weLEAD
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Copyright 2004 ã weLEAD, Inc
Leading
Schools to Higher Plateaus – Part 1
By M. James Kedro
(This article is comprised of passages from Dr. Kedro’s
book, Aligning
Resources for Student Outcomes: School-Based
Steps to Success,
available in July from ScarecrowEducation Press (ã 2004).
As we search for ways to improve
educational outcomes, we should keep in mind that a public school is a social
and economic microcosm of the community it serves. A school is our investment
in the future, an extended family imparting knowledge to each new generation.
It can be dysfunctional or it can be nurturing. Most likely, a school is an
admixture of positive and negative influences searching for a workable
equilibrium.
To find proper balance and meet the
needs of our changing society, school leaders must learn to adopt and adapt. In
doing so, every school must develop its own leadership style. The goal of each
school’s leadership team then becomes a mission to find ways to sustain high
levels of academic performance in response to the school’s unique
circumstances.
To accomplish the school mission,
those who comprise the school--administrators, teachers, students, parents, and
members of the community--need to band together and learn from each other. This
happens when frank and open communication is established about “the good, the bad,
and the ugly” in the school. A collaborative, consultative, and inclusive
management style emerges where school leaders encourage and respect diverse
opinions.
Leadership style affects student
achievement. Complying with the federal government mandate of “No Child Left Behind,” today’s schools must
lift all students to high levels of performance. But in today’s economy,
schools must succeed with diminishing resources. To meet this challenge, school
leaders need the ability to secure and align divergent resources from many
directions and on many levels.
School resources at our disposal
include more than dollars and cents. There is a vast body of educational and
business research available to draw upon. Among topics are guidelines for
fiscal and budgetary management, balanced leadership, professional development,
comprehensive reform, school partnerships, and overcoming resistance to
positive change.
Sharing
the Vision
Aligning the tangible and intangible
assets of the school requires full collaboration built on consultative,
transformational leadership. Effective leaders think ahead of the curve and
share the school vision. Through collaboration, leaders assemble a team who
develops plans consistent with the vision and then effectively implements those
plans.
But what if old-style regimentation
of the teaching and learning process haunts our school and discourages
effective leadership? In that scenario, outmoded patterns of leadership can
strangle innovation and restrain collective decision-making. For example,
school bureaucracy can block effective change when it’s consumed by short-term
thinking, lack of vision, and infinite layers of administration and reporting.
In this restrictive situation, initiative for improved inputs is seen to flow
exclusively from the top down. Administrators discourage or undervalue the
abilities of their professional colleagues.
On the other hand, school staff
members cannot obstruct progressive administrators and stand in the way of
transformational leadership. Impeding the implementation of tested teaching and
learning strategies benefits no one. In the shared leadership environment,
trained school personnel do not place the blame for failure on circumstances
beyond their control. Instead, heads-up teachers find ways to circumvent
stumbling blocks; they get answers that will improve student achievement.
In an academically proficient
school, the leadership team accepts complete responsibility for the school and
the performance of its students. This could be tough if the school is mired in
an equilibrium that discourages change. It’s fairly common for school staff
members to be leery of transformation. Therefore, the school leadership team
must develop the untapped potential of each person in the school.
The principal and faculty must come
to see themselves as the drivers behind school successes. All are aware of
change processes in the school and confront problems together. When setbacks
occur, they look to themselves as possibly one of the reasons for their
students’ achievement difficulties. Comfortable with decentralized
decision-making, school staff members think and act in collegial teams and
continually advance toward the school’s academic objectives.
More than twenty years ago in The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler stated
that society will come to recognize the value in decentralized decision-making.
“Such changes imply a striking shift away from standard old-fashioned
bureaucracy,” wrote Toffler, “and the emergence in business, government, the
schools, and other institutions of a wide variety of new-style organizations.”
Including
All
Decentralized decision-making in
public education can be accomplished by using the right recipe for school-based
management (SBM). SBM calls for a broad array of leadership characteristics on
the part of the principal and the school leadership team. Beneath the SBM
umbrella, everyone touched by the school, including parents and the community,
collectively take control of resources, achieve consensus, and uplift the
school toward improved outcomes for all students. This requires implementing a
change process that moves away from the traditional top-down leadership
structure toward fuller participation by all clients.
The directors of change in the
school need to be supportive and approachable throughout the change process.
School leaders must know when to stand back and take stock and when to
intervene with advice, coaching, or direction. The school leadership team,
especially, needs to establish the rapport and confidence that will instill a
collective, problem-solving mind-set in the school. School leaders need to
bring out the best in colleagues, students, members of the community, and
parents,
Two decades ago in Free To Choose, Milton and Rose Friedman
wrote, “One way to achieve a major improvement, to bring learning back into the
classroom, especially for the most disadvantaged, is to give all parents
greater control over their children’s schooling. . . .” While I may not subscribe to every
educational theory advocated by the Friedmans, I wholeheartedly concur that
parents generally have more interest in their children’s schooling and needs
than anyone else. Parents and the larger community must be part of the
leadership equation that will provide the solution to improve academic outcomes
for all children.
In the well-structured SBM system,
the concerns of all supporters who are committed to the vision are valued.
Working together, the SBM team breaks through the barriers that limit the
successes of faculty and students.
Next month, in part 2 we
will discuss the concepts of breaking through, enabling action and teaching
leadership!
References
Friedman,
M. and Friedman, R. (1979). Free to
choose: A personal statement.
Knowles,
M.S. (1970). The modern practice of adult
education: From pedagogy to andragogy.
Quinn, R.E.
(1996). Deep change: Discovering the
leader within.
Toffler,
A. (1980). The third wave.
Tracy, B.
(2003). Capitalizing on your strengths. Success Review. Retrieved
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About the author:
M. James Kedro (mjkedro@yahoo.com) is a senior evaluator in
the