Ethics,
Equity, and Standards
The Florida Department of Education
website explains that in 1985, an Educational Summit was held to bring together
business, higher education and school district leaders to discuss the order of
education. A result of this summit
meeting was a reform of expectations within the framework of educational
leadership. As years have passed and
needs have changed within public education, so have these standards. The Florida Principal Leadership Standards
(FPLS) serve as guidelines or expectations for administrators. The FLDOE website explains that these
standards are a way to communicate to teachers, administrators, parents and
community members their vision for Florida public school leadership and
explains the core values of the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE.)
The push to reform leadership comes
with the intent to create schools that are worthy of our learners and in doing
this, there has to be a foundation to guide the leadership. This is the job of the FPLS. Using contemporary research, ten standards
were defined and grouped into what we know as the Domains of Effective
Leadership. These domains provide a
foundation for many areas of Leadership from how to analyze data, how
Instructional Leadership should be viewed, to Professional and Ethical
Behavioral expectations just to name a few facets. Following, the individual domains will be
discussed in detail.
Domain 1: Student Achievement
The first standard outlined under
this domain indicates that school’s learning goals will be based on state
adopted student academic standards and will be driven by district assessments,
state assessments and or international assessments. Additionally, this domain expresses that
effective school leaders should demonstrate that learning is their top priority
and they should do this by demonstrating, through their leadership actions,
that the focus is student centered. This
domain is an effort to bring forth accountability measures to ensure that
quality instruction and quality learning is taking place.
In an article by Pamela Mendels, found on the Wallace
Foundation website, she explains that “a major reason so much attention is
being paid to principals is the emergence of research that has found an
empirical link between school leadership and student achievement” (Mendels,
2012. Pg. 54). Mendels also goes on to
explain that “…leadership was the second most important school-based factor in
children’s achievement and noted that very few, if any, turn-around schools
were turning around without them” (Mendels, 2012. Pg. 55).
Student achievement is the single most important
reason we are here as a public education entity. We want to see our students equipped with a
skill set to achieve a measure of success that will be helpful to their future
endeavors beyond the four walls of the academic institution. We want our formative assessments and state
standardized test scores to demonstrate proficiency. State assessments are currently the main
measure of student growth in the state of Florida. Most importantly, we want to empower our
students to be lifelong learners and citizens of their community. The best way is to measure student formative
achievement.
It is the responsibility of the leader to foster a
climate whereby decisions about the direction of instruction are driven by
data. Effective leaders should create an
expectation within the culture of the school not only that data will be
utilized to drive all academic instructions, but also to pinpoint exactly which
measures of data will be used in driving these instructional practices. It is also the responsibility of the
effective leader to ensure that progress monitoring of this data occurs. Teachers need to be supported and skilled in
analyzing the data and equipped with the means to make decisions regarding
their instruction in response to this data.
Domain 2: Instructional Leadership
The domain of Instructional Leadership is broken down
into three standards. The idea that a
collaborative Instructional Plan should be created and implemented that aligns
best instructional practices with state standards and curriculum is the first
of these three standards. Additionally,
it is the expectation that school leaders develop, retain, and recruit a highly
developed and diverse staff. The final
standard within this domain explains that an expectation of an effective leader
should be to provide structure and monitor the school environment in an effort
to create a continually improving climate with a diverse student population.
Thomas Sergiovanni expresses the
idea that “The educational leader assumes the role of “clinical practitioner”
bringing expert professional knowledge and bearing as they relate to teaching
effectiveness, educational program development, and clinical supervision. The clinical practitioner is adept at
diagnosing educational problems; counseling teachers; providing for
supervision, evaluation, and staff development; and developing curriculum”
(Sergiovanni, 2009. Pg. 8).
The Instructional Leader is pivotal
to the success of any public school system.
An instructional leader acts as a compass for all other instructional
staff. The Instructional Leader
determines the direction, sets the path and then clears the way for learning to
take place. In organizations where a
common and clearly stated vision is lacking and where a foundational knowledge
does not exist within the skill-set of the administrator, the faculty has no
clearly defined direction or purpose.
This is detrimental. The
principal should be the most skilled instructor. The Instructional Leader must know what quality
and effective instruction looks like and must also be able to provide the
necessary feedback to teachers regarding their instruction.
Solid Instructional Leadership is
important in all academic institutions but particularly in turn-around schools.
These schools consist of our most
at-risk students and a common direction is important. The analogy that is used to illustrate the
desperate state of the high-needs school is that of being stranded in a
rowboat. One may look around and see
land in all directions, but often times when there is no clear statement of
direction or purpose, teachers will row frantically toward land. If every teacher is rowing in a different
direction, due to this lack of direction and lack of a pre-determined path,
then they will never reach land. Much
like a turn-around school will never see success if each teacher is moving in a
different direction. It is the
responsibility of the instructional leader to provide the direction, purpose
and a plan to get the turn-around school turning in the right direction.
Domain 3: Organizational Leadership
This domain of Organizational
Leadership employs four standards. It
expresses the belief that effective school leaders should create and monitor a
quality decision-making process that is guided by vision, mission, and the
continual push towards organizational improvement that is driven by data. Another standard within this domain explains
that leaders need to develop other leaders in their organization. Organizational Leadership also requires that
an individual manage organizational practices, operations, and facilities in a
way that efficiently maximizes its resources to foster the best possible
learning environment. An important
standard within this domain would also be in the ability to collaborate and
communicate a system’s goals with all stakeholders within the public education
realm.
Successful organizational leaders
create a system whereby students, teachers, staff and administrators are
supported in their efforts to raise student achievement. It is fundamentally necessary that they do
this through the leadership style presented by William Foster known as
“transformational leadership.” Transformational
leadership is summarized in Foster’s article, Toward A Critical Practice of
Leadership, (and I paraphrase) as an art whereby the leader communicates a
vision and changes a culture, inspires and transforms a school and is able to
impress upon the organization that change can be for the better. This is required to be effective in any
capacity as an organizational leader but particularly in a turn-around school.
Organizational Leadership also
includes the management of day-to-day interactions with staff and faculty as
well as students, parents, and other stakeholders. An effective leader, in this capacity,
surrounds themselves with skilled individuals that add value to an organization
and assists to complement the areas where there may be deficits within the
primary leader all participating in moving toward a common direction and
purpose. They do this by empowering the
best qualities in others and allowing them to see their inner-leader. It is also pivotal for the organizational
leader to equip and empower their followers with a skill set to problem solve
for themselves. The essence of an
organizational manager might lie in the ability to put out certain fires, but
it is in the art of the organizational leader to empower their staff to do this
independently.
Domain 4: Professional and Ethical
Behavior
The domain of Professional and Ethical Behavior
expresses that effective school leaders should demonstrate characteristics that
are consistent with quality practice and demonstrates the educator as a leader
within the community.
Kenneth Strike expresses the belief that “schools
should be good educational communities, and, for school leaders, the study of
ethics should emphasize what makes a school a good educational community. Community is the essential relevance of
ethics to leadership” (Strike, 2009, pg. xv).
No longer is management the key to a successful school. Success of the school community hinges on the
success of having Authentic Leadership.
Gary Anderson explains the notion of maintaining authentic leadership
with a focal point on ethics “…through current research on trust and community,
it has been found that teachers, students, and administrators are more
productive professionally in schools where norms of collegiality and trust are
cultivated” (Anderson, 2009, pg. 37).
It is the ethical obligation of the transformational
leader to always make decisions that are in the best interest of the students
and that are guided by the ethical framework outlined in the Code of Ethics for
School Administrators. We recognize that
it is not in the tradition of following these guidelines as a formality, but
rather as Kenneth Strike outlines in his book Ethical Leadership, it is
imperative that the leader has this foundation of authentic ethical practices
that are backed by trust, honor, respect and transparency. Strike explains that “ …it is the job of the
school to transform its students not only by providing them with the knowledge
and skills but by building character and instilling value” (Srike, 2007. Pg.
22). The bottom line is that all
decisions made by an effective leader must be student-centered.
In summary, the evolution of education is
paramount. We are evolving from
transactional to transformational leadership as William Foster explains. The “transactional leader” takes a rigid
approach to viewing education from a managerial perspective that is
task-oriented and with an emphasis on exchange relationships. Whereas the “transformational leader” is
driven by morals, ethics, principals, and empowers others while a culture of
collaboration, communication and trust exists.
The Florida Principal Leadership Standards provides the common framework
and expectations for such transformational leaders to take their place in
Florida public schools.
References:
Anderson, Gary (2009). Advocacy Leadership: Toward A Post-Reform Agenda in Education. (pp. 37.) New York, NY, Routledge.
Florida
Department of Education- Florida Principal Leadership Standards (FPLS)
Foster,
William (2005). Critical Perspectives on
Leadership.
New York & London, Routledge.
Sergiovanni, Thomas (2009) Rethinking Leadership: A Collection of Articles (Second Edition).
(pp. 8) California, Corwin Press.
Strike, Kenneth (2007) Ethical Leadership In Schools. (pp. xv, 22). Corwin Press,
California
