Alameda Department Organization Structure

The Structure of Your Organization The Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) is a government agency supporting student learning both in and out of school across the 18 school districts in Alameda County by providing fiscal and educational learning plan oversight. Additionally, ACOE provides professional development opportunities for administrators and teaching professionals as well as pathways for social justice advocacy and civic engagement among youth and community members. The organization consists of approximately 200 employees who are segmented into four main areas of service: Learning and Accountability, Student Programs and Services, Business Services and Human Resources. The leadership for each division is held accountable to the

The Integrated Learning Department consists of a team of 20 people segmented into a vertical hierarchy of 4 administrative support staff at the bottom, followed by 5 certificated specialists, then 10 managers and 1 executive director at the top. Although my classification title and job description is generic, I am often assigned specialist work which can cause friction amongst coworkers who hold the same job title as me and consider my realm of work as an act of favoritism. My role is responsible for managing our departmental communications and systems, including strategic systems planning and implementation, data collection and visualization for reporting performance measures to funders and supporting constituencies. We are currently operating in a centralized design model due to the agency’s organizational structure; however, our particular department is transitioning to a decentralized system, particularly in the realm of communications with social media integration documenting and sharing our work. I have been tasked to plan and implement strategies that will help our department perform successfully in this new realm of a decentralized

However, these trainings happen during lunch time and many employees are not willing to use their lunch hour for work related activities. Unlike for profit organizations, ACOE encourages employees to pursue ongoing professional training; however, because it is a government entity, the employees know there is no room for advancement or promotional opportunities amongst classified staff as a reward for their excellence and successful contributions to the agency. This setback often discourages classified staff from seeking outside learning opportunities to improve their job skills, knowing there is no incentive for individual growth. If there is a growth opportunity available, classified staff usually have to compete against each other through testing and interviews to see who is most qualified for the promotion. This type of promotional practice often causes friction amongst staff and discourages employees from pursuing learning opportunities if they feel the system is unfair and bias of certain employees