Money, Mouth. Mouth, Money. | Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?

I’m excited to announce (for those who didn’t hear it on the last episode of Practical Principals) that I’ve been accepted to lead a conversation at Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation in a few weeks. While I’m really excited about it, I’m also a little nervous.

I think I’m going to be in the “Leadership and Infrastructure” track and I plan to focus my conversation on the challenges inherent in leading a school in the 21st century. Basically, I want to look at what school-based leaders need to know and be able to do given the rapidly changing landscape in which we work.

When I did my masters a while back, the theme that was woven through all my coursework was, “We are not managers, we are instructional leaders…” I don’t think I’d argue that administrators need to be great teachers and that they need to be able to recognize, inspire, and support great teaching among their faculties, but what else? Surely it goes deeper than that.

From my proposal for this conversation:

Schools face the daunting task of balancing the requirements of AYP and NCLB with the demands of business and academic leaders who are looking for graduates proficient in what are being called “21st century skills.” In light of this shift, the role of the school leader must evolve to cope with the challenge of addressing these seemingly contradictory expectations that are being placed on our school systems by external sources.

Jon Becker got the ball rolling in Philadelphia last month with his conversation at EduCon 2.1. I’d like to continue to advance the discourse that started in that session. To that end, I’ll pose the question here and use the responses to help me pull together something cohesive.

How are the challenges facing school leaders today different than what we faced 5, 10, or 20 years ago? What are the core competencies for school leaders in the 21st century

I look forward to reading your comments here or via a trackback from your own blog. If you’re in or around Colorado on February 21, 2009, I’d love to see you at CO Learning, if not I’ll post a link to my conversation information and live streaming details here as soon as I have them.

8 thoughts on “Money, Mouth. Mouth, Money.”

Brian Cox February 3, 2009 at 10:53 am

I beleive that the core competencies of an educational leader are to lead by example. More and more is being asked of administrators and what is seen in areas of my own experience is that work being displaced on other professionals within the building. Administrators ask more and more of their teachers but they themselves are not visibly seen working as hard as their teachers when they come into the school after the students have already arrived and are awaiting classes to start. Teachers tend to find this an ironic nature and then feel distain for supervisors because they do not play by the rules that others are judged by. I beleive that this leads me to the core competent area of communication. Communication opens the doorway to a successfully run school and as administrators are in charge of receiving, filtering, and deseminating information, I beleive that this is a key skill that cannot be overlooked. We talk about transparency among our government but in some schools we lack the transparency to communicate properly with parents, staff, and community members who are all working towards the common goal of educating our youth for the next generation.

Scott February 3, 2009 at 11:38 am

Sounds like a tough situation, Brian. Administrators who come in late and leave early, and who do not hold themselves to the same standards as they hold their staff are definitely giving the rest of us a bad rap. But I promise that if you don’t judge all administrators based on your bad experiences, I won’t judge all teachers based on the actions of a few.

Deal?

I believe you’ve provided some food for thought, though, because regardless of what administrators are actually doing when they’re working in their offices, I think it’s important to note that it isn’t always perceived as “working hard.” For instance, I can be knee deep in a scheduling dilemma or parent problem and a teacher may come in and ask, “Are you busy?” That’s a loaded question because what to me may seem “busy” may seem trivial to someone else because it’s not what’s on their mind at the time.

Also, sometimes I’ll have district meetings at 7:30AM and I’ll show up to my school at 9 or 10. No one has ever commented, but I’d hate to think teachers had the impression that I just felt like sleeping in that morning.

Thanks for sharing, Brian.

Brian Cox February 4, 2009 at 7:49 am

I see what you are saying but when it is 8 am everyday and none of four principla in a junior high are present it causes concern. Do not get me wrong here I am currently working on my endorsement in educational administration to try to combat this among many other issues I have seen in my 8 years of teaching. Thanks for giving those of us a chance to discuss with you.

Scott February 4, 2009 at 7:55 am

It is truly unfortunate that you’ve found yourself surrounded by what sounds like poor leadership. Suffice to say that not all administrators are that way (as I sit in my office at 6:45 this morning to do some work before the place gets too busy).

Drop me a line any time.

Mark February 5, 2009 at 11:05 am

I think principals need to be ready to manage the change that comes with being the instructional leader in a building. For new teacher graduates this is the expectation of their principal but for the veteran teachers it will be a major change. Understanding that change of this magnitude will have consequences for the building culture is important. Marzano says that a schools communication, culture, input and order are negatively affected by second order change so a principal must be ready to manage the change.

Scott February 5, 2009 at 11:12 am

Thanks, Mark. I agree that veteran teachers can sometimes be resistant to any form of “instructional leadership” and anything they perceive as more than simply “managing” the school.

How we brace them for this different leadership construct continues to be a question that all of us in administration will struggle with.

Thanks for your input!

Mark Stock February 5, 2009 at 6:51 pm

I think one issue that is challenging the the whole “principal as instructional leader” is the emergence of instructional coaches and instructional facilitators.

In many ways these teacher leaders are emerging as instructional leaders without “line and staff” authority over personnel.

Kind of changes the dynamic although the principal must still support them for them to be effective

The Stock Mark Report http://drmarkstock.com

Blair February 18, 2009 at 6:46 am

I believe that leaders for today’s and tomorrow’s schools need to be visionaries, change agents, instructional leaders, modelers and managers. You can check out the details at principals of the future at http://principalsoffuture.wetpaint.com

[Fixed broken link in comment. - Ed.]

Brian Cox February 3, 2009 at 10:53 am

I beleive that the core competencies of an educational leader are to lead by example. More and more is being asked of administrators and what is seen in areas of my own experience is that work being displaced on other professionals within the building. Administrators ask more and more of their teachers but they themselves are not visibly seen working as hard as their teachers when they come into the school after the students have already arrived and are awaiting classes to start. Teachers tend to find this an ironic nature and then feel distain for supervisors because they do not play by the rules that others are judged by. I beleive that this leads me to the core competent area of communication. Communication opens the doorway to a successfully run school and as administrators are in charge of receiving, filtering, and deseminating information, I beleive that this is a key skill that cannot be overlooked. We talk about transparency among our government but in some schools we lack the transparency to communicate properly with parents, staff, and community members who are all working towards the common goal of educating our youth for the next generation.
Scott February 3, 2009 at 11:38 am

Sounds like a tough situation, Brian. Administrators who come in late and leave early, and who do not hold themselves to the same standards as they hold their staff are definitely giving the rest of us a bad rap. But I promise that if you don’t judge all administrators based on your bad experiences, I won’t judge all teachers based on the actions of a few.

Deal?

I believe you’ve provided some food for thought, though, because regardless of what administrators are actually doing when they’re working in their offices, I think it’s important to note that it isn’t always perceived as “working hard.” For instance, I can be knee deep in a scheduling dilemma or parent problem and a teacher may come in and ask, “Are you busy?” That’s a loaded question because what to me may seem “busy” may seem trivial to someone else because it’s not what’s on their mind at the time.

Also, sometimes I’ll have district meetings at 7:30AM and I’ll show up to my school at 9 or 10. No one has ever commented, but I’d hate to think teachers had the impression that I just felt like sleeping in that morning.

Thanks for sharing, Brian.
Brian Cox February 4, 2009 at 7:49 am

I see what you are saying but when it is 8 am everyday and none of four principla in a junior high are present it causes concern. Do not get me wrong here I am currently working on my endorsement in educational administration to try to combat this among many other issues I have seen in my 8 years of teaching. Thanks for giving those of us a chance to discuss with you.
Scott February 4, 2009 at 7:55 am

It is truly unfortunate that you’ve found yourself surrounded by what sounds like poor leadership. Suffice to say that not all administrators are that way (as I sit in my office at 6:45 this morning to do some work before the place gets too busy).

Drop me a line any time.
Mark February 5, 2009 at 11:05 am

I think principals need to be ready to manage the change that comes with being the instructional leader in a building. For new teacher graduates this is the expectation of their principal but for the veteran teachers it will be a major change. Understanding that change of this magnitude will have consequences for the building culture is important. Marzano says that a schools communication, culture, input and order are negatively affected by second order change so a principal must be ready to manage the change.
Scott February 5, 2009 at 11:12 am

Thanks, Mark. I agree that veteran teachers can sometimes be resistant to any form of “instructional leadership” and anything they perceive as more than simply “managing” the school.

How we brace them for this different leadership construct continues to be a question that all of us in administration will struggle with.

Thanks for your input!
Mark Stock February 5, 2009 at 6:51 pm

I think one issue that is challenging the the whole “principal as instructional leader” is the emergence of instructional coaches and instructional facilitators.

In many ways these teacher leaders are emerging as instructional leaders without “line and staff” authority over personnel.

Kind of changes the dynamic although the principal must still support them for them to be effective

The Stock Mark Report http://drmarkstock.com
Blair February 18, 2009 at 6:46 am

I believe that leaders for today’s and tomorrow’s schools need to be visionaries, change agents, instructional leaders, modelers and managers. You can check out the details at principals of the future at http://principalsoffuture.wetpaint.com

[Fixed broken link in comment. - Ed.]