EDUL 6021
Leadership for Standards-Based Education
Leadership Behaviors
Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003) devised a balanced leadership framework that outlines 21 key responsibilities needed by school principals to be effective leaders. The written report based on these responsibilities has determined that a significant, positive correlation exists between effective school leadership and student achievement. With this thought in mind, I spoke with Mrs. S. who is an assistant principal at GHS, a suburban high school that serves students from mainly middle to upper middle class families, to determine if she and I agreed on any of the 21 key leadership responsibilities identified in the report.
It was no surprise that Mrs. S. and I agreed on many of the leadership responsibilities since we share a common bond of special education. She is a former special education teacher and my current teaching assignment is also in the special education field. Of the 21 identified key responsibilities, Mrs. S. and I agree on all of them to some extent. One area where we shared the greatest amount of agreement was culture. Mrs. S. and I both agree that GHS has a strong sense of community and cooperation among departmentalized staff. Improvements could be made however, in getting all of the academic departments to develop a shared understanding of purpose and vision of what the school could be like. Another area where Mrs. S. and I agreed was in contingent rewards. As special educators, we often have had to develop ways to motivate students that were outside of the norm. In the leadership arena, we both recognize the importance of rewarding teachers and staff, and feel that rewards should be based on performance rather than seniority. Hard work and positive results should always be the basis for recognition. A third area where Mrs. S. and I agreed was in the area of resources. We both understand that teachers must have all of the necessary materials and equipment in order to successfully deliver quality lessons. Professional development opportunities that directly enhance teaching are essential and often provided at GHS.
Leadership areas where Mrs. S. is not as effective as she could be include visibility, communication, and outreach. An effective leader must be a frequent visitor to classrooms and have maximum contact with students. Mrs. S. is more often than not in her office and not out in the hallways or classrooms except during her lunch duty. She is not always easily accessible to teachers. Open and direct communication lines have not been established. Mrs. S. is the lead administrator for the special education and social studies departments. These two departments share collaborative classes together, but an effective means for teachers to communicate with each other had not been established by Mrs. S. Of course, these teachers do communicate, but usually in a hit-or-miss fashion. GHS is truly departmentalized and rarely venture out of their comfort zones and communicate with other departments.