Principals must be team players, have an eye for innovation, and always strive to reach the goals set forth which is the vision of its organization. Also, as leaders they must have strategies to use, motivate, direct, listen, and give feedback. The job of a principal is becoming more complex and stressful. According to Neale and Cone (2013) these statistics are based on their research of principals:
• Three quarters of principals feel the job has become too complex.
• Seven in ten principals say the job responsibilities are not very similar to five years ago.
• Job satisfaction among principals has decreased nine percentage points in less than five years, to fifty-nine percent very satisfied from sixty-eight percent very satisfied in 2008.
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Their assignment is a constant reminder of how educating students is a top priority and never cease. Tutoring sessions for instance may take place after school or on weekends and are part of the initiative to move student achievement forward, creating positive culture. Learning-friendly environments motivated by the leadership styles of principals can often show the following qualities within an effective school culture: safety, respect, student responsibility for learning, intellectual rigor, ongoing support, and concern for students’ welfare.
Positive and Negative School Cultures
Initiating an assessment of school culture to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, gives leaders the ability to affect school culture in a positive manner (Roby, 2011). According to Brown 2004 (as cited by Roby, 2011), the following ingredients are necessary for a productive school culture:
• An inspiring vision and challenging mission.
• A curriculum and modes of learning clearly linked to the vision and mission.
• Sufficient time for teachers and students to do their work well.
• Close, supportive relationships.
• Leadership that encourages and protects trust.
• Data-driven decision
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School Culture Survey
Gruenert and Valentine (1998) formed the School Culture Survey to measure the features of school culture after several observations and finding a need to focus on this matter. This survey measures six unique categories based on the culture of a school: collaborative leadership, teacher collaboration, and professional development, unity of purpose, collegial support, and learning partnership (Gruenert & Valentine, 1998). The first category of school culture, collaborative leadership, indicates the extent to which school leaders establish, maintain, and support collaborative relationships with and among school staff (Gruenert & Valentine, 1998). Leaders display this by listening to the teachers and staffs’ ideas. This gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility as well as placing them in the loop when it is time to make decisions. Collaborative leaders model teamwork and motivate teachers to use their leadership qualities and
Leading organizations of school administrators offer educators various opportunities to encourage educators to become leaders. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has mandated that leaders be better prepared for the task of providing quality education to all. NCLB “… is forcing all educational stakeholders to face the weakness of contemporary school leadership and is making it impossible to ignore the need for higher quality principals” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). It is believed that all educators can be and are leaders in their own right. A leader is a visionary and has the ability to inspire others to aspire to greatness. Of the numerous opportunities that are offered, those that are most beneficial include but are not limited to leadership training programs, professional development, and creating shared leadership opportunities for teachers to become leaders. The systems “…that produce our nation’s principals are complex and interrelated – and governed by the states. Each state establishes licensing, certification and re-certification” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). States use the ISLLC standards “…as the framework for preparation programs and in service professional development of school superintendents, principals, and other leaders” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.3).
Students need to be able to come to school, feel welcome, and receive the best education that their teacher can provide. To be able to do this the principal needs to make the decisions that supports his/her school. Principals need to be role models and responsible decision makers. Policies and procedures need to be updated regularly and should be reviewed by multiple parties.
Henson, the assistant principal, lacks the communicator trait. Henson has not taken any opportunities to communicate with the parents, students, staff, or community this year. Due to his lack of communication skills he has not fostered any relationships with individuals who he will interact with next year as the head principal. Henson has been assigned the head principal job for the 2016-17 school; I believe his lack of communication skills will cause problems in his principalship. Parents want their children to attend schools where the teachers and administrators are relatable and can effectively communicate his expectations for them and their children.
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.
As a leader candidate, I can understand the challenges and multiplicity of complications that administrators must face each day. However, I will not accept any remote possibility that the students must be affected by some flaws of the school organization. We all as leaders, must be strategic with people, time, and money to guide our students towards an academic success.
School administrators are important in setting the path for a successful school (Glickman, et al., 2014). The principals could play a dynamic leadership depending on how they exercise their beliefs of the organizational and social environment (McNair, 2011). The principals are the primary facilitators for developing the foundations in learning that will last, to manage the student’s performance at schools, and seeking the improvement at school that will cause great impacts in school‘s education (Gordon,1989). In the recent years in the U.S., education has change in a more cultural diversity population, it is imperative that school supervisors, are trained to encounter this cultural issues, but also assisting others with the opportunities to develop appropriate abilities to deal with different cultures (Glickman, et al., 2014).
The school provides a safe environment for students to accomplish academic, social and emotional development. The leadership of a building will include effective decision making, human resource management, mission or purpose, understanding of change, relationship buildi...
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...
Principals have a lot on their job descriptions. One of those tasks principals must do is evaluate teachers. Some principals are good at doing this, while others are not so great because they lack the experience or put it off towards the end of their ever-growing list of tasks they must complete. In order for principals to make this a priority, they must do trainings related to teacher evaluations. I think school district need to do a better job at training school leaders get the proper training and use teacher evaluations to benefit both the teachers and students.
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
With social and emotional skills, a high-quality learning environment that has high-quality classroom structure and rules, commitment to the academic success of all students and high performance expectations, student learning is optimized. Attitudes towards learning, behaviour in and out of the classroom and academic performance have shown improvement with development from quality social and emotional learning that is supported through parent involvement and integrated throughout the entire curriculum.
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.
Teachers and leaders work and communicate together to initiate changes that’s needed to build new ways of learning, sharing and accessing knowledge, then putting it to work in the lives of all students. At my school we have learned education, science, technology and hardworking devoted staff members are the key to preparing our students for a great global education and future.
In the book Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional, Kauchak and Eggen (2014) identified schools as social systems and wrote, “Social systems work effectively when their components work together to meet their goals” (p. 181). The components listed were the staff and faculty members of a school, the physical building of the school itself and surrounding areas, and the curriculum. The characteristics of an effective school such as its optimal size, good leadership, high collective efficacy in teachers, teachers involving students in learning activities and lessons, frequent assessment of students by teachers and continual feedback from teachers to students, safe and orderly environment, and positive parental and community involvement may all be grouped with these components. For instance, the staff and faculty members of a school include teachers and the leader. The physical building itself and its surroundings include the size of the school as well as the parents and community surrounding it. The two previous components can both be associated with a safe and orderly environment. Plus, the curriculum is related to interactive instruction and the monitoring of student progress.
Collaborative leaders have a positive impact in schools. Even though principals are responsible in leading the whole school, those that have the ability to inspire their teachers to follow and share his or her vision, will make a positive impact. Interaction between leader and teacher is necessary to make positive changes. Allowing teachers to participate openly and respectfully creates trust and confidence. Teachers that trust their principals and feel are taken into consideration will work harder to meet and exceed expectations. Honesty, communication, confidence and respect between leader and teacher will lead to great team work.