CHAPTER ONE
School Leadership
Jim Rosborg
Chapter
One
(Second
edition, 2007)
The greatest single
ingredient to the success of an educational organization is still school
leadership. Much has been written about it. The
purpose of this book is not to debate the great theorists but to enhance their
work with some practical insights that come from being a respected
superintendent or principal.
We greatly
appreciate the works of Amitai Etzioni, Fred Fiedler, Frederick Herzberg, Wayne
Hoy, Douglas McGregor, B. F. Skinner, Ralph Stogdill, and the other great
theorists. Yet many of their leadership theories were written before the
development of unions, collective bargaining laws,
email, and state standards. Times have changed. Our goal is to offer you
modern-day suggestions for success in school leadership.
Effectiveness
has to be the goal of school leadership. What is
effectiveness? In school administration today, effectiveness is defined by the
use of the qualities discussed in this chapter.
Effectiveness
is a huge challenge, particularly since school systems have become easy targets
in today’s society. The general public hears about declining test scores, teacher discontent, and
the lack of discipline in the schools. School officials must deal
with decreasing parent support, declining enrollments, and more mandates
unaccompanied by necessary funds. School leaders used to be able to focus on
short-term individual student performance problems. Recent issues such as
charter schools, vouchers, school choice, federal
legislation, declining enrollments, and the consolidation of small schools
present the leaders with long-term problems of survival.
As the
school leader, you must attack these problems head on. You must face the
reality that your success is going to be defined by your ability to reach
objectives having to do with a multitude of sub-systems. Your job success will
be evaluated by such subjects as physical facilities and equipment; the
effectiveness of teachers; the school’s curriculum; test scores; public relations; your
effectiveness with the media, stakeholders, and politicians;
collective bargaining; diversity; changing demographics;
school safety; the perception of school
discipline; and the monies available
to fund programs. Add to this your need to have specific knowledge about
transportation, special education,
technology, buildings and grounds, food
services, diversity issues, union organizations, health issues, and personnel.
Talk about a challenging road to success!
This
success has to be achieved in a time when control is continually being taken
away from the local Board of Education. While
the authors of this book disagree with the philosophy of less local control, it
is a reality that all school leaders must face in the 21st century.
Can a school leader be effective when confronted by all of these obstacles? Our
opinion is that you can by putting together your own formula for success.
Within that formula, we feel that, whatever your leadership style, the
following 20 topics must be considered and included:
Many times
superintendents and principals find themselves in a thankless middle position
in conflicts between personnel. No matter what decision is made, at best there
will be a winner and a loser; at worst, both lose. In part, that’s
because a successful school leader will not base his/her decision on the
individuals involved but on the decision’s outcome for kids. Often that
is not the easiest decision, but it’s always the right one.
Successful leaders
work to maximize the academic success of students. They also find time to be
with kids. How can you find that time?
1. Allocate 15
minutes each day to walk through a school in your district. If you have just
one school, walk from one end to the other every day.
2. Start
talking to kids two days a week as they enter school. If you are a building
principal, make every effort to be out in the hallways before and after school
to converse with students, parents, and teachers.
3. Pick
two events per week in your district to attend. If your schedule is tight,
don’t sit down. Circulate through the room. This makes it much easier to
leave unnoticed.
4. Be
aware of building and individual classroom calendars so you can attend special
events such as grandparents’ day, parent
volunteer day, and other special awards
days.
5. Send
notes to kids who earn special achievements, even if the achievement is outside
the school (like Eagle Scouts award ceremonies and scholarships). Attendance at
these ceremonies makes the event even more special for the student.
Always be nice to students—one day they may be
Board members! Once an administrator gets the reputation of being proactive for
students, respect will be gained in every stakeholder circle.
If you expect those around you to give
maximum effort, then you as the leader must also be perceived as a hard worker
willing to put in the time needed for student success. In an educational
organization, everyone simply has to work hard. The example for this work ethic must start at the top. People will know how
hard you work. There is no need to “toot your own horn.” Hard work
pays off for system success. You must be there for your staff. You must be
willing to roll up your sleeves to get the job done. Many times I have helped
my maintenance men and custodians. They ask if I’m
concerned about getting my clothes dirty. My reply is, “If the cleaners
can’t clean my clothes after helping get a job done, then I need to
change cleaners.”
Almost all school
administrators were once teachers themselves. Sad to say, many administrators
forget this. School leaders must not forget what it took to be a successful
teacher. Teaching takes as much hard work and dedication as it does to be a
school administrator. Teachers just have different responsibilities within the
organization. No position is better than another. People have simply made
different choices in what they want to be. Teachers are still the front line of
defense for schools and the front line of success for students. The goal of
school administrators has to be the removal of barriers that impede the
teaching and learning process. If teachers are successful, there is a good
chance the school administrator will be successful. Being supportive of
teachers and being friendly with them not only makes good sense, it leads to
better relations with the teachers’ union, and that helps reach settlements in the
collective bargaining process. How do you do it?
1. Strongly support teachers when they discipline students.
2. Work
hard to help your staff be recognized for local, state, and national awards.
3. Meet
monthly with district and building leaders to discuss problems and formulate
solutions.
4. Attend
events that involve faculty.
5. Write
positive notes to staff members praising the great job that they do.
6. Support
professional development activities. If these activities can be done in
conjunction with the teachers’ union, an even more powerful
bond between the administrator and teachers will develop.
Mules are noted for their thick
skin. A successful school leader needs the same. In the education business,
administrators deal with many people, each with his/her own opinion about
schools. Not all of those opinions concur. Consequently, there will be many
disagreements about the decision a school leader makes. In addition, when we
are dealing with children, emotionalism appears when there is a disagreement
with the final decision and the philosophy supporting that decision. Nothing
good is accomplished when both parties are in an emotional state. The school
leader’s responsibility is to remain professional and calm at that time.
Leaders must look beyond the situation. Questions must be asked, like
“Why is this parent acting like this?” “Is something else
going on in his/her life that is dictating this behavior?”
For
example, we have found that in districts where many families suffer
economically, December is a particularly tough month for parents when dealing
with their child’s discipline. Once we get past the initial
issue, we find that parents are experiencing extreme guilt for not being able
to provide as they’d like to for their child’s Christmas. So
instead of backing the school regarding their child’s discipline, parents
feel compelled to come to the school and raise havoc with the authorities to
show support for the child and the fact that they, as the parent, love that
child. In reality, this is a very poor parenting technique that sends the wrong
message toward helping the child achieve self-discipline. With
these facts, patience, and professionalism, the school leader can help the
parent work through the situation so that parent can help his/her child attain
the needed self-discipline.
Diffusing
anger is part of a school administrator’s job. One way to get parents to
calm down is to ask if they are mad at you, the leader, or if they are mad at
the situation. Many times this will help the parents get out of their emotional
state. When meeting with hot-tempered parents, never lose your temper. Whatever
they say, don’t get angry. Politely ask them to cool down. If they are
swearing, politely ask them to stop, noting that you are not swearing and that
nothing will be accomplished by swearing. If you cannot get the individual to
calm down, ask him/her to make an appointment to see you later. If the parent
does calm down (which happens 99% of the time), calmly ask him/her to continue.
Take notes. Only interrupt for clarification. Wait until the person is done (or
worn out), then restate what was said to make sure that both of you are in
accord. From there, an opportunity to problem solve takes place. This makes you
the leader, the problem solver. Most people are excellent problem identifiers,
but very few are problem solvers. Patience and mule skin pay off in problem
solving.
Individuals in the
school arena expect leaders to be consistent. One of the greatest causes of
school leadership failure,
in our opinion, is that the school leader has mood changes depending on the
environment. Parents, students, staff, and the community shouldn’t have
to worry about whether they are dealing with the Good Humor Man or Attila the
Hun.
We have also observed
many administrators letting one negative situation impact their decision making for
the rest of the day. The individuals dealing with this administrator have no
idea of the earlier negative situation. Their perception of the administrator
is based upon the response to their own individual need, not on previous
scenarios. For them, the most important issue is theirs. A successful school
administrator always remembers that no matter how trivial the issue may seem,
the issue is of great importance to the individual who has brought it.
Consistency in the decision-making process is imperative to success.
As a
superintendent or principal, you are in a decision-making position. Therefore, after seeking input from
others and further researching the issue, make the decision. Many times a well
thought out mistake is better in the decision-making process than no decision
at all. You must expect to make some mistakes. The key is to learn from them,
rectify them, and not make them again. The stakeholders associated with the school district want a
decision maker. They want the school leader to consistently
push a point of view and make decisions supported by that point of view. The
general public still looks to the superintendent or principal to be the expert.
They want decisions made.
A vast majority of
administrative positions deal in one way or another with discipline, whether it involves a student or a staff
member. Your reputation for consistency in this area plays a vital role in the
perception of your success. This issue, along with zero tolerance, will be discussed in greater depth in Chapter 10,
Successful Teaching and Learning.
In school
administration, the individual leader is going to be attacked, criticized, and
accused on many issues. When this happens, the administrator has to stand tall
behind his or her own beliefs and value systems. In addition, an effective
school leader stands behind the decisions of fellow staff
members as
long as they have followed school law, Board policies, and school procedures.
As minority
populations continue to grow in the
For the most part,
educational goals at the state level are set for the college-bound student. In
2002, the Congress of the
While we agree with
the stared goals of the No Child Left Behind Act and the emphasis on reading
and math, we cannot forget the need for programs in the fine/practical arts,
vocational education, gifted education, physical education, creative writing,
and social studies.
Let’s
recognize differences in race, financial background, creed, color, and origin.
As educational leaders, it is our responsibility to find strengths in each of
our children to help them thrive as successful citizens in our society, no
matter what occupation they choose. It is our responsibility to help each child
be in an environment that secures his/her basic needs of food, shelter, safety, and clothing. When these needs are met,
then we can begin to maximize their learning opportunities in reading, writing,
and arithmetic. We must recognize that diversity is
the biggest challenge we face, particularly in terms of the academic
achievement gap.
We will discuss how to deal with this gap in Chapter 9, which addresses
overcoming the impact of poverty.
We feel that the
day of the autocratic superintendent or principal is over. With the rise of
state and federal mandates; limitations on discipline; and the increased influence of teacher
organizations, parent groups, and the business community, autocratic
decision making has
slowly eroded. The authors do not necessarily think this is bad. Why not
collaborate? Why not get a wide variety of opinions before making a decision?
This greatly improves the working environment and gives more individuals a
legitimate feeling of ownership in the organization. It also gives the
organization a better chance of success. Many leaders fail when they want to
take all of the credit for success but none of the responsibility for failure.
Collaboration helps the leader find a greater middle ground of responsibility
between success and failure.
Likewise, as a leader,
we have to have confidence in the people that are part of the employee team. A
confident leader empowers others by delegating. The responsibilities placed on
superintendents and principals in today’s society are extraordinary.
Delegation helps relieve some of those stresses as it gives ownership to the
fellow employee.
It is impossible to
do everything by ourselves in today’s educational environment. Celebrate
and implement collaboration and delegation.
For
school leaders, the ultimate local power broker is the Board of Education. Likewise, each state legislature and state
Board has direct impact on the local education agency, superintendents, and
principals.
Let’s
discuss other power brokers. When it comes to voting, senior citizens are
exerting more influence than ever before. Up to 65% of all voters in many
elections are senior citizens. A school leader has to look carefully at the
local community to see who else carries the greatest influence. This influence
could be from parent groups, union leadership, a service organization, a wealthy
landowner or businessperson, a local government official, a secretary, a cook,
or a custodian from within the school system itself.
Working
successfully with key stakeholders can
also help us achieve our goals. These stakeholders change within the school
community as different issues emerge. Sometimes a power broker and stakeholder can
be the same person. This often evolves into a pressure group on the school
system. The power brokers and
stakeholders have to be identified and communicated with, hopefully in a
collaborative way. Then a plan has to be developed to gain their support.
Leadership is the will, sensitivity, and intelligence to put these pieces of
the puzzle together to reach specific goals.
Change is
a reality in today’s education, as it will continue to be in the future.
In our opinion, change is good as long as it is research based. Too often,
change is done for change’s sake and is based on emotion rather than on
research. Since it is going to occur, on which side of the spectrum do you want
to be? Are you going to complain about change or are you going to cause
positive, research-based change? Are you going to be proactive or reactive? Be
a change agent rather than a change victim. Accept the change process and make
life better for those around you. By accepting the status quo in education, we
retard the potential of advancement. As leaders of education, we need to lead
the change process by using research-based methods, like lesson designs by
Hunter, higher-order thinking by
Bloom, and cognitive growth by
Piaget.
The
principal or superintendent that stands in front of the staff and downplays the
importance of a state initiative or federal legislation, like the No Child Left
Behind Act in 2002, cannot expect the staff to maximize
their efforts to make the school or district its best in the age of
accountability. Successful leaders motivate acceptance of change and work
towards accepting it. If the program has flaws, indicate what you as a leader
think the problems are and what you are going to do to change those flaws. In
the meantime, we have to do our best to implement the new programs. Successful
implementation helps minimize the impact of the change and keeps the district
from having to deal with further bureaucratic rules. Furthermore, local control
is preserved when change is dictated through collaboration between the staff,
parents, and community.
Too often
our ego gets in the way of leadership success. We feel that you should not be
afraid to admit when you are wrong. It will
happen! As a leader, you are dealing with people. And you are not going to know
every aspect of the educational system. For example, if your background is at
the high school level, you probably are not going to know how a first-grade
teacher teaches reading. The solution is simple: ask a first-grade teacher to
let you observe him/her teach reading. Ask the teacher to explain the
difference between the phonetic, whole-language, and sight method. You will
command more respect by admitting your weakness than by trying to cover it up.
There will be times when you have to say, “I don’t know the answer
to that question, but I’ll research it and get back to you.” Take a
good look at yourself. Know what pulls your chain. Look at who you are and what
you want. Plan how you can coach your employee team to reach mutual goals for
the benefit of your students. In the process, remember to laugh at yourself
often!
My
father always told me as a child, “When in doubt, tell the truth.”
I would now say as a school administrator, if you want to survive in
administration, always tell the truth. When you tell the truth, you are always
sure of what you previously said.
As
an administrator, you owe your fellow employees the reason for your decisions.
They may disagree with you, but if you are honest with them, more often than
not the employee will respect you for your honesty.
Likewise,
personal integrity leads to long-term success. We truly do live in a glass
house in terms of our employment. People know and talk about what we do. This
“gossip” is the part of education that we have to live with but
should never be part of. Many times the vehemence behind an issue is based upon
how a person feels about the superintendent’s or principal’s
personal integrity and honesty.
What
does updating buildings and grounds have
to do with leadership? A great deal, from a perception standpoint. More than
70% of the general population never steps into a school. Their perception of
the school usually comes from the media or
from driving by. Items that we may consider trivial are important to some
community members. Is the grass mowed? The flag raised? Are the bushes trimmed?
Is there evidence of vandalism? Does it look like a place where students
learn? All are important to the success of school leadership. For school and leadership success, a good
leader demands that any vandalism, along with broken equipment and furniture,
are repaired immediately. Inside the building, stress pride and cleanliness.
Don’t forget the office, cafeteria, gym, computer room, and library since
these are the most frequently visited rooms by parents and community members.
Do you want to keep the neighborhood around the school looking good? Pride in
the school grounds spreads to the community that surrounds and uses them.
When
a company buys ink by the barrel, be friendly with that company! A local
newspaper can
make or break a school district and its administrators. The school
administrator must realize that the local newspaper’s goal is to sell
newspapers (and advertisements) for its profit. Sad to say, the media contends that negative stories sell more
newspapers than positive ones. Consequently, the school administrator must
spend a great deal of time helping the local media develop positive articles
about his/her schools. This includes maintaining constant dialog with the local
reporter. More will be shared about this subject in Chapter 4, Communications.
Being
a great visionary leader does not
necessarily mean being a great innovator. Sometimes it means being able to
assimilate earlier innovations that led to student success. A visionary leader
develops a plan for success, sometimes by listening to other peoples’
ideas and observing their accomplishments both inside and outside of the
organization. The leader creates a leadership team with its major focus being
the success of kids. From this teamwork philosophy can also come a
collaborative vision that helps the superintendent and principal become
visionary leaders.
Because
of all of the seemingly useless bureaucratic paperwork being thrust upon school
administrators today, many administrators feel compelled to stay in their
office to take care of the paperwork duties. This is a mistake. The students,
staff, and community need to see their school leaders. If the school leader can
find a couple of hours during the weekend to do paperwork, he or she might be
surprised at how much faster and more efficiently it can be completed. This
will create time to be with stakeholders outside the office complex. Despite the recent
attacks on the American education system, people, overall, still respect school
administrators and want to see them and gather their opinions. Chapter 2,
Civic Leadership and
Ethics, explores this topic in depth.
How
a leader communicates with staff, students, parents, the Board of Education, and community members helps form the
perception of the leader’s job performance. Get out of the office and
communicate positive happenings about the district and long-term needs to
stakeholders. Here are some simple things an
administrator can do to help manage the paperwork:
1. Have
your secretary forward papers to other administrators that deal with their area
of responsibility. For example, the business manager generally deals with all
finance mailings from the state even though states generally mail all of their
material to the superintendent.
2. Make
use of email for communication. Develop lists on your computer so you can type
the message once and send it to all those who are appropriate recipients, like
principals, other superintendents, etc. The more that you as the school
administrator can learn about and use technology, the better prepared you
will be to handle the paperwork.
3. Develop
a good filing system. Studies show that leaders
waste a great deal of time looking for lost paperwork.
4.
Don’t procrastinate with paperwork. Clean your desk, organize your
priorities, and get to it.
5.
Find quiet time to get the job done. The concentration level must be high to
manage paperwork efficiently.
Successful
school administrators have unbelievably time-consuming jobs. In fact, school
administrators could work 24 hours a day. And while the job is important,
it’s not as important as family. Our family is our strength. Behind most
successful administrators is a strong spouse who silently does things to make
the administrator successful. Likewise, our legacy is borne by our children.
Our children don’t expect their school administrator parent to be with
them every moment, but they do expect Mom or Dad to be with them and support
them as much as possible. Being a good parent is also a great modeling role for
others.
Friends
are people the administrator can fall back on and who can provide support in
times of need. They can be trusted and can provide an occasional laugh to help
relieve the stress of the workplace. A friend is a person whom the
administrator can disagree with on issues and still maintain the friendship. It
works both ways: administrators can also help and support their friends. This
concept is studied in depth in Chapter 12, Taking Care of You.
Be Prepared for
Crises Situations
In every
administrative career, there will be crises situations when you must react quickly, decisively, and effectively.
Crisis procedures are needed so you and your staff can respond properly,
especially during the first hour.
For example, when I served as superintendent in
* Death
away from school
* Disaster
or storm
* Fire or
explosion
*
Earthquake
* Student
runaway
*
Abduction
* Bus
accident
* Suicide
threat
* Death at
or near school
* Serious
injury at school
* Bomb
threat, gas leak, or chemical leak
* Armed
intruder
* Hostage
situation
Immediate
delegation is important in these situations. You and your staff need to know
the chain of command for specific emergencies. An example: in a bomb threat,
after securing students in a safe location, the administrator should turn the
situation over to the police and fire department as soon as possible.
There are
many ways you can create and implement a Crisis Management Plan. See if
your state has a model plan. In
As a
leader, you must have a plan in place. Part of your plan will be pre-emptive,
to prevent crises. One such deterrent is having an effective discipline program with students closely supervised on
campus. Other pre-emptive measures include:
* Setting
up a crisis prevention and intervention team
* Having
inservice for the team, then the entire staff
*
Establishing communication procedures with emergency agencies such as the
police, fire, and ambulance service
* Making sure
first aid supplies are available for each class
*
Identifying an alternate facility to house your students
* Training
some of your staff (if not all) in CPR, the Heimlich maneuver, and first aid
*
Establishing emergency codes for the staff
*
Preparing for the following events during the crisis:
§
Facility evacuation
§
Full- or partial-school communication: how and which
students and staff will be warned
§
Emergency services notification
§
Student movement route to the alternate facility
The effectiveness
of your crisis plan reflects directly upon you. It will be a criterion by which
you are evaluated by your staff, peers, and community.
You
can’t pre-empt or plan for every eventuality, but having a Crisis
Prevention Plan in effect will help you make better decisions
to ensure the health and safety of your students and personnel.
Being a
school leader has become an increasingly complex position to hold over the past
20 years. Our feeling is that school administrators can nonetheless be
successful and effective. What leads to effectiveness? You have seen in this
chapter that you need to care about kids, staff, community, family, and
yourself. You need to work hard and have a passion for your job. You need to
have patience with people and trust those around you so that collaboration and
delegation can take place. You need to be organized and have a plan. The school
leader also needs to be organized to deal with paperwork demands. The effective
leader is visible in the school and community. The effective school
administrator leads by example. The effective school leader recognizes that the job is still one of the
most important jobs in the
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