Job Roles Shifting for Districts' Central Offices

As "chief talent officer" for the Hartford, Conn., school district, Jennifer Allen finds herself in a different role from many central-office personnel who work in human resources.

Rather than serve as a conduit for flowing district policy to school principals, who are then expected to act on those centralized decisions, Ms. Allen and her team in the 20,000-student district help principals learn how to best exercise autonomy in their schools, from making staffing decisions to figuring out instructional priorities to determining if there's enough money in the school's budget to buy a van for after-school activities.

In her position, power doesn't come from a title, Ms. Allen said. It "comes from providing a service that...