Using Powerful Learning Experiences to Prepare School Leaders

Ncpea Publications, 2011

2017

Thirty years after the report that started the latest round of educational reform, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Education Excellence, 1983), the Wallace Foundation began funding a series of studies examining the preparation of school and district leaders. Bringing together findings from four reports, one each by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), The School Superintendents Association (AASA), the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), the Wallace Foundation issued five key recommendations for university preparation of school leaders. This call to action was sounded at a time when a shortage of school leaders is both active and continuingly predicted, and in which a seemingly ever-increasing focus on accountability continues to prevail. The attention to quality of the next generation of educational leaders equipped to face challenges of leading schools for the future in the Wallace report includes a focus on a high-quality curriculum emphasizing the skills principals most need, such as the ability to be instructional leaders, and also enables candidates to practice important job skills (Wallace Foundation, 2016). In New York State, certification requirements for Educational leaders lay out the knowledge and skills deemed essential for emerging leaders to be successful in supporting high achievement by and for all students and in alignment with the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), which published the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders 2015. These standards were formerly known as the ISLLC standards. The Council of Chief State School Officers published the ISLLC standards for educational leaders in 1996, and revised them in 2008. However, the NPBEA sought to identify the gaps between previous standards, day to day work of educational leaders and the leadership demands of the future (NPBEA, 2015) as evidenced by an increased emphasis on student centered practices. At the time of this writing, a Wallace Foundation funded study of Principal Preparation programming in New York State is currently underway, a study informed in part by participants in and the current coordinator of the program examined herein. While the results of the Wallace Foundation study are not scheduled for presentation to the state's chief policy-making body for education, the Board of Regents, until summer 2017, it is routinely anticipated that they will highlight the need for educational leaders to be prepared to address issues of diversity, social justice and advocacy at multiple levels reflecting a student body comprised of increased racial, socioeconomic , and gender as well as gender-identity, difference.

2009

Yearbook of the National …, 2002

Revista Educacion Y Ciencia, 2011

This article documents the initial results of a leadership preparation program in Northern California, at San Jose State University. While transforming schools into equitable learning communities may seem daunting, this paper shows that, not only is it doable, but also possible to sustain it for the long haul. The main thrust of this narrative is that making and sustaining change for equitable schools is directly linked to the existence of dense leadership in schools -a type of extensive network of leaders steeped in equity. This leadership falls on the shoulders of the school's administrative team whose work is articulated with and through the involvement of teacher leaders. This paper, in fact, explains that equity leadership exists only when a considerable cadre of teacher leaders is present at a particular school. Equity leadership builds teacher capacity by on-going job embedded professional education, and by partnering with university and/or with technical assistant intermediate organizations.

2007

Principals play a vital role in setting the direction for successful schools, but existing knowledge on the best ways to prepare and develop highly qualified candidates is sparse. What are the essential elements of good leadership? What are the features of effective pre-service and in-service leadership development programs? What governance and financial policies are needed to sustain good programs? The School Leadership Study: Developing Successful Principals is a major research effort that seeks to address these questions. Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and undertaken by the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute in conjunction with The Finance Project, the study examines eight exemplary pre-and in-service program models that address key issues in developing strong leaders. Lessons from these exemplary programs may help other educational administration programs as they strive to develop and support school leaders who can shape schools into vibrant learning communities.

This qualitative study examines how urban school principals employ an equity frame to promote change in their daily work. Over a three-year period, an urban school district on the west coast implemented a process to develop and use a leadership rubric for principal professional learning and evaluation purposes. This Principal Leadership Rubric was developed, in part, through video observations of principals in action, and subsequent analysis and naming of leadership practices. The study examines a subset of the video transcripts and analyzes them using the foundational leadership element of the Principal Leadership Rubric: equity. We found that the principals’ enactments of equity varied in three ways: level of explicitness (explicit to implicit), type of issue (macro to micro), and indicators towards change (clear to unclear next steps). We argue that it is more likely that principals who were explicit about the equity issue and clear about next steps in their leadership practice, whether the issue was micro or macro, were more likely to disrupt historical inequities and allow all students to encounter more learning opportunities. The findings have implications for research and practice of principal support and evaluation. We add to the field of social justice leadership by illustrating what “enacting equity” looks like in leadership practice.

Teachers College Record, 2017

Background/Context: Worldwide, principals face enormous challenges while translating policies and mandates for which they are accountable into their mission and practice. While some of these school-level challenges are technical, many are adaptive (Heifetz), requiring leaders and those in their care to grow their cognitive and affective (emotional) capacities so that they can manage change. Principals are under pressure to decipher problems quickly and create conditions to build capacity at ground level. Purpose/Research Question: This research examined how principals framed pressing challenges they confronted in leadership practice (technical, adaptive, or mixed), and in what ways, if any, learning was part of their response. A pressing challenge is defined as a difficult problem named by leaders that they-themselves-identified as one they are currently facing or have recently faced. We explored how they helped other adults (e.g., teachers and staff) and themselves to manage change associated with meeting these challenges. Additionally, we queried how prior and new learning helped them lead while overcoming pressing challenges. Setting: We recruited principals working in urban K-12 public schools in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and Bermuda, sites focused on educational reform. Participants: A purposeful sample of 13 principals (eight male, five female) representing primary, middle, and secondary levels was used. State department leaders and educational leadership faculty recommended principals who they perceived were "effective"-in other words, based on their knowledge and by reputation, these were successful school leaders. Research Design: This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to explore the experience and perceptions of principals leading through challenges. Data Collection and Analysis: Principals participated in in-depth semistructured interviews. After member checking, interview transcripts were coded and categories developed to capture themes and patterns.