leadership

Leadership Behaviors
Certain behaviors by administrators, policymakers, and teacher leaders are necessary to adequately support effective data-driven practices. What are those //leadership behaviors// and how do educators facilitate their presence in school organizations?

//**Big Ideas**// "While building capacity directly with teachers cannot be overlooked, the participation of the administration proves critical to developing a school-wide data-driven culture. Administrators who model data use and invest time and resources in building the capacity of all staff to utilize data are the linchpin to this taking root in schools." (Data Quality Campaign)

A leader knows the direction the program needs to go. Some leaders are quiet while others are loud. A true leader is one that knows themself and stays true to thier beliefs.

Effective leadership is key to the success of any organization.

Every organization needs to have a clear sense of direction and a path to follow.

Effective leadership is about seeing and taking advantage of the skills and talents from everyone in your organization to form a cohesive working unit.

Leaders need to foster educational practices and provide a professionally and emotionally safe enviornment for staff members to grow in their learning.

Successfulness of a leader is measured by the actions of their followers. Administrators can have great ideas for effective change, however, if none of the staff follows along with those ideas that administrator is not a great leader. Effective leaders have a vision and create an environment of trust and collaboration so that his/her vision becomes the shared vision within the organization. Effective leaders do not dictate, rather they empower others to use their strengths to bring about change.

The leader is the ultimate evaluator and analyzer of the collected data and the initiator of broad reform.

Leaders need to inform stakeholders of how DDDM works, how to set up intellectual framework, monitor a broadset of data, report to teachers, analyze how the schools is doing as a whole and what changes need to take place.

Research has related effective school leadership to significant increases in student achievement. As schools become data driven systems, it is important for leaders to understant how to interpret and evaluate data.

Leadership requires vision. It is a force that provides meaning and purpose to the work of an organization. Leaders of change are visionary leaders, and vision is the basis of their work. "To actively change an organization, leaders must make decisions about the nature of the desired state" (Manasse, 1986, p. 151). They begin with a personal vision to forge a shared vision with their coworkers. Their communication of the vision is such that it empowers people to act. According to Westley and Mintzberg (1989) visionary leadership is dynamic and involves a three stage process:

1.an image of the desired future for the organization (vision) is 2.communicated (shared) which serves to 3."empower those followers so that they can enact the vision" (p. 18).

A principal must conceive of him or herself as a "project leader," which is to say someone who has more responsibility but is nonetheless still part of the team. Likewise, students and parents should all be considered part of the team as well. The principal must ensure that everyone answers to the data that is collected.

"A leader creates explicit expectations and norms by stating explicitly that data use is non-negotiable and modeling appropraite behavior. At the school level, set and model those norms by showing the relevancy of data to systematically improving students acheivement" (Datnow, p. 25).

//**Practical Tips**// Bet true to yourself and be genuine. Be in the trenches and practice what you belive. Admit when you are wrong and build a climate of trust. Know your staff and what they need to motivate them to be thier best. Build a culture of trust. Take time to get to know the strengths that each staff member brings to the school - provide opportunities for individual staff members to contribute in a positive manner through their own strengths. Influence and Inspire: An effective leader can influence others, not just give orders Have a vision: If you don't know where you are going or what you are doing, people will not follow you Trust: Earn it from your staff as this is the foundation for a strong school Have clear communication: It must be open and honest consistently and can only happen where there is trust Trust your Intuition: Leaders must rely on intuition for successful decision making Use your common senses and treat others with respect How you present your body language is a key component in communication with others Level of think before you speak/react conducting an analysis of a situation before you react Be open minded and be able to listen and believe in shared decision making Have high standards of morals, ehtics, integrity, honesty, and personal conduct. Keep the end goal in mind at all times. Be active in your community, show ownership. Is visible, accessible, and approachable--in school, at school activities, and in the community. Be able to multi-task and juggle many task at one time.

Key Elements as defined by an article in Mcrel titled Sustaining School Improvement, Data-Driven Decision Making, which make an effective DDDM leader are as follows: 1. Purposeful Data collection and analysis 2. Designated resources and other supports, such as time and an appropriate data management system 3. Strategies for communicating about the process of data collection and use as well as the findings (Mcrell)

//**Resources**// Good checklist for admistrators on page 11 of this resource: [] data"

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Great TV show that relates leadership to life... //Difference Makers: Life lessons Paterno and Krzyewski// aired on ESPN 6/30/2011. Beginning link []

A good data driven leader and use of data.... [|www.empoweredhighschools.com]

Profiles from the Field - Data Quality Campaign [|Profiles from the Field | Data Quality Campaign.pdf] Data Driven Decision Making [] @http://www.sedl.org/change/leadership/character.html []

The article posted below is not necessarily related to school leadership, but leadership in general. A collective leadership approach shifts leadership responsibility based on individual expertise, and implies leadership roles between teams. The article also highlights a positive affective component (culture-climate) to an organization when leadership is collective. I think this gets at the heart of professional learning communities meant to achieve student learning outcomes through networking. Along with discussion of the application of a collective leadership model the authors also discuss limitations. The article is a little lengthy, and not an exciting read, however it is broken up into segments / categories so you can read the headings that interest you. []