Requested Change Case Study

School leadership has become an increasingly difficult and pressure-packed role in recent years due in large part to a new climate of accountability and measurement stemming from Federal educational policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) and continuing with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). With increasing pressure to raise student test scores and subsequently overall school performance ratings, administrators and teachers in some schools and districts have unfortunately begun using strategies, which are not ethical (and sometimes illegal) to increase student achievement. This paper is in response to a fictional case study based on the article entitled, “Looks Like 10 Miles of Bad Road: Cheating, Gaming, Mistrust, and an Interim Principal in an Urban Texas High School,” written by David E. DeMatthews of The University of Texas at El Paso, which was published in the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership in 2014. This paper will briefly introduce the background of the fictional case, before identifying the relevant Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) Standards and the manner in which they could be applied to create a plan of action for the administrator referenced in this scenario. Next, will be a discussion of the difficulty associated with competing realities faced in this case, before a final discussion of how this case study and similar scenarios relate to the preparation of effective school leaders.

There were quite a few issues that our administrative team came across that we needed a second opinion on. The majority of the time we were spot on with what should have been done. As new administrators, we wanted to make sure we had all of our t’s crossed and i’s dotted so nothing could come back on us, the school, or the district.

It is here where the staff is encouraged to participate in the change process. In order to do this effectively groups of employees that were found to have similar strengths will be assigned to projects that match their attributes. It is also important to have a feedback program in which the staff members can easily communicate their concerns, ideas or problems with the managers. The manager will know how to create these teams and programs through the data collected during the assessment stage (Sullivan, 2009).

Until 2003, HMI offered lifelong employment. How did this practice affect the company’s ability to staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy? How did this practice build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution?

Leadership decision making styles are based on a leaders identifying and a problem, then gathering and analyzing data and looking for a viable solution to solve a designated issue or concern. Leadership positions calls for leaders to become decision makers on a day to day basis and at times said decisions can be complicated or a leader may suffer from repercussions or blowback from their decisions. In business leaders are often placed in the position where their decisions are considered to be controversial to all concerned. This week’s homework assigned required students to identify a situation where they were forced to make a difficult decision. As part of the discussion students must also highlight how their particular decision was reached and to also identify their particular decision making style.

(h) the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it

Bartoletti, J. & Connelly, G. (2013). Leadership matters. National Association of Secondary School Principals and National Association of Elementary School Principals. P. 2-12.

the respect of their peers due to their knowledge, skills, and/or levels of expertise and are

The decision is made upon and according to the business plan, business goals and objectives, school vision, mission, values standard and the business motto. All the decisions are compatible with the achievement of the business short term and long term development plans.

On Monday, February 29, 2016, I interviewed Dr. K. Wallace, District Administrator for Jefferson County Public School District. The interview was on the topic of ethical fairness in education. Dr. Wallace discussed the issue of disciplinary infractions for high school students. He pointed out that bullying and acts of violence are becoming a major problem for administrators. According to Dr. Wallace, administrators must learn how to strike a balance in respecting the rights of children and eradicating acts of bullying and violence.

The focus of reading in EDAT 6115 this week was on utilizing student grouping to improve achievement within the classroom. In addition, there is a focus on strategies teachers can use to differentiate instruction to meet individual student needs. When thinking about effective instruction it is important to think about and reflect upon grouping our students and differentiating and personalizing our instruction to meet the needs of our students.

Research into ability grouping has raised questions about the process of creating homogeneous ability groups. Evidence suggests it is not uncommon for students to be placed in an inappropriate group for their ability level (Ireson & Hallam 1999; MacIntyre & Ireson 2002, as cited in Muijs & Dunne, 2010). Muijs and Dunne (2010) uncovered during their research that middle bands and even the high band contained students with low-test scores. The findings of Muijs and Dunne (2010) suggest the process in place to group students according to their ability is unreliable. Hallinan (2003) reported the process teachers were taking was to group students by standardised test scores, prior achievement and the recommendations of teachers and counselors. The benefit of homogeneous ability grouping is the opportunity to provide students with differentiated instruction based on their ability level. The result of heterogeneous ability groups created through the grouping process is one of many concerns.

In the first scenario, an organization was seeking to hire a medical director. The company peruse through the resumes and came across a candidate who had an impressive work and educational background. After hiring the candidate, the organization decided to run a background search that should have been conducted prior to offering the position to the person. Unfortunately, the search showed that the candidate that the organization had chosen had a prior criminal conviction and had served seven years in prison. With a record such as this he would have been eliminated.

The source of power throughout this meeting will be the officials involved. These officials consist of school administrators, school security guards, juvenile justice squad of the city law enforcement agency, and teachers. During this meeting each representative must present their observations, viewpoints and possible solutions. This allows the people in attendance, such as the parents and community, to see the importance of this issue from many different vantage points rather than just one. By having each representative present their observations and feedback keeps the authority equalized across the board. This is very crucial because the community, parents, and students need to see that the administration and officials involved are well-structured behind the scenes with multiple resources available. Having individuals and departments from different areas of expertise will always keep ideas fresh and open to constructive criticism.

An effective leader has strong, core values about the standards in which they put forth for their staff and students to teach and achieve. Developing these standards can be continuously evolving due to the perpetual increase of knowledge and learning in the field of education. Although there are certain authorities that must be acknowledged, an administrator does have input in how these standards are implemented in their school or district. The federal law that seems to change from each presidency must be taken into consideration as well as whatever state laws that are passed that narrow the scope of what school administrators need to take action in their schools. After these are taken into consideration, an administrator needs to