Dr. Francis Kellar, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of New Teacher Support at Alliance College Ready Public Schools, and her equally qualified colleague, Dr. Julie Slayton, who possesses degrees in both educational policy and law, combine their research and experience concerning educational leadership characteristics to create a well-organized and extensive scholarly article that manages to overstate its own importance. The main purpose of their research includes the encouragement of further exploration into the interconnected relationship between leadership styles and psychosocial factors that affect principals’ leadership capabilities. By organizing their article so that it addresses the studies on leadership …show more content…
To create a succinct yet through body of research, the authors describe and explain important terms related to leadership technique areas including “double-loop learning” and the organizational improvement methods of “instructional leadership,” “transformational leadership,” and “distributed leadership” in brief paragraphs and sentences that present the readers with different views on the focus of school leadership and what values each type of method advocates. Likewise, the authors briefly explain the psychosocial elements that affect leadership, including: “mental models,” “immunities to change,” and “leader self-efficacy,” while also elaborating extensively on the need for “presence,” the personal inward reflection of a leader to create changes within his or her management. Lastly, despite competently explaining these main ideas in leadership organizational studies and psychosocial studies, the authors nevertheless dedicate half of their article to explaining a well-documented and significant case-study, originally constructed as a dissertation by Martinez-Kellar, that serves as an example of how to …show more content…
Major article headings, such as “Toward a Comprehensive Examination of School Leadership,” present the contents of the respective sections in a straightforward manner. For example, the content under the aforementioned heading features this directness by describing how the two avenues of thought should synthesize together for a more “comprehensive examination” of school leadership. While major headings provide a reader with a quick guide for identifying topics, minor headings, such as “Case Study Scenario: Principal A- Crystal Castle Academy,” break up the article information into separate and distinct sections. For example, the formerly addressed heading deals solely with the case-study. In addition to organizing information clearly using headings, the authors also present a Venn Diagram figure alongside the written text describing the intersecting avenues of psychosocial and organizational thought, and this graphic aid helps visual learners who may otherwise struggle to connect the two schools of thought. To emphasize their message of creating further research into interconnecting the realms of organization and psychosocial leadership studies, the authors bookend the article with a plea concerning the importance of their study and future
The ever-changing landscape of education and school accountability has given rise to a renewed focus on shared leadership. In the past, the principal was viewed as the primary decision maker within a school. However, Glickman (1989) points out that it is impossible for school principals to effectively complete all the necessary instructional and managerial tasks within schools. He contends that some teachers have more leadership abilities than the actual administrators and that “in successful schools, principals aren’t threatened by the wisdom of others, instead, they cherish it by distributing leadership” (Glickman, 1989, p. 8).
The researchers reviewed related educational peer-reviewed literature, as it pertained to their study. They reviewed literature topics related to transformational leadership, best practices of educational leadership, strategies for improved school culture, and leadership styles and its impact on teacher morale. The researchers identify in their review of the literature characteristics of “true” transformational leadership to include a leader’s ability to “lead by example and have the ability to articulate goals of the organization which
According to the author in the introduction of the book, this work was basically intended to serve as a guide for developing moral leadership in schools geared toward superintendents, supervisors, principals, and any other persons at the upper levels of school management. The author's design was to provoke thoughts and raise questions in the minds of these people to help them analyze the leadership processes in their schools and help them make adjustments to the leadership process that will in the end reduce the need for "direct" leadership in favor of "moral" leadership. He
Teacher leaders and administrators play a vital role in the overall organizational structure of a school. As discussed in Educational Leadership, there are ten roles that teacher leaders tend to gravitate towards. The roles of teacher leaders vary according to duties and responsibilities placed on the teacher leader, they include the following: resource provider, instructional specialist, curriculum specialist, classroom supporter, learning facilitator, mentor, school leader, data coach, catalyst for change, and learner (Harrison & Killion, 2007, pg. 74-77). As a teacher leadership at Lake Oconee Academy, I personally see my duties and responsibilities covering several of these roles. Since the beginning of my employment at Lake Oconee
Palmer Lake Elementary School refers to a public elementary school located in Brooklyn Park. The school has 678 students with majority being Whites and non-Hispanics. The teachers; population is between 40 and 50 teachers: 6 speech teacher, two reading teacher, 3 gym physical, two music teachers, 28 for regular classes, one media. Accordingly, the ratio of students to teachers is approximately 15:1. Each class has varying number of students ranging from 19 to 28 students. Approximately 54 percent of the students are male and 46 percent are female. The percentage of students eligible for subsidized lunch is 65. This essay examines the leadership skills and styles of Dr. Tim Brown after an interview in his office. Dr. Tim is the principal of Palmer Lake Elementary School and plays the following roles. First, he shapes the vision of academic success and instructional competence for all students and teachers respectively. Second, he plays the role of creating a climate and environment that is hospitable for learning. Third, he cultivates leadership in other teachers. Fourth, he is answerable to external stakeholders such as parents and state education authorities concerning the school’s performances and use of resources. Effective educational leadership is a continuous process that involves self-examination, learning from others, collaboration and sustainable use of resources to accomplish the goals and
Additionally, the mean was determined for both elementary and secondary survey responses. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare differences among means (Spatz, 2008). The variance between and within samples was measured by the ANOVA. Independent t-tests were conducted to determine in which groups the differences occurred if a statistically significant difference existed. Research compared principal and teacher perceptions of leadership styles among elementary and secondary school settings.
Leadership is an essential component of a schools’ success or failure. Learning By Heart, by Ronald S. Barth provokes teachers and administrators to reflect on their practices and contributions to their school. Roland Barth offers us different viewpoints on educational reform from his own experiences in education from being a public school teacher and principal to being a Harvard University faculty member. He mentions how school improvement and restructuring will come from within every teacher and administrator not from any program because “schools are not capable of improving themselves”.
Educational leadership has changed and evolved through the years as a result of dramatic changes in the school culture, student demographics, environment, science, technology, and economy. Given the complexity and unpredictability of the demanding challenges to educate all children, prospective school leaders may find it desirable to define their own beliefs about instructional supervision and evaluation as they prepare for the rigor of school leadership practice. While enacting supervision, a supervisor is guided by certain values, assumptions, beliefs, and opinions that support the purpose and process of supervision (Sergiovanni & Starratt, 2006). This can be described as the supervisor’s
Marzano, McNulty and Waters propose five steps for a plan of effective school leadership. The first step is developing a leadership team with purpose. The definition used for a purposeful community is one with the collective efficacy and capability to develop and use assets to accomplish goals that mater to all community members through agreed-upon process (Marzano, et. al, 2005). The second step is distributing some responsibilities throughout the leadership team. The third step is to select the right work. The fourth step is to identify the order of magnitude implied by the selected work. The last step is to match the management style to the order of magnitude of the change initiative. The last step incorporates whether this is first or second order change.
The leaders and managers are the pillars of any educational setting on which the success and failure of the setting depend. Before discussing the leadership and
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.
Leadership is often times confused with management, but they are in fact two separate and equally important aspects of successful organizations (Kotter, 2001). Leadership applies “power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people” (Zaleznik, 1992, p.2), while management is more concerned with handling problems as they arise (Kotter, 2001). Kotter (2001) and Zaleznik (1992) both discuss how leaders may be developed in different settings. The school district I work in practices growing leaders. Employees are identified for their leadership qualities and then the school district assists them with acquiring their administration degrees. Finally, they are transitioned from the classroom to administrative positions within the district
Currently, I am not an employee of any learning organization, school district or educational system. However, I am involved and Chair the School Advisory Council (SAC) of Greenland Pines Elementary. This opportunity granted me a unique opportunity to observe the management of two different principals with their individual leadership styles. Furthermore, I contrasted my business practices from my own company and military service to coincide with this case study. The purpose of this paper is a comprehensive written outlining the processes presented by the educational leadership at Greenland Pines Elementary. With this in mind, we need to understand the concept of educational leadership.
This study seeks to examine a principal leadership style and its effects on teacher job
Effective school leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). The writer of this paper acknowledges that school principals should play the role of instructional leaders, not just a school manager. The reality is that are many demands on a principals time and management skills making it difficult for most of them to spend time in classrooms, when performing teacher evaluation. Principals often make sure that teachers