We suffer here in the United States, particularly in New York, from a crisis in educational leadership. Though there are plenty of examples of individual teachers and principals succeeding, at every level we find many more people in positions of leadership who are unable to lead. Are our institutions wholly corrupt and our leaders essentially unethical or personally incompetent? I doubt it. The bigger problem (and thank goodness, because it's a problem we can tackle) is leaders who are woefully under-prepared.
I recently listened to a TED Talk by Patrick Awuah on educating leaders. As Mr. Awuah spoke about education and leadership in Ghana, I kept seeing parallels to our own situation here in NYC: horrifying disorganization; leaders making "breathtakingly bad decisions"; leaders who are more in touch with a sense of entitlement than any real sense of responsibility. Mr. Awuah states again and again that "leadership matters." And it does.
In education, leadership matters at every level. Classroom teachers must be effective leaders for their students. Increasingly, teachers in special education must also lead teams of classroom assistants who are also expected to lead the students in their charge. Within the school, teacher coaches and mentors must lead their peers in evaluating and improving classroom practices. Yet traditional preparation programs for assistants, teachers, and mentors provide little or no training in leadership development.
Principals' training programs are often the first place educators encounter meaningful coursework and instruction on what it means to be a effective leader and how to go about being one. Yet there is serious debate about the best structure and most important priorities for principals' training programs. On Friday, we will examine the merits of several different programs and their approaches to leadership training for principals.
Tune in next time for: Raise up your staff, part 1
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