Viewpoints:
School Leadership in the 21st Century:
Why and How it Is Important
By Susan Gates, Karen Ross, and Dominic Brewer
Introduction
School leadership has become a much-talked-about topic recently, fueled by a long-standing concern over the quality of primary and secondary education in our country. Multiple stakeholders (i.e., educators, parents, students, policymakers, social service agencies, and community organizations) are becoming increasingly interested or invested in the quality of our public schools. It is not surprising, therefore, that the public debate on school quality is focusing much more attention on school leadership. Several major foundations have announced new programs of action and research designed to address a host of issues related to school leadership, governance, and management. Training programs for school leaders have been in existence at many levels, but new and innovative programs are being established, and some states have incorporated standards-based assessments into the licensure process for principals.
The issue has also captured the attention of the federal government, and Congress is considering support for several leadership programs such as:
- The School Leadership Initiative, which would allocate $40 million to establish regional centers to deliver professional development training for principals, particularly those working in high-poverty, low-
performing schools. The program could eventually provide much-needed training for 10,000 school leaders.
- The LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) Program, which would authorize $100 million in grants to help states and agencies provide leadership education, recruitment, and mentoring programs for principals and other school leaders (National Association of Elementary School Principals & National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1998).
The term "school leadership" is difficult to define. On one hand, it is a career with defined roles and responsibilities. From this perspective, school leaders (i.e., principals, assistant principals, lead teachers) are those charged to make decisions about how a school operates and meets expectations. These decisions range from administering high-level and strategic programmatic plans--such as choosing a curriculum framework and delineating a primary pedagogical approach to be used throughout the school--to handling more administrative and operational issues such as determining the school bus schedule. Leaders are also held accountable for school performance on multiple dimensions including student performance on standardized tests, attendance, school safety, and graduation rates. School leaders are responsible to many stakeholders (parents, the school board, students, and the district, state, and federal governments) and are expected to balance their many, often-conflicting demands, while always maintaining student learning as the central focus.
One reason school leadership is a particularly important issue is that many of the current school reform initiatives, in order to be successful, require active leadership support and participation. Some reform efforts--such as voucher programs, charter schools, and site-based management--are predicated on a view that strong and appropriate school leadership matters. The challenge is that often, good leaders are inhibited by the many rules, regulations, and restrictions imposed at the district, state, and federal level. Designers of some reform models believe that if school leaders are liberated from these traditional constraints, they will be free to provide good leadership and help schools succeed.
