The Field Of Education For 16 Years

As with the importance of selecting a highly qualified principal to help raise test scores and closing achievement gaps, the selection and support of staff is also critical. Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek, and Steven G. Rivkin’s 2013 study “School Leaders Matter” examined the effectiveness of many principles’ leadership and the effect they had on student achievement ratings. “A primary channel through which principals can be expected to improve the quality of education is by raising the quality of teachers, either by improving the instruction provided by existing teachers or through teacher transitions that improve the caliber of the school’s workforce” (Branch, pg.4). A principal must be able to continually seek out professional development, to research best practices and new educational theories to support their staff and students. If principals are to close the achievement gap, they must be willing to inform and instruct their staff on new teaching strategies. Mr. Canada, from his TED talk, “Our failing schools. Enough is enough!”, states: “You go into a place that has failed kids for fifty years and say: ‘so what’s the plan?’ And they say: ‘Well, we are going to do what we did last year, this year’. What kind of business model is that?” (TED, 2013). The principal willing to venture into new, uncharted waters may succeed or fail, but at least they

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).

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.

In this chapter, Fullan begins by maintaining that principals who are effective lead learners are necessarily also good managers, because they understand that having clear routines is essential for school improvement.” (57) He quotes from Viviane Robinson’s Student-Centered Leadership to both underscore the previous point and emphasize that successful principals take an active learning stance: “The principal who makes the biggest impact on learning is the one who attends to other matters as well, but, most important, ‘participates as a learner’ with teachers in helping move the school forward.” (58) Fullan also borrows from Helen Timperley’s work in responding to the question, Who is in a principal’s class? The principal’s class consists of “team leaders who in turn can leverage the learning of other teachers in their group”

Based on my experience in the classroom and my educational background, I want to pursue a certification as a K-12 administrator because I want to help and work with a larger population of students. My desire to enhance the culture and community in a school building has come from working with three amazing, passionate, and dedicated administrators (one principal and two vice principals) in my school building. Their drive to positively influence the lives of students, collaborate with parents, and enhance the teaching styles of all the faculty members in the building, has motivated me to want to do the same. A new challenge is presented every day in a school building, and I want to be part of an administrative team that will successfully work together to overcome each and every obstacle in order to better the educational experience of students.

According to former Indiana state superintendent of schools Dr. Suellen Reed, “We know from our research that there’s no turnaround school without a turnaround principal” (as cited in Gammil, 2007, para. 2), further supporting the fact that “school leaders have an essential role in cultivating a positive school culture in public schools” (Peterson and Deal, 2002, p.30). However, it is imperative to improve our understanding as to how principal leadership impacts the school culture in high poverty schools to ensure that all children receive a quality education, regardless of zip code, in an environment conducive to learning. The six measured factors are as follows:

Dr. David Bolton has had an interesting spring, to say the least. He has served in the capacity of the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education in Central Bucks for two years. At the end of Dr. Bolton’s second year, the retiring Superintendent planned to retire officially on May 30, 2016 but in a series of events involving new School Board members, he was asked to clean out his office on Monday, May 9, 2016. The Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education also retired early in March of 2016, leaving Dr. Bolton currently with the title of Substitute Superintendent until a new Superintendent begins on June 6, 2016. Dr. Bolton has been completing tasks since March as Elementary and Secondary Assistant Superintendents and Substitute Superintendent all at once. My original interview was scheduled with the outgoing superintendent during the week of his departure. In light of this complication, Dr. Bolton was gracious enough to answer my questions in an email but I was unable to interview him in person or on the phone due to his busy schedule.

Carlos L. Mckinney, Myron B. Labat Jr., and Cherie A. Labat (for the remainder of this paper referred to as “the researchers”) set out to determine if there were common specific personal and professional traits/strategies associated with successful building principals of identified Blue Ribbon Schools and teacher morale. This study enlisted a number of teachers, counselors, principals and assistant principals from identified Blue Ribbon Schools in a southern state to participate in the study. During this study, the researchers used specific survey questions designed to identify behavioral leadership traits and the resulting staff/teacher morale. These survey questions were asked to educational professionals employed in the identified Blue Ribbon schools to determine whether there was a correlation between the principal’s behavioral leadership and the overall school culture as related to the resulting teacher/staff morale.

Since its development in 1994 the standards of Educational Leadership have pursued promoting an understanding on what is expected from the educational administration field.1 The goal of this paper is to present a personal appraisal of a connection between the ELCC standards and my own experiences in district leadership and a reflection on my professional practice of the standards. It is implicit that an educational leader should promote the success of every student by advocating and effectively implementing the 6 standards of Educational Leadership. 2

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

I have been in the education field for twenty-three years and have had the opportunity to work with many administrators which all have had very different leadership styles and personalities. I have been lucky to be able to work with a few principals that were, in my opinion, effective and transformational leaders. Unfortunately, I have also had the occasion of working with principals that made it almost unbearable to continue working in an uninviting and toxic atmosphere, which resulted in many seasoned educators leaving the campus or the education field all together. All of these experiences, good and bad, have made me develop my own perception of administration and of the principalship itself; formulating my own theory as to what I believe to be the most effective way, as an administrator, to promote success of each student. My theory of practice consists of goals which depend on getting all stakeholders involved in the success of our students. Some of my goals in the principalship are: promoting a safe school environment for students and staff, performing my duties as a principal in an ethical manner which will encourage teachers and students to also act with integrity and honesty. It is my belief that attaining these first two goals will foster the relationships needed to work collaboratively on the vision and mission of our school; getting all stakeholders involved, students, teachers, support staff, parents, community members, surrounding

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

The administrator should have an open communication with all school personnel. Administrators must communicate regularly and meaningfully with all members of the school community. They provide this leadership skill by demonstrating the commitment to academic excellence. As the instructional leader of the school, an administrator will; collaborate, provide professional development, and offer instructional support to those in need. As mandated by the district and state, the instructional leader has a duty to evaluate the teacher 's instruction and performance. Evaluations should be unprejudiced and well documented specifying both strengths and weaknesses of the teacher. As the instructional leader,

According to the authors of this article (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009), principals need to concentrate on the development of skills and behaviors in order to be successful in motivating, leading, and changing the direction of a school. The successful principal understands that there exists a fine balance of caring for others and the need to accomplish specific tasks (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).

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