Strong Districts & Their Leadership: from Theory to Practice

Strong Districts & Their Leadership: From Theory to Practice

200 Word Abstract

As school districts strive to improve student achievement, effective use of data plays a critical role in leveraging system efforts and influence, allowing for “Deepening School Change for Scaling: Principles, Pathways & Partnerships”. This interactive workshop is the first opportunity to publicly speak to this school district’s effortsand will focus on the implementation of the Strong Districts & Their Leadership research within the Waterloo Region District School Board, Ontario, Canada. Through effective transformational leadership approaches, this district has been able to use research practices and effective district wide data to cultivate a culture that promotes the characteristics of a Strong District. The learning story, supported by relevant data presented in this session, will outline the steps a district can take to incorporate Strong Districts research into their daily work. Workshop participants will be provided the opportunity to explore this district’s implementation of Strong Districts research, engage in conversations regarding the data presented, and reflect on the applicability of this research on other educational organizations. The workshop will examine the educational importance for school districts looking to incorporate Strong Districts research into their strategic efforts to improve student outcomes.

Strong Districts & Their Leadership: From Theory to Practice

Collaborative cultures, learning communities and capacity building are concepts that have received extensive focus (DuFour & Fullan, 2013; DuFour & Marzano, 2009; Fullan, 2010, 2014, Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris, & Hopkins, 2006). Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) spoke to the professional capital of principals which links these concepts. The ability to develop collaborative cultures, participate in a learning community, build the capacity of a school staff or leverage professional capital are all reliant the efforts of school districts to leverage the Strong Districts research (Shantz, 2015).

This interactive workshop will focus on the implementation of the Strong Districts & Their Leadership research within the Waterloo Region District School Board, Ontario, Canada. Student achievement and well-being is a focus of improvement efforts across the Province of Ontario. Strong Districts research suggests that when these characteristics and conditions are employed across a district the impact on student learning is likely to be substantial. “Indeed, relatively small improvements in the status of strong district characteristics are associated with substantial increases in student achievement. Strong districts do add significant value to the learning of students beyond the contribution of schools and classrooms” (Leithwood, 2013, p. 6).

This school district has employed a style of school and educational system leadership that has increased individual and collaborative capacities at different levels and in education system contexts to bring about and sustain innovative changes in school practices.Through effective transformational leadership approaches, this district has been able to use research practices and effective district wide data to cultivate a culture that promotes the characteristics of a Strong District. The learning story supported by relevant data presented in this session, will outline the steps a district can take to incorporate Strong Districts research into their daily work.

The findings from this study reaffirmed that Strong Districts’ research can be used to create change within an educational organization and promote student achievement and well-being. Workshop participants will be provided the opportunity to explore this district’s implementation of Strong Districts research, engage in conversations regarding the data presented, and reflect on the applicability of this research on other educational organizations. The workshop will examine the educational importance for school districts looking to incorporate Strong Districts research into their strategic efforts to improve student outcomes.

References

DuFour, R., & Fullan, M. (2013). Built to last: Systemic PLCs at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

DuFour, R., & Marzano, R. J. (2009). High-leverage strategies for principal leadership. Educational Leadership, 66(5), 62-68.

Fullan, M. (2010). All systems go. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Fullan, M. (2014). The principalship: Three keys to maximizing impact. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2006). Successful school leadership: What it is and how it influences pupil learning. Nottingham, UK: National College for School Leadership and Department for Education and Skills.

Leithwood, K. (2013). Strong districts & their leadership. Toronto, ON: The Council of Ontario Directors of Education and The Institute for Education Leadership.

Shantz, G. (2015). Improving the emotional intelligence competencies of principals and vice-principals in an educational organization: An exploratory study (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

Biography

John Bryant is Director of Education for the Waterloo Region District School Board. The Waterloo Region District School Board is one of the larger school boards in Ontario, Canada, serving approximately 63,000 students in 120 schools in the Region of Waterloo.

Dr. Graham Shantz is a Superintendent of Student Achievement and Well-Being in the Waterloo Region District School Board. He has held numerous roles in this organization including: Teacher, Vice-Principal, Principal, Executive Officer and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resource Services.