The "New" School Leader: Training Instructional Leaders for a New Generation of Teachers and Learners

ABSTRACTAs school district administrators labor to ascertain the qualities needed to lead schools in the 21st century, the task of designing principal training has taken countless methods and approaches. One school district made an intentional decision to develop a series of workshops for teachers enrolled in an educational leadership program with the specific objective that the results will be reflected in student achievement. The Instructional Leadership Institute was designed to explore and increase participants' level of awareness about the importance of analyzing and interpreting data to make more informed decisions about instructional improvement and curriculum alignment for their teachers as well as other fundamental elements of leadership training. While other school districts designate principals in a building first, and train them later, The Jackson Public School District chose to develop instructional leaders prior to being assigned to a school. These administrators will arrive in the building with the discipline, training and knowledge essential for 21st century school leadership."No one can say for certain how the schools of the new century will differ from those of the past century - but there can be little doubt that these schools will require different forms of leadership. "Elizabeth L. Hale and Hunter N. Moorman Preparing School Principals: A National Perspective on Policy and Program Innovations Institute for Educational Leadership, 2003INTRODUCTIONThe new age of technology has created change at every level of education. Theories that formed the basis for training teachers are no longer relevant and themes that were germane to leadership preparation are no longer applicable. Consequently, teachers are in a quest for new ways to instruct technology age students, administrators are seeking new ways to lead teachers in an age of increasingly uncertain resource allocations, and district officers are looking for new ways to train instructional leaders for the 21st century. One school district created a leadership institute specifically designed to train the kind of leader that will be successful in the district schools. As leaders from the institute are placed in buildings together, the impact of their training will be triangulated. Storey (2004) maintains that Fullan (2001) augured that the more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become. Sergiovanni, (2001) provides a framework for the new type of leader. He asserts that leaders of the future will not be the superheroes of the past. They will not be the kind of leader who seeks to change things by sheer force of their bureaucratic authority. Instead, Sergiovanni affirms, leaders will spend much more of their time on purposing, developing idea structures for their schools, building a shared followership, and helping their schools become communities of responsibility. Educational Leadership programs have been criticized in two major areas. According to Cunningham and Sherman (2008) they need contextual relevancy and leadership preparation lacks focus on instructional leadership, thus, the center of attention is not on student achievement. Many scholars have suggested that field experience should be viewed as the primary vehicle for learning, with classroom work designed to support the learning that occurs in the field rather than vice versa (Browne-Ferrigno and Muth 2004; Daresh 2004; Enrich, Hansford, and Tennet 2004; Cunningham 2007.) As the focus on instructional leadership shifts to the desire to create a new training format for leaders, investigation in the area provided research on the impact of administrators on student achievement. Researchers identified the following areas of emphasis for instructional leadership: asking tough questions ; setting high, but achievable, academic goals; maintaining orderly learning environments; encouraging teachers' beliefs in their students' abilities to achieve; modeling respect for hard work and academic achievement; setting a standard for friendliness and a commitment to all stakeholders; making supplies and instructional materials readily available; holding informal and formal conversations about school issues with stakeholders; recognizing and rewarding teacher efforts; creating opportunities for progressive professional growth; finding time to share information; supporting teachers' use of new skills; crating incentives for student learning; honoring students for accomplishments and good citizenship; acknowledging teacher professionalism; and creating professional learning communities. …