How School Leaders Can Have A Significant Influence On Student Achievement

Who school leaders are – what they do, attend to, or seem to appreciate is constantly watched by students, teachers, parents, and members of the community. Their interests and actions send powerful messages. They signal the values they hold. Above all else, leaders are cultural “teachers” in the best sense of the word. (Deal & Peterson, 1990, p. 201)

Leaders are accountable to uphold a safe learning environment and uphold personal and professional values. They demonstrate and live these values, beliefs and attitudes to inspire others to higher levels of performance. Leaders expect others in the school community to demonstrate integrity and exercise ethical behavior. With high stakes accountability, leaders need to interpret and implement policies for the benefit of students, staff, community and themselves and do so with integrity.

Effective leadership has been identified as a critical component for guiding school improvement; however, leaders who fail to establish a vision supported by thorough analysis of student performance data will be unlikely to focus instructional changes in critically needed areas.

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

Love, N., Stiles, K., Mundry, S., & DiRanna, K. (2008). The data coach’s guide to improving

Above all else, I view leadership within the school system as essential for its success. My cumulative experiences provide a strong background that will allow me to excel as a school leader. I possess an understanding of the challenges and intricacies of a wide variety of school systems, ranging from small rural programs to inner-city and sub-urban high schools to research universities. My experience teaching at the college level gives me a unique perspective that will allow me to guide a program aimed at cultivating high school students capable of excelling in their educational endeavors. In addition, I believe that to be a truly successful leader, one must have a clear understanding of the challenges faced by educators. My years as a high school teacher have provided me a keen perspective in this regard. University of Northern Colorado’s Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program will be an invaluable avenue for me to learn from experienced educators as I hone my leadership abilities with the goal of using my life to lead improvements in the public education system. I look forward to the opportunity to develop as an educator,

Hillard (2011) asserts that with the passing of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) bill, educational leaders face more challenging leadership responsibilities than ever in the history of education. The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) has set stringent standards that school principals must meet before they are deemed qualified to lead instruction. This includes completing formal Educational leadership programs, the passage of an examination demonstrating their skills and knowledge, and a certification process. However, school administrators are still concerned with not having enough time to provide instructional supports to teacher. In addition, it is nearly impossible for principals to be content experts in every subject, especially in high school settings.

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

“Our findings indicate that when district leaders effectively address specific responsibilities, they can have a profound, positive impact on student achievement in their districts” (Waters & Marzano, 2006, p. 8). These five practices are also consistent with other researcher’s findings. In Tina Trujillo’s (2013) review of the literature on district effectiveness, she discovered that “having a clear mission or vision, frequently monitoring progress, promoting strong instructional leadership, and having high expectations for students or teacher were found to be associated with district effectiveness in 64-80 percent of the studies” (p.

When school leaders communicate effectively, and allow for collaboration students learn, parents and community members understand and support what the school is doing. In order for the process of teaching and learning to move forward or to evoke change school leaders must be effective communicators, by being articulate, and having a shared vison with their staff. School leaders have the ability to impact the school culture, and student achievement through their setting the teaching and learning conditions in their school.

Successful administrators possess the necessary attributes that help them make decisions and solve various problems. All school leaders, regardless of their title or role in a building or district, will face obstacles involving individuals, community members, staff, and students. In order to address these challenges, leaders must understand the issue, formulate and apply a solution, and then reflect on their implementation of the solution to decide whether or not it is improving the situation. By no means is this an easy task, but effective leaders must strive to make sure their students, personnel, and constituents are being led down a path that will lead to overall academic and personal success. According to Young (2008), “as such,

Leithwood et. al., (2004), as a result of their review of the literature on school leadership, conclude that not only is leadership “second in strength only to classroom instruction” but also “effective leadership has the greatest impact in those circumstances (e.g., schools ‘in trouble’) in which it is most needed” (p. 70). A comprehensive longitudinal study of Chicago’s public school reform during the 1990’s revealed the importance of school leadership to student achievement. Overall, Bryk (2010) found that school leadership as having an influence on all organizational

Although administrative support is often included in school climate, research has focused specifically on principal leadership and its relation to teacher retention (Hirsch, 2005). Effective leaders foster collaboration and create opportunities for teachers to learn from one another throughout their careers (Wong, 2004). While ineffective principal leadership often leads to teacher attrition, effective principal leadership often leads to teacher retention. School leaders can control the quality of teaching force at their school by hiring high-quality teachers, strategically retaining good teachers and removing poor teachers, and developing the teachers already at their school (Loeb, Kalogrides and Beteille (2012). How principals execute

The findings of this study provided information to stakeholders in educational settings such as administrators, boards of education, and teachers with knowledge on the dimensions of teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s leadership styles to strengthen weak aspects of educational leadership. It uncovered information linked to reducing high teacher turnover leading to increased job satisfaction and raising student performance levels.

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