The-School-Principal-as-Leader-Guiding-Schools-to-Better-Teaching-and-Learning-2nd-Ed.pdf (original) (raw)

Leadership for School Improvement. Revised Edition

2001

This monograph serves two purposes: (1) to stimulate further reflection and discussion among education leaders and policymakers to revitalize and strengthen the role that school leaders play in school reform; and (2) to assist researchers in identifying areas of future work. It synthesizes some of the most current literature pertinent to leadership and offers ideas and suggestions that may serve as the basis for further study about the leadership strategies that help bring about meaningful and longlasting reform. The intent is to identify the major issues involved in developing leaders who sustain effective change. Leaders need to examine carefully whether the changes they are implementing are the best ones for their students in the long run. School leaders also need to balance competing demands and to create environments in which diverse viewpoints can come together to create a common vision for what schools should be. To make and sustain meaningful, long-lasting changes, the conception of what "leadership" means must be expanded from a narrow focus on improving the skills of a single man or woman to the building of the capacity of the community of teachers, students, parents, as well as administrators to lead. (Contains 24 references.) (DFR) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

What we know about successful school leadership

2003

S cratch the surface of an excellent school and you are likely to find an excellent principal. Peer into a failing school and you will find weak leadership. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. Leaders are thought to be essential for high-quality education. But is this indeed trueand if so, exactly how does leadership work? Amidst the seeming certainty that leadership matters, there is much that we do not yet understand about effective educational leadership. However, the knowledge base about leadership is constantly growing. In this brief, we present a summary of key, well-documented understandings about leadership at the school level. This knowledge can be used with confidence to guide leadership practice, policy, and research. It can help address concerns about school leaders' preparation and performance. It also can provide a good starting point for dialogue with diverse audiences about the future of educational leadership. WHY THE RENEWED EMPHASIS ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP? OUTCOMES ARE CRUCIAL Local, state, and federal achievement standards for ambitious learning for all children have changed the landscape of educational accountability. Pressure is on actors at all levels, from students themselves to teachers, principals, and superintendents. In these times of heightened concern for student learning, school leaders are being held accountable for how well teachers teach and how much students learn. THE ENVIRONMENT IS MORE COMPLEX Educational leaders must guide their schools through the challenges posed by an increasingly complex environment. Curriculum standards, achievement benchmarks, programmatic requirements, and other policy directives from many sources generate complicated and unpredictable requirements for schools. Principals must respond to increasing diversity in student characteristics, including cultural background and immigration status, income disparities, physical and mental disabilities, and variation in learning capacities. They must manage new collaborations with other social agencies that serve children. Rapid developments in technologies for teaching and communication require adjustments in the internal workings of schools. These are just a few of the conditions that make schooling more challenging and leadership more essential.

A Call for Improved School Leadership

Phi Delta Kappan, 2014

Evaluating the quality of one's work should not be limited to students and teachers; leaders also must be evaluated and encouraged to improve.

Leading School Improvement: A focus on the work of the school leader

This book is about leading school improvement in an era of constant change. Ken Sell, David Lynch and Tina Doe, three accomplished and published experts in the field of education, bring together leading education researchers and school leaders to create a collection of chapters which focus on key aspects of effective school leadership. The book explores a model for whole of school improvement and examines key concepts such as; readiness for change, approaches to leadership, how to use data, parental engagement, as well as providing insights into aspects of school and teaching in to the future.

Impact of School Principal Leadership

There is nothing new or especially controversial about effective school principal leadership makes a different in improving school climate. Recent research by the researchers from the field of educational administration, leadership, policy and planning has brought into focus the priorities of effective principal and the measured impact of principal leadership on student learning. But still much is left to be known regarding the impact of school principals' leadership on school improvement. A purpose of this articles review is to identify the role and consequence of school principal leadership for overall development of school. This article reviews recent articles in school leadership that support the arguments school principals matter to successful school and innovation, student achievement, teacher motivation and instructional excellence. The cumulative message given by the review of articles published from 2010 to 2015 is that (a) more democratic transformational leadership, distributed leadership, transactional approaches and instructional leadership is increasingly seen as a feature of effective leadership for organizational change(b) Principal leadership behaviors and his/ her effectiveness potentially impact both JAAR: Volume4, Issue6, June 2016 2 teachers and students achievement.(c) the principal can influence on the students behavior, teachers motivation, productivity and effectiveness of their school. (d) responsible and effective principals create a

Leadership in Effective Elementary Schools: A Synthesis of Five Case Studies

Online Submission, 2012

Administrators in five highly effective elementary schools were studied. These leaders, through acts of will and insight, had given up iconic and heroic leadership status, so that school leadership might be shared. Leadership has a significant effect on student learning. Principals' influence is often indirect, works through others, and happens best by developing teachers' efficacy in curriculum and instruction, engaging and motivating staff, fostering a shared purpose, creating conditions for effective teaching and learning, fostering program coherence, encouraging organizational learning, and through feedback, direction, and communication. Significant leadership practices include communicating a clear vision and priorities, focusing time and attention on what matters most, enabling teachers to develop pedagogical and content skills and capacity, providing instructional guidance, empowering others to make significant decisions, addressing supportive structures and resources, developing school improvement plans, providing instructional guidance and coherence, engaging the larger school and district community, acting ethically, and engaging in continuous learning and growth.