Week 3

This week's readings were about leadership in the middles school, the attributes of an effective principal and the characteristics of leadership and organization of the middle school.  The article written by the Wallace Foundation stated that there were five key responsibilities that school leadership should contain.  Summing up these attributes of effective leadership include shaping a vision of academic success for all students, creating a hospitable educational climate, cultivating and sharing leadership in others, continuously striving to improve instruction, and managing people, data and processes to foster improvement within the school. 

The characteristics of leadership and organization from This We Believe also enumerated many of the same concepts that research completed by the Wallace found from studying what the role of principal is, what makes them effective and how it ties to student achievement.  To quickly summarize This We Believe, it is important for middle school leadership and organization to have a shared vision within the school community, leaders who are knowledgable and pursue best practices and research, leaders who demonstrate collaboration without fear, encourages professional development, and fosters purposeful learning and meaningful relationships within the school community. 

My overall thoughts about the descriptions of what effective leadership and organization for middle school should be is that these attributes would work well in most homes and businesses.  It seems that any community, small or large, had these characteristics they would foster positive results and growth in whatever vision was communally agreed upon.  It would be exciting to lead, follow, or just be an active member in a community that was progressing towards their goals in a collaborative, encouraging and supportive manner using research and data to fine tune the systems used to achieve success. 

There was a few details that stood out to me from the readings as well.  From page 15 of the pdf version of the Wallace article, it mentions that the benefits of effective leadership takes time, from five to seven years.  I thought that was quite a long time.  However, I  thought about my experience from my kids elementary school where the principal has changed four times in six years, not much has changed except a feeling of instability and confusion over vision.  It is especially important in a private school as that particular school community forms in an effort to teach our faith in addition to academics.  Having a shared vision is so important to work as a cohesive team and without it there is so much politics and in-fighting that it creates a very poor environment. 

The climate in my kids school is improving but the lack of stable leadership over the past years is still evident and clearly expresses its importance within the community.  The Profile in Leadership, Dewey Hensley, gives hope of the future of failing schools, as well as the private school my kids attend.  The teachers leave who do not share the vision of the leader leave and the vision attracts more like minded educators.  The building of a vision for Dewey Hensley did take years and we have had a few years of building within our school.

Another detail that attracted my attention was that many teachers do not think school leadership is for them personally, because they prefer instruction, as mentioned on page 8 of the pdf version of the Wallace article.   I feel the same way, I would never want to be a principal!  However, the passion for improving instruction and collaborating with other educators to do just that, with the goal of improving the achievement of students, well that is a game changer.  That is the best reason for wanting to lead, to share a vision and inspire that vision in others.  I am not sure if it is a direction I ever want to go but now it is a future option.