We always elevate the triumphant stories in our society of the “Lone Ranger” leader. These people seemingly rise above the rest of the human race to become the iconic role model in their field. But, like most Disney endings, reality is telling us a different story. This phenomenon is very evident in the field of education. Movies like Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me, Dangerous Minds, The Principal, etc. all tell stories of educators that have received hero status because of a single-minded passion and power for educational and academic transformation. And, while these stories may begin in truth, recent research is telling us that schools may not achieve academic success if their school leader’s day-to-day priority is academic success. While this sounds confusing, the logic is fairly simple. A 2009 Stanford University Study by Horng, Klasik, and Loeb suggests that, “a single-minded focus on principals as instructional leaders operationalized through direct contact with teachers may be detrimental if it forsakes the important role of principals as organizational leaders.” In other words, if extreme administrative movie characters like Morgan Freeman and James Belushi portray school change through the use of chains and baseball bats, they may be demonstrating the simple message that structure and organization must be the precursor to an effective system. Perhaps the message is simply one of organizational necessity. This is a necessity to ensure structure and organization prior to quality and implementation. This statistical notion holds true in all team-based environments because quality results cannot be replicated without a consistent replicable structure. Question: How then do school administrators juggle the responsibility of organizational leadership, when the academic and financial focuses of education are constantly pushed forward with ultimatums? Answer: To answer this question, one can look at the same Stanford study. While analyzing the impact of administrative integration into day-to-day instructional activities, it was found that there are only marginal (if any at all) related improvements in student performance. And, there are often reports of deteriorating relationships with teachers. These findings suggest that the principal may risk academic and cultural growth when getting overly involved in the instructional or academic process. Conclusion: The school leader cannot ignore the academic process, but should ensure there are solid organizational frameworks in place before prioritizing an individual role in academic implementation. And, while school leaders may feel compelled to micromanage the educational process, over-involvement does not necessarily equal academic improvement, and may cause harm to the teacher-administrator relationship. School leaders need to empower staff leadership and should consider additional administrative oversight for academic implementation in order to ensure organizational frameworks are held together with consistency. Tommy Reddicks Indianapolis, IN 2009 Stanford Study: http://www.stanford.edu/~sloeb/papers/Principal%20Time-Use%20(revised).pdf Horng, E,L, Klasik, D, Loeb, S, (2009). "Principal Time-Use and School Effectiveness." School Leadership Research Report, 09-3: Institute for Research on Education Policy & Practice.
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AuthorTommy Reddicks has been a teacher and administrator in Wyoming, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and Indiana since 1995. Archives
July 2016
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