With the passage of NCLB, many school reform efforts have been initiated using top-down model in which each school leaders have been charged with initiating bold administrative changes to address the legislation. With the number of leadership theories and models, researchers have become interested in studying those to determine which might bring forth the most significant results for leading such change. Due to the lack of highly qualified administrators and the increasing demands for administrators, Bush, O’Brien & Spangler (2005) studied a program, the Southern Tier Leadership Academy, a collaborative of the New York Education Department. The study included three separate cohorts who completed an eight month program. Whereas, Somech (2005) chose to investigate directive and participative leadership approaches, and which would more significantly impact school effectiveness. Perhaps Somech’s reflect Scherer’s (2009, p.7) understandings as described in Educational Leadership, ‘broom-wielding leadership can indeed be beneficial’ as is putting advocates into positions of power and influence and building teams, both of which are seemingly contrasting opposites. This paper will describe two studies, one quantitative and the other a mixed method, which dealt with aspects of educational leadership. The studies chosen for review were conducted by Bush, et al. (2005), a study that reported participant results in a Leadership Academy, and another by Somech (2005) in which the results of an investigational study of leadership styles, participative and directive, with regard to their impact upon managing school effectiveness. To offer a deeper understanding of the respective studies, a discussion follows that details the design rationa... ... middle of paper ... ... that the academy would increase the quantity and quality of future administrators. Both studies concluded that their findings could enhance future studies in educational research and significantly add to the body of knowledge. Critique While both studies explored dimensions of educational leadership, and were reported in academic journals, it is my opinion that Somech’s(2005) study is the more valid. I state this due to the number of participants and the varied instruments chosen for the study while Bush, et al. (2005) only examined an eight month academy for three years, with fifty-four participants. Additionally, their data reflected only thirty-eight returned surveys and responses to their version of the MLQ, which only consisted of fourteen items. Finally, regarding ethical considerations, I do not feel that either of these studies were a threat to such.
Ms. Hall has had many years of public education experience and higher education training in which to hone her leadership style and framework. She started her career as a teacher in the Kirkwood School District. She then served as an assistant elementary principal at both Ritenour and Pattonville School Districts before being selected to serve as the assistant superintendent of the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District in 2008. Throughout her career she continued to pursue her education as a means o...
The major concepts of this article relate to the ineffectiveness of school leadership programs. Arthur Levine found that a majority of the programs were inadequate. He noted four areas in which these programs lacked efficiency. These areas of concern were the rise in off-campus low quality programs, weak research-intensive universities that are working towards awarding doctoral degrees in administration, competition for students is causing lowered program quality and admission criteria, and the fact that state and local school districts are adding to the problem by salary incentives for advanced degrees. Levine noted several major issues that affect school administration programs. First, he revealed that many people who had finished these programs agreed that the curriculum was irrelevant; they said that it did prepare them to deal with "on-the-job issues." Second, the issues of low admission and graduation standards were addressed. The study illustrated how many schools lower their standards to increase admission and create tuition "cash cows." Third, he discussed the issue of these schools having weak faculties.
Through the educational evolution, my journey will be insightful through my commitment to students and staff to provide the most relevant instructional implementation. With the collaboration of district and state personnel, the research based learning will allow students to confidently go through their educational career.
In School Leadership that Works Marzano introduces twenty-one responsibilities of a school leader (see Appendix A). These leadership responsibilities are used in the two change orders discussed by Marzano, McNulty and Waters (2005). “Some innovations require changes that are gradual and subtle; others require changes that are dra...
A leader can be described as a person who gives direction, inspiration and cause to a group of people who are striving to achieve a common or similar goal (Eacott, 2011; Siraj-Blatchford & Manni, 2013). As there are many types of leaders within an early childhood education setting, such as director, room leader and educational leader, it is important to define and dissect what each role requires (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni, 2013). An educational leader is defined in the National Quality Framework (NQF), where they have support from other documentation and literature to identify what an educational leader is (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, 2014). This essay will examine the key factors that influence the education leader with links to the theories of leadership, such as contingency and transformational theories, and what being an educational leader entails.
In every institution the type of leadership style is important for a successful environment. In order to establish a successful school environment to compete globally, the leader should comprehend the basic leadership theories and styles (Glickman et al., 2010). The cultures at schools are important to the success of the students and overall of the school, but also can be very difficult to establish and maintain without the proper leadership knowledge (Waite, 1995). In United States many schools could be place in the categories of conventional, congenial, or collegial, because the strategies used for their leadership (Glickman et al., 2010).The chosen school could be classified according to different criteria and could be determine in which area their leadership pertains more. In order to analyzed and classify the leadership, it was imperative to observed the way the leader make decisions, the approached with the stakeholders, how the instruction is delivered, and how they realized their job (Marshall, 2005). In this analysis will be identify the category that this school will be, the school climate, the type of supervision and leadership.
(ASCD). Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall. 10, 18-19. Tomlinson, C. A. (2010). One Kid at a Time. Educational Leadership, 67(5), 12-16.
The objective that I have for this paper is to present the integration and synthesis of at least three grounded theories and conceptual principles of the educational leadership field. Then, according with guidelines, I will compare and contrast those theories by using different authors’ perspectives, to critically analyze the body of knowledge achieved by those principles and explain how those theories in educational leadership add knowledge through the implementation of their premises and the interaction among them in the area of education. Subsequently, I will be selecting one of the theories examined previously and provide details on how the theory may or may not contribute to the understanding of the educational leadership. As part of this process I will include a discussion with disagreements or unanswered questions of the selected postulation.
The role of teacher leader has been defined as “teachers who aspire to stretch beyond their classrooms to engage in leadership roles that take many shapes and forms, both “informal and formal”. (ECS, 2010). Teacher leadership has also been described as “the process by which teachers, individually and collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.” (ECS, 2010). In years past, a majority of teacher leadership roles took the form of department chair, committee chair, grade level chair, etc. It was more of a representative role versus a leadership role. Their responsibility primarily involved dispersing information from administration to their counterparts and taking information back to administration from the group. Their position lacked decision-making power and true leadership that brings about “real” change. These tasks are still viewed as opportunities for teacher leadership; however, recently, the
582; Cemaloğlu et al., 2012, p. 54). Transformational leadership behaviors have both direct and indirect effects on teachers’ behavior, psychological states, and organizational performance (Balyer, 2012, p. 582). Such leaders motivate teachers to empower themselves to produce unexpected performance in terms of STEM curriculum. Also, they sharpen teachers’ skills and augment their knowledge from their own experiences (Asgari et al., 2008, p. 228; Balyer, 2012, p. 582; Seyal, 2015, p. 34). Also, transformational leadership builds genuine trust between school leaders and teachers since principals respect the teachers and deal with the difficulties they encounter. In turn teachers trust the principals and provide them with autonomy to increase their performance and efficacy (Asgari et al., 2008, p. 235; Balyer, 2012, p. 587; Cemaloğlu et al., 2012, p. 54). Such an approach explains that school administrators can become exceptional leaders who also qualify as moral leaders (Balyer, 2012, p. 582; Pless & Maak, 2011, p. 8). To add, charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation serve as the main components of leaders addressing underrepresentation in STEM (Seyal, 2015, p.
Thomas Sergiovanni (2015) describes three essential dimensions of leadership as “the heart, head, and hand of leadership.” The heart describes those characteristics within the school leader that reflect personal “beliefs, values, and dreams.” The head of leadership refers to the practice of teaching and educating. The hand of leadership reflects actions taken by school leaders with respect to management behaviors. (p. 5) Within these elements, there is room for personal choice in how leadership is practiced and it is incumbent on new principals to find an individual leadership style that responds to the uniqueness of each school.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
As mentioned before, leadership styles take an important role in running a school. Unfortunately, many principals have not yet defined their leadership style and struggle to administrate their school. They are responsible not only of teachers and students, but of every employee in the school. They have the power to control all the resources available to improve and meet academic goals. Despite their power, principals need to identify appropriate leadership styles to succeed as
York-Barr, J. & K. Duke (2004) what do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of educational research 74(3), 255-316.