Like many graduates of the Cooperative Superintendency Program, Tim Miller has been a longtime leader in education in Texas. He has served as superintendent in the Cleburne Independent School District and as director at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Most recently, he has served in leadership roles for the Raise Your Hand Texas and Charles Butt Foundations.
Miller, who graduated in 2006, believes that the program’s success lies in how it prepares and empowers leaders to engage their entire communities effectively to provide equal access to the best education. While acknowledging the current challenges facing education in Texas, from school finance to policy differences, he remains confident that the right leadership can make a difference.
The ripple effects that a strong leader has, within the school district and to the community and to the larger region, is immeasurable,
Miller said. An effective leader is able to engage parents, business leaders, and community members into the work of the school and allow them to help spread the word about all the wonderful things that are happening in K-12 public schools in the state of Texas.
We often hear from Cooperative Superintendency Program alumni that the cohort model of the program makes the program special and unique. How did it impact your career?
When you graduate, the network that you’re brought into – not only within the state but throughout the country, and in the world – is a great way to learn, continue learning, and to benefit from the program.
I feel strongly that the small size of the cohorts is really beneficial, not only for the cohort members but also for the world-renowned professors who are able to work with them. The program selects folks from all across the state of Texas, from all different walks of life, and that really makes a strong cohort work together to earn that degree. I would also say that the network of students in the cohort and the mentors who serve as guides throughout the program are a big help.
I had some wonderful mentors who got me into the program. I had a great cohort, and we were able to learn together and struggle together. Many of us graduated together. The format of the program was great for me because I was able to continue working in my career in educational technology.
I was able to complete my doctorate and receive my superintendent certificate while continuing to work and start a family.
How does the program cultivate strong leadership?
One of the things that makes the program excellent is the way that it teaches leaders to engage their communities in the very important work of educating all students. The ripple effects that a strong leader has, within the school district and to the community and to the larger region that they work with is immeasurable. A successful leader is able to engage parents, business leaders and community members into the work of the school and allow them to help spread the word about all the wonderful things that are happening in K-12 public schools in the state of Texas.
The Cooperative Superintendency Program is one of the top superintendent programs in the country because it is very selective in the cohorts it brings into the program. We’ve got world-renowned professors and hands-on practical learning that happens in conjunction with the classes. Then, when we graduate, we become a member of an immense network of superintendents and other leaders.
How does the program prepare future educational leaders to address today’s challenges in education and school districts?
The program has been built on a foundation of excellence for 50 years. And so far, we’ve got 500-plus alumni who are in leadership positions throughout the state, the country and the world. Texas faces a number of challenges, as it relates to educating its 5.5 million students, which is nearly 10% of the students in the United States. These challenges range from limited school finances to political strife to figuring out the best way to make sure that every child is able to be successful academically.
The program prepares educational leaders to address these challenges by providing them with the best practices as it relates to working with students with special needs, diverse learners, and other children in the state. It also provides them with world-class assessment in terms of how to gauge how things are going along the way in their school districts.
Finally, it gives them the means to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity as well as all the different types of waves that come crashing against the shore as they lead a school district during turbulent times.
The Cooperative Superintendency Program provides future leaders with all the tools necessary to address the challenges that they will face in their schools and districts. They do this with hands-on practical learning and field trips to government agencies and other organizations that support public schools. And they do this with real-time, real-life practical solutions.
Why should your fellow alumni invest in CSP?
In order for it to continue its leadership in the next 50 years, we need support—time, resources and financial support. We also need mentorship from all of the alumni who have already graduated from program, and from graduates to come.
The school leadership is essential to success at the campus level and the district level. And the Cooperative Superintendency Program is the premier program for developing school and district leaders. I chose this program because I was ready to take that next step. The Cooperative Superintendency Program provided me with hands-on practical experiences that could really broaden my experience so that I can be a strategic planner, a system thinker, and leader.
The core values that led me to enroll in the program were equity, innovation, excellence and inclusiveness. Throughout the program, those were things that were just hit upon all the time to make sure that whatever problem that we were looking at, we were looking at it through those four lenses.
As the program continues for the next 50 years, I sincerely hope that these values continue to be the driving factors that people use to choose this program. They can learn through this program and then bring what they learned to the students of the state of Texas.
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Support the Cooperative Superintendency Program Legacy of Leadership Endowed Excellence Fund to help recruit the best and brightest to the Forty Acres and provide the hands-on learning that is a cornerstone of the program.
