Dr. Victoria Pettis

Summer Cohort 2006

EOCS 7450

August 27, 2006

 

EOCS 7450

Practicum in Leadership

Case Study 4

 

ISLLC Standard 4: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.

 

Name of the Case Study: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Books?[1]

 

Problem: How does an administrator validate family and/or community concerns and balance them with decisions that are in the best interest of students?

 

Questions:

1. How does the administrator demonstrate her commitment to involving the community as a stakeholder in school decision-making process?
2. Does the administrator’s decision demonstrate that all stakeholders are treated equitably?

 

The Situation:

            For four years, Dr. Marlana Thicket has been the principal of Hughes Elementary, an elementary school that includes 900 students in grades K-8. The school serves a community that can be described as one that has grown increasingly diverse, highly educated, conservative, and religious.

 Members, representing several of the local churches, have formed a group called “Religious Citizens for Exemplary Books” (RCEB). After several email communications, Dr. Thicket agreed to meet with RCEB one afternoon. The group had several demands: First, RCEB gave Dr. Thicket a list of books in the library that they deemed as inappropriate for elementary school students. Some of the books they find questionable include all of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the anonymously authored Go Ask Alice, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, and Dr. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  They demand that these books be pulled from library shelves immediately. Second, they would like to establish a school-based RCEB group, which would be responsible for establishing age-appropriate policies for selecting books that have themes of magic or witchcraft, sexuality, drug use, murder, suicide, abuse and/or contain profanity.

At the end of the tense, one-hour meeting, Dr. Thicket sent her media specialist a directive in an urgent email: Effective immediately: Remove the following books from library shelves.

 

Response to Questions: In the situation described above, the administrator demonstrates her commitment to the community by agreeing to meet with the special interest group RCEB to hear their concerns. Dr. Thicket’s decision to remove the books without consulting the opinions of the other stakeholders demonstrates that she either holds community concerns in higher regard than the other stakeholders or is intimidated by their power.

 

Evaluation: The administrator’s response to the problem represents leadership skills in the developing stage as she strives to achieve ISLLC standard 4. Instead of putting off RCEB for as long as she could, Dr. Thicket chose to validate the community group’s concerns by meeting with them. Her decision to immediately remove the books RCEB considered offensive to validate their concerns showed Dr. Thicket did not treat all stakeholders involved equitably. She could have chosen to sleep on the decision and then meet with the various stakeholders, including the media specialist, teachers, and the PTO. Dr. Thicket even chose to make this decision without consulting resources, which would have informed her about legal issues surrounding any decisions she would have made.