Leadership Characteristics Of High Performing Schools

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a guide for school and district leaders entitled Leadership Structures That Support Professional Learning Communities in High Schools: A School and District Leader?s Practical Guide. This guide creates a practical leadership structure to support the creation of a culture that ensures PLCs and collaboration strongly exist in order to best support high levels of student and adult learning. This Guide comes at a time where many, many districts and high schools are struggling with the implementation of collaborative teams. DuFour has described this struggle as ?PLC Lite? where schools and districts have labeled themselves as PLCs without

“Fundamental to distributed leadership is the belief that all teachers have the right and potential to participate in decisions that effect’s their

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 paper explores numerous published articles discussing research on implications of different leadership techniques and effective school systems. Discussions of various leadership strategies and their real-world applications within school systems are implemented throughout this paper along with considerations of teacher retention and multiculturalism. Personal experience is also a key element of discussion in this paper. With all faculty and staff of school systems considered and being represented.

In order to, “...maximize student academic and social success and to encourage lifelong learning and citizenship.” Van Buren Elementary School’s mission; the teacher leaders, administrator and myself must work in unison to implement the goals I have identified. Additionally, all those involved in educating children are part of distributed leadership team and they will need to analyze data and work together to derive personal goals in the area of literacy instruction pertinent to individual classroom needs. Finally, according to Taylor and Francis, “By design or default, teachers also are leaders of change, whether they promote it, support it, resist it, or ignore it.” (Taylor & Francis, 2014, 102-103) Henceforth, by utilizing distributed leadership we will achieve our literacy instruction goals. (Spillane & Diamond,

Distributed leadership grants access to and a theoretical and investigative outline to study leadership across an organization. Even though inquiries concentrate a great deal on distributed leadership, in the area of special education and inclusion, restructure to help clear up the wide ranging roles held by principals, teachers, and other staff. This simply explains how their actions contribute to inclusive change (Billingsley, 2012). Leadership is spread across an organization, in a distributed framework. It also takes in collaborative proceedings across a range of traditional and non-traditional leaders. Furthermore, it spread out beyond easy task assignment to deep rooted stages of connections and shared action.

Traditionally, leadership had been thought of as a single person that leads or directs a groups or many groups as described in Peter Gronn 's article "Distributed Leadership as a unit of analysis.” However, according to Gronn, this conventional form of thinking, where one person or unit rules all (“leadership is basically doing what the leader wants done”) is faulty and ultimately leads to a counterproductive performance from the group as a whole, since everything falls upon one level of responsibility. In addition, he identifies three major chinks in the solo-style leadership model’s armor: the almost-too simplistic dualism of the “leader-follower” set-up; the exact qualifications of what constitutes a leader and said leaders and

Currently, as a junior, I feel that the past three of high school have tremendously shaped my character. Arriving at the doorsteps of Manatee High School, I knew little of leadership, or service. To me, high school was and still is a journey. I've learned to give back to those who have helped me. Through various extracurricular activities, I've not only learned to be a team member, but a leader as well.

The broad topic area for my dissertation is Distributed Leadership Verses Non Distributed Leadership: A Qualitative Case Study that research instructional leadership systems in high schools. The problem statement is “It is not known how and to what extent distributed leadership verses non distributed leadership will influence school improvement of students in rural areas.”

In order to measure the personal profile for educational leadership, Self Inventory is used. About 73 statements are collected and are used to demonstrate an individual’s performances according to the standards set by CSDE standards for School Leaders. ( Connecticut State Board of Education in the name of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut). This summary report is related to a survey that was conducted by me in which the result analysis was performed by the use of Connecticut Educational Leadership profile. The next step that I am going to take after gaining knowledge from this survey, in addition to my personal views about the significance of Educational Leadership.

Effectual school leadership without impactful communication is impossible. Yet communication is focal to school leadership efficacy as it is something all leaders must do and always do to be accomplished. It performed as a powerful weapon of authority especially when workers need inspiration to buy into the leader’s developmental plans. For example, you may birth a vision alone but would need your team’s endorsement to structure, initiate and accomplish it. You would need to share the vision, such that the employees seizes it, establish a zeal for it and decides to be devoted to its actualization.

Effective school leaders are required to have effective communication skills. School leaders must be able to communicate effectively to parents and community members. Having the ability to get everyone involved in school functions is what makes a leader effective.

The continuous pressure from accountability in schools is rapidly growing in the United States to ensure all students have an high quality education and that they are college/career ready. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001, school leaders and teachers are becoming more accountable in showing growth and proficiency student achievement. Therefore, schools are exploring a variety of avenues to help prepare students for their annual state assessment and accountability measures. Studies in recent years have indicated that school leaders can have both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. There continues to be ongoing research emerging to determine how school leaders can have a significant influence towards student achievement. Though the evidence that leadership affects student achievement is primarily indirect, principal behaviors and decisions can continue to serve as a driving-force of what occurs in the classroom (Leithwood, Patten & Jantzi, 2010, p. 673).

Research supports the impact of district level leadership. In their 2006 meta-analysis (Walters and Marzano, 2006) that reviewed studies that focused on the relationship between district level leadership and student achievement Walters and Marzano found that the correlation between the two as .24 with a 95 percent confidence interval (Walters and Marzano, 2006). That is, district leadership matters.

The leadership style of a school administrator influences the school environment, which in turn impacts the school’s outcome. It is imperative that schools have leaders that encourage, promote, and create a collaborative environment. In reflecting on my leadership style, I am a “Facilitative Leader.” I am not only a leader, but also a coach. As a coach, I listen to questions/challenges, and share my perspective. I ensure that I listen fully in order to successfully help problem solve. As a leader, when making a decision, I make conscious choices about how much to involve others after weighing several factors. Some of these factors include how much stake-holder buy in is needed, how much time is available, and the importance of the decision. It is important to ensure that I encourage group members to participate, however, must be ready to make the final decision if needed. As a Facilitative Leader, my goal is to empower people to work together to achieve a common goal. I want the members of my group to be engaged in the process, be motivated, and have the opportunity to be creative. Each member of a group is important, and brings something valuable to the team. As a leader I ensure that my groups have a vision, goals, and the resources for obtaining those goals.