Abby Kretsch
April 10, 2012
Blog #4
I brought up an issue at my internship site about the consistency and thoroughness of our work on attendance at the school. I pointed out that we had not called all of the families who we had set out to call, and had not followed through on the small-scale intervention that we had planned on. I also tried to point out that we were taking credit for progress and were using this progress as rationale for expanding the intervention to other schools. However, in the process we had not followed through with the protocol we had developed and were basically doing a sloppy job. I also brought up the fact that we were misrepresenting some of the work we had done. I am detailed oriented and the way that we explained some of the data was, in my opinion, not entirely accurate. At the time, this issue was either not understood or not acknowledged. The issue was not ripe enough. People seemed excited about the momentum of the project and the initial progress we had made and wanted to expand it prior to completing the work at the pilot site. They may also have been more concerned with portraying the work of the organization well, rather than adhering to the limitations of the data. As an intern, I struggled to know my place in the situation, and after raising the issue gently, I let it go and continued with the work.
Later, this issue continued to eat at me and it started to—in my opinion—detract from authenticity of the work that we were doing. It felt like we were coasting forward for far too long on work that we had done several months previously. Again the issue of expanding the project came up, with additional schools wanting to get on board. I brought up the fact again that we had not finished our work at the pilot school and that expanding might be premature. I reiterated that we had a choice, to either do a small piece of the work well or to take on a larger scale project without the capacity to do so. At this point, the issue had ripened and people were more receptive to discussing this issue. I also brought it up more assertively and was candid with how I felt about the project. People responded to this and we were able to come to a consensus about how we wanted to proceed. It can be difficult to balance the need to operate within the constraints of our capacity and resources with the desire to implement a promising intervention in order to reach as many students as possible.
I was able to bring this issue up because I was feeling more competent in my role on the project team. I have realized that I possess skills and perspectives as a result of my experience and education that allow me to bring assets to the group that others may not possess. I have realized that it is my responsibility to use my unique background in order to bring up views that others may not see or consider because they have been trained differently, have different skills or different agendas. When we all bring these perspectives to the table, we can combine them into generate an effective work plan. When I started my internship I felt that I should sit back and observe others do this and that I was there only to learn. Now I feel that I have a role in the group and a contribution that will not be given unless I bring it to the table. I have a more balanced approach. I am still there to learn but also to contribute and I must have the humility to realize that my contributions are no better or worse than those of my coworkers.
In response to the Katzman article, if I were a superintendent of a district, I would be worried about the proposed change in the flow of power, since effectively this new arrangement between the state, the school and the SSOs removes the district from the equation. This new arrangement gives schools more control over how to spend the funding and takes this decision making power away from the district. Therefore, I, as the district superintendent, have lost my decision making power. This means that I am potentially a strong force that could stand in the way of innovative change. However, if I can find a new role in facilitating the decision making of the schools and collaborating with them in their process of selecting SSOs, then I might be able to get on board with the change.
