The Role And Professional Position Of The School Principal

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”

The importance of effective leadership and its impact on improving student achievement are evident in today’s schools (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). While the school principal is traditionally thought to be the school leader, Glickman (1989) proposes that “the principal of successful schools is not the instructional leader but the educational leader who mobilizes the expertise, talent, and care of others” (p. 8). Lumpkin, Claxton, and Wilson (2014) contend that helping “each school fulfill its mission and energize and expand the professionalism and professional contributions of teachers, the expertise of all teachers, especially teacher leaders, is needed” (p. 59). Teachers directly impact student learning, and

Who school leaders are – what they do, attend to, or seem to appreciate is constantly watched by students, teachers, parents, and members of the community. Their interests and actions send powerful messages. They signal the values they hold. Above all else, leaders are cultural “teachers” in the best sense of the word. (Deal & Peterson, 1990, p. 201)

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:

In our school, the principal is the head of our organization and since she does not have an Assistant Principal, is the head all alone. She has been principal for 10+ years at the same establishment and loves every day. She stresses to her staff the importance of student safety, student achievement, parental

Initially and still relatively concrete in thought, I sincerely felt that the leadership within the school hierarchy started with the principal and branched down all the way to the core teachers, specialists, and support staff, establishing that whatever the aims and jurisdictions set forth by the principal overtly shaped the nature of a school’s approach to reform and learning expectations. Additionally, teachers were expected to operate in their specific roles to advance those expectations set forth in large school staff meetings that planned

The watching of the videos “The Principal Story” and “North Grand” in combination with reading the textbook “Leading in a Culture of Change” by Michael Fullan and our class discussions have provided me with many insights about my future as a high school principal. I have served as a mathematics teacher for almost twenty-three years and have served in many leadership roles throughout my career, however my participation in this course has verified that, although I have a strong foundation of knowledge, I still have much to learn about leading a school. I am coming to understand the position of principal is a monumental task and should be entered with into with much thought. Holding this role as principal requires that I use this position to

In this book, author Robert Starratt provides a framework for building a foundation of ethical leadership based on responsibility, authenticity, and presence. Readers should understand that this book is not how to transform schools, but how to think about affecting change in our teachers, staff, and students.

The principal should be the keeper of the schools good will and represent the school vision, so that the staff believes they are all in this together. The

This study seeks to examine a principal leadership style and its effects on teacher job

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

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).

As the leader of a 21st century school one must embody the qualities that best reflect the ever-changing face of education. Traditionally, the leader of a school focused a large portion of time and energy on typical managerial functions within the school. These tasks, although important, will not propel a school to achieve excellence. Today’s school leaders must be visionaries who create a sense of purpose driven unity. As a transformational leader, one must also be the beacon of learning in establishing and effectively cultivating professional learning communities. One must recognize and further develop the leadership skills of those within the school in order to ensure the vision and mission of the school is achieved. Keeping in

In order for the principal to develop positive relationships within the community the school needs to demonstrate, and promote the contributions provided. The school needs to adopt an “our children” attitude with the community to share in the benefits for students (Epstein, 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