There is nothing more powerful than education, and nothing we are more naturally made to do than to learn. When I consider my role as a leader in education, I think about the learning opportunities I help to create. I consider our community, our staff, and the collaboration it takes to function in a way that benefits all students. Given these beliefs, the scope of my visionary leadership platform includes a focus on opportunity and equity, community and culture, collaboration and implementation, and growth and excellence.
Opportunity and Equity. We cannot talk about opportunity in education without addressing equity. Any given school can offer all the opportunities in the world, but if only a small percentage of our students can access those opportunities, then we are falling far short of our purpose. Childress agrees when he writes, “Every student deserves the same opportunity for high standards of teaching, available resources, and equal expectations of academic results” (Childress, et. al., Loc. 448, 2009). His point is that we have to continually analyze the data and reflect on our practices to make sure that our students in poverty, our minority students, and all underrepresented populations have equal access to every program, resource and activity we offer, without exception.
Community and Culture. Creating a culture that welcomes whole community participation is key to our success, and together we must agree on what is most important. We must stand for something greater than just raising student scores on a statewide test. By emphasizing the true cultural worth of our school and our collective experiences, we make education meaningful to all stakeholders. Deal and Peterson (2009) suggest, “If a school does not stand for something more profound than raising achievement levels on tests, then it probably does not make a memorable difference to teachers, students, or parents” (p. 62). Essentially, schools must stand for the emotional, social and intellectual well-being of our students. We want our schools to be a place where our students reach their full potential, our teachers feel fulfilled, and our community takes pride in our collective accomplishments.
Collaboration and Implementation. Although we may not be able to add hours to the clock, we can control how we spend the time we have together. Time is well spent on teacher collaboration that drives instruction and the implementation of our overall vision as a school. True staff development involves building the team as a whole, unifying the staff through meaningful interactions and joint learning experiences, and finding the best ways to share and implement our common goals and vision. Bolman and Deal (2013) propose this challenge: “Leaders serve a deeper and more durable function if they recognize that team building at its heart is a spiritual undertaking… Peak performance merges as a team discovers its soul.” The soul of our team must connect deeply with our vision, and successful implementation will be a result of our effective teambuilding and collaboration.
Growth and Excellence. Growth can be measured in many different ways. It may be as simple as an accomplished we’ve made, knowledge we have gained or a task we have mastered. In general, growth can be defined as development in all its shapes and forms, and ultimately, it is our growth that leads us to excellence. As we seek to advance, we track and measure our growth with the purpose of reflection and improvement. We gather important data from formal and informal, formative and summative assessments throughout the year, and we base our decisions on the information the data provides. We take what we learn and aim for specific targets, and one step at a time, we discover the path that will lead our students and our school to excellence we pursue.
REFERENCES
Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Childress, S., & Doyle, D. (2009). Leading for equity: The pursuit of excellence in Montgomery County Public Schools. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press.
Deal, T., & Peterson, K. (2009). Shaping school culture: Pitfalls, paradoxes, and promises (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Opportunity and Equity. We cannot talk about opportunity in education without addressing equity. Any given school can offer all the opportunities in the world, but if only a small percentage of our students can access those opportunities, then we are falling far short of our purpose. Childress agrees when he writes, “Every student deserves the same opportunity for high standards of teaching, available resources, and equal expectations of academic results” (Childress, et. al., Loc. 448, 2009). His point is that we have to continually analyze the data and reflect on our practices to make sure that our students in poverty, our minority students, and all underrepresented populations have equal access to every program, resource and activity we offer, without exception.
Community and Culture. Creating a culture that welcomes whole community participation is key to our success, and together we must agree on what is most important. We must stand for something greater than just raising student scores on a statewide test. By emphasizing the true cultural worth of our school and our collective experiences, we make education meaningful to all stakeholders. Deal and Peterson (2009) suggest, “If a school does not stand for something more profound than raising achievement levels on tests, then it probably does not make a memorable difference to teachers, students, or parents” (p. 62). Essentially, schools must stand for the emotional, social and intellectual well-being of our students. We want our schools to be a place where our students reach their full potential, our teachers feel fulfilled, and our community takes pride in our collective accomplishments.
Collaboration and Implementation. Although we may not be able to add hours to the clock, we can control how we spend the time we have together. Time is well spent on teacher collaboration that drives instruction and the implementation of our overall vision as a school. True staff development involves building the team as a whole, unifying the staff through meaningful interactions and joint learning experiences, and finding the best ways to share and implement our common goals and vision. Bolman and Deal (2013) propose this challenge: “Leaders serve a deeper and more durable function if they recognize that team building at its heart is a spiritual undertaking… Peak performance merges as a team discovers its soul.” The soul of our team must connect deeply with our vision, and successful implementation will be a result of our effective teambuilding and collaboration.
Growth and Excellence. Growth can be measured in many different ways. It may be as simple as an accomplished we’ve made, knowledge we have gained or a task we have mastered. In general, growth can be defined as development in all its shapes and forms, and ultimately, it is our growth that leads us to excellence. As we seek to advance, we track and measure our growth with the purpose of reflection and improvement. We gather important data from formal and informal, formative and summative assessments throughout the year, and we base our decisions on the information the data provides. We take what we learn and aim for specific targets, and one step at a time, we discover the path that will lead our students and our school to excellence we pursue.
REFERENCES
Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Childress, S., & Doyle, D. (2009). Leading for equity: The pursuit of excellence in Montgomery County Public Schools. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press.
Deal, T., & Peterson, K. (2009). Shaping school culture: Pitfalls, paradoxes, and promises (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.