Leadership For Quality And Accountability In Education

The study of educational leadership makes little sense unless it is in relation to who the leaders are, how they are leading, what is being led and with what effect. Based on the premise that learning is at the heart of leadership and that leaders themselves should be learners, the Leadership for Learning series explores the connections between educational leadership, policy, curriculum, human resources, and accountability. Each book in the series approaches its subject matter through a three-fold structure of process, themes and impact. Series Editors - Clive Dimmock, Mark Brundrett and Les Bell What is the role of leadership in developing strategies that enhance learning outcomes? Leadership for Quality and Accountability in Education addresses the interconnected issues of quality and accountability in the education system and provides a coherent framework within which these issues can be analysed. The authors outline the significance of promoting quality in all educational establishments and go on to discuss why quality and accountability have become so essential to the framework of leadership in education, how quality and accountability have been utilised on a national and international scale and what the defining characteristics of these terms are. The book is divided into three sections which explore three linked key aspects: Part I focuses on the concept and nature of quality and accountability and the process of developing a culture of quality; Part II addresses the issues of managing staff and resources, leadership for high-quality teaching and learning and relationships with stakeholders; Part III considers the impact and prospect of quality and accountability, including internal evaluation and external inspection. The book will appeal to educational leaders and managers, advisors and inspectors, and academic researchers. It will also be of particular relevance to Masters and doctoral degree students specialising in school leadership and management.

Educational Accountability: International perspectives on challenges and possibilities for school leadership provides an opportunity to assess, reflect on, and discuss current issues surrounding accountability policies in education from around the globe and the implications they hold for school leadership. It addresses the global trend of accountability policies expanding in scope to include the education profession as well as the increasing incidence of international policy borrowing, brought on chiefly by globalisation. Specific case studies offer a contextual examination of the theory, policy and practice of accountability and an inspection of their influence on school leadership. Cases are intentionally juxtaposed to provide a broad perspective of regional and cultural similarities and departures, and are arranged to reflect the diasporic Chinese, Anglo, European, and Hispanic societies. Bringing together a number of highly regarded experts within the field, the book cultivates a global perspective on the challenges and possibilities for school leaders to foster school effectiveness and improvement. Educational Accountability should be key reading for researchers, policy makers, and current and future school leaders.

Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States’ No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia’s Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators “accountable for student learning and accountable to the public” (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as “buffers” by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

The monitoring of data within educational institutions is essential to ensure the success of its students and faculty. By continually analyzing data, educational leaders can increase quality and productivity in their institutions. Data Leadership for K-12 Schools in a Time of Accountability explores techniques and processes of educational data analysis and its application in developing solutions and systems for instructional concerns and next-generation learning. Providing extensive research covering areas such as data-driven culture, student accountability, and data dissemination, this unique reference is essential for principals, administrators, practitioners, academicians, students, and educational consultants looking to maximize their institution’s performance.

A guide to building a student-centered accountability program through teaching, leadership, the curriculum, and the involvement of parents and the community.

Uncertainty is a fact of life. You can never know enough to make perfect decisions. Understanding this helps us balance an awareness of our tendency towards overconfidence with an acceptance of our own fallibility. The book discusses two opposed models of school improvement: the deficit model (which assumes problems are someone’s fault) and the surplus model (which assumes problems are unintended systemic flaws). By aligning ourselves to a surplus model we can create a system of Intelligent Accountability. The principles that make this possible are trust, accountability and fairness. While we thrive when trusted, unless someone cares about – and is holding us to account – for what we do, we’re unlikely to be our best. Some teachers deserve more trust and require less scrutiny than others, but in order to satisfy the demands of equality we end up treating all teachers as equally untrustworthy. The more we trust teachers, the more autonomy they should be given. To pursue a system of fair inequality we must accept that autonomy must be earned.

How can school leaders shape organisations that offer consistently high quality, rounded and equitable education in the context of rapid change? How can wider education systems support and encourage all schools to succeed in this way? What are the challenges and opportunities involved? What can we learn from existing evidence and research? School Leadership and Education System Reform considers the ways in which school leadership and its practice has changed and developed in response to a rapidly changing educational context over the last decade. This new edition is substantially revised and updated, with ten completely new chapters. It includes contributions from a range of leading thinkers and researchers in the field of educational leadership and management. Theoretically and conceptually informed, the contributors draw on recent empirical research studies into leadership, learning and system reform in England and more widely to explore the key issues for contemporary school leadership and management in high-autonomy-high-accountability systems. New chapters look at: · System governance and lateral accountability in 'self-improving' school systems · Leading curriculum development and accelerating progress for disadvantaged children in schools · Effective deployment of teaching assistants/leadership for inclusion · School collaboration, partnerships and 'system leadership' · Securing improvement at scale, across multiple schools and across localities · New conceptions of leadership, including ethical and invitational leadership School Leadership and Education System Reform provides accessible but research and theory-informed chapters, each of which includes summaries and suggestions for further reading.