Change From A Top Down Design Essay

Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.

Based on my experience in the classroom and my educational background, I want to pursue a certification as a K-12 administrator because I want to help and work with a larger population of students. My desire to enhance the culture and community in a school building has come from working with three amazing, passionate, and dedicated administrators (one principal and two vice principals) in my school building. Their drive to positively influence the lives of students, collaborate with parents, and enhance the teaching styles of all the faculty members in the building, has motivated me to want to do the same. A new challenge is presented every day in a school building, and I want to be part of an administrative team that will successfully work together to overcome each and every obstacle in order to better the educational experience of students.

According to Michael Fullan (2016) in his book, The New Meaning of Educational Change, successful organizations that demonstrate change followed principled concepts of change. The reason for their success if that there is tangible proof of alignment in keeping components of actions. Fullan (2016) stated that successful change incorporates five factors. In this essay, three of the five factors will be discussed and an example of an organization using components of the change be revealed. Often when organization shave to go through the process of change it means either they have gone through change to repair broken areas or they are going through change as a reflective exercise before embarking on a larger scope of practice perhaps to expand into new growth within their organization. In either course, the larger concern is that organizations must embrace change and engage in meaningful constructed ways to promote the best growth with the fewest steps to reach accomplishment. A key decision factor to change is whether an organize will change because they adopt a model and see a better way or whether they want to save their resources. Fullan (2016) suggested that the reason for the change is largely to work is because, the organizations, “Define closing the gap as the overarching goal,” “Assume that lack of capacity is the initial problem and then work on it continuously,” and “Stay the course through continuity of good direction by leveraging leadership,” (Fullan, 2016,

The Kentucky Leadership Framework defines teacher leaders as those who “transform their classrooms, schools, and profession, activating teacher growth and achieving equity and excellence for students” (Kentucky Teacher Leadership Work Team, 2015, p. 4). Therefore, the definition of what it means to be a teacher leader can be found in a review of relevant literature; yet, their roles can be unclear within the schools (Angelle and Schmid, 2007). Jacobs, Gordon, and Solis (2016) point out that when “teacher-leaders’ roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, misunderstanding, conflict, and resentment can result” (p. 399). In addition, a study of 672 participants revealed that teacher perceptions regarding teacher leadership can vary based on school grade configurations—elementary, middle, and high (Angelle and DeHart, 2011). According to Angelle and Schmidt (2007), “As we work to provide precision to the term teacher leadership, we look to widen the level of understanding of this critical component of school reform at all levels” (p.

One will examine the underlying philosophies, theories and principles that shape their professional beliefs about children’s learning (Brown, et al., 2012; Waniganayake et al., 2012; Duignan, 2006). For any obstacles they may encounter, through the contingency theory, an educational leader will work with the appropriate style of leadership most suitable in that circumstance (Rodd, 2006), and respond to various situations in times of change by critically reflecting on the purposes they see for their setting and the goals they are aiming to achieve with children and families. Understanding from the transformational theory, an educational leader will be inspiring others with visions that can enable the team to be directed and motivated toward creating ‘a culture of learning and professional growth’ (Duignan, 2006; Waniganayake et al., 2012; Sinclair, 2007; Rodd, 2006; Siraj-Blatchford and Manni, 2006; ACECQA, 2013). Moreover, distributed leadership approach, which falls under the transformational theory, is seen in the educational leader as they work collaboratively with others towards the same vision (Rodd, 2006). For instance, taken from ACEQA (2013), the educational leader would examine routines with each of the room leaders, and how to make them more effective for children’s learning experiences. Here, the educational leader is not only guiding staff along, but also problem-solving

Havelock’s model of change will be used for this project. Perception of need, diagnosis of the problem, identification of the problem, devising a plan of action, gaining acceptance of the plan, stabilization, and self-renewal are all steps included in Havelock’s model of change (Kearney-Nunnery, 2012). Leadership is also an important part of the change process. In order to have a positive outcome, the leader must incorporate the staff in the change process.

According to former Indiana state superintendent of schools Dr. Suellen Reed, “We know from our research that there’s no turnaround school without a turnaround principal” (as cited in Gammil, 2007, para. 2), further supporting the fact that “school leaders have an essential role in cultivating a positive school culture in public schools” (Peterson and Deal, 2002, p.30). However, it is imperative to improve our understanding as to how principal leadership impacts the school culture in high poverty schools to ensure that all children receive a quality education, regardless of zip code, in an environment conducive to learning. The six measured factors are as follows:

Dr. David Bolton has had an interesting spring, to say the least. He has served in the capacity of the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education in Central Bucks for two years. At the end of Dr. Bolton’s second year, the retiring Superintendent planned to retire officially on May 30, 2016 but in a series of events involving new School Board members, he was asked to clean out his office on Monday, May 9, 2016. The Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education also retired early in March of 2016, leaving Dr. Bolton currently with the title of Substitute Superintendent until a new Superintendent begins on June 6, 2016. Dr. Bolton has been completing tasks since March as Elementary and Secondary Assistant Superintendents and Substitute Superintendent all at once. My original interview was scheduled with the outgoing superintendent during the week of his departure. In light of this complication, Dr. Bolton was gracious enough to answer my questions in an email but I was unable to interview him in person or on the phone due to his busy schedule.

When dealing with larger school districts, there are several different positions in which play vital roles in the success of the school ‘s in the county. Deputy superintendent, chief financial officers, executive directors, and chief technology officer, are the crucial four. From there smaller roles are delegated to address issues based on needs and situations that may happen with schools, students teachers and

ISLLC 2008 Standard 1: An education leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders.

Organizations must respond to their internal and external environment. Therefore, organizational success heavily relies on leaderships ability to manage change. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle to effectively lead change initiatives. In fact, Ashkenas (2013, para. 1) reported 60 – 70% of organizational change initiatives fail to meet their objectives.

Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.

In order to examine this issue further, this research will look at a number of different sources. Contemporary managerial sources are explored in order to understand how other voices in the field are describing similar methods for change. First, popular structures for change management are examined, especially within their correlation to Palmer & Dunford (2009). This is followed with an extensive

investigate how my personal ability to manage change has shaped my leadership of educational change. This discussion will be blended with examples of change in my personal life, my own leadership experience and references to the literature in the field of leading educational change.

Systemic change is a recurrent process in which the influence of change on all parts and their relationships to one another are taken into contemplation. Systematic change allows for change on the policy, technology, education, and information levels, it goes beyond thinking about individuals and single problems. Change is an important part of progress and systematic change is a huge undertaking for a school, even any business. People are resistant to change, they like being comfortable, but sometimes being comfortable is not being effective. This week while discussing change, an article stood out; the author wrote “…comprehensive school reform will succeed only if it’s predicated on a sustained, cooperative, and trusting relationship among parents, school and district staff, and the school board governing the system” (Usdan, 2010, pp.9). In many ways this is true, systematic change is such a large amount of change, people that are not supportive of the change can ultimately cause it to fail. In some cases, one person’s lack of interest in the change can cause a successful school to