Project seeks Nevada’s next generation of education leaders

Nevada faces an unprecedented challenge, and with this challenge comes great opportunity. The education profession is changing before our eyes. The talents and skills it takes to teach and lead in education are being reshaped by technological and societal changes that are not waiting for the industry to catch up. This evolution is fully exposing issues in the profession that have been apparent at some level for nearly 30 years. Combine this shift with the high number of individuals leaving the profession and the low number entering it, and we are at the front edge of a perfect storm.

This storm need not ruin us. Historically, Nevadans have held the education of our young to be a paramount responsibility. At our founding, we enshrined in our constitution our belief that the education of all young people would redound to the benefit of all the people of the state. Even today, we spend nearly 45 percent of our state budget on K-12 education. However, at present, the ideas expressed at our founding and the money we are spending are not enough. We must modernize the profession so that it will continue to encourage all Nevadans to reach their greatest potential.

In 2015, we took huge steps forward in addressing the challenges that face our public education system. Gov. Brian Sandoval and the state Legislature, with help from school districts, unions and community groups, passed many reforms designed to help school districts address issues that have frustrated school leaders for decades. Some of the reforms have worked in other states and are likely to produce positive results here as well. Some are on the cutting edge of reform, and only time will tell if they have a positive effect on student achievement. The truth is, however, that none of these reforms will reach their fullest potential without having great teachers and leaders in the classroom.

If Nevada is to continue to progress in reforming our education system, we must address the teacher shortage and the overall deficit of leadership in the industry.

Technology has changed opportunities for our children, and the workplace a decade from now will require schools to focus on how kids think, rather than on what they should think.

The future requires schools to be innovative and adaptive, as well as to maximize technological resources and change educational processes to meet the needs of different educational environments.

As a result, we will need educational leaders with different skills and competencies than they possess today. We'll need principals who can build adaptive cultures, work systemically and be as good at innovation and problem solving as we will ask our students to be in 2025.

As Nevadans think about how best to recruit, develop and retain highly effective principals and other school leaders, we must first come to some agreement about what the standards or core competencies should be. What do school leaders need to know? What makes a great principal?

Similarly, we need to be clear about the performance and student achievement outcomes to which we will hold principals accountable. Indeed, the entire principal talent management system needs to be aligned with expected performance. High-level support or, for those achieving expected outcomes, greater autonomy also will be necessary.

The Advisory Group of the What's Next Nevada Project will meet Tuesday to discuss leadership issues and challenges. This group of elected officials, educators, business people and other key stakeholders will derive strategic and systemic recommendations for recruiting, developing and retaining the most effective principals anywhere. (Future topics include teacher recruitment and development, and creating high-performance cultures.)

We have a chance to shape the development of school leaders to meet the current and future needs of our schools. Significant advancement in this area will not come by taking the same steps along the same paths that we have taken to get to the current state of affairs. The hope and the promise of the What's Next Nevada Project is that we will find different paths to grow the capacity of the next generation of leaders.

— Brent Husson is president of Nevada Succeeds, a business-led, nonprofit organization that focuses on K-12 education policy.