A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Role of Leadership in Sustaining School Reform: Voices From the Field - July 1996

A Few Important Ideas

Forum participants suggested that the ability and willingness to hear a chorus of voices and form a wide array of partnerships seem to be the hallmarks of these leaders. Reform initiators may be ingle-minded--indeed, those who began that way remember their single-minded days fondly!--but sustaining reform requires tolerance of ambiguity. Good sustainers seem able to arrange the potluck offerings of the stakeholders at hand into a feast that feeds the collective mission. Mind you, they do not turn into relativists, accepting every idea as worthy in false attempts to promote engagement. Instead, they work with people to find the common ground and help them find ways to invest their talents and perpetuate their relevant values.

In addition, sustaining leaders promote a vision that has widespread support and that adapts to changing conditions while retaining some fundamental integrity. Their vision is student-centered and informed by solid understanding of the principles of effective teaching and learning. They celebrate diversity in talent, culture, and perspectives and integrate it into everyday school life.

Sustaining leaders (at least, those who survive long enough to be nominated for forums like ours) choose their risks carefully and take them dauntlessly--but they generally do their homework first. Like Captain Kirk, they may "boldly go where no one's gone before," but like Mr. Spock, they prepare for every contingency. They plan to arrive safe and sound, with teachers and students intact. Without the singlemindedness of some adventurers to serve as a shield for tender egos, sustaining leaders find other ways to cope with the criticism inevitably tossed their way by both those who think the "dream" has been compromised and those who think the status quo has to be maintained. There is no question that they notice when their supervisors, faculties, and/or communities do not support them; they take serious criticism seriously. But they learn to work through their own hurt feelings and even their occasional understandable resentment without losing sight of the school's mission and their own responsibility to help students succeed. They use a balance of input from a variety of sources to inform decision making.

Sustaining leaders are good managers, or, at any rate, they make sure management gets done well. They do not act as if a good idea is all one needs to succeed; they design organizational arrangements that incline people to do the right thing. They supervise with a view to cultivating excellence. They treat the district office with respect--although they do not respond to every request for accommodation. Sustaining leaders manage with the goal of institutionalizing supports for reform, including the data collection and analysis activities that maintain a continuous critical stance toward effectiveness. Developing and sharing evidence of success is an important part of their work.

Sustaining leaders often feel isolated, according to forum participants. Some said that they were viewed as troublemakers in their districts--people without the proper reverence for historical practice or formal regulations. Because their practice and their mindsets are beyond the frontiers of tradition, conventional assessments do not often address the matters central to their success. They expressed willingness to be held accountable, but not to a set of instruments ill-matched to the carefully wrought visions of their schools. For professionals in this predicament, serious self-assessment can provide essential support and the kind of evidence needed for self-corrective action.
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