School & District Management

From CIO to Schools Chief

January 23, 2008 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Chip Kimball became the superintendent of the 23,500-student Lake Washington School District No. 414 in Redmond, Wash., last year after previously serving as the deputy superintendent and the chief information officer for the district. Kevin Bushweller, the executive editor of Education Week’s Digital Directions, recently interviewed Kimball about the lessons he learned as a CIO, the biggest information-technology challenges he sees in his district, and other topics. Here are edited excerpts from the discussion.

Q: Before becoming a superintendent, you served as a chief information officer. What lessons did you learn as a CIO that are helping you now?

Chip Kimball

Listen to the complete interview with Chip Kimball conducted by Kevin Bushweller.

Chip Kimball became the superintendent of the 23,500-student Lake Washington School District No. 414 in Redmond, Wash., last year after previously serving as the deputy superintendent and the chief information officer for the district.
Kevin Bushweller, the executive editor of Education Week’s Digital Directions, recently interviewed Kimball about the lessons he learned as a CIO, the biggest information-technology challenges he sees in his district, and other topics. Here are edited excerpts from the discussion.

A: The first is being a systems thinker. Clearly, the superintendent requires highly effective systems thinking. Probably a second area is around vision. Most effective superintendents have, as a large part of their job, vision development. And I think that is true of effective CIOs as well. Most effective CIOs think quite a bit about the future and how to best prepare for that future. Lastly, I would probably categorize it around dealing with people and relationship development. The most effective CIOs actually understand how to work with people, whether it’s technical staff or working with teachers. Superintendents have the same challenge.

Q: Did you always see yourself eventually moving up to a superintendent’s job? And do you think we’ll see more CIOs making this transition?

A: Moving from a classroom teacher and then into a CIO role [which I did] was a bit of an anomaly, and then moving from a CIO to become a deputy superintendent, and ultimately superintendent, was also a bit of an anomaly. I always had a superintendency on the road map as a possibility along with other possibilities, such as working in a technical field at Microsoft or Apple or IBM or [Hewlett Packard]. As I thought more and more about it and the way that I really wanted to make a difference, the superintendency made more and more sense and was really a compilation of skills, which included leadership and people skills as well as technology and systems skills. I do think it is an interesting trend, and I do expect we are going to see more and more of these kinds of moves, especially as the environment around us becomes more and more digitally oriented and more and more information-oriented.

Q: What is the biggest IT challenge in your district?

A: Our biggest challenge is truly integrating technology so that it is a ubiquitous and transparent part of the instructional practice for kids. This is a cultural challenge as well as a skills challenge for a lot of our teachers. A second challenge is: As the [technological] devices become smaller, faster, and more a normal part of kids’ lives, how do we embrace those technologies to make them a part of the teaching and learning process? I am finding more and more that the teaching and learning that is going on inside of schools is becoming less and less relevant to where kids are coming from and what they need, and also less and less relevant for the skills they actually need for the future. Our job is to ensure that that connection takes place.

Q: In what IT areas do you think your district is in most need of improvement?

A: We are continuing to have a difficult time recruiting and retaining high-quality technical employees. And that is because we live in a high-tech part of the country, and we have to compete with companies like Microsoft [which is based in Redmond]. Another area of improvement for us is really grappling with how do we deal with embracing some of these emerging technologies. This is a challenge that is consistent across the country. [But] even though we live in a high-tech community, we do not adopt [new technologies] just because something is new and fancy.

Q: How do you think technology in education has still not lived up to its potential?

A: The places where we’re still learning a lot is how do you use technology in a way that really accelerates learning? It appears that the most compelling research suggests that when you have really good instruction, the implementation of technology can accelerate learning quite substantially. When you have poor instructional practice, the technology doesn’t make a difference at all.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 23, 2008 edition of Digital Directions as From CIO to Schools Chief

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management 3 Tips to Help Districts Navigate Educator Layoffs
Keep cuts in line with the district's overarching goals, an expert advises.
3 min read
Illustration of scissors cutting row of paper dolls.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
School & District Management Teachers Hate All Those Meetings. Can Principals Find a Workaround?
Principals can't do away with every meeting, but they can reduce some and make others more effective.
4 min read
Image of a staff meeting.
E+/Getty
School & District Management Q&A When This Principal Talks About Mental Health, People Listen. Here's Why
The NASSP Advocacy Champion of the year said he used stories from his school and community to speak with his state’s legislators.
6 min read
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, poses for a photo in front of a Senate office building in Washington, D.C.
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, stands in front of a Senate office building in Washington on March 13, 2024. Young was among the secondary principals to meet with legislators urging them to keep federal funding for schools stable.
Olina Banerji/Education Week
School & District Management Teacher Layoffs Are Mounting. How Districts Can Soften the Blow
Layoffs are coming in districts large and small. Here's how district leaders can handle them.
8 min read
Pencil Eraser Erasing Drawn Figure
AndreyPopov/iStock/Getty