Fall 2003 EDN 513
Annotated Bibliographies

Stefane Barthold

1.Barth, Roland. (2202). The Culture Builder. Educational Leadership, 59, 6-11.

The Cultural Builder reminds instructional leaders that the most challenging aspect of their job is to change a school’s culture. Roland Barth does not suggest taking this task upon one self, rather providing examples and forms of leadership where faculty are able to observe the past and vision the future.

The main point of this article is to show the importance of instructional leaders knowing the current culture of a school before trying to change it. Once the instructional leader is aware of the culture, they need to discuss the nondiscussables of the school. These may include leadership issues, how decisions are made, or underperforming teachers. By bringing out these nondiscussables and getting to the heart of the school’s issues is the only way to begin changing a school’s prevailing culture into a healthy new culture.

2. King, Deborah. (2002). The Changing Shape of Leadership. Educational

Leadership, 59, 61-63.

The Changing Shape of Leadership takes a look at how instructional leadership has changed over the past decade. An education leader’s role now includes a larger focus on teaching and learning, professional development, data-driven decision making, and accountability. The article then breaks these components down while giving examples of a specific school district working together to improve student learning.

I feel that this article is relevant to school leaders by providing a format and examples for leaders to work along side classroom teachers as well as other leaders in the district.

Beth Metcalf

Instructional Leadership

Keller, B. (1998, November). Principal Matters. Education Week [Online]. Available

at educationweek.com.

This article discusses the importance of a principal as an instructional leader. The article discusses candidly the changes that have occurred in expectations for the principal of a school. Within the article are tips for building a better instructional leader and principal. There is a great deal of research outlined in the article about many current studies that highlight the performance of principals and the impact that performance has on the academic success of students in their school. The summation of all the research and findings outline that schools that stood out positively in every way, all had principals who are sound instructional leaders.

Highlights

Educational research about principals

Shifts in expectations for principals

Outline of a good principal

Discussion of teacher support

Facilitator and sharing power

Many facets of leadership such as having a shared vision

Hiring Difficulties and The Change Process

Beem, K. (2003, June). Interim Principalships: filling an 11th hour need to buy time for a

permanent successor. School Administrator [Online]. Available at

findarticles.com.

Interim principals are becoming a more common phenomenon in the education field. As the stakes for student achievement get higher systems are not willing to hire just anyone that is available to a permanent principal position. One way to remedy that situation is to have interim principals hired for one year or less terms in order for an ideal candidate to be sought. The reasoning for not hiring just anyone is that the change process is difficult to ensue without a solid match with the school, district, and administrator.

Highlights

Interim principals are becoming more common.

40% of the country’s principals will retire in the next 10 years.

Less people are interested in becoming school administrators than ever before.

Veteran teachers are not easily swayed out the classroom for relatively small salary increases.

Companies have been developed with the distinct role of providing interim administrators.

Chrissy Hardin

Bernhardt, V. “No Schools.”Educational Leadership. Feb (2003):26-29.

Schools will get a better idea of how to improve students’ learning by looking at data. There are essentially four kinds of data that can answer questions about the effectiveness of data: Demographic, Students learning, Perceptions and School processes. Data snapshots and intersecting two or more data categories are effective ways to use these data in different ways to help get a more vivid picture of a school’s performance. Understanding how to best organize date for easy access and analysis is the key to knowing which data are important for continuous school improvement.

Kirk, P. “The Good and Bad of No Child Left Behind.”North Carolina. Sept (2003):79

The No Child Left Behind legislation is in jeopardy of creating unintended consequences as it promises sweeping changes in how schools are evaluated and staffed. School systems are no longer able to issue emergency teaching licenses and other measures that have been needed to meet teacher demands. A statewide survey shows that, overall, teachers are not satisfied with their working conditions. While North Carolina has made considerable progress in the last five years improving teacher quality, new federal requirements are making teacher recruitment difficult. In order to realistically leave no child behind, issues such as these need to be addressed.


Stacie Sayers-Carilli

Article Title: Report Probes Nuances of Principals’ Jobs

Date:11/24/03

Source:Education Weekly

Web-site:

This article reported a study conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle to determine a portrait of what the principal’s job entails and whether or not current training offers adequate preparation. The researchers concluded that training must be revised to better reflect what principals really do. In general, they found that the principal’s job consisted of seven major areas:

  • Instructional/Curriculum
  • School Culture
  • Managerial Operations
  • Human Resources
  • Strategic Planning
  • External Development
  • Micropolitical

The article reinforces that one of the tricks to successful school leadership is to match a principal’s strengths to a school’s need, but this does not happen often. Above all, principals must be diagnosticians and able to produce or oversee solutions to problems. While interviewing principals, it was noted that several felt unprepared for the responsibilities of a leader and that little or nothing in their training had to do with the reality of their jobs. Most frequently, they wished they had been better trained in the following areas:

  • Sensitivity
  • Conflict resolution
  • Diagnosis and problem solving
  • Organizational theory
  • Business administration
  • Financial administration

Article Title: Should I Stay or Should I Go Now

Date: 11/24/03

Source: Education Weekly

Web-site:

This article talked about teacher satisfaction and which areas teachers hated mot about their jobs. In trying to maintain “highly qualified teachers”, this article focused on what exactly is causing teachers to leave the profession. Over one third of all teachers leave after only three years largely due to emotionally disturbed students in the classroom, abusive parents, draining meetings and a workplace that is in near-constant crisis. They also mention that administration is a large complaint of teachers. The school’s bureaucracy sometimes frustrates teachers, causing them to leave the field. Another reason why teachers are dissatisfied is the lack of teacher autonomy and empowerment given to them. Teachers report constantly feeling inadequate, and demoralized. They do not feel that they are respected as experts and professionals in their field. Yet another reason we are losing so many teachers is school climate. Attitudes in schools including low expectations and indifference when it comes to student behavior and performance is a major sore spot for teachers.

Lorelei A. Jones

Ediger, M. (June, 2001). The school principal: State standards versus creativity.

Journal of Instructional Psychology, Retrieved November 25, 2003 from

.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the opposing views between school leaders who adhere strictly to state mandated curriculums and school leaders who encourage creative, novel objectives. Close attention was given to how these opposing views of conformity affect teaching and learning. Higher standards for students have been adopted by most states in the U.S. With higher standards, the expectation is that student test scores on achievement tests will rise. Principals who are totally focused on improving test scores may lead the instructional design towards methods of memorization and rote learning of “what is on the test” as the total curriculum. The principals adopting this approach believe learning should be aligned exclusively with the state mandated tests. They do not believe in teaching related concepts not appearing on the state mandated tests. They believe the tests are objective and measure student success and teacher performance. They feel the tests give them useful data to share with parents and community leaders. Validity and reliability of the tests are stressed. These principals do not believe in subjective measurement of student learning. The opposing view is the principal who believes teaching involves creativity. These principals are constructionists. They believe students construct knowledge and they do not believe test scores provide adequate data for measuring student learning. Novelty, creativity, and unique teaching methods are stressed as a way to motivate students. Constructionist principals believe in the holonmy of learning. The paper addresses how these opposing views affects the training needed by school administrators regarding differing philosophies of teaching and learning. Hard questions arise in regards to instructional leadership. If merit pay becomes a reality and teacher performance is tied to student success on state mandated tests, does this mean instructional methodology should be determined by the tests? Parents have much greater faith in test scores than in subjective measures of student learning. Much discussion was raised regarding portfolios. The article stresses the importance of the principal’s involvement in curriculum development.

Davis, J. and Wilson, S. M. (July-Aug, 2000). Principals’ efforts to empower teachers:

Effects on teacher motivation and job satisfaction and stress. The Clearing House, vol. 73, No. 6, pp. 349-353.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between principals’

empowering behaviors and teacher motivation, job satisfaction, and job stress. Previous research linking principal behaviors and teacher characteristics is limited. The theoretical framework for the study is based on the work of Vogt and Murrell’s model of empowerment and Thomas and Velthouse’s cognitive model as related to motivation. Four factors of teacher motivation were measured using a self-report survey: impact, competence, meaningfulness, and choice. Job satisfaction and job stress as perceived by teachers was also measured. Principals in participating schools rated themselves on empowering behaviors. Empowering behaviors measured were development of self, groups, and organization. In addition, teachers were asked to rate the principal’s empowering behaviors. 44 principals and 660 elementary school teachers were involved in the study. There was a substantial difference in the way principals rated themselves and the way teachers of the school rated the principals. For the purpose of the study, the researchers averaged these two scores, assuming the true rating was most likely between these two scores. Findings from this study indicate a positive relationship between principal empowering behaviors and teacher motivation. A positive relationship was also found between teacher motivation and job satisfaction and a negative relationship between teacher motivation and job stress was found. No relationship was found between principal empowering behaviors and job satisfaction or job stress. A further analysis of the relationship between principal behaviors and teacher motivation found principal behaviors to affect only impact and choice. Further study is suggested to examine the social context of the workplace and its relationship to the findings of this study.

Patricia Smith

Hindman, Jennifer L. “Hiring the Best Teachers.” Educational Leadership (May 2003): 48-52

While many factors contribute to student achievement, the single most important one is the teacher. Having an effective teacher in the classroom effects academic achievement. The article stated that students placed with highly effective teachers for just one year will remain ahead of his/her peers for the next few years. It also pointed out that students who have an ineffective teacher may need three years of remediation to catch up.

In order to choose the right candidate for a teaching position the person or panel conducting the interview needs some guidelines to follow. They need to know what to look for when reviewing the application packet and also what questions to ask the candidate to determine if this person has effective teacher qualities.

Six domains have been established into a grid to help the interviewer to get a clearer picture of the candidate as an instructional leader. The domains are as follows; prerequisites of effective teachers, the teacher as a person, classroom organization and management, instructional management, implementing instruction and monitoring student progress. Each of these domains is broken down into what to look for in the application packet, what to ask during the interview and what to listen for.

The interviewing process is not an easy task. There are many qualified teachers out there who are able to present the material but may not be effective in the classroom. When you follow the criteria within the domain framework the selection team is more likely to choose an effective teacher.

Personal interest

This article was particularly interesting to me because I had the opportunity to be a part of the interviewing process for an assistant teaching position for my classroom. My Principal allowed me to take an active role in the interview.

While some of the information does not apply I was able to pick and choose some pieces that were helpful. In the domain “teacher as a person” I was able to use that to have the candidate to provide me with insight about previous experiences in working with students.

I believe this framework will be beneficial in the future when I move into Administration. I plan to make this part of my professional file.

Hammond, Linda D. “Keeping Good Teachers, Why it Matters.” Educational Leadership ( May 2003): 6-13.

Teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate. Since the 1990’s the rate of teachers leaving has surpassed the number that are joining the field. Approximately one-third of new teachers leave within five years. Teachers in schools with high-poverty rates have a fifty percent greater chance of leaving.

So what is causing this mass exodus? There are four major factors; salaries, working conditions, preparation, and mentoring support in the early years. Each of these can put undo strain on both beginning and career teachers.

According to data analysis the working conditions are a key as to whether a teacher will remain in the profession. Within this group fall administrative support, resources and teacher input into the decision making process. In high-poverty schools teachers are faced with not having ample resources to provide for their students or class sizes are so large that needs are not being addresses. In turn students are not making adequate gains and this is very frustrating to a caring educator.

Many teachers are entering the field and are not prepared for the classroom. Research evidence showed that teachers who received more training prior to entering the classroom are more likely to stay. Many universities are changing their education program to a five-year program so aspiring teachers will have more classroom experience.

Not all states provide mentoring support for new teachers. Entering your classroom for the first time is a nerve-racking experience. Schools that provide mentors for their beginning teachers find that the teachers feel more cohesion with the school and that have a support system. They are also able to draw on their mentor’s wealth of knowledge which we be a foundation for their own growth.

Salaries, while not as influential as the other three is important. Teachers salaries fall short compared to other college graduate professionals. It was noted that beginning teachers placed more emphasis than experienced teachers on salaries.

So where do we go from here? We must implement programs that will improve the quality of teacher performance. The five-year university program is a good start. This will give beginning teachers more confidence. Provide support within the school to teachers whether it be administrative or through a mentor. And do our best to make working conditions conducive to student learning. Unfortunately salaries can’t be rectified within the school that’s a state issue.

Personal interest

This article really hits home with me. Being a special needs teacher the working conditions at our school are stressful. In the past two years we have had two positions cut in order to save budget money. We now only have two teachers and our special needs population exceeds fifty students. Also are classrooms now labeled as cross-categorical so we can increase class size and not have to justify assistant positions. The amount of paperwork that goes with this job is astronomical.

For these reasons teachers are not entering the special needs field. It’s to demanding be at school doing meetings and paperwork way after everyone else has left. And the lack of resources needs for the students is unreal. As much as I love working with these students it’s what has driven me toward Administration.