The articles on both school leadership and ASCD emphasized the vitality of leadership in the learning environment. School leadership continues to play a substantial role in educating students. The Wallace Foundation has examined the role principals play in creating opportunities for successful learning outcomes. Principals create the climate for effective students’ learning, they are responsible for the professional development of teachers as well as hiring trained teachers (www.wallacefoundation.org). Principals benefit in a remarkable manner when they participate in a preparation program that will nurture and mold their leadership character. The Illinois Department of Education revamped their licensure program for principals and took on
The second domain in the Florida Principals Leadership Standards is composed of three different standards. The first of these is Instructional Plan Implementation and is about how an effective leader must collaborate to develop and implement an effective instructional framework that aligns with the required standards and meets his/her students’ needs (“The Florida Principal,” n.d.). Due to the variety in options that are available to align instruction to a pupil, given that the instruction will be adjusted to his/her needs, I feel that the situational leadership approach will be able to be implemented in this situation to create better results as “different situations demand different kinds of leadership (Northouse, P., 2016). The different leadership styles that make up the Situational approach can be tied to this standard by connecting the necessary leadership style with the supportive and directive behaviors in the task that is performed. As an instructor, I will spend time in the S1 category of the Situational Leadership Model as I make use of a “common language of instruction”, spend time between the S1 and S2 categories by “communicate the relationships among academic standards” and by being engaged “in data analysis for instructional planning and improvement”.
When reading and listening to lectures I was struck by the information presented in part two of the Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership: Moral Leadership. I believe this stemmed from three key ideas: trust, relationships, and business. To begin, I was extremely interested in the emphasis on trust and how trust is the glue that holds together a school. When reading I found myself nodding along at how important trust is to an organization especially a school that functions mostly on communication.
Essential characteristics of the principal’s role have been identified by groups such as the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium, and the Educational Leadership Constituent Council. Standards from both these organizations require that a principal have a vision of learning, advocate for students, collaborate with teachers and the community, provide a safe environment, act with integrity, and understand the social and political confines in which we live. As noted by Sergiovanni in The Principalship, “For Parochial school principals, the religious dimension must be added to any array of roles and responsibilities that define the principalship.” (2015, p. 43)
Over the past three decades’ educational leadership has been in search of ways to increase student literacy in urban middle schools in the southeast sections of the District of Columbia. The quest to closing achievement gaps in urban school districts have and will always be an on-going issue for educational leadership (Daly & Chrispells, 2008). Findings from research studies suggest that school leadership accounts for fully one quarter of total school effects on pupils, making it second only to classroom instruction among school-based factors affecting student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004). There are certain challenges that middle school principals face that pertain only to these middle school principals due to
The other element of the course standard is Developing Shared Vision. This element emphasizes leaders’ engagement and collaborative process to develop a vision of teaching, and learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders (CPSELs, 2016). The article Requiring Collaboration or Distributing Leadership? underlines that “when teachers and principals share leadership in school, both the adults and students win” (Kennedy, Deuel, Nelson & Slavit, 2011). From this article I learned the importance of seeking, recognizing and using teachers’ expertise through differentiated top-down and the lateral decision-making process, as well as culture building through dialogue and collaborative inquiry (Kennedy, Deuel, Nelson & Slavit, 2011, p.21).
As a leader, he/she should know how to communicate with the decision makers as well as with the families of the students, and his/her faculty and staff. With the growing diversity of students within our school and community, as an educational leader I will need to be able to understand the relationship between social justice, school culture, and the community. I will determine what opportunities are available within our community, discuss with the stakeholders our beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes that will shape and influence the way our school will be run. I will have to learn how to recognize the differences of
Our leaders build other leaders, and are themselves continuous learners modeling exemplary leadership qualities; at times making it appear almost easy. It was during the Principalship Course that I not only knew I could, but now knew I wanted to become a principal. Many of my “ah ha moments” came in the form of connecting the puzzle pieces and seeing the decisions and actions through the new lense as a leader. The Virtues of Leadership article confirms student and teachers’ need to make sense of where they belong in the cultural framework of a school system (Sergiovanni, T. J., 2005). I always knew York Suburban School District has models of excellence throughout entire staffs, faculties and administrators.
Leadership is an innovative process that aligns professionals with a goal, objective or vision statement. Leadership is defined as emerging and supporting a vision for instructing by learning and communicating a visional statement effectively. Leadership exemplifies the art of leading others to deliberately create a result. In leadership, leaders display themselves as a guiding tool for others in this case for teachers. In leadership, it is important that leaders coordinate the effective management of resources, namely time, material and people, to ensure that they are conveying an effective teaching and learning environment.
Reflective Journal Leadership, Professional Knowledge and Ethical Practice What is one prevalent issue in early childhood education today? Explain both sides of the debate regarding this time. When I begin teaching at Head Start 18 years ago I only needed a high school diploma.
I have learned that school improvement should be a continuing process throughout my school. From all my experiences in the Educational Leadership program at Arkansas State University, I have gain valuable lessons about school improvement. The courses and activities throughout this program have allowed me to conduct action research to make recommendations about best instructional practices that would help my school grow. In addition to these activities, I participated in numerous other internship activities and course projects that led to school improvements. The first area of improvement will be teacher absenteeism.
In the highly politicized education climate of modern public schooling, a superintendent is charged with moving a school system forward in terms of academic achievement, community building, and operational functions. Managing to accomplish this multifaceted task requires leadership that transcends oneself and moves the stakeholders of a system to embrace change with the leaders of an organization. Moving a school district toward its goals can be accomplished through uniting the components of the organization through a vision for the future. Leaders who are able to accomplish are described as Visionary Leaders. Superintendents often lead their communities through a vision setting process but there seems to be a disconnection between theory and practice in many schools at the site level.
My metacognition of this chapters and the associations it brings to me, as I move into an educational leadership position lend me a new pair of lens for the need for schools to properly establish a strategic technology plans to oblige administrators and the leadership team with a blueprint to transform schools, particularly the one I currently work at. My school is working diligently to continue to make strives and efforts in phases which we failed to execute appropriately in the first phase due to time constraints. I strongly foresee the need to monitor progress on-going and precisely indicate who is responsible for both monitoring and implementation as my school transition into a blended learning digital learning culture and climate
Educational Leadership. March 2007. Web. 7 March 2017.
Leadership is a construct that stretches across every aspect of life. Within the educational system, the majority of decisions about schools are made by upper administration at both the state and district level. High-stakes testing, unfunded educational mandates, and tight budgets have been guiding administrators to make extensive, critical, and impactful decisions in districts, at times, without input from essential stakeholders such as teachers. McCombs and Miller (2009) described results in the following way, “what began as an effort to create a culture of achievement for all has resulted instead in a culture in which achievement has been subverted, leaving teacher and school leaders weary and demoralized” (p. 13). This type of culture
Teachers are being placed in the center of how schools function and are being asked to aid in crucial decisions about the academic direction of the school (Warren, 2016). Research by York-Barr and Duke (2004), states “teacher leadership roles range from assisting with the management of schools to evaluating educational initiatives and facilitating professional learning communities” (p. 1). While teacher leadership is evolving, the perceptions that teachers have regarding themselves as leaders has not truly been uncovered. This literature review is an attempt to highlight the research surrounding teacher leadership. It begins with the foundations of teacher leadership which includes the history of teacher leadership, the evolving definition of teacher leadership, and finally a summary of current teacher leadership development programs.