Leading Educational Change

I know that many people struggle with change, including me. Change often comes without a warning and catches you off guard, but it is not always a bad thing. Change can make things exciting and test your limits.

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.

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,

Leaders can improve the chances for a successful change outcome by following Kotter’s eight-step change theory. Pick three of the eight-step change theory components and give an example for each of how leaders can implement it to effect change. Respond substantively to two other students’

Hechanova, R., & Cemetina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(1), 11-19.

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.

Educational leadership involves implementing changes which can be difficult when those one leads are resistant. Overcoming that resistance to bring about change creates benefits for students and the entire school community; unfortunately, there is no universal way to avoid resistance to change from all involved (Marion & Gonzales, 2014, p. 197). Further research could be done within an individual school

Jick, T., & Peiperl, M. (2008). Managing Change: Cases and Concepts (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education ;.

Change is a part of life that must happen, and it does, inevitably. We must accept that. It happens constantly and it’s a chance for a new beginning, a new adventure to embark on. It’s just that most of us don’t see it like that. We resist and avoid like change is some sort of disease.

In order to be considered a transformational educational leader, you have to have a clear vision and be able to effectively communicate that vision to the entire staff. A transformational educational leader must be unselfish and willing to share their power by distributing leadership and sharing responsibilities. They must provide opportunities for professional and personal growth to staff members by providing intellectual stimulation to influence people to reach higher levels of professional and personal growth.

“Effective instructional leadership requires a complex set of relationships between principals and their beliefs and the surrounding environments of the school… all must be taken into account” (Hughes, Norris & Ubben, 2011, pg. 31). Before I can initiate the possibility of change, an evaluation of the scope of the need. I need to ask the stakeholders the following questions “Why is the change needed? What will it mean for us and our students when the change comes about? Is what we’re being asked to do possible? Can we see it in practice? How will we develop the skills necessary to enact the change” (Tomlinson, 2008, pg. 43)?

In his article “Can leadership help teachers deal with change-associated challenges?” Matthes analyses the extent to which school-leaders influence their teachers amidst change-triggered challenges. For this purpose the author collected qualitative data from 28 semi-structured interviews which served as the analytic base of this article. This article’s findings supported and complemented Matthes’ earlier quantitative-study findings about the same theme. Paraphrased with other words both articles found that teachers expect their leaders to focus more on people (than tasks) if they wish to aid properly during “change-associated challenges”. Teachers expected also from their leaders to address adequately all issues related to all teachers’

Intervention was deemed necessary at a local school pertaining to the initial class, which students were failing. The department head identified that the change in direction required new textbooks, altered assessments, and increased student participation to be successful. The department head first had to identify his/her situational leadership style to effectively implement changes to improving the class while gaining buy-in from faculty and students. The premise for change existed because of the failing scores. The flexibility of the department head was imperative in the success of the change; the skill levels and attitudes of the students and faculty were a consideration in deciding the best style the department head

As defined by Katzenbach (1995), change leadership is “the process whereby individuals who lead initiatives that influence dozens to hundreds of others to perform differently—and better—by applying multiple leadership and change approaches.” Leadership alone is defined as setting a direction and developing the strategies necessary to move in that direction – that is, creating and achieving a vision – leadership is thus a process to do with change (Kotter 1999). Change leadership is critically important to the continuing success of organizations everywhere. Tennant Company understands and invests in change leadership by employing a Sr. Organization Development Manager named Annelise Larson, M.B.A. whose efforts includes setting direction, developing strategies, and leading initiatives through organizational change efforts. An interview was conducted with Annelise Larson to discuss and learn about her change leadership abilities. For the purposes of this paper, the interview questions will be shared, a summary will be provided, and five recommendations are made for Annelise Larson as a change leader.

Murphy (2016) found that teacher and staff do not receive suggestions of change from an outsider. This is why it is important for all administrator to walk around the school and communicate with teachers and staff. It is also important that leaders have a plan and formula in place to address resistance to change.