Re-Defining School Leadership Responsibilities (part 2)
In my last post, I discussed the first and most important
category of leadership responsibilities, supporting, evaluating, and developing
teacher quality. I went into quite a bit of detail because the authors of Improving School Leadership, Volume 1:
Policy and Practice deemed it of high importance. However, that does not
mean that the other three categories are not important, but rather, if the
primary goal is high student achievement, then supporting, evaluating, and
developing teachers will be first priority. Now that that is said, I will head
right into the rest of the discussion of what Pont, Nusche, and Moorman see as
being the four main categories of leadership responsibilities -- setting
learning objectives and implementing intelligent assessment systems, strategic
use of resources and their alignment with pedagogical purposes, and taking
school leadership beyond the school’s borders.
The second category, setting learning objectives and
implementing intelligent assessment systems, does not have as many
subcategories as the first. But there is
an informative discussion about curriculum aligning to standards, which is an
issue all schools have to address. There is also significant emphasis on data
driving instruction and how to hold schools and teachers accountable for
showing appropriate student achievement. The authors cite evidence that shows
holding schools and teachers accountable for student growth actually encourages
student growth. Of course, this is highly controversial, as one of the only
ways to do this is with standardized testing and that is not a conversation to
be had in this particular blog. So, without stirring up any emotionally charged
pots, I will instead focus on the positive aspects of testing, which is that it
provides data for school leaders and teachers. School leaders need to then take
this data and plan appropriate strategies to improve instruction and student
performance. In fact, school leaders play a major role in using these
“accountability systems” (standardized tests) when they support their staff to
align instruction to learning goals and performance standards. (Pont, Nusche,
and Moorman, 2008) Whether this support comes in the way of forming groups that
take on this task or simply by providing time and coverage so teachers can
attend professional developments that are focused on using data to drive instruction, it is vital for school and student success.
The third category, strategic resource management, deals with
financial and human resources. This category is somewhat difficult to discuss because
national policy has so much influence on how much power the school has when it
comes to budget and to the hiring and firing of teachers. In many countries,
schools are given a budget based on the number of students enrolled or the
state/city/district has outlined how much each school gets. Some countries,
like England and Belgium, have formed co-operatives between schools in an effort
to pool resources and design a model in which schools and school leaders are
more autonomous when it comes to resource management. There is a general
movement toward collaboration and cooperation among schools.
Which brings us to the fourth, and final category, leadership
beyond the school borders. This category of leadership responsibilities takes
the collaboration and extends it into the surrounding communities. The goal is
to form networks and connections between the school, where education is
attained, and the world in which education is applied. If done well, these
connections can change the way public education is seen. I know that in my town
there are a lot of retired or childless people in the community and getting
these voters to vote to increase school funding is a challenge. This challenge
could be lessened if there are strong connections formed – if the community members
could see the work that is put into creating, educating, and investing in our future.
Before I end this post, I would like to clarify that the
purpose of redefining school leadership responsibilities is to give clear
guidelines to teachers or professionals who are thinking of entering this
field. The authors recognize that there is not currently a framework in place
that outlines what is and is not expected of someone applying to be a school
principal. In addition, Pont, Nusche and Moorman claim that this kind of
framework provides a reference to evaluate leadership quality, and will make it
clear that “certain conditions need to be in place for school leaders to be
able to perform effectively. (2008, p.62) For example, if the principal has no
say over resource management, there is a potential area for inefficacy. These
guidelines will also help us as we explore distributed leadership in the next
two posts.
Works Cited
Pont, B., Nusche, D., & Moorman, H. (2008) Improving
School Leadership Volume One: Policy and
Practice. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/school/44374889.pdf
Practice. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/school/44374889.pdf
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