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School leadership: theory and practice

Association of Independent Schools of Queensland

Curriculum Leadership Vol1 No23, 8 August 2003

An immense volume of leadership theory has been produced over the past twenty years but there is still no
consensus around effective school leadership. Much of the literature fails to accurately reflect leadership
practices in schools and has over-relied on the accounts of principals to define effective leadership in action
(Harris, 2002; Razik and Swanson, 2001; Owens, 2001; Morrison, 2002).

The dominant model over the past decade or so has been the notion of 'transformational leadership'. This
model has its origins in non- educational settings (Burns 1978) but the work of Leithwood et al (1999),
Sergiovanni (1990; 2000) and others has translated transformational leadership theory to education.

Leithwood et al (1999) have identified six dimensions of transformational leadership: building school vision and
goals; intellectual stimulation; individualised support; symbolising professional practices and values;
demonstrating high performance expectations; and developing structures to foster participation in school
decisions. In addition, Leithwood and Jantzi (2000) include four dimensions of transactional leadership in their
model:

 establishing effective staffing practices


 providing instructional support
 monitoring school activities and
 providing community focus.

Central to most transformational leadership roles is the notion of charisma; the notion that has seen principals
carefully articulating a vision for their schools that inspires followers to higher levels of commitment and
performance (Bryman, 1992). However, transformational leadership theory has come under criticism on the
grounds that it is only a partial theory of leadership in that it remains very one-person centred and does not fully
take into account the context in which leadership is exercised, and other personal dimensions that may be
important. Gurr (1997) for example, argues for the addition to the model of the following dimensions:

 educational leaders as leaders of learners


 moral leadership
 accountability and
 responsiveness to change

while Day and colleagues (2000) talk about post-transformational leadership which is values-led and includes:

 values and visions - personal alignment with organisational alignment


 integrity - consistency of integrity of actions
 context - understanding internal/external environments, adaptive, balance between involving others
and taking individual action
 continuing professional development - power with and through others
 reflection - developing the self (Gurr, 2001).

A recent theory which is receiving much attention and growing empirical support (Gronn, 2000; Spillaine et al.
2001) is the notion of 'distributive leadership'. In their recent review of successful school improvement efforts,
Glickman et al. (2001:49) cite varied sources of leadership, including distributed leadership at the top of the list
of what makes successful schools. Similarly, Silns and Mulford (2002) found that where leadership sources are
distributed throughout the school community, student outcomes are more likely to improve. This is particularly
so if teachers are empowered in areas of importance to them.

Distributive leadership contrasts to traditional notions of hierarchic leadership and systems in that it is a form of
collective leadership in which teachers develop expertise by working collaboratively. This distributive view of
leadership requires schools to subscribe to the view that leadership resides not solely in the individual at the
top, but in every person at entry level who, in one way or another, acts as a leader (Goleman, 2002).
Distributive leadership therefore allows all members of the school community the opportunity to provide
leadership and make decisions within the framework of the school culture and mission.

Distributive leadership does not, of course, suggest that the school principal is not ultimately responsible for the
overall performance of the organisation, however, the nature of this formal leadership role becomes 'primarily
to hold the pieces of the organisation together in a productive relationship, ...[and] to create a common culture
of expectations around the use of individual skills and abilities' (Harris, 2002). In this way schools can maximise
the human capacity within their organisations.

Distributive leadership is, however, more than just 'delegated headship' where unwanted tasks are handed
down to others, and is less concerned with individual capabilities and skills than with creating collective
responsibility for leadership action and activity (Harris & Chapman, 2002).

In schools where distributive leadership has been successful, roles have not simply been imposed by
management. Rather teachers have been involved in the process of deciding on what roles, if any, they wish to
take on and they have received the support of school management throughout. The school culture has also
been encouraging of change and leadership from teachers.

One of the barriers to successful distributive leadership is that it requires the principal and other school leaders
to relinquish power and control to others. This is not just a challenge to authority and ego but also challenges
the structure of school leadership which, generally, is premised on maintaining the bureaucratic and
hierarchical structure.

The success or otherwise of distributive leadership is also dependent on the quality of relationships with other
teachers and school management. Since teachers may not have a formal leadership 'title', their ability to
influence colleagues may be reduced and they may, in fact, be resented by those teachers who do not take on
leadership roles. In addition, management may feel threatened by particularly able teachers and, either
consciously or unconsciously, undermine their influence.

Valentine (1999) suggests that distributive leadership may be viewed more as abdication of responsibility than
diffusion of ownership. Leadership, he says, begins with a 'transformational' principal who establishes a belief
system and related practices that disperse leadership and ownership for success across a wide segment of the
school faculty. While it is important for principals to make statements about quality educational practice
(instructional leadership) and establish effective and efficient policies and routines (managerial leadership), this
alone is not enough. Similarly, creating structures and opportunities for distributing leadership responsibilities
will not meet the tenets of transformational leadership.

What must happen is for the principal to transform school culture so that all teachers see the importance of
accepting the challenge of ownership for student success. When teachers accept that what they do, both within
the classroom and working collaboratively outside of the classroom, is critical to student success, then the
conditions for distributive leadership are established (Valentine, 1999); and leadership becomes central to the
work of all teachers.

This article was first published in AISQ Briefings, July 2003.

Bibliography:

Burns, J.M. (1978), Leadership, New York: Harper and Row, Publishers
Bryman, A. (1992), Charisma and Leadership in Organisations, Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Day, C. Harris, A et al (2000), Leading Schools in Times of Change, London: Open University Press
Glickman, C. Gordon, S. and Ross-Gordon, J, (2001), Supervision and Instructional Leadership: A
Developmental Approach, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon
Goleman, D. (2002), The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results,
London: Little Brown
Gronn, P. (2000), Distributed Properties: A New Architecture for Leadership, Educational Management and
Administration, Vol. 28, No. 3
Gurr, D. (2001), Directions in Educational Leadership, Hot Topics, No.5, ed. Peter White,
www.qcel.edleaders.edu.au/pubs/52001.html
Hallinger, P. and Heck, R. (1996), Reassessing The Principal's Role in School Effectiveness: A Critical Review
of Empirical Research 1980-1995, Educational Administration Quarterly, 32 (1)
Harris, A. (2002), Distributed Leadership in Schools: Lead or Misleading
www.icponline.org/features_articles/f14_02.htm
Harris, A. and Chapman, C. (2002), Effective Leadership in Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances, Final
Report, NCSL
Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D. & Steinbech, R. (1999), Changing Leadership for Changing Times, Buckingham,
Philadelphia: Open University Press
Leithwood, K. & Jantzi, D. (2000), The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organisational Conditions
and Student Engagement with School, Journal of Educational Administration, 38
Morrison, K. (2002), School Leadership and Complexity Theory, London: Routledge Falmer.
Owens, R. (2001). Organisational Behaviour in Education: Instructional leadership and school reform,
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon
Razik, T. and Swanson, A. (2001), Fundamental Concepts of Educational Leadership, Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall Inc
Sergiovanni, T. (1990), Value Added Leadership: How to get Extraordinary Performance in Schools, San
Diego: Harcourt Brace and Jovanich
Sergiovanni, T. (2000), The Lifeworld of Leadership: Creating Culture, Community and Personal Meaning in
our Schools, San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Silns, H. and Mulford, B. (2002), Leadership and School Results, Second International Handbook of
4Educational Leadership and Administration (in press)
Spillane, J., Halverson, R. and Diamond, J. (2001) Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed
Perspective, Northwestern University, Institute for Policy Research Working Article
Valentine, J. (1999), Framework for Continuous School Improvement: A Synthesis of Essential Concepts,
www.icponline.org/feature_articles/ f9_02.htm

KLA
Instructional rounds appears in
new case study book
I'm pleased to share that a case study co-authored by my recently-retired WKU colleague Ric Keaster and me
appears in a just-published book edited by D.D. Warrick and Jens Mueller called Lessons in Changing Cultures:
Learning from Real World Cases (Rossi-Smith Publishing).
The book includes 28 real-world case studies exploring how leaders effectively worked to change organizational
cultures in a wide variety of contexts, and is currently available in .pdf and .epub formats. It will soon appear on the
iBook Store and also Kindle, and depending on sales may eventually be published in hard copy as well.
Our chapter is entitled "Transforming Education and Changing School Culture," and describes work carried out
in the Simpson County (KY) Schoolsduring 2009 and 201o to implement the instructional rounds learning
protocol. At the time I was an instructional supervisor there and worked closely with Simpson County
superintendent Jim Flynn to learn the rounds process and implement it throughout the district.
Instructional rounds is a collaborative method of inquiry developed by Richard Elmore and his colleagues at
Harvard and designed to help schools gather and reflect on data about a vexing, school-wide problem of
instructional practice. It is loosely based on the practice of medical rounds used in teaching hospitals.
The case study details how Jim and I travelled to Harvard with a contingent of leaders from the Green River
Regional Educational Cooperative and some of its member districts, learning the rounds protocol directly from
Elmore and his partners, and then worked to implement rounds as a district-wide form of professional
learning. Among the key lessons we learned in the process was the great value of engaging classroom teachers in
the vision and implementation of rounds from the very beginning.
We were pleased to pioneer a powerful tool of school improvement that was subsequently implemented in several
other GRREC districts. The coop continues to sponsor regular rounds visits to schools throughout the region where
superintendents, principals, district leaders, classroom teachers, university partners and others can learn together and
provide specific, actionable, data-based feedback to schools on their improvement efforts.
The chapter includes questions for discussion and reflection, and like many other case studies in the book, could
be used in various leadership courses, reading groups, or other professional development activities.
You can order a .pdf copy of the Lessons in Changing Cultures: Learning from Real-World Cases here. Read
more about instructional rounds here.
Posted at 01:56 PM in Books, Instructional Leadership, Instructional Rounds, Kentucky schools, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: book, case, change, chapter, County, cultures, Elmore, Flynn, GRREC, Harvard, instructional, Jim, Keaster, lessons,
Mueller, Ric, Richard, rounds, Schools, Simpson, study, Warrick
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10/30/2014
Presenting research on principal
coaching, faculty meetings, and
personalized learning at MSERA
2014
Next week I will be traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee to co-present some recent research and other scholarly
work at the 2014 annual conference of the Mid-South Educational Research Association.
"Enhancing Instructional Leadership Through Collaborative Coaching: A Multi-Case Study," represents the latest
installment in a line of research going back to my own doctoral dissertation at the University of Louisville. That
originally study, also discussed in this piece I co-authored with my dissertation advisor, Dr. John Keedy, used
concepts from Chris Argyris and Donald Schon's now classic 1974 work, Theory in Practice, to create a visual map
for the thinking processes used by effective school principals as they approach their role as instructional leaders.
One of my conclusions from that work is that even highly-skilled school principals need intentional, job-
embedded structures to help them reflect at the deepest levels about their work. Inspired by that notion, in 2012
I co-authored a research study with colleagues Janet Hurt, Beckie Stobaugh, and again John Keedy describing our
efforts to design a coaching protocol using the theories of practice framework. That article, which appeared in the
peer-reviewed journal Qualitative Research in Education, described how we implemented the coaching process with
four purposively-selected school principals. While the results varied across the four participants, the coaching
process proved a highly-useful tool for enhancing principal's self-reflection about their instructional leadership.
In the latest study, which I will present with my co-authors Tom Stewart (Educational Recovery Leader with the
Kentucky Department of Education) and Sara Jennings (teacher from the Bowling Green Independent School
District and one of my students in WKU's educational leadership doctoral program), is a reiteration of the 2012
coaching study, but with a twist. For this project, we included six school principals all from the same high-
performing rural district and incorporated coaching sessions involving the entire group sharing their theories of
practice, reflecting collaboratively, and providing each other feedback.
The results of this new study were also encouraging, further confirming the usefulness of this coaching protocol
for supporting principals' leadership development. The group coaching element proved affirming and rewarding for
the participants, though its real impact on outcomes was questionable. Our presentation will explore the results and
implications for future research.
I will also be sharing findings from Dr. Daryl Hagan's dissertation research on "Catholic School Faculty
Meetings: A Case Study Linking Catholic Identity, School Improvement, and Teacher Engagement." Daryl is
superintendent of schools in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville, Indiana, and conducted his research under my
supervision, graduating from the WKU EdD program in May 2014. I will share findings from his qualitative
exploration on how faculty meetings in a high-performing Catholic school help facilitate the promotion of school-
wide academic goals and the protection of the school's Catholic identity.
Finally, WKU colleagues and I are co-authors on a number of papers that have emerged from our involvement
as external evaluators of the $41 million Race to the Top grant being administered by the Green River (GRREC) and
Ohio Valley (OVEC) Educational Cooperatives. My greatest involvement was with a paper describing our efforts to
conceptualize and evaluate the grant's personalized learning component, a topic of increasingly intense interest for
me. Doctoral student and graduate assistant Trudy-Ann Crossbourne will co-present.
Posted at 12:42 PM in Books, Instructional Leadership, Kentucky schools, Research, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Argyris, association, case, Catholic, coaching, conference, education, evaluation, faculty, grant, GRREC,
instructional, Keedy, leadership, learning, meeting, Mid-South, OVEC, paper, personalized, practice, presentation,
principal, qualitative, Race, research, Schon, school, study, theory, Top
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10/30/2013

The Self-Aware School - New CLS


Training Session
Note: This post originally appeared on the website of Contemplative Learning Solutions, my school leadership
consulting and professional development venture with Dr. Tom Stewart, professor of education at Austin Peay State
University. Visit the CLS webpage, www.contemplativelearning.org and "Like" us on Facebook more about our
work at helping schools, districts, businesses, and non-profit ventures deep their work through reflective practice.
Please join us on Wednesday, November 6 as we present our training session The Self-Aware School: Using the
Enneagram System to Enhance Instructional Leadership to the attendees of the Mid-South Educational Research
Association’s (MSERA) Annual Meeting. (MSERA is a regional division of the American Educational Research
Association (AERA), which hosts what is arguably the pre-eminent annual educational research conference that
attracts national and international presenters and advances important research in our field.) We are eager to present
a synthesis of our past and most recent Enneagram work at MSERA, combining elements of our general
introductory training sessions with school leader-specific connections using our original school leader Ennea-type
profiles.
While researching, designing, and facilitating a new ongoing workshop

series, we were recently reminded of the strong


connection between the kind of self-awareness that an Enneagram study can provide and deep,
transformational reflective practice. We sincerely believe that school leaders can use this training to become even
more effective reflective practitioners, and highly-effective instructional leaders.
We hope you can join us on Pensacola Beach next week for further information. If not, though, contact Tom or
Gary to see how your school/district/organization might benefit from similar work.
(Photo: Tom and Gary presenting at the 2012 Canadian Institute for Enneagram Studies conference.)
Posted at 04:34 PM in Contemplative Leadership, Enneagram, Theories of Practice |Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: association, conference, contemplative, development, education, Enneagram, leadership, learning, Mid-South,
presentation, professional, research, school, session, Stewart, Tom, training
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06/24/2013
Less is More
Time management is an age-old challenge for leaders of all kinds of organizations, but the problem seems
particularly acute for school administrators. While educators have a strong sense of their core mission, constantly-
changing policies, mandates, and curricular goals leave many teachers and principals grasping for a unified sense of
purpose in their work. The structure of schools and the school day contribute to a rushed, fragmented, and
unsustainable pace of activity.
The result is not just stress and burnout, but also a loss of efficiency and effectiveness both for individual
educators and for schools as a whole. There is a surprising dearth of good resources on how to address this
issue. John C. Leonard's Finding the Time for Instructional Leadership is a notable exception, but most authors,
including Leonard, focus primarily on better ways to delegate responsibility or manage one's calendar.
There's nothing really wrong with such a technical approach, but it overlooks a more fundamental aspect to the
problem of our break-neck, harried, frenetic approach to work and life. Working and living this way separates us
from our deepest selves, cuts us off from our feelings, limits our relationships, and deprives us of opportunities for
more fulfilling lives of purpose and joy.

Marc Lesser's excellent little book, Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less,
addresses the issue of time management from this kind of contemplative perspective. Lesser, a former business
executive who now consults world-wide, draws heavily from his ten years as a full-time student of Zen in offering a
rich, thoughtful perspective on our unsustainable work habits and provides a wealth of practical, down-to-earth
strategies for slowing down so that we can actually be more productive at the things that really matter.
Lesser (who acknowledges the irony of his name) starts by noting that as societies and individuals we have
become addicted to our unrealistic agendas and ubiquitous digital distractions at least in part because we are
convinced that our self-worth is tied up in the accumulation of our accomplishments. In this era of Perpetual
Recession we may not rely as much anymore on our wealth as a sign of our worth, but we have perhaps doubled
down on the assumption that if our lives are to be useful and meaningful, we must be busy.
The fallacy of this kind of thinking is nearly self-evident. Our busyness does not result in a greater happiness or
even a sense of accomplishment, but rather frustration and a feeling that, whatever we may have done today, there is
twice as much to do tomorrow.
Less offers a way out of this cycle of frustration and fear by first emphasizing the power of sitting still to figure
out what we really are seeing, hearing, feeling, fearing, and hoping for in this present moment. The act of just
sitting with ourselves is in itself a radical break with the busyness addiction, and open us up to a vast universe of
self-awareness and new possibilities. The author offers instruction on a variety of simple mindfulness techniques
through which we can begin this journey of self-discovery.
The "Less Manifesto" is Marc Lesser's framework for what to do with this self-awareness when we begin to slow
down and listen to our own hearts. The author explores, through a series of straightforward exercises, how we can
get in touch with the inner fears that motivate our incessant busyness (a direct link to the Enneagram of personality),
and from a new place of openness begin to identify, test, and challenge our own (often unrecognized) assumptions (a
strategy that perfectly echoes Argyris and Schon on the concept of theories of practice).
Such self awareness work does not come easily, of course, and Lesser also offers great wisdom on how we can
come to recognize our patterns of resistance - the ways in which we flee from our own fears and aspirations, usually
through some intentional distraction or through the busyness of work itself.
By breaking through these layers of resistance and distraction, we can reflect on our work in light of three
fundamental questions: 1) What is my purpose for being here on this planet? 2) How am I doing in relation to this
purpose? 3) What steps do I need to take to align my purpose and my actions? In slowing down to ask these
questions, we build capacity to change our work habits so that we are investing our time in the things that really give
us life and joy. Lesser emphasizes that in the end we may appear just as active (and certainly more productive)
before we began the less-is-more journey, but our activities will be farmore closely aligned with our values and life
purpose.
Less is a book that is both philosophical and practical. The perspectives and strategies offered could enrich the
work of teachers and school leaders, especially since schools as workplaces seem to be so resistant to reflection and
contemplation. It isn't a silver bullet, however, even if a reader were to faithfully implement all of Lesser's
recommendations (not that any silver bullet really exists). One key source of our busyness is the relentless demand
that others place on us to complete tasks associated with their key priorities. The author doesn't address this
challenge specifically, but it seems the key to meeting this problem is in first being perfectly aware of
our own priorities and patterns, so that we might then more effectively work with the (often misplaced) priorities and
frustrating patterns of others.
Self aware (contemplative) living is a journey and a lifestyle rather than a technique, and the recommendations
of Less are a starting point for the reflective practitioner. Consider this book for your personal and professional
library.
You can get a sense of Marc Lesser's teaching and approach in this 50-minute video that summarizes key points
from his book:

Note: This post originally appeared on the Contemplative Learning Solutions website.
Posted at 11:08 AM in Books, Contemplative Leadership, Enneagram, Professional Development, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Accomplishing, administrator, books, busyness, contemplative, Enneagram, leadership, learning, Less, Lesser, Marc,
mindfulness, practice, principal, reflection, reflective, review, school, theories
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06/18/2013

Preparing for your principal


interview, Part III
In the first two parts of this series, I discussed key aspects of leadership that aspiring school principals should
consider when preparing for an interview, and the critical role of vision in integrating these aspects of leadership
into a coherent picture of yourself as a leader. I suggested that while vision is sometimes context specific,
meaningful visions of school improvement have broad universal dimensions.
When it comes to an entry plan, however (the key priorities you'll pursue in your first months on the job), context
matters a lot more. Interview committees often want to hear about your entry plan, and here you have the
opportunity to seamlessly unite your vision for school improvement with the specific needs of the school.
An excellent point of reference for entry plans is Marazano's classic book on the characteristics of effective
principals, School Leadership That Works. Marzano distinguishes First- and Second-Order change situations. In
First Order contexts, the school is already fairly high functioning and just needs some adjustments to continue on its
path of improvement. In Second Order contexts, the culture is weak and performance is poor. These situations call
for more sweeping changes.
I would argue that, given the near-obsolete structure of traditional schooling, most schools actually
need transformative overhauls to make them far more student-centered. But as a principal interviewee you may not
have the luxury of presenting your most sweeping ideas for school renewal. This may seem to contradict my
previous post on vision, but this is where vision meets the reality of where your school is right now. Vision only
works when you can contrast it with a very clear picture of present reality, and then build realistic, meaningful steps
toward closing the gap between what is and what might be.
Before your interview you'll want to study as much about the school as possible: its achievement history, its
culture, and its place in the district's own renewal processes. Then, once you are on the job, consider the following
questions as guidelines for development of an entry plan:
1. How is the school culture? How does this culture support or hinder student achievement?
2. What is the quality of instruction on a daily basis?
3. What do teachers perceive as their number one need in helping them improve their practice? What do they
perceive as the number one obstacle? (If they tell you student discipline or lack of parent involvement, take that and
work with it, but push them to identify something else they have more direct control over; they do have control over
discipline, of course, and so they need to be working on schoolwide Positive Behavior Instructional Supports or
similiar initiatives if they aren't already).
4. What do parents and students perceive as the greatest needs and obstacles for school improvement?
You get at all this through lots of conversations, both formal and informal, with teaachers, parents, and
students. It might be worth having a scheduled inteview with every staff member to explore the questions. Use
Danielson's framework for effective teaching (which is also embedded in Kentucky's new Professional Growth and
Evaluation System), or Marzano's (which I like a little better), to establish the quality of teaching via lots of formal
and informal classroom walkthroughs. Instructional rounds are also an excellent tool.
Once you've answered these guiding questions (and you'll have to cut through a lot of contradictory information
and useless static), you can establish your own understanding of where the school is, and then respond accordingly,
always with an eye toward your long-range vision.
The last point I want to make on this topic regards how to prepare yourself psychologically for the interview
process. In truth, this is essential to your work as a person and a professional, and it is an ongoing process that
begins long before you are ever called for an interview.
In the hectic, frenetic pace of our work days, few of us take time to stop, breath, and reconnected our minds with
our bodies, or our activities with our larger hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations. I am an advocate that every person
regularly employ reflective practices to re-energize themselves and stay connected to what they are feeling and
needing in each moment as well as uncover our underlying, unconscious assumptions and motivations that may be
contributing to our success or failure. A wide variety of mindfulness techniques are useful in this regard. In coming
weeks I'll be reviewing two books I've found very helpful on this topic, Michael Carroll's The Mindful Leader and
Marc Lesser's Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less. These are both excellent resources.
Mindfulness practices can help you become more calm, centered, and focused which is of course extremely
useful in a potentially nerve-wracking situation like a job interview. But ultimately these techniques are most
helpful for developing a deeper self awareness. And self-awareness is the best gift you can give yourself personally
and professionally. When you can compassionately recognize and embrace your strengths and weaknesses as a
leader, then you are in much better position to develop a meaningful plan to improve your effectiveness.
One of the best tools I've found for enhancing self awareness is the Enneagram personality typing system. You
can read more about the Enneagram on this blog, including a series of profiles exploring how each of the nine
personality types described by the Enneagram tends to function in the role of school administrator.
As your self awarness grows, your capacity to lead also grows. Get to know yourself starting today, and you'll be
in a much better position when you present yourself as the potential leader of a school.
Previous posts in this series:
Part I: Consider your capacities as an instructional, managerial, and collaborative leader
Part II: Articulating a meaningful vision for school improvement
Posted at 10:43 PM in Books, Contemplative Leadership, Enneagram, Instructional Leadership, Instructional
Rounds, Theories of Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: administrator, collaborative, culture, Enneagram, entry, instruction, instructional, interview, leader, managerial,
mindfulness, plan, preparing, principal, reflection, school, vision
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10/30/2012

Just published: My latest research


on coaching protocols for
enhancing principals' instructional
leadership
I'm delighted to share that my on-going research on the use of coaching protocols to assist school principals in
enhancing their instructional leadership has just been published in the online journal, Qualitative Research in
Education. Congratulations and thanks to my co-authors, Janet Hurt, associate superintendent for the Logan County
Schools; Beckie Stobaugh, assistant professor in WKU's School of Teacher Education; and my advisor and
mentor John Keedy, University of Louisville. You can read full text of the article here.
This study built on research Janet and I initiated in our doctoral dissertations on theories of practice, which are
mental maps people use to solve problems. The concept was first articulated by Chris Argyris and Donald Schön,
who argued that by becoming more aware of the underlying (often subconscious) assumptions we bring to our
problem solving, we can gradually develop more effective action strategies in the workplace.
In my dissertation, I used the theories of practice model to "map" the instructional leadership strategies of
effective school principals. But what I discovered is that even highly effective school leaders had difficulty
reflecting on their assumptions and action strategies. I concluded that without some mechanism to help them do
that, most principals would continue to just react to problems in a trial-and-error sort of way that prevented them
from understanding how their own thinking about the problem might be hindering their efforts to find an effective
solution.
In response, my co-authors and I developed a coaching protocol that could help principals become more self-
reflective about their instructional leadership. Inspired by the growing body of literature on teacher coaching, we
used theories of practice to help principals develop a plan for assisting a teacher who was struggling to improve
his/her instruction. Using a qualitative research approach, we met with these principals several times throughout a
single school year, documenting their efforts to support the teacher's improvement and creating opportunities for the
principals to reflect on their own thinking and behavior and modify their own strategies as a result.
While each of the four principals had varying results in their efforts to help the teacher improve (two of the four
targeted teachers were non-renewed at the end of the year), all the principals reported positive perceptions of the
protocol, and found it greatly enhanced their self-awareness as leaders. The study documented a dramatic change in
one principal in particular, who used her efforts with her target teacher to launch a more concerted, school-wide
initiative for instructional improvement.
In a subsequent study, I've been duplicating the protocol described here but with all the principals in one single
district, adding the element of group coaching. This study will explore how this cohort model and collaborative
group coaching can enhance or hinder the process and how it influences the principals' overall instructional
leadership. I'll be sharing tentative results of this study with co-author Tom Stewart of Austin Peay State University
and representatives from the Monroe County Schools at the upcoming AdvancEd Innovation Summit in Lexington,
November 29-30.
We hope to continue this line of research, applying the theory of practice framework in a wider array of school
contexts and with other administrative roles like superintendents.
To read more about the conceptual framework for the study, go here. Contact me for more information about this
study and related research.
Posted at 02:11 PM in Instructional Leadership, Kentucky schools, Research, Theories of Practice | Permalink | Comments
(0)
Tags: Argyris, coaching, education, instructional, leadership, practice, principal, qualitative, research, school, Schön,
theory
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09/19/2012

EDAD 696 (for Principal Level II)


offered in Winter term 2013
For WKU education administration students, I'm pleased to share that I'll be teaching EDAD 696, Advanced
Organizational Theory, in the Winter 2013 term. The full three-hour course will be offered online between January
2 and January 18, 2013.
EDAD 696 is required for Level II Principalship certification. As a reminder, by state mandate current
principalship students must complete all Level I and Level II coursework by December 2013, as the
revised principal preparation program is rolling out next fall. The Winter term course would allow students to
quickly complete one of their required courses during a relatively quiet time of the school year (if any such thing
exists), allowing more time for other needed courses in the Spring, Summer, and Fall 2013 terms.
EDAD 696 explores how organizations work effectively, applying classical and contemporary theories to the
specific work of P-12 school leadership. Topics include organizational culture and climate, change leadership,
decision-making, and motivation. The culminating assignment requires each student to develop a theory of
practice for his or her instructional leadership applying all course concepts.
Students will read the textbook, Organizational Behavior in Education(Owens & Valesky, 2010) in its
entirety. I'll elaborate on course concepts via online Tegrity lectures. We'll cover three to four chapters of the text
each week through online discussion activities, and the final paper will be due on January 18.
While the course will require an intensive amount of learning in a short period of time, students get the benefit of
completing a three hour course in about two and a half weeks.
You may review the syllabus via TopNet, or email me for a copy or with questions. Priority registration for
Winter term begins October 1.
I look forward to learning with you in January!
Posted at 04:55 PM in Books, Theories of Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: 696, 2013, Advanced, EDAD, Level, Organizational, principal, program, semester, term, Theory, Winter, WKU
Reblog (0)

08/14/2012

Theory of practice coaching study


to be published
I'm pleased to report that a year-long research study I recently completed with several colleagues will be
published in an upcoming edition of Qualitative Research in Education, an international, online, peer-reviewed
journal.
Based on my on-going research using the concept of "theories of practice" to understand the instructional
leadership, my co-authors and I designed a coaching protocol to help school principals enhance their professional
effectiveness. My fellow researchers included Dr. Janet Hurt, associate superintendent of the Logan County
Schools; Dr. Beckie Stobaugh, assistant professor in WKU's School of Teacher Education, and Dr. John L. Keedy of
the University of Louisville (and my dissertation advisor and research mentor).
Theories of practice are intentionally-crafted "game plans" used to solve professional problems. What
distinguishes theories of practice from generic action plans, however, is that the individual articulates her underlying
values, beliefs, and assumptions that shape her approach to the problem. This gives the practitioner the chance to
make revisions to the game plan based on feedback, not just in terms of action strategies but also in the way
he thinksabout problem.
My dissertation research found that most people can't adequately identify their own tacit assumptions, or work to
quesiton them, without the assistance of a coach. Thus, we devised a coaching protocol to help principals think
through their approaches to a particularly vexing and common instructional leadership problem: how to help a
struggling teacher improve his or her practice. We found that the theory of practice framework was particularly
helpful in helping principals shift their thinking about their instructional leadership, or in shedding new light on
principals' thought process about how to support high-quality teaching.
Results of this study were shared at the 2011 Kentucky Association of School Administrator's Summer Institute,
which you can read about here. For more on theories of practice, including a full list of previous blog posts,
click here. I'll post a link to the full study as soon as revisions are complete the the article is published.
Posted at 04:13 PM in Instructional Leadership, Kentucky schools, Professional Development, Research, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)

06/17/2012

Monroe County Schools' Falcon


Academy named Best Practice Site
I learned late last week that Monroe County's Falcon Academy will be recognized as an alternative school Best
Practice Site by the Kentucky Department of Education. More information will be forthcoming on the
KDE website and the school will receive official recognition at an upcoming meeting of the state Board of
Education. I want to extend my congratulations to the staff of Falcon Academy and to the Monroe County Schools
for this impressive accomplishment.
In an effort to highlight and promote high-quality learning in alternative school environments, since 2009 KDE
conducts a rigorous annual nomination and on-site visit process to discover and celebrate the state's best examples of
schools that serve at-risk students. Awards are given in three categories, including (1) Curriculum, Instuction, and
Assessment, (2) Culture, Support, and Professional Devleopment, and (3) Leadership, Resources/Organization, and
Planning.
I'm familiar with this award in part because Simpson County's Learning Opportunity Center alternative high
school, where I formerly served as principal, was recognized as Exemplary in Category 2 in 2010.
Falcon Academy will be recognized as Exemplary in Category 1 (Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment). I
can attest to the Academy's accomplishments and worthiness for this designation because I spent time there during
the last school year working closely with Principal Max Petett on a research project that provided professional
coaching designed to enhance instructional leadership.
In an era when so many districts are relying more heavily on computer programs to provide credit recovery and
fill hard-to-staff subject areas, Mr. Petett and the staff of Falcon Academy have pursued a deliberately different
strategy. Concerned that students in online courses were not receiving a sufficiently rigorous exposure to
curriculum that is assessed on End of Course assessments, Mr. Petett initiated a new effort to provide regular,
teacher-facilitated instruction in almost all core area classes. The goal was to provide routine instruction and
formative assessment that would ensure students were exposed to the same curricular standards as students in
traditional classes, and to offer enrichment and intervention for students based on their progress.
The Falcon Academy still utilizes online courses, but relies on it as a supplement to instructor-led learning.
Full outcome data won't arrive until the fall, of course, and given the transient populations of most alternative
schools it will be difficult to fully assess the impact of this strategy in the short-term, but Mr. Petett reports
gratifying results on portions of the End of Course assessments, and is confident his staff is now providing a richer,
more rigorous learning opportunity for Academy students.
Additionally, the Academy boasts an impressive aviation program offered in conjuction with the Monroe County
Airport in which students get real-world experience working with aviation technicians and flight instructors to learn
about airplane mechanics, aerospace engineering, and piloting.
All of these programs reflect an alternative school that has high expectations for student learning and has faith
that all students can learn and achieve at high levels.
I commend Mr. Petett, the staff of the Falcon Academy, and the leadership of the Monroe County Schools, for
their dedication and success.
Update: Official KDE announcement here.
Posted at 01:28 PM in Formative Assessment, Instructional Leadership, Kentucky schools, Research, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Alternative education, Best Practice Site, Falcon Academy, formative assessment, instructional leadership, Kentucky
Department of Education, Learning Opportunities Center, Monroe County, Simpson County, technology
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04/17/2012

AERA reflections, Part III: Coaching


and theories of practice
A consistent theme of my AERA 2012 experience was the challenge of building educator dispositions that can
enhance teacher and leadership effectiveness. These dispositions, like the ability to communicate, build positive
relationships and collaborative processes, and reflect deeply on one's experience, have not traditionally been the
focus of educator preparation programs and seem, at least on the surface, exceedingly difficult to teach.
In my first set of reflections, I suggested that such dispositions can only be fostered with structures of practice
that encourage a deep level of self-awareness and self-reflection, and offered the Enneagram personality typing
system, which Tom Stewart and I have often utilized in leadership development workshops, as an example. Then on
Saturday I heard Geoff Soloway share his research and experiences on using mindfulness practices for a similar
purpose with pre-service teachers.
Yesterday I wrapped up my AERA experience with another set of great conversations centered on methods of
fostering leadership dispositions, this time around two topics of great importance to my own scholarship: theories of
practice and models of coaching. I shared results of my own work using theories of practice to investigate principal
leadership in a roundtable session, and I was delighted to present alongside Deidre Le Fevre and Vivian Robinsonof
the University of Auckland. Dr. Robinson has made some foundational contributions to literature on instructional
leadership, and to my happy surprise she is now using Argyris and Schon's theory of practice framework to study
school principal communication.
With Dr. Le Fevre, Dr. Robinson has developed a rubric and methodology for exploring the extent to which
principals engage in reflective communication, especially in having "difficult" conversations that require both active
listening and authentic, direct responses. Unsurprisingly, they have found principals are relatively weak in these
areas, but their rubric provides a powerful tool for illuminating principal strengths and weaknesses, and Robinson
and Le Fevre are looking at various coaching models for utilizing this method for improving principal effectiveness.
This is, of course, also the next level of work for my own research, which revealed that even successful school
principals struggle to be self-reflective about their practice. In scholarship that has emerged from my dissertation,
colleagues and I are now utilizing coaching protocols for actively assisting principals in articulating, and
experimenting, with their own instructional leadership theories of practice.
My understanding of coaching processes was greatly enhanced in a symposium I attended later in the day, during
which an array of researchers shared their own experiences using coaching for leadership development. In
particular, I am interested in exploring how Gary Bloom's blended coaching models support the approach we've
tentatively mapped for our own work. I was also happy to hear Megan Tschannen-Moran present her new work on
"evocative coaching," which expands upon her ground-breaking research in trust and teacher self-efficacy.
This was my first AERA conference, and I was pleased with the sheer quantity of new information, ideas, and
people I encountered. In addition to new perspectives and resources for my own work, I came back with a host of
ideas for potential dissertation ideas for doctoral studies. I look forward to seeing where all these possible directions
might take us.
Posted at 09:03 PM in Books, Contemplative Leadership, Enneagram, Instructional Leadership, Professional
Development, Research, Theories of Practice | Permalink |Comments (0)
Tags: AERA, blended coaching, coaching, coaching, Deidre Le Fevre, Enneagram, evocative coaching, Gary Bloom, Geoff
Soloway, Megan Tschannen-Moran, mindfulness, theories of practice, Tom Stewart, Vivian Robinson
Reblog (0)

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AERA preview
Tomorrow I'll be traveling to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the annual conference of the American
Educational Research Association (AERA). Twenty-thousand educational researchers from around the
world will share their latest work on a wide variety of topics. In addition to presenting my own research,
I'm looking forward to attending sessions on instructional leadership, formative assessment, holistic
education, charter schools, and more.
My own paper, which I will co-deliver with my mentor Dr. John Keedy of the University of Louisville,
will highlight the results of my 2008 dissertation study exploring the instructional leadership of
successful school principals. Using a theory of practice framework first developed by Chris
Argyris and Donald Schon in the 1970's, my study illuminated the core values, beliefs, and assumptions of
successful principals, examined how those underlying beliefs influenced their action strategies with a host
of positive effects on teachers (the main mechanism by which principals influence student achievement),
and examined how and whether the principals actively reflected on and refined their basic assumptions
and instructional leadership action strategies.
This research has led to a series of on-going studies using the theory of practice framework to craft
a coaching protocol designed to help principals improve their instructional leadership. I shared initial
results of this research at last year's Kentucky Association of School Administrators summer institute, and
with the support of a WKU new faculty research support grant I'm continuing to advance this work with
area school districts.
Watch for follow-up blog posts and tweets about my AERA experiences in coming days.
Posted at 11:11 AM in Education Policy, Formative Assessment, Instructional Leadership, Kentucky
schools, Research, School Choice, Theories of Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: AERA, coaching, instructional leadership, research, theories of practice
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09/29/2011
Coaching: Reaching for your "personal best"
in teaching and leadership
Many students know I put a big emphasis on teaching and leadership as professional practice, a
concept I borrow from Richard Elmore, who stresses that education is a skill and craft closely akin to the
work of medical professionals who apply a large body of (ever-changing) technical knowledge to make
thousands of individualized judgments about treating individual patient needs. Thus, professionals like
teachers and doctors must constantly be honing their craft.
You may also know that one of my key research interests focuses on using coaching models for helping
principals improve their practice of instructional leadership. I'm currently conducting the second part of
a multi-phase research agenda using theories of practice as the foundation for a principal coaching
protocol.

Happily, a new article in the New Yorker links all these concepts together in a
thoughtful and compelling way. In"Personal Best," writer and surgeon Atul Gawande describes how
professional athletes and singers have long used coaches to improve their performance, even when they
are at the top of their profession. Gawanda asks, why shouldn't other professionals, like doctors, use
coaches as well?
In making his case, Gawande actually suggests that doctors could learn a bit from educators in this
regard, and points to the work of Jim Knight, director of the Kansas Coaching Project at the University of
Kansas. Knight, author of Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction,
trains teachers in a simple but powerful method of coaching designed to help teachers improve their
practice.
For the New Yorker article, Gawande observed Knight and instructional coaches working to help a

teacher improve her practice, and describes their collaborative problem-solving


approach in vivid detail. Inspired by the example of these educators, Gawande decided to trying coaching
for his own surgical practice, and found his complication rates improved long after he thought he'd
plateaued professional. The author concludes that coaching should be considered by every professional,
especially those who work in fields where technical knowledge must be applied to the unpredictable world
of human problems:
The kind of coaching that fosters effective innovation and judgment, not merely the replication of
technique, may not be so easy to cultivate. Yet modern society increasingly depends on ordinary people
taking responsibility for doing extraordinary things: operating inside people's bodies, teaching eighth
graders algebraic concepts that Euclid would have struggled with, building a highway through a
mountain, constructing a wireless computer network across a state, running a factory, reducing a city's
crime rate. In the absence of guidance, how many people can do such complex tasks at the level we
require? With a diploma, a few will achieve sustained mastery; with a good coach, many could. We
treat guidance for professionals as a luxury - you can guess what gets cuts first when school district
budgets get slashed. But coaching may prove essential to the success of modern society.
Read Gawande's full article here. Listen to him discuss the same concepts on NPR's Talk of the
Nation program here.
Posted at 04:37 PM in Books, Instructional Leadership, Professional Development, Research, Theories of
Practice | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Atul Gawande, coaching, instructional coaching, Jim Knight, New Yorker, practice, Richard Elmore, theories of
practice
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07/21/2011

KASA Handouts Now Available


The KASA Summer Institute website has been updated and the PowerPoint and handouts are now
available. Click here and scroll down to my presentation (3:15 on Thursday, July 14), "Helping Principals
Help Teachers: Improving Instructional Leadership Through Coaching and Self Reflection."
Posted at 01:55 PM in Instructional Leadership, Theories of Practice | Permalink |Comments (0)
Reblog (0)

07/19/2011

Reflections on KASA, Part 2


In additional to our KASA presentation on our recent theories of practice research study, I also enjoyed
spending time with administrators from the Franklin County and Monroe County Schools during their
leadership retreats.
Franklin County invited Janet Hurt and me to present on instructional rounds. Franklin County has
taken some important first steps in Ifocused introducing and embedding
instructional rounds in their schools, and they've wisely included teacher leaders in
the process. They've been at it long enough to encounter some common problems, and Janet and I
focused our comments on various strategies for developing effective problems of practice.
We emphasized that there is no true right or wrong way to approach rounds. With the exception of
staying faithful to the debrief protocol (which is fundamental to the validity of the rounds process),
schools should feel comfortable experimenting with a variety strategies for developing and revising
problems of practice. We shared some examples from schools, but mostly tried to facilitate thoughtful
discussion among the Franklin County team about who to involve in problem of practice development,
how to refine problems over time, and the critical link between problems of practice and the "next steps"
phase of the rounds process. It was encouraging to hear school leaders engaging in deep reflection and
dialogue about these processes, which is, ultimately, the goal of instructional rounds.
Later in the day I was privileged to sit in on the Monroe County leadership's retreat, where they were
wrapping up their book study of Mike Schmoker's Focus. I've written elsewhere about this book and
Schmoker's compelling challenge to school leaders to focus once again on the basic of sound curriculum
design, sound lesson design, and literacy across the subjects. I loved hearing Monroe County's leaders
wrestle with these complex issues as they questioned what they collectively wante want to focus on for the
year head.
What's obvious from every conversation I have with Kentucky school leaders is that the Common Core
rollout is center stage and greatly complicates any efforts or desires to narrow focus. I think Schmoker
would argue that schools should cut the Common Core standards in half and teach only those standards
that are absolutely essential for success at the next level of learning (and I would argue that this should be
done only after the standards have been thoroughly deconstructed). Few districts will be able to emrace
the risks inherent in such an approach, especially during this first year of Common Core implementation.
But I so admire the thoughtful dialogue of leaders like those in Monroe County as they struggle with these
issues, and honored to be part of their discussion.
Posted at 10:19 AM in Instructional Rounds, Theories of Practice | Permalink |Comments (0)
Reblog (0)

07/15/2011

Reflections on KASA, Part I


Thanks to everyone who turned out for our presentation at the Kentucky Association of School
Administrators Summer Institute, "Helping Principals Help Teachers: Improving Instructional
Leadership Through Coaching and Self Reflection." I was told that ours was the second-highest attended
educational session of the conference, second only to Associate Commissioner Ken Draut's talk on the new
assessment system.
Handouts from the presentation should be available on the KASA website shortly (scroll
down to my session to get pdf versions; I'll update on the blog when they are ready). You may also email
me for more information: gary.houchens@wku.edu.
Many thanks to my co-researcher Dr. Janet Hurt, associate superintendent for the Logan County
Schools, who also spoke during the presentation, and to Christie Biggerstaff, principal of Gamaliel
Elementary School (Monroe County), who shared her experiences as a participant in last year's research
study. Christie spoke passionately about how the theory of practice coaching model, described in
a previous post, affected her as a first-year principal. Several session participants indicated an interest in
learning more and possibly bringing this approach to their own districts in the future.
As I shared in the presentation, we're expanding the study next year to include a co-hort component
wherein principals will give each other mutual support and feedback and anonymous teacher feedback
can be solicited in helping principals develop their theories of practice. I look forward to this next phase
of the work and will post more here as it becomes available.
HIGHER EDUCATION’S
ACCREDITATION PROBLEM
PACIFIC STANDARD STAFF

JUN 17, 2016





The Department of Education just recommended that the country’s largest nationally recognized
accreditation agency lose its status.

By Dwyer Gunn
California Attorney General Kamala Harris points to a map as she speaks during a news
conference in 2013, announcing the filing of a lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges and its
subsidiaries. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, the United States Department of Education (DOE) officially recommended that
the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the largest nationally recognized
accreditation agency in the country, lose its status as a DOE-recognized institution.

The DOE’s recommendation won’t be automatically implemented — an independent advisory


board, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, will issue its own
recommendation on ACICS’s status next week, and a senior DOE official will then make the
final decision.

But if Wednesday’s recommendation is implemented, the consequences will be significant.


Accrediting agencies like ACICS are responsible for evaluating schools to ensure that they’re
providing students with a high-quality education. Students at schools that receive accreditation
from a DOE-recognized agency can use federal student aid to pay for their loans; if ACICS loses
its status, schools will have to look elsewhere for accreditation, or lose their eligibility for federal
financial aid dollars.

THE INSTITUTION’S DETRACTORS ARGUE THAT ACICS EMPLOYS LAX


ACCREDITATION STANDARDS AND FAILS TO PROPERLY INVESTIGATE
COMPLAINTS, LEAVING STUDENTS VULNERABLE TO FOR-PROFIT
INSTITUTIONS THAT HAPPILY GOBBLE UP FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN AID.
“This is a very bold and dramatic step by the department,” Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president
of the American Council on Education, told the Washington Post. “The size of ACICS means the
department is going way beyond anything they’ve done previously. This is not business as
usual.”

ACICS, which works primarily with for-profit institutions, has been under fire for years, most
notably for its accreditation of Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit school that collapsed in 2015
amid allegations of fraud. The institution’s detractors, which includeElizabeth Warren, consumer
advocates, and lawmakers, argue that ACICS employs lax accreditation standards and fails to
properly investigate complaints, leaving students vulnerable to for-profit institutions that happily
gobble up federal student loan aid without providing students with much of anything, other than
debt.

Earlier this year, the attorneys general of 13 states submitted a letter to the DOE recommending
that ACICS’s status be revoked. In the letter, they didn’t mince words in their evaluation of the
agency:

ACICS’S ACCREDITATION FAILURES ARE BOTH SYSTEMIC AND EXTREME. ITS


DECISIONS TO ACCREDIT LOW-QUALITY FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS HAVE RUINED
THE LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VULNERABLE STUDENTS
WHOM IT WAS CHARGED TO PROTECT. IT HAS ENABLED A GREAT FRAUD
UPON OUR STUDENTS AND TAXPAYERS. ACICS HAS PROVEN THAT IT IS NOT
WILLING OR CAPABLE OF PLAYING THE ESSENTIAL GATEKEEPING ROLE
REQUIRED OF ACCREDITORS. IT ACCORDINGLY SHOULD NO LONGER BE
ALLOWED TO DO SO.
While ACICS is not the only accrediting agency to run into trouble in recent years, it’s the worst
of the lot. A ProPublica investigation last year found that only 35 percent of students at ACICS-
accredited four-year colleges graduate, compared to the national rate of 59 percent.

The investigation also found that students at ACICS-accredited schools take on more debt than
typical students and are more likely to struggle with re-payment and default. Last week, the
Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, released a report on ACICS’s dismal record.
The report concluded that ACICS accredits an unusually high number of institutions under
investigation and produces the worse student outcomes of any other accrediting agency—trends
which have cost the federal government billions of dollars.

ACICS’S FAILURES HAVE BEEN MORE FLAGRANT THAN MOST, BUT THE
AGENCY’S WOES HAVE SHED LIGHT ON SYSTEMIC FLAWS IN THE COUNTRY’S
HIGHER EDUCATION ACCREDITATION SYSTEM.
“Allowing so many troubled actors to access the federal financial aid system has cost taxpayers
billions of dollars,” Ben Miller, the senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for
American Progress, wrote in the report. “According to a Center for American Progress analysis,
the 17 institutions, campuses, or corporate entities under investigation that ACICS approved
have taken in more than $5.7 billion in federal funds over the past three years. That represents 52
percent of all federal aid dollars received by ACICS-approved colleges during that time period.”

ACICS’s failures have been more flagrant than most, but the agency’s woes have shed light on
systemic flaws in the country’s higher education accreditation system. As the employment and
earnings prospects of high school graduates have declined in recent years, more and more
workers have sought out post-secondary education; the for-profit schools (as well as some not-
for-profit schools) that have emerged to fill the demand are often sub-par and leave
students saddled with crippling student debt.

Accrediting agencies like ACICS are, in their role as the gatekeepers of federal student aid,
supposed to protect students from these low-quality schools, but they’re failing spectacularly in
their mission. The fact that accreditation standards aren’t uniform (and the DOE has little control
over the standards) only encourages lax standards. Critics also allege that the accrediting
agencies are hopelessly entangled with and influenced by the schools themselves.

Robert Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation described the accreditation process
as “a giant cesspool of corruption.” He told ProPublica that “it would be like getting the CEOs of
the airlines together to review whether the airplanes are safe.”

Last year, the Obama administration announced several executive actions aimed at reforming the
accreditation process, but further reforms are clearly needed. The DOE’s recommendation to
revoke ACICS’s status suggests that change is coming.
O 20, s. 2013 - The Philippine Accreditation System
for Basic Education (PASBE) Supplemental Guidelines
to DepEd Order No. 83, S. 2012 (The Implementing
Guidelines of the Revised SBM Framework,
Assessment Process and Tool)
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April 8, 2013

DO 20, s. 2013

The Philippine Accreditation System for Basic Education (PASBE) Supplemental Guidelines to DepEd
Order No. 83, S. 2012 (The Implementing Guidelines of the Revised SBM Framework, Assessment
Process and Tool)

To: Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau Directors
Directors of Services, Centers and Heads of Units
Regional Directors
Schools Division/City Superintendents
Heads, Public Elementary and Secondary Schools
All Others Concerned

1. The Philippine Accreditation System for Basic Education (PASBE) is an accreditation process that looks into
the operations of the public and private elementary and secondary schools if they meet the quality standards as
established by stakeholders of basic education. Officially launched through DepEd Order No. 64, s. 2012, the
harmonized accreditation was relaunched in DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012 as an integral component of School-
Based Management (SBM) practice.

2. This DepEd Order which provides the supplemental guidelines to the DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012, further
details the continuum in the SBM and PASBE processes. In this DepEd Order, an accredited status in PASBE
is equivalent to Level III SBM practice. This reinforces the role of SBM and accreditation as an integrated
quality measure, where PASBE is the quality assurance mechanism of the SBM practice.

3. All regions, divisions, and schools shall organize the SBM-PASBE Coordinating Team as per Item No. 4 of
DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012, which shall be chaired by the regional director (RD), schools division/city
superintendent (SDS) and the school head (SH), respectively.

4. All regions are encouraged to implement the integrated process starting summer of School Year (SY) 2012-
2013. In the first year of implementation, the SBM-PASBE Coordinating Teams shall be given the task to
orient the schools on the revised process.

5. Continuous advocacy on the SBM guiding principles in the context of A Child-and Community-centered
Education Systems (ACCESs) is imperative during the period of validation of the SBM practice and before the
school and division embark on accreditation.

6. For clarifications and concerns, all concerned may contact Ms. Elsie Esmer, Head, Philippine Accreditation
System for Basic Education (PASBE) Secretariat at telephone no.: (02) 632-7586 and Ms. Maria Katrina L.
Gregorio, School-Based Management (SBM) Secretariat at telephone no.: (02) 633-7216 or through email
address: sbmpasbe@gmail.com.

7. Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is directed.

Encl.:
As stated
References:
DepEd Order: (Nos. 64 and 83, s. 2012)

To be indicated in the Perpetual Index under the following subjects:


ACCREDITATION
POLICY
Here are 7 reasons why strategic planning for schools is so critical:

1. A Strategic Plan articulates a shared vision,


mission and values
This enables all stakeholders to work towards a common vision. A leading
cause of employee discontent (for businesses, non-profits, and even
schools) is that employees don’t understand how the work they’re doing
helps their organization. With a well communicated and executed strategic
plan, everyone is informed of their school’s goals and how their actions are
contributing to the achievement of these goals.

2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools


and their staff
The plan encourages commitment by showing staff members that their
work is essential, part of a larger strategy to help their school succeed.

3. A strategic plan defines how success is


measured
In order to achieve success, it’s important to know what success means. A
school with a strategy can monitor its progress toward key outcomes and
evaluate where and how it may have gotten off track. Using a strategy
implementation software like Envisio can help.
4. A strategic plan aids a school’s board with
governance decisions and provides direction for
the future
With a plan in place, the board has a roadmap which it can track, evaluate
and modify to facilitate better governance decisions and provide direction
for the future of the school.

5. A strategic plan increases communication and


engagement
In large organizations like schools communication is critical so that
everyone understands his or her responsibilities and departments are
effective in coordinating their efforts. As an additional benefit, the plan
helps with fundraising, as well. Donors are more likely to support a school
that has a clear vision and a strategy to make it happen.

6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—


from teachers to administrators—connected
A well implemented and communicated plan holds all
staff accountable for their actions and encourages collaboration.

7. The best reason of all for strategic planning


comes back to every great school’s number one
priority: Students
Best of all, strategic planning provides a framework so that the most
important priority of the school – Students’ educational achievement is
taken care of.

Want you take your strategic planning to the next level?


Strategic Planning in Education
– 3 Keys to Success
JAMIE BILLINGHAM MAY 27, 2012 PRODUCT
about a 6 minute read

Nothing affects a school district more than it’s ability to create and execute a strategic
plan. A good strategic plan can improve student outcomes, keep great teachers and
enhance the reputation of district leadership. Failure in strategic planning can be
disastrous. Here’s what we know about strategic planning in education including a brief
history, what works now and where it’s heading in the future.

What is strategic planning?


Strategic planning is the process of setting goals, deciding on actions to achieve those
goals and mobilizing the resources needed to take those actions. A strategic plan
describes how goals will be achieved through the use of available resources.

School districts of all sizes use strategic planning to achieve the broad goals of
improving student outcomes and responding to changing demographics while staying
within the funding box they are given. The nature of these goals and restrictions suggest
that strategic planning in education is, and must be, different than the process used in
the business sector. In the business sector the goal is to get more customers or make
more money. Recognizing these differences, educators became early adopters of
blending strategic planning with community engagement activities.

Where did strategic planning begin?


Goal directed planning has been around since humans developed a pre-frontal lobe.
Strategic planning, as we know it today, evolved out of military
strategy. Strategos literally means “general of the army” in Greek.

The strategoi provided “strategic” advice to political rulers and war councils about
managing battles to win wars as opposed to providing tactical advice about managing
troops to win wars. That distinction has haunted the strategic planning process for close
to 2000 years. Even the language of military strategy remains entrenched in the work
place. “Front line” workers and being “in the trenches” are an accurate description of the
reality of those on a battlefield, not those in an office or classroom.

We know that it can “feel” like there are enemies to rail against. The collaborative
leaders we work with recognize and acknowledge the reality of the public education
system while using language that builds relationships and reframes enemies to potential
allies.

The adoption of strategic planning in the business world began somewhere between the
1950′s and 60′s. The exact date has yet to be agreed upon but most scholars and
business historians agree that the practice along with the philosophy emerged over a
few decades and that strategic planning continues to evolve today. Strategic planning in
the education sector initially flowed out of business practices as a result of people
moving from the business sector into positions in education leadership and bringing with
them a set of planning tools and paradigms.

What is strategic planning today?


Modern strategic planning has been influenced by systems theory and the ideas put
forth by Peter Drucker, Edward Deming, and Peter Senge to name a few. The shift from
the machine age to the knowledge age changed the thinking from top down, command
and control to worker empowerment, decentralization and bottom-up planning. In the
business world many organizations still use the early models and processes while some
have moved into more collaborative and inclusive processes. Many businesses still
have a “war room” and only top leadership is included in strategic planning. Others have
adopted a variety of techniques from the growing strategic planning buffet.

Does strategic planning work?


Not everyone believes that traditional strategic planning works. Tom Peters described
strategic planning as “death by a thousand initiatives” and Henry Mintzberg suggests
that the evidence clearly shows that, “lead boots” and “paperwork mills” were the usual
outcome of strategic planning.

Mintzberg also found and shared many examples of organizations that had been
successful in strategic planning. He notes that these organizations approach strategic
planning in a less structured and rigid way. Much like we have observed within school
districts.

Strategic planning in education


Since the 1970’s, when Ira Gordon’s first introduced his Community Impact and Parent
Involvement Model, the education sector has amassed a rich history of community
engagement. School districts in the US began adopting the practice of strategic
planning in the 1980’s. The term appeared in educational publications for the first time
around 1984, and by 1987 an estimated five hundred US school districts were using
some type of strategic planning. As school districts adopted strategic planning models
used in business, they changed the process to better suit their needs and philosophies.
The descriptions of strategic planning in education are so different from its use in the
private sector as to raise the issue of whether the educational model has diverged so far
that it deserves some new name ~ Conely

Some critics suggest that the education sector emphasizes the political dimensions of
the strategic planning process as a way of increasing the number of school community
stakeholders. We don’t think that’s something to be critical of. Rather, it should be
lauded. The education sector has shifted the process of strategic planning from a
boardroom activity to a community-involved process. As Anderson aptly points out:

In some ways, up until now, we have managed to get community engagement exactly
backwards. We decide then we engage. We decide and then we defend. We tell and
then we sell. We decide what the community wants for its children then we sell them the
solutions. True community engagement is just the opposite. We engage the community
in answering the question at hand and then, we, as part of the community, decide. That
shift in language and in actions makes all the difference. (2009)

More recently school districts have proactively shifted their strategic planning process to
genuinely include and involve parents and other constituents. At the school district level
strategic planning requires community engagement and support both functionally and
legislatively. Collaborative leaders in education know that without community support
and the insight that comes with community engagement their strategic plans are likely to
fail.

3 keys to a successful school district wide strategic plan


Although there is no magic bullet there are a few practices that consistently result in
better, more effective and supported plans.

1. Get everyone on the same page. Differing understandings of what strategy entails,
how it should be created and who should be involved, can stymie even the best plans.
The first step in creating a successful strategic plan is getting everyone involved to
agree on one model of strategic planning. A terms of reference document can get
everyone on the same page.

2. Engaging community early in the process. Gain insights and gauge community
preferences as early as possible. School districts that engage early in the planning
process have a much greater chance at building a successful and community supported
plan. Engage early and engage often is the mantra of successful collaborative
leaders.

3. Be a collaborative leader. Collaborative leaders in education have long recognized


the benefits of early and frequent engagement with their constituents. They know, as we
do, that much like early reading programs, every minute and every dime invested in
gaining community support, pays off exponentially.
What is the future of strategic planning in education?
Educators, realizing the value of diverse perspectives and community support are
inviting parents, employees, student and other education stakeholders to inform their
strategic planning. The education and community development sectors have embraced
the idea that strategic planning is best accomplished with the inclusion of community.
Technology has enabled this.

Without a connected and accessible “environment” like the Internet, genuine and
affordable community engagement in strategic planning would not be feasible. Our
connected environment, the ubiquity of email and user-friendly technology has changed,
and will continue to change, the strategic planning process.

The future of strategic planning is emergent


Strategy is not a starting point, it’s a process and a collaborative one at that. It is not
written in stone, nor is it ever truly complete. It evolves over time, becomes stronger as
it adapts to new challenges even as it remains true to its core principles. Good strategy
is never being, it is always becoming. ~ Greg Satell

Strategic planning is not on its way out. It is changing, evolving, becoming


more community of purpose driven, much like our education system.

Here at Thoughtexchange we use our technology to leverage community insights to


improve strategic planning processes for school district. Here are a few examples of
how school districts have used our insight platform to create community informed and
supported strategic plans.

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