The Importance Of Leadership From The Department Of Education

This past school year I have been social chair of Nursing Students Without Borders. I have organized, implemented and hosted social events throughout the Fall of 2016 and the Spring of 2017. This past year the leadership of NSWB has worked to make NSWB community focused which is why the position I held was added this past year. I have been able to mentor a pre-nursing student through NSWB. I was able to answer the questions honestly from a pre-nursing student and provide support during the application process. I have been able to participate in leadership meetings and have learned how to plan well and how to improve event planning.

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.

Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. This quote by Tom Peters best summarizes my philosophy of teacher leadership. As a teacher leader, it is up to me to inspire, direct, and encourage others so that stronger teacher, administrative, and student leaders may be born from the process. Teacher leadership involves collaboration between teachers, administrators, and teacher leaders with the goal of positively impacting the student learning environment. With student learning as the ultimate objective, teacher leadership “becomes an indispensable avenue for school improvement” (Coggins & McGovern, 2014, p. 21). So how do I as a teacher leader begin this process? I believe that teacher leadership can be achieved through three means: modeling, mentoring, and collaborating.

I always thought I would be a teacher and I would make differences in lives and it would be the greatest experience in the world for me, yet being a teacher wasn’t enough, I had a need to expand my education. I decided that perhaps I needed a new career, however, I felt certain education remained my passion. I began to explore new areas of education and I realized I still want to be a member of a classroom, a school and curriculum. I aspire to guide those leading our classrooms.

I am not sure this is a good one?! Or I have to reconsider my decision.

Schools are facing major issues due to several reasons discussed by superintendents and principals. These issues hinder the learning curriculum standards set by the government. The No Child Left Behind Act is a mandate set forth by the federal government. “The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.” But they still face a dilemma, they need talented leaders to meet the challenges of schools and districts. In order to fulfill the Act set forth by the government, these talented leaders are essential for schools in order to fulfill the “promise of excellence and opportunity for all children”. There are numerous issues discussed that have been found to have the most impact on school and district improvement. The first is money and mandates, not to my surprise. Insufficient funding is the biggest challenge faced by superintendents and principals. Even when the money is there, the mandates pose a problem. It’s like a circle of issues that they cannot get out of. There

In light of accountability requirements, fear of not meeting AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), and required school improvement plans, often the idea of “school improvement” is considered a negative attribute. Obviously schools do not want to be singled out or identified as in need of improvement. Teachers often take the same view towards the idea of improvement. We as teachers take very personal that concept of improvement; we often parallel the need for improvement to failure. However my belief is that effective schools are always in a school improvement process and effective teachers too also are constantly adapting their practice in a culture of continuous improvement and growth. Therefore it is important as an effective leader to build a community of trust and collaboration. I quote “We are all in this together. Once we know that we are, we’re all stars and we see that we’re all in this together.” (Disney High School Musical, 2006) These lyrics from a popular Disney movie put to light exactly the school culture where the goal is not personal but as a community to use data driven and research based approaches in reflection and growth that assist all stakeholders.

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

In 2008, The Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) Standards were developed from ISLLC (Interstate Leaders Licensure Consortium) Standards.

Mayer, Woulfin, and Warhol (2015) present a qualitative case study of how intermediary organizations' coaches are utilized to support and develop principals and teachers as they seek to bring about substantive school improvement. The authors examined one individual coach that was engaged as an intermediary for a comprehensive school reform model, the Together Initiative (TI). TI was designed and implemented by stakeholders in a Northeastern State to facilitate organizational change and improvement. To evaluate the subject coach enacted TI reform, the researchers utilized communities of practice framework and found that although coaches were initially viewed as the leaders of the reform effort, it was the teachers who enacted key aspects of

A case study was done in Rochester City School District Teacher/Leader Quality Partnership (TLQP) to increase the awareness and deepen

But the arrow on the left is made up of talented individuals who are headed in many different directions. I have, unfortunately, worked in school districts in similar situations, where leaders in central office were heading in different directions, or school board members were headed in different directions. As a result, the organization, or in our case our schools began to suffer. In contrast, the arrow on the right depicts a well-aligned team with shared vision, their abilities and strengths compliment each other’s efforts, there is commonality of directions and synergy develops. In my previous school, while I felt like the district leadership operated much like the left arrow, I was proud that at the building level, our instructional leadership team made up of administrators and instructional coaches operated more like the right arrow. As a result, we were seeing learning gains for our students. Three years in a row, our 8th grade math team had the highest MAP scores in the district. Building-wide, our ELA scores were continually increasing each

Marzano, McNulty and Waters propose five steps for a plan of effective school leadership. The first step is developing a leadership team with purpose. The definition used for a purposeful community is one with the collective efficacy and capability to develop and use assets to accomplish goals that mater to all community members through agreed-upon process (Marzano, et. al, 2005). The second step is distributing some responsibilities throughout the leadership team. The third step is to select the right work. The fourth step is to identify the order of magnitude implied by the selected work. The last step is to match the management style to the order of magnitude of the change initiative. The last step incorporates whether this is first or second order change.

As I began this Leadership in Education course, I entered with an open mind and eagerness to learn about varying leadership styles and approaches. Over the years, I have fortunately been exposed to numerous genuine, caring, exceptional leaders in higher education. They all shared one commonality: student-centeredness. This has been my compass and guides me in my work. Through this course, I wanted to learn how I can better support students, whether directly or indirectly by leading other professionals and para-professionals in their work with students.

The concept and practice of teacher leadership have gained momentum in the past two decades. Teachers are assuming more leadership functions at both instructional and organizational levels of practice. Empirical literature reveals effects of teacher leadership practice, teacher leader characteristics, and conditions that promote and challenge teacher leadership.