The Little District That Could: The Process of Building District-School Trust

Abstract

Purpose: This article describes how trust emerged as an issue in one school district and the processes by which central office administrators enhanced trust with its school site leaders.Method: This exploratory participant observer case study uses multiple sources of data including surveys, interviews, observations, and documents collected during a 4-year period from central office and school site leaders. Findings: The article illustrates how a university partner can play a critical role in surfacing and bringing forth action on an undiscussable issue-trust between the central office and its schools-and the actions taken by the central office to address specific facets of trust: openness, communication, risk, and integrity. The site administrators' response to these actions revealed that trust can be developed at both the relational and organizational leadership levels. Significance to the Field: The study is significant in illustrating that building trust between the central office and school sites can be an essential step in an underperforming district and can serve as a resource in achieving and sustaining school district reform. It also shows that attending to specific facets of trust can be useful when examining the development of trust between school sites and the district office.

Collective Leadership Development: Emerging Themes From Urban, Suburban, and Rural High Schools

“…The focus of this study is on school-level collective leadership development of both teachers and administrators. Certainly, district level leadership can be integral in the influence and development of school level leadership (Chhuon, Gilkey, Gonzalez, Daly, & Chrispeels, 2008; Mangin, 2009; Supovitz, 2006). Moreover, a perception of flatness or reduced hierarchy in district leadership can be beneficial for school improvement (Leithwood, 2010).…”

Trust in cross-sector alliances: Towards a theory of relational trust in multi-professional education networks

“…Discussions related to the improvement of educational systems have drawn attention to the conditions inherent to educational reforms (Townsend, 2015). Specifically, authors have revealed a lack of relationships between schools and out-of-school organizations (Kolleck, 2016(Kolleck, , 2017, caused by a paucity of exchange beyond institutional borders (Chhuon et al, 2008). However, the structures of most education systems seem to discourage social exchange and interaction across institutional borders more than they encourage it.…”

“…As a result of the growing evidence with respect to the positive effects of collaboration in educational settings (e.g. Chhuon et al, 2008), scholars and practitioners have developed different initiatives with the aim to improve educational equality and interactions between schools and out-of-school organizations through fostering CSAs (Kolleck, 2019). Many different concepts have evolved in recent years to describe forms of collaboration in education.…”

Teacher Trust in District Administration: An Overlooked Relational Support for Teachers

“…They bridge critical boundaries between schools and the larger external context in which schools must adapt. District effectiveness research leans toward the view that actions, or in some cases inactions, by district leaders spread into schools in ways that affect teacher working conditions directly and student outcomes indirectly (Chhuon, Gilkey, Gonzalez, Daly, & Chrispeels, 2008; Diamond, 2012; Rorrer, Skrla, & Scheurich, 2008; Sharratt & Fullan, 2009; Trujillo, 2013). Districts can be highly centralized, loosely coupled, or somewhere in between (Firestone, 2009), and these organizational arrangements ultimately have differential consequences for school routines, processes, practices, and accomplishments.…”