Preparing School Leaders For The 21st Century

The quality and success of schools depend upon school leadership. Increasingly, in many countries worldwide, this belief has led to designing and implementing appropriate training and development programs for educational leaders. In an international comparative research project, current school leader training and development programs in fiftee

This book uses PISA data to show that a substantial proportion of students in OECD countries now attend schools that have high degrees of autonomy in different areas of decision making.

"Educational leaders are empowered by a 7-steps framework to move their schools and districts forward in a quest to create community consensus and build the professional capacity for preparing students for 21st century learning."--Book cover.

For many years, public schools served as prominent examples of organizations operating in a stable organizational environment. In the 21st century, however, this notion is gradually changing. Public schools face a dynamic organizational environment characterized by technological innovations, increased social heterogeneity, competition, and contradictory expectations presented by various stakeholders. In addition, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic undermined schools' basic routines, introducing uncertainty and instability to an extent that school leaders had never experienced before.These changing circumstances have increased the complexity school leaders experience on the job, creating new professional challenges, which are growing in number and sophistication.This book intends to promote awareness of the complex and unique challenges educational leaders are facing and, in doing so, to introduce a rational and a more balanced voice to the discourse on school leadership.

Focuses on the changing context of education; the changing nature of self-managing schools; their own leadership and management skills within this environment.

This resource is the most important book in years focusing on the preparation and development of school leaders. Comprehensive in scope and extremely readable, Skills for Successful 21st Century School Leaders provides a complete overview of the knowledge base and skills for successful school leaders. The publication is based on the standards recently developed by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLe, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and state education agencies.

Leading in Change: Implications for School Leadership Preparation in England and the United States considers the ways in which school leadership, and its preparation has changed and developed in response to a rapidly changing educational scenario over the past decade. Drawing together leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners in the field of school leadership and management this text takes an international perspective to consider what we know about school diversification, and school leadership preparation. Theoretically and conceptually informed, the contributors’ draw on recent empirical research studies and practitioner experience into school leadership preparation to examine how neoliberal and neoconservative policies are working in unison to privatize and corporatize public schools. It looks at how these policies have impacted the preparation of school leaders. In addition to information, critique, and analysis, multiple perspectives are provided that readers can draw upon to ensure aspiring school leaders are successfully prepared to lead in a diversified and corporate school context. The book is divided into three sections. In the first section key topics covered include: • Relationship between school corporatization and leadership preparation in England and the United States • Comparative analysis of US charter schools and UK academy trusts Section two is focused on England. Key topics covered include: • System leadership and governance in networked systems • Role of a specialist leader • Role of social capital in the leadership of academy and free schools • Building leadership capacity • Women's leadership preparation in the independent sector Section three is focused on the United States. Key topics covered include: • Overview of current education reform, issues and challenges for school leadership • Historical analysis of standards for educational leadership preparation programs • Preparing charter school leaders, emerging challenges and opportunities • Role of a growth mindset in principal preparation programs • School leadership preparation and development in one state Leading in Change: Implications for School Leadership Preparation in England and the United States is essential reading for those who work, study, or research in k-12 school reform. Contributors examine the current research and best practices on present school leadership preparation programs in England and the US adding to the discourse on effective training methods for 21st century school leaders. Given the crucial importance of leadership for effective school performance, a number of strategies are proposed by chapter authors to help future school leaders operate successfully in demanding and changing times.