Tuesday, April 20, 2010

McREL's 21 Leadership Responsibilities

In 2003, the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, or McREL, released an important study focused on the skills of educational leadership. The McREL 21 Leadership Responsibilities were introduced to educators through the paper, “Balanced Leadership: What 30 years of research tells us about the effect of leadership on student achievement”. This research, completed by Tim Waters, Robert Marzano, and Brian McNulty, gave educational leaders a framework of the twenty-one leadership skills that are important for a school leader. Furthermore, they placed statistical analysis to these characteristics, in order to inform educational leaders of the traits and their positive correlations that can actually have an impact on student achievement.
What makes McREL’s 21 Leadership Responsibilities so important is that it signifies and presents researched data and practices that confirm that school leadership can actually have a noticeable impact on student achievement. While most educational research focuses on the effect that teachers, instruction, curriculum, and assessment have on student learning, McREL’s 21 Leadership Responsibilities actually places the actions of school administrators into the equation of promoting effective reform and improvement for students. While, many educators have sensed the positive (or negative) impact that school leaders can have on a student population, this landmark study now quantifies the actions of school administrators.
To further explain the educational impact that school leadership can have on student achievement, the McREL report states that there is significant sway. More specifically, this statistical impact is measured by examining two hypothetical school leaders, with similar student and teacher populations. If both school leaders display average school leadership responsibilities, or equated at the 50 percentile mean in principal ability, and then one principal improves by one standard deviation, then student achievement (beginning at the 50th percentile) will actually improve by ten percentile points. Put simply, a school leader who demonstrates significantly above average improvement in the 21 Leadership Responsibilities can have significant (10%) upswings to student achievement.
The reasons for this shift are versatile, and ultimately bring about change through teacher and student interactions, but it is also interesting to note the statistical value placed on different leadership qualities out of the twenty-one. In other words, some skills and traits have greater impact than others, and some characteristics are important for first- versus second-order change. What follows are the twenty-one characteristics for effective leadership. In addition to the characteristics, there is also a brief description and the number that follows (r=) signifies the correlation of that characteristic:
1. Culture- fosters shared beliefs and a sense of community and cooperation(r=.29).
2. Order- establishes a set of standard operating procedures and routines(r=.26).
3. Discipline- protects teachers from issues and influences that would detract from their teaching time or focus(r=.24).
4. Resources- provides teachers with materials and professional development necessary for the successful execution of their jobs(r=.26).
5. Curriculum, instruction, assessment- is directly involved in the design and implementation of curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices(r=.16).
6. Focus- establishes clear goals and keeps those goals in the forefront of the school’s attention(r=.24).
7. Knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment- is knowledgeable about current curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices(r=.24).
8. Visibility- has quality contact and interactions with teachers and students(r=.16).
9. Contingent rewards- recognizes and rewards individual accomplishments(r=.15).
10. Communication- establishes strong lines of communication with teachers and among students(r=.23).
11. Outreach- is an advocate and spokesperson for the school and all stakeholders (r=.28).
12. Input- involves teachers in the design and implementation of important decisions and policies(r=.30).
13. Affirmation- recognizes and celebrates school accomplishments and acknowledges failures(r=.25).
14. Relationship- demonstrates an awareness of the personal aspects of teachers and staff (r=.19).
15. Change agent- is willing to and actively challenges the status quo(r=.30).
16. Optimizer- inspires and leads new and challenging innovations(r=.20).
17. Ideals/beliefs- communicate and operates from strong ideals and beliefs about schooling(r=.25).
18. Monitors/evaluates- monitors the effectiveness of school practices and their impact on student learning(r=.28).
19. Flexibility- adapts his or her leadership behavior to the needs of the current situation and is comfortable with dissent(r=.22).
20. Situational awareness- is aware of the details and undercurrents in the running of the school and uses this information to address current and potential problems(r=.33).
21. Intellectual stimulation- ensures that faculty and staff are aware of the most current theories and practices, and make the discussion of these a regular aspect of the school’s culture(r=.32).

While this list, and these characteristics, seems immense there are certain ways to categorize or interpret this collection of skills. First, there was no inter-correlation between these traits found by McREL. While it is apparent to see numerous ways there could be interrelation, each of these skills should be treated as unique characteristics unto themselves. For example, just because a school leader has knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, it should be acknowledged separately that he/she is directly involved in the design and implementation of curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices (curriculum, instruction, assessment (skill #5 above)). Discipline and order may seem linked, but there are ways to interpret those traits individually as well.
Another facet to consider when interpreting the McREL 21 Leadership Responsibilities is to realize that each of the 21 characteristics are essential for leading change in the daily context. This is significant in realizing that there is first and second-order change. By first-order change, reform theorists express those changes to be: consistent with current values, beliefs, and practices, easily learned knowledge and skills, often an extension of the past, and can be implemented by others, including outside experts. All 21 characteristics fall into this perspective of change. By contrast, second-order change is a break from the past, it conflicts with existing norms, requires a new knowledge base, and base on the previous characteristics, it can be complex. As a school leader, it becomes imperative to identify the magnitude of change, and whether changes in schools fall under first- or second-order change because it significantly impacts the progress of change.
McREL identifies 11 leadership responsibilities to fall under the traits of second-order change. Of these, seven were correlated positively with change: change agent; flexibility; ideals and beliefs; intellectual stimulation; knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment; monitor and evaluate; and optimizer. As these characteristics express, these are complex skills that are indicative of complex change. Interestingly, school leaders who excelled in the seven traits above also scored lower on these four responsibilities: communication, order, culture and input. In other words, when these principals were implementing second-order change, they found teachers perceiving declined performance in communication with staff, maintaining order, supporting cohesive culture, and providing opportunities for input.
When analyzing McREL’s 21 Leadership Responsibilities, I realized that simply identifying the characteristics was just the tip of the iceberg. In order to affect systemic change throughout a building, a school leader must recognize strengths, as well as areas of growth, in order to support school-wide change. After reviewing countless data on student achievement throughout my studies as an educator, it is exciting to realize that immense impact and positive reforms that can be done by looking at data focused in a different area, through school leaders.

1 comment:

  1. A Principal must have and demonstrate both compassion toward all and passion for what they are doing. They must exhibit "fire" in their actions each and everyday to show their coimmitment and feeling and attitude toward learning, their school and their people...

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