Effective Leadership Practices

Cathy DunniganMarie PayneEric RhineMultidisciplinary Perspectives of Instructional Leadership IL 575

Interview three effective leaders to determine their perspectives/recommendations for effective practices in instructional leadership.

Mr. Alan Ray, Assistant Principal, Centreville Middle School states that following:

An effective leader should have a shared vision/goal for the school with all stakeholders.

Have a clear vision of where you are as a school and where you (personally) would like the school to go.

Focus on instructional time (academics) Set high expectations for faculty, staff, and students Continuously monitor students’ data Finally, build a relationship of trust with the faculty, staff,

and students.

Interview three effective leaders to determine their perspectives/recommendations for effective practices in instructional leadership.

Anthony Stewart, Elementary Curriculum Supervisor/Coordinator, Houston County Board of Education

You cannot be an effective instructional leader without building relationships with the people that you are trying to motivate or influence to get better at the complex craft of teaching and learning.

You must engage yourself in learning what the research has to offer concerning best practices of teaching. Explicit systematic instruction is a beautiful thing but we must know what it looks like and be able to clearly articulate if we are going to lead others into its implementation.

We must somehow learn to translate knowledge into action and that action must take place in every classroom. Analyzing data to make the instructional decisions to meet the needs of a diverse group needs to be the norm in every classroom. After we obtain the knowledge from the data, the action steps must include instructional differentiation to reach every child.

Interview 3 effective leaders to determine their perspectives/recommendations for effective practices in instructional leadership.

Mr. Keeton, Assistant Principal Brookwood Elementary.

The role of today’s educational leader is shifting. What once was a marginal role to facilitate school operations has increasingly shifted towards a medium of instructional leadership. It is important for school leaders to become aware of various strategies and the curriculum in order to fully foster the pinnacle of student and teacher potential. Just as a carpenter has a chest of many tools, the instructional leader has a well stocked portfolio of strategies. The effectiveness of the carpenter depends upon his ability to select the appropriate tool(s) for the materials with which is working. In the same sense, effective instructional leaders are able to predict strategies that will have the most impact on school performance given the demographic and economic makeup of the school and community.

Identify three Current literature sources which guide effective leadership practices

Protheroe, N. (2004). Professional learning communities. Principal, 83(5), 39-42.

According to the article, there are benefits of a professional learning community in three major categories: Support for school improvement, support for teacher development, and impact on student learning.

A school characterized as a professional learning community has a culture that recognizes and capitalizes on the collective strengths and talents of its staff.

Principals who want to support the development of a professional learning community should attempt to gauge and improve trust among their staff members.

Current Literature Sources Cont.

Potter, H. (2013). Boosting achievement by pursuing diversity. Educational Leadership, 70(8), 38-43.

Socioeconomic integration is an effective way to tap into the academic benefits of having high-achieving peers, an engaged community of parents, and high quality teachers. This integration can provide students on both income levels the opportunity to benefit from each other culturally, socially, and academically.

Researchers found that the advantages of attending a mixed-income school could be fully explained by school characteristics such as teachers’ expectations, students’ homework habits, and school safety. I feel that the teachers’ goals are to teach and care for the students regardless of the income status of the students.

The range of the students’ backgrounds is both a challenge and a resource; for example, differentiation is a challenge for teachers and students of all backgrounds to benefit from hearing about their classmates’ experiences and from relating their own experiences to others.

Current Literature Sources Cont.

Renihan, P., & Noonan, B. (2012). Principals as assessment leaders in rural schools. Rural Educator, 33(3), 1-8

The results of this study highlighted the importance of principals focusing on their own behavior as a way to influence teacher development and student achievement.

After the authors of this study discussed with the participants, it was noted that there were various facets of the rural context of the school that had powerful influences upon the ability of individual principals to provide assessment leadership.

The policy and action implications of the findings suggest that concerted attention to the articulation of the rural principal’s support system would serve the principals very well in ensuring coherent and consistent leadership for learning.

Videos on Effective Leadership

http://www.pivot.tv/shows/teach

Dr. Rita Pierson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw