Dr. Padover’s career has featured: (1) the initiation and development of education foundations within school districts; (2) the utilization of action research for assessment and program revision; and (3) the implementation of cultural proficiency coaching as an organizational development strategy.
Outstanding education leaders attract human, financial and in-kind resources for the purpose of enriching educational opportunities. Local education foundations are designated by the Internal Revenue Service Code as 501 (c) (3) nonprofit charitable organizations whose purpose is to improve education at the local level. Education foundations are an important vehicle for educational leaders to develop community resources. During his twenty years as a school district superintendent, Dr. Padover helped initiate two education foundations and helped develop another. Currently Dr. Padover serves on the board of directors of the California Consortium of Education Foundations and the board of the National School Foundation Association.
Dr. Padover enjoys helping schools utilize action research to solve immediate problems. An organizational culture that continually collects data and makes decisions based in part on data becomes a community of problem-solvers, determining organizational priorities, identifying staffing needs, engaging in professional development, and improving instructional practices, .
Over the past fourteen years, Dr. Padover has taught at National University in La Jolla, California. He is the co-editor of two textbooks, Innovative Educational Leadership Through the Cycle of Change and Transforming Into An Educational Leader, and he is a past president of the California Association of Professors of Educational Administration. Dr. Padover utilizes a cultural proficiency (equity-based) coaching model as a strategy for developing an organization’s personnel as a culture of life-long learners. He believes that some of the most meaningful learning is often based on personal reflections which can be elicited and facilitated by skillful coaching—in part through questioning strategies and thoughtful listening. As Dr. Padover likes to say, “mentoring gives a person a fish; coaching teaches a person how to fish!”