[ Purpose and Structure of the Policy Forum ]
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[ How Can We Change Practice to Strengthen Leadership? ]
Forum participants identified several characteristics that define effective leadership for today's schools.
Most participants agreed that the number one characteristic of an effective leader is the ability to provide instructional leadership. Yet this is also the role for which principals and superintendents are least well prepared; some studies suggest that as many as three-quarters of current principals are not skilled instructional leaders.
What is instructional leadership? In the case studies described at the Forum, superintendents and principals devoted the bulk of their time, energy, and talents to improving the quality of teaching and learning. Leaders in these districts have a deep understanding of teaching and learning, including new teaching methods that emphasize problem solving and student construction of knowledge. Good instructional leaders have a strong commitment to success for all students, and are especially committed to improving instruction for groups of students who are not learning now.
In successful districts, the principals know how to evaluate instruction and give frank, powerful feedback that encourages teachers to teach better and students to learn more. These principals engage the whole school in continuous dialogue about what good teaching looks like and whether students are doing quality work. Often the work of everyone in the district, including the superintendent and principals, is judged in terms of teacher growth and demonstrable gains in student learning.
In these kinds of districts, the management responsibilities that traditionally define a principal's job are the baseline level of expectations, although some superintendents have tried desperately to reduce bureaucratic burdens to give principals more time for instructional duties. "We automatically expect the trains to run on time," explained Superintendent Michael Riley, from the suburban district of Bellevue, Washington, "but the real job is to move instruction forward."
Instructional leadership means different things for superintendents and principals, and takes different forms in different districts. In some effective districts, both superintendents and principals are a common presence in the classroom, with the principals being closely involved with the teaching in every classroom. In other districts, the superintendent sets the vision and goals for teaching and learning, while principals have the primary responsibility for instructional leadership. In some districts, principals serve more as instructional facilitators. For example, instead of spending considerable time in each classroom, a principal may designate teacher--leaders, who work directly with every teacher and meet often with the principal.
Whatever the arrangement, becoming a true instructional leader does not mean usurping the job of the teacher. Instead it means that leaders will provide teachers with informed feedback, guidance, support, and professional development that will help them do their jobs better.
Forum participants had different opinions about how much emphasis educational leaders should place on instructional leadership, relative to management skills and other critical competencies. Some very good leaders could not truly be called instructional leaders, but they are effective because they know how to "run interference"?how to nurture good teaching and learning amid external pressures. (But this does not apply to leaders who hide behind their heavy management load as an excuse for their lack of instructional involvement.) At the same time, some leaders who have excellent instructional leadership skills have run aground because they are not competent managers. Many aspects of our educational system "are almost toxic to teaching and learning," as Joel Shawn of the California Center for School Restructuring said. In this environment, it takes more than just instructional leadership to keep good teaching alive and well.
Running a district or school today is an enormously demanding job. Good leaders must be good managers and knowledgeable about finance. To be successful, administrators must be able to negotiate their way through an overload of sometimes conflicting demands of local, state, and federal bureaucracies, parents, politicians, and constituent groups.
Many current superintendents and principals feel more comfortable with management than instruction because that's how they were trained. But the management skills required today are not the same ones taught in most traditional administration preparation programs. As Paul Houston of the American Association of School Administrators observed, today's leaders must shift their focus from the B's (budgets, books, buses, bonds, and buildings), to the C's (communication, collaboration, and community building).
An increasingly essential dimension of leadership is the ability to communicate and collaborate with people inside and outside schools. The "top--down" model of a superintendent or principal who makes decisions and charges others with carrying them out does not reflect the real distribution of power or the true source of motivation in today's schools and communities. Researchers who study educational leadership are coming to view leadership as a shared process involving leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community members. An effective leader can coalesce people around meaningful goals and inspire them to work together to accomplish these goals. A good leader has powerful ways of connecting with others and knows how to build constituencies that push for change and break down institutional barriers to teaching and learning.
This is not to say that every decision has to be made through consensus. When outsiders watch videos of interactions among the superintendent, principals, and teachers in New York City's Community District #2, a large urban district represented at the Policy Forum, they often remark that this looks like a highly centralized, top-down system. But several teachers and principals in this system say they actually have considerable authority, and everyone in the school shares responsibility for the outcomes of learning. Some Forum participants suggested that a more authoritative leadership may be the right answer for certain districts, especially those with major problems or a climate of apathy.
Good two-way communication with school boards is another important skill for superintendents in today's environment. A superintendent must understand the board members' views and be able to work with the board to pursue a common vision for the district. Nevertheless, some Forum participants advised superintendents against spending so much effort trying to satisfy board demands that they cannot accomplish the main goals of improving teaching and learning.
Today's leaders also must be able to build a constituency for education reform in the larger community, which includes people with different views about public education. Superintendents may need public relations and media skills, as well as political savvy, to educate the public about what has to be done and persuade them that these goals are crucial to their children's future.
Schools in some neighborhoods are suffering because the community itself needs to be rebuilt. Education leaders must be able to work with other community agencies and organizations to create structures to address the social service needs of children and families.
Today's leaders must be able to articulate a vision of where their educational system is going and a plan for getting there. For Community District #2 in New York, for example, superintendent Tony Alvarado's vision was to see students in all classrooms doing the quality of work typical of students in the best classrooms.
Understanding how to bring about school change is another key leadership skill. Effective leaders spur change by taking risks themselves and by encouraging people to challenge their "mental models" about how things work and what is feasible. Sometimes a dramatic symbolic gesture can stimulate people to think differently about their roles. Diane Lam, Superintendent of the San Antonio Public Schools, asked principals to come to the first day of back-to-school meetings equipped with ideas for a model community service project and dressed for outdoor work. Each team of principals received up to $50 to design and carry out a service project. The groups produced some wonderful ideas, and they also came away with a better sense of the service orientation of leadership.
All of these characteristics of leadership suggest that school districts are looking for administrators who can "walk on water," as one participant observed. Given this job description, it is not surprising that principals' and superintendents' positions are becoming less attractive. Many districts are already experiencing high turnover and shortages of qualified candidates, with more retirements projected over the next few years. And many current administrators do not have the training to fulfill new definitions of leadership.
At the same time as the supply of qualified people is diminishing, the pressures for educational reform are escalating. Unless public schools show some progress very soon, some parents and policymakers will find ideas like private school vouchers and privatization more attractive. We can't wait the several years it would take to overhaul preparation programs and turn out a whole new cadre of leaders. Solving these problems will take a combination of short-term and long-term actions on several fronts, according to Forum participants.
The first step is to get rid of the notion that every leader must wear a superhero's cape, as Elizabeth Eaves, a principal in Fair Oaks, California, observed. Although there are extraordinary leaders all over the country who can skillfully balance all the dimensions of leadership described above, the problem is not fundamentally one of locating the superstars. The real issue is how to structure leadership jobs and prepare people for them so that people who are proficient and committed, but not necessarily extraordinary, can succeed. "Leaders can be made; they aren't just born," remarked Susan Zelman of the Missouri Department of Education.
The next steps are to begin right now to make complementary changes in practice, professional development, preparation, research, and policy. Participant suggestions about how to do this are discussed in the following sections.
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| [ Purpose and Structure of the Policy Forum ] |
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[ How Can We Change Practice to Strengthen Leadership? ] |