Pedro Noguera served as a keynote speaker at the AASA-Howard University Urban Superintendents Academy Inaugural Conference on Aug. 28, 2015. He offered 10 points of advice to attendees, comprised of educators who have enrolled in the AASA-Howard Academy who want to serve as superintendents in urban settings.
Pedro Noguera’s 10 points of advice comprised of:
- 50% of the job is political.
- We have to understand where the power is in our community (in the Board, Mayor’s office, within our business communities) and how to relate to power and work with it. Otherwise, don’t take the job or you will be set up for failure. If you’re not in the job, you’re not going to make a difference.
- Communication matters!
- Figure out how to control the narrative about you and the district. If we don’t figure this out, we will be consumed by it. The media doesn’t cover the positive attributes of our school systems such as the resilience we see in our students. We have to figure out how to engage the media and be willing and able to put ourselves out there publicly to change the negative perception that our communities often see.
- Avoid fights, unless you cant.
- We need to pick and choose our battles. If we exert all of our energy into every single battle, we won’t have time to solve problems. We must become masters at compromise and gain the ability to work things through with others in order to see progress.
- Build your team.
- Surround yourselves with smart and confident people that know how to get things done. Find people to work with that will give you good, reliable, and sound advice.
- Have a proactive agenda.
- Too many leaders have a constant reaction mode because they don’t have an agenda. Don’t spend your first few years developing your agenda because you don’t have the time!
- Create a reform agenda.
- School districts nowadays don’t have a vision for serving its community. We need an agenda to win the confidence of our communities back. The agenda can’t be based on low standards or expectations; it has to be based on what we want for OUR children.
- Avoid gimmicks!
- Be careful and cautious of what you invest your public resources in.
- Inspire your staff.
- Be the visionary leader who makes things happen. We rely too heavily on fear in this country. Be the leader that encourages and builds up your team!
- Stay focused on teaching and learning.
- We need more focus on high quality instruction. Talk about the inspiring lessons you’ve observed and how we can replicate that. Be inspired by good work that’s going on and learn to acknowledge and reinforce this hard work by others.
- Take care of yourself!
- Eat, get rest, exercise, pray/meditate so that we are around to keep giving back and giving more.
For more information, visit www.aasa.org