Leadership Approaches to School Improvement Efforts
Leadership Approaches to School improvement Efforts
Amanda Cemper
Leadership Approaches to School Improvement Efforts
With higher accountability, schools everywhere are faced with the challenge of helping all students achieve high standards for learning, causing schools to need clear guidance on how to engage in lasting, effective improvement plans. A schools progress is available for the community to view, with a touch of a button anybody can find schools rating that are based on test scores. By law, parents are currently allowed to switch their child’s school based on the state assigned rating the school received due to the previous year’s test scores. With the need for high rankings there is the need for accountability of student achievement to be held. Across the state, districts have gone to extreme trying to achieve scores this includes hiring highly qualified teachers and firing teachers based on their students’ performance. The NCLB states that schools are to give every child an equal opportunity to succeed with all the possible resources that are available. These extraordinary demands have put public schools under enormous scrutiny by putting pressure on districts to enhance the way they provide and offer education. Thus, a leader must be willing to take a step forward to do whatever is needed in order enact positive change. Thus, one of the best investments a school leader can make is to ensure that all their teachers consistently implement reform initiatives. (School Improvement, Step by Step, 2011)
When adopting an improvement plan, a leader should begin with research. By researching the goal and how other school districts have implemented it with in their classrooms; would allow time for a principal to create staff buy-in. Once this took place full implementation would then occur by breaking the goal down into small manageable parts, expecting the staff to take action, monitoring implementation and providing support, and then applying the lesson
Amanda Cemper
Leadership Approaches to School Improvement Efforts
With higher accountability, schools everywhere are faced with the challenge of helping all students achieve high standards for learning, causing schools to need clear guidance on how to engage in lasting, effective improvement plans. A schools progress is available for the community to view, with a touch of a button anybody can find schools rating that are based on test scores. By law, parents are currently allowed to switch their child’s school based on the state assigned rating the school received due to the previous year’s test scores. With the need for high rankings there is the need for accountability of student achievement to be held. Across the state, districts have gone to extreme trying to achieve scores this includes hiring highly qualified teachers and firing teachers based on their students’ performance. The NCLB states that schools are to give every child an equal opportunity to succeed with all the possible resources that are available. These extraordinary demands have put public schools under enormous scrutiny by putting pressure on districts to enhance the way they provide and offer education. Thus, a leader must be willing to take a step forward to do whatever is needed in order enact positive change. Thus, one of the best investments a school leader can make is to ensure that all their teachers consistently implement reform initiatives. (School Improvement, Step by Step, 2011)
When adopting an improvement plan, a leader should begin with research. By researching the goal and how other school districts have implemented it with in their classrooms; would allow time for a principal to create staff buy-in. Once this took place full implementation would then occur by breaking the goal down into small manageable parts, expecting the staff to take action, monitoring implementation and providing support, and then applying the lesson
Bibliography: Dean, C., & Parsley, D. (2006). Success in Sight: A Comprehensive Approach to School Improvement. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from McREL: http://www.mcrel.org/product/253/ Siebrsma, M., Wheeler-Clouse, S., & Backus, D. (2011-2011, December). The Resourceful School: School Improvement, Step by Step. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec11/vol69/num04/School-Improvement,Step-by-Step.aspx U.S. Department of Education. (2011). http://idea.ed.gov