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- Title
A Challenge for Leadership and Transformational Change in the Educational Sector.
- Authors
Onorato, Michael
- Abstract
In this new era of school reform, much has been publicized regarding the effectiveness of the U.S. educational system with regard to performance and public expectations. Recent focus on teacher performance and student achievement have been the priority topic. However, as one assesses the critical challenges to achieve, we find these reforms similar to the challenges faced by any other company performing in private industry. As such, a closer look at the elements of managerial leadership and the challenge of mandating change, must be performed. In accordance with the role of Instructional Leadership, which was termed during the 1980's, much administrative responsibility was shifted to focus on academic instruction by leaders of elementary, high school and higher education institutions. During the 1990's, researchers, such as Marzano & Waters (2005), Sergiovanni (1994) Fullan (2002), and Murphy & Hallinger (1992), just to name a few, refocused on the overall leadership qualities of educational leaders which have supported the notion of effective principals in correlation with effective leadership. Since 2000, the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) has become the primary catalyst for today's recent standards movement. This act has instilled a greater emphasis on student performance endorsed by all individual states. As such, accountability fell upon the leadership capability of the principal with a greater focus on student assessment and test scores. The most recent federal incentive program, Race to the Top, a $10B education incentive program (part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) has again placed the performance issue of students and teachers back in the spot light which will require teacher performance evaluation systems as a means to secure the federal incentive funding. However, what has seemed to have been forgotten are the basic fundamentals of the leadership and change paradigm that will support the strategic goals set by individual state mandates. Similar to any other private organization's strategic goals, there is a significant need to study the framework of effective leadership within the education sector. Researchers such as Frederick Hess (2003) address the leadership mandate in correlation with the managerial attributes that are currently practiced by private industry. This should include a greater emphasis on how principals and educational leaders lead effectively to support these new expectations, and the process of necessary change that the education industry faces. This paper addresses some of the critical components of the leadership - change mandate that will be required by all educational leaders to meet the most recent expectations in educational reform.
- Subjects
UNITED States; TRANSFORMATIONAL leadership; EDUCATIONAL change; INSTRUCTIONAL systems; TEACHER evaluation; EDUCATIONAL leadership
- Publication
Leadership & Organizational Management Journal, 2012, Vol 2012, Issue 1, p121
- ISSN
2152-8675
- Publication type
Article