Effective Schools Effective Superintendents:

1. Effective SchoolsEffective Superintendents: The Emerging Instructional Leadership Role

2. Educational Reform • First Wave (1982-1986) • Improving Classroom Instruction • Underscored the Need for Strong Instructional Leadership (school & district) • Effective Schools Research • Second Wave (1986-1989) • Professionalizing Teaching • Shifting Control to the District and Building Levels • Promoting Higher Order Thinking Skills • Emphasizing Problem Solving • Addressing the needs of “at-risk”children • Third Wave (1988-forward) • Child-centered delivery system • Empowering teachers • Brokering services

3. While each wave of reform brought contradictory demands on school administrators….. Importance of Instructional Leadership was clear in all 3 waves of reform. Initial Effective Schools Research focused on the individual school and suggest that the capacity for improvement, and change resides at the “building” level.

4. (1985-1995) Focus on the School District • It is very difficult to sustain an effective school without the support of the central Office, superintendent, and board of education. • District level leadership teams that include the superintendent must develop and implement a district plan to support the individual schools. • Districts with excellent student achievement have superintendents who are personally involved with their curriculum and instructional programs. (Murphy, Hallinger, and Peterson 1985)

5. Superintendents Role in Instructional LeadershipJournal of School Leadership (Lars G. Bjork May, 1993) • Staff Selection • Principal Supervision • Establishing Clear Instructional Goals • Monitoring Instruction • Financial Planning to Improve Instruction The success or failure of public schools has been directly linked to the influence of the district superintendent, particularly those who maintain high levels of involvement instructional programs. (Bridges, 1982 and Cuban, 1984)

6. Effective Schools Activity

7. WV Standards for Effective Schools • Creating a Common Language • Consistent Focus • Collaboration

8. American Institute of Research • 5 year study • 750 Low performing schools • Education week Sept. 19, 2012

9. Strong Leadership • Accountability Pressure and Support from District • Data effectively used to target student interventions • Teacher collaboration was the most common used strategy at successful turnaround schools • Year-long professional development tied to improvement plan • Multiple, interlocking strategies that form a framework for improvement • Sense of coherence, collaboration, leadership, and support

10. What doesn’t work • New curriculum---there is no silver bullet • Professional development that is not year-long in scope • Too many strategies and not a clear focus

11. Learning for All….. “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.” Ron Edmonds