Monica C. Higgins

Achieving Coherence in District Improvement focuses on a problem of practice faced by educational leaders across the nation: how to effectively manage the relationship between the central office and schools. The book is based on a study of five large urban districts that have demonstrated improvement in student achievement. The authors—all members of Harvard University’s Public Education Leadership Project (PELP)—argue that there is no “one best way” to structure the central offi ce-school relationship. Instead, they say, what matters is whether district leaders eff ectively select and implement their strategy by achieving coherence among key elementsand actors—the district’s environment, resources, systems, structures, stakeholders, and culture.The authors examine the fi ve districts’ approaches in detail and point to a number of important findings. First, they emphasize that a clear, shared understanding of decision rights in key areas—academic programming, budgeting, and staffing—is essential to developing an eff ective central office-school relationship. Second, they stress the importance of building mutually supportive and trusting relationships between district leaders and principals. Third, they highlight the ways that culture and the external environment infl uence the relationship between the central office and schools. Each chapter also provides relevant “Lessons for Practice”—actionable takeaways—that educational leaders from any district can use to improve the central office-school relationship.

Achieving Coherence in District Improvement focuses on a problem of practice faced by educational leaders across the nation: how to effectively manage the relationship between the central office and schools. The book is based on a study of five large urban districts that have demonstrated improvement in student achievement. The authors—all members of Harvard University’s Public Education Leadership Project (PELP)—argue that there is no “one best way” to structure the central offi ce-school relationship. Instead, they say, what matters is whether district leaders eff ectively select and implement their strategy by achieving coherence among key elementsand actors—the district’s environment, resources, systems, structures, stakeholders, and culture.The authors examine the fi ve districts’ approaches in detail and point to a number of important findings. First, they emphasize that a clear, shared understanding of decision rights in key areas—academic programming, budgeting, and staffing—is essential to developing an eff ective central office-school relationship. Second, they stress the importance of building mutually supportive and trusting relationships between district leaders and principals. Third, they highlight the ways that culture and the external environment infl uence the relationship between the central office and schools. Each chapter also provides relevant “Lessons for Practice”—actionable takeaways—that educational leaders from any district can use to improve the central office-school relationship.

An incisive account on the underrepresentation of women, especially women of color, in positions of leadership in K–12 schools and how to correct this bias.Educational Lead(her)ship exposes the systemic obstacles that impede the professional advancement of women in K–12 education and offers readers the tools to recognize and combat these inequities. In this rousing work, educational leadership scholars Jennie Weiner and Monica Higgins investigate patterns of gender bias in the profession, prompted by the observation that, although the great majority of classroom educators are women, disproportionately few women inhabit leadership positions such as principal, superintendent, or school administrator. Through candid interviews with more than 200 women educational leaders, Weiner and Higgins pinpoint implicit and explicit means of repression and highlight the resources that these leaders have marshaled to punch through systemic barriers. The interviewees recount the many forms of sexism and racism they have confronted in the workplace, including microaggressions, stereotypes about women's work, and the expectation of uncompensated emotional labor. Taking aim at the widespread gender and racial discrimination in school systems, Weiner and Higgins identify paths to empowerment for women in education. They advocate solidarity, collective action, and leveraging networks of allies to push for the re-engineering of our educational organizations, environments, and cultures to sow a more balanced and equitable leadership landscape.

Based on her research of 800 biotechnology companies and 3,200 biotechnology executives, Harvard Business School professor Monica Higgins discovered that one firm–Baxter–was the breeding ground for today’s most successful biotechnology ventures. This phenomena of one organization spawning an industry has also been seen in the high-tech (Hewlett-Packard) and semiconductor industries (Fairchild). However, until now there has been no suitable explanation of why and how these organizations were able to create the next generation of industry leaders. Career Imprints shows why Baxter was so successful in spawning senior executives and offers an understanding of what it takes for an organization to produce leaders that will dominate an industry for years to come. In this important book, Higgins shows that an organization’s "career imprint"¾the result of company systems, structure, strategy, and culture¾that employees take with them throughout their careers is the key to creating great leaders. By understanding these factors, staff, human resource executives, and CEOs can analyze their own organization’s career imprint and develop leaders.