Outgoing school super John D’Auria reflects on brief but memorable stint in Canton

As a researcher whose bread and butter is educational leadership, Dr. John D’Auria came to Canton in 2007 realizing he had the perfect laboratory to test one of his long-held hypotheses: that a superintendent can impact the culture and climate of a school system as much as a principal can impact a school or a teacher can impact his or her own classroom.

Dr. John D’Auria

Three years into his experiment, the results are promising, yet still largely inconclusive — and they figure to remain that way as D’Auria will soon step down from his post in favor of a new challenge as president of the highly regarded nonprofit organization Teachers 21.

Founded by noted education scholar Jon Saphier in 1988, Teachers 21 is considered one of the premiere education reform groups in the state and is dedicated to “reshaping the profession of teaching through professional learning, policy and public discourse, and research and development.” D’Auria, who is already a Teachers 21 consultant, will jump right into his new role on July 1, the day after his contract with the town of Canton runs out.

To his credit, D’Auria has not shied away from the criticism that he is leaving too soon; in fact, he partially agrees with that assessment, noting in a recent interview that it takes around five years in a given role for a leader to hit his stride.

But while he did not accomplish all that he had hoped to during his brief tenure here, he is also not walking out the door frustrated, as some in the schools have speculated. On the contrary, he considers the past three years to have been a time of substantial reflection and growth — both for the school system and for him as an educator.

“Some days I wake up and think that is what growth is about,” D’Auria said last week, referring to the triumphs and tribulations of his three-year superintendency.

A former math teacher who spent nearly two decades as principal of Wellesley Middle School, D’Auria said he tried to approach his new role in the same way that a highly skilled teacher would — emphasizing improvement over achievement — and related his departure to the “way a teacher leaves his class in the spring,” with a mix of emotions ranging from satisfaction to disappointment.

What’s more, he said a lot of the growth and frustration he experienced as a superintendent were “in the same places.” For instance, while he thought last year’s debate over student residency and enforcement was meaningful and even resulted in a new policy, he is still not sure whether he achieved one of his overarching goals, which was to “complicate people’s thinking” and get them to consider multiple perspectives.

He said he felt more successful in that regard when it came to the Proposition 2 ½ override effort in 2008, where, in addition to helping secure more resources for the school system, he was able to break down some of the barriers to communication through open and honest dialogue.

“What I really wanted to pull off in the dialogue was that, win or lose, we can still respect each other,” he said. “Was it perfect? No. But I think, in general, it was progress.”

And the recent town meeting was proof of that, he said, as voters — even historically reluctant ones — agreed to provide additional funding to the schools, while school officials quickly repaid a portion of it when more money came in from the state. D’Auria said both decisions “flowed from a mutual understanding and respect” that has only grown stronger in recent years, and it reaffirmed his longstanding belief that “honesty and engagement of ideas is the lynchpin of trust.”

Trust, according to D’Auria, was also a key component of the “gospel” he tried to spread among Canton’s five principals and out to the teachers — a gospel that stressed continual improvement by “never being satisfied and by being introspective and reflecting on what you could be doing better.”

One way he promoted such a philosophy was by doing away with the old “checklist” model of teacher evaluations and replacing it with a model that emphasizes growth and development. And as a result, he has seen more teachers engaging in honest self-reflection, although he acknowledged that the school system still has a ways to go in that area.

Similarly, he felt he was only somewhat successful in changing the perception of school administration, which he said was at a low point when he first arrived in Canton. Believing wholeheartedly in the importance of visionary leadership on student learning, D’Auria said he wanted people to see the schools’ leaders as sources of wisdom and support and, perhaps more importantly, to realize that leaders are not born, but rather groomed over time.

And D’Auria put himself into that category, claiming that all educators, regardless of their rank or position, still have a lot to learn about themselves and their profession and need to stay committed to continual improvement.

He certainly learned a lot in just three short years as superintendent, he said, and for D’Auria, that growth alone made the entire experience worthwhile.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jun 10 2010. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.