Evolution Of The Principal In The 19th Century

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

Fullan believes that the overwhelming and anxiety-inducing responsibilities of today’s principals necessitate the re-imagining of the role of the principal. He begins this redefinition with what he terms a shocker: “the principal as direct instructional leader is not the solution!” (6) Indeed, he maintains that the current notion of the principal as instructional leader actually inhibits the principal’s

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.

This will allow for dialogue between faculty, staff, and myself as the administrator. I am currently working as an elementary school aide to prepare for what I need in order to be successful as a school administrator since most duties are non-professional. A successful operation of an educational institution requires a competent administrator, such as one who can lead in teaching and learning, take responsibility for school success, develop and retain excellent teachers, and build a strong school community. Leadership plays a critical part in the realization of effective schools, seeing the vision of the school, and articulates the goals. Leadership is a trait I use daily working with people getting things done by modeling behaviors and inspiring action.

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

Number of studies have asserted that teaching experience of principal positively associates with his/her instructional leadership (Eberts & Stone, 1988; Glasman, 1984; Hallinger, 1983; Leithwood et al., 1990). Studies have identified personal values of principal to indirectly shape his/her attention to varying aspects of educational programs (Barth, 1980, 1990; Cuban, 1988; Glasman, 1984; Leithwood et al., 1990, 1992). “Research on effects of principal leadership on student learning draws its conceptual lineage more directly from research on school effectiveness and school improvement.” (Hallinger, Bickman and Davis,

Principal should collaboratively develop plans to improve the schools effort on teaching and learning. High-quality teacher lesson plans should show the use of differentiated instructional strategies, curriculum materials, and technologies to maximize high-quality instruction within the school. Principal should facilitate school leadership through professional development training that is focused on teaching and student learning. Principals should establish a system within their school that promotes effective and efficient management of policies, procedures, and practices.

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

Since 1983, American public schools have undergone an unprecedented amount of reform that has placed an enormous burden on the public school system. Today’s principals are living in a world of rapid changes and expectations to improve student

Administrators and teachers have the same goal in their mind; create the best learning environment for students by cooperating and supporting each other. Effective principles understand their responsibility to lead, to support, to encourage and develop teachers to maximize their knowledge and skills to do their job in an excellent way. However, principals need to be diplomatic and gracious when giving help to teachers in the area of instructional nature, for the majority of teachers prefer and appreciate the professional autonomy. Principals do not want to be viewed as intruding teacher’s territory or overstepping their boundary or exerting their positional power, which might create unnecessary tension between teachers and the administrator. The strategies refered as “gentle nudges” instead of direct orders are recommended for principals to implement with instructional supervision.

Knowing the school’s allies, adversaries, and competitors are is critical. Most often, for a new principal to be successful at a school, relationships with school councils, partners in education, and PTA’s will need to begin early. These organizations will want to know that things are not going to change drastically. It will be important to share that the only necessary changes will take place once a thorough evaluation and observation process has been conducted. Making changes based on data is hard to argue. Selecting a strong, cohesive leadership team to embrace change and enhance initiatives will assist with creating influence and buy-in of their cohorts. For the leadership team’s effectiveness, it is imperative that they understand that their role is to be a leader of teachers rather than a re-layer of information.

In terms of becoming a mediator and consensus builder the authors detailed the need for principals to possess relational leadership skills in order to be able to both facilitate groups and coach others on staff in the ability to facilitate their own groups, and stressed that the key to this is the ability to effectively participate in conflict resolution (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009). The authors suggested that conflict is part and parcel of school reform and that in addition to being able to deal effectively with conflict the successful principal needs to develop the ability for bringing about consensus within the group, noting that interpersonal and intrapersonal skills were as much or more important than knowledge (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).

The leadership style of school’s principals in U.S. elementary schools plays an indirect role in the academic success of students when is implicit a transformational approach in the principal’s behavior. I mentioned indirect impact, because the truly direct impact is toward the teachers, which, as a transitivity effect, impact as well the academic achievement of their students. The purpose of this paper is analyze the impact of transformational principals in teacher’s commitment and job satisfaction, and in consequence, their effect in the student’s success.

Chapter Three focuses on the Principal being an indirect link to student’s achievement through their collaboration with the teaching staff. This is a notion that I am not in total agreement. A school principal’s role can vary from district to district, from

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