Leadership Ideas Effective Leadership Ashland University

Ronald L. Victor Ed.D. Kirtland High Graduate TeacherCoach Guidance Counselor Assistant Principal Area Coordinator Ohio, Department of Education Department of Education Business Manager Superintendent President Leadership Ideas

Leadership Ideas A company providing custom-built leadership models designed to meet The Needs of the Heart, provide Appropriate Conditions, and achieve Successful Outcomes through: Leadership and Organizational Consulting Motivational Presentations Staff Training Teacher Education Curriculums

The Needs of the Heart Appropriate Conditions Successful Outcomes

Purpose To engage in a discussion about superintendent leadership.

The Superintendency or the Political Churn A relatively unstable political faction that advances new reforms as ways of satisfying their electoral constituencies, pausing only long enough to take credit for having acted, and quickly moving on to new reforms, with no attention to the institutionalization or implementation of previous reforms or initiatives. (Hess, 1999)

Defining the Superintendent The superintendency is political in the best sense of the word--rich with the possibility of engaging the public and fraught with the tensions of public responsibility and accountability. The superintendent serves as the gatherer of data, analyzer of their constituencies, influencer of others, taker of initiatives, negotiator of solutions, and steerer of a course for change. Superintendents serve as facilitators, introducers of policy, implementers, decision makers, and managers. (Greyser, 1999) managers. (Greyser, 1999)

Superintendent-A Change Agent? Most reports emphasize the principal’s role and ignore the superintendent’s role in the change process, suggesting that the change in schools can occur without the superintendent (Madylon, 1992). In contrast, there has been a growing body of literature that suggests that leadership by the superintendent of schools is a critical component in institutionalizing educational change. Research indicates that change efforts are more likely to succeed when the superintendent is an active supporter (Fullan, 1982; Paulu, 1988).

Superintendent Tenure With the average tenure of a superintendent being only 2-1/2 years (Elmore, 2000), board majorities only held on to their superintendent long enough to advance their own educational initiatives. Frequent changes in superintendents’ positions may then contribute to the failure of school districts to implement educational initiatives. Hess contended that superintendents were skillfully tailored to obtaining their next job; after all, they are also rational actors that at the first sign of opposition move on to their next job (Hess, 1999).

Changing Future FOR THE Educate the Community and Win Their Support

Leading in a Culture of Change- Michael Fullan Change is a double-edged sword. Its relentless pace these days runs us off our feet. Yet when things are unsettled, we can find new ways to move ahead and to create breakthroughs not possible in stagnant societies. If you ask people to brainstorm words to describe change, they come up with a mixture of negative and positive terms. On the one side, fear, anxiety, loss, danger, panic; on the other, exhilaration, risk-taking, excitement, improvements, energizing. For better or for worse, change arouses emotions, and when emotions intensify, leadership is key.

Factors Influencing Achievement School Teacher Student 1. Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum 2. Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback 3. Parent and Community Involvement 4. Safe and Orderly Environment 5. Collegiality and Professionalism 6. Instructional Strategies 7. Classroom Management 8. Classroom Curriculum Design 9. Home Environment 10. Learned Intelligence/ Background Knowledge 11 Motivation Leadership

Administration Leadership Teachers Knowledge Parents Commitment Students Desire = Success Student Improvement

Schools today must…

Meeting the Needs of the Heart! How you operate How you act and respond Your sense of family Your way of being

Teacher-Student Relationships Teacher-student relationships are often mired by bureaucratic roles that lead to a lack of empathy and sensitivity to student needs.

Teacher Morale Teacher morale in many schools is low. They are being asked to do things they know are not sound educational practices, teach to tests, and cover knowledge in lock-step, thoughtless ways.

For Kids and Families!

Meeting the needs of the heart… As one high school student, Reginald, said to me recently: “I’d rather be defiant and stupid in school than let the teacher call me a failure. My friends know I’m not dumb, and we laugh at the teacher together.” “Stupidity and Tears,” Herbert Kohl 2003

Bringing parents, teachers, students and administrators together with innovative programs like: Instructional Focus Teams: Enabling teachers and administrators to work together and build a stronger more effective curriculum. Priority One: The Cycle of Success: The design plan to support improved instruction. Imagine: A forum where students can communicate issues important to the community. Leadership Conferences: Providing members of our Learning Community leadership resources and tools to help guide and create positive change. Leadership Conferences: Providing members of our Learning Community leadership resources and tools to help guide and create positive change. Priority One: A Parent Contract for Success: Encouraging parental involvement and commitment to the students and the schools.

Appropriate Conditions! Your environment How you see, react and analyze change How you implement priorities Your continuous evaluation

Successful Outcomes! Return on your investment How to achieve and improve How to manage continuous change Your results

Outcomes for adults and kids! Outcomes for adults and kids! Must be fostered, respected and explored. Emotionally intelligent schools are successful schools. Much of what we do in schools is based on what teachers think is important for future development. Seldom do students see the need to learn for today and immediately see a present use for what has happened in the classroom. We need to ask this important question: What do I want students to remember about my class five years from now?

The Bargain Students make with Teachers If you will… Than we will… Show you care about the Believe the material material can be important for us Model how to act when Learn how to take you or we make mistakes intellectual risks Keep private anything Trust you with Personal information that could help you better teach us could help you better teach us “ Fires in the Bathroom,” Kathleen Cushman “ Fires in the Bathroom,” Kathleen Cushman

Lesson and Curriculum Design Our state standards have over 90 thousand words of discrete bench marks that often lead teachers to the notion that they are in a time crunch to cover material. “Coverage” leads to lots of classroom activities and discrete lessons but little understanding. We need to teach teachers a curriculum design process that focuses on what is essential and builds conceptual understanding.

1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design

Content Content is the key to curiosity in the classroom and the textbook approach to learning is not only expensive; it is uninteresting to students, boring and often not accurate. Creating essential questions increases the likely hood students will remember content.

Thank you!