupil transportation and food service management.

· What is your key advice for fostering relationships and district partnerships with community members?

· How do you evaluate the effectiveness of personnel?

· What strategies do you use to review policy and/or program effectiveness and make improvements or adjustments?

Write the results of your interview in a narrative form. In other words, do not list all of the questions and verbatim answers, but write an effective narrative that summarizes your conversation. You may selectively use quotes from the leader to illustrate your points.

Reflection

Summarize your own thoughts following the interview, and connect your reflections to course concepts. What in the conversation, if anything, surprised you? What new ideas or insights did you gain about district leadership? How will this new knowledge and information from the interview affect your decision-making as a school administrator?

Paper Specifications

Compose your paper in a clear, concise writing style with correct grammar, spelling, and word usage. The interview/reflection paper should be at least five pages and no more than seven pages long, typed or word-processed in 12-point font, Times New Roman, double spaced, 1.0” left/right margins, 1.0” top/bottom margins. All papers should follow the format and style described by the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual. For assistance with APA formatting issues, see the Purdue Online Writing Lab website at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ .

Scoring Rubric

	Exemplary	Proficiency	Developing	Unsatisfactory
Leader Interview (80 points)	Clear, concise description of the interview, with all components effectively addressed, including pertinent quotes	Organized description of the interview, with all components addressed, including some pertinent quotes	Weak or unclear description of the interview or some components not addressed, minimal pertinent quotes	Unclear description of interview; several required components not addressed, no quotes
Reflection (80 points)	Clear, concise, meaningful insights and ideas expressed; reflection closely connects concepts from the course to the interview findings	Logical, well-written reflection; the narrative included numerous insights; connections between concepts from the course and interview findings were evident	Weak or unclear expression of new insights and understandings; connections between course content and the interview findings are not fully developed	Paper does not meaningfully address new insights or understandings; interview findings were not connected to the course concepts in pertinent ways
Writing Style (40 points)	Clear, concise, correct grammar, spelling, word choice, proper APA format	Generally concise, correct grammar, spelling, word choice, proper APA format	Numerous lapses in clarity, grammar, spelling, word choice, and/or APA format which interfered with readability	Major lapses in clarity, grammar, spelling, word choice, and/or APA format which significantly interfered with readability