6 minute read
Publication Sneak Peek
Publication Sneak Peek: Instructional Leader
This segment features content from other AAEA publications. Instructional Leader is a quarterly publication available to subscribing districts. The following excerpt comes from the September 2022 issue.
The Need For More Effective Leaders
Contributor: Dr. Jeremy Owoh, Superintendent, Jacksonville North Pulaski School District
Over the past twenty years, I believed that teachers had the greatest impact on student learning and growth. Not only do I still believe this fact, there has been more evidence that has notably supported this notion; however, teachers cannot do the work by themselves. Effective teachers emphatically need effective leaders. They must have the support and resources to be successful…and they also need the leaders who would build their capacity while holding them accountable. Leaders are more than managers in today’s educational environment; however, they do have to manage, in addition to other leadership roles.
During my doctoral studies, I decided to focus on educational leaders' impact on teacher efficacy and student learning. The research highlighted the importance of strong and effective leadership for all students and staff members. When the leader continues to grow professionally in his or her role, the leader is more informed and better equipped to support the teachers. The leader, both at the school level and the district level, has an indirect impact on student learning…please note that there is still a level of impact; the teacher and classroom instructional aides have a direct impact on student learning. The results from the research indicated that leaders had an indirect impact on student learning because they had a direct impact on teacher and staff efficacy. How a leader supports and grows a teacher will determine how that teacher grows the students. And, as a district leader, I still believe that effective teachers need effective school leaders; however, I have concluded that effective school leaders also need effective district leaders.
Learning Together
Last year in my District, we decided to adopt the mindset of Learning Is Required at all levels…not just for our scholars but for everyone, including staff and leaders. We started to examine how we can ensure this expectation throughout the District, so we, including our school board members, started our district-wide book study that focused on including all stakeholders on the educational journey when decisions are being made and not just at the middle juncture or end of the journey. If a decision is going to impact a particular group of individuals, then they need to be part of the discussion at the beginning. It is unrealistic to think that individuals will “buy in” or accept a decision if they were never part of the conversation.
Effective communication and authentic dialogue at every level are essential to ensuring that everyone is headed in the right direction. You have to be in the right seat, with the right people, the right driver, and on the right bus that is headed in the right direction, in order to ensure that you have an effective educational system. Effective, meaningful, feedback is needed by all stakeholders.
Probably one of the most important processes in our educational system is the way leaders provide feedback to teachers and staff and then how teachers/ staff members provide feedback to our scholars.
Leadership Growth
The moral imperative for all educators should be student learning/growth. In addition to student learning/ growth, it is imperative that our leaders are always professionally growing and that they ensure that all staff members are growing. We cannot expect our students to grow if we are not growing. As professionals, we need to always seek out opportunities for professional growth. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend Bob Thompson’s Superintendent Academy. It was by far one of the best professional development experiences that I have had in my educational tenure. I really felt that I grew as a leader during that year-long experience. We discussed the board and superintendent relationship, finance/ budgeting, hiring/ terminating process, and much more.
Our scholars change every year and, unfortunately, our staff makeup changes often; therefore, it is imperative that we, as leaders, continue to seek opportunities to increase our leadership capacity. It is a powerful learning experience to be around other superintendents, even if their districts do not mirror my District’s makeup. Just as our students learn from each other, our teachers learn from each other, and our leaders learn from each other. We need to make time to collaborate and converse more with other leaders. We also need to ensure that our other leaders in our district have the same opportunities to learn and collaborate with role-like colleagues.
Learn by Listening
Lastly, an area of my leadership capacity that I continue to develop is my listening skills. Many of us only take time to hear our team, staff, students, parents, etc…but we do not take time to listen to them. Hearing is the act of receiving sound, but listening takes the additional step of understanding the sound that you have just heard. Listening takes more of an active role rather than the acquiescent role of just hearing someone. As leaders, we have been accustomed to always having the answers and to produce the answers quickly, so we hear the problem and then respond quickly with the solution, sometimes without even processing the entire situation.
It has become a robotic process- staff comes to you with a question or problem and we quickly give a response without much thought. This type of reaction has many implications but the top two implications are:
1. Our quick response, at times, takes away the human factor. How does this decision, today, impact this teacher or student? Our teachers are different and our students are different, so the same response for similar situations is not always what’s best for them.
2. Secondly, it takes away their opportunity to enhance their problem-solving skills. Just like our scholars, our professional staff need the opportunity to work through situations, and if you are always providing the answers as soon as a situation arises, then you do not allow for capacity building. I have made a conscious effort to stop, listen, and then dialogue with my staff member. I usually end the conversation by stating:
A. “Let me repeat what I have heard; is that correct?”;
B. “What are your thoughts and feelings about the situation?”
C. “What are your possible solutions? What are the desired outcomes?”
D. And if I have any concerns, I may ask: “Have you thought about this possible outcome?”
We sometimes forget that as leaders, we should do more facilitating and guiding, then solving and directing. Our scholars and staff members have a lot to contribute to our educational system, so we need to listen to them and consider their feedback. It goes back to the journey process. One of the most important parts of starting the journey in the right direction is to listen to all of the participants who are going to be impacted on the journey.
