Leading Effectively e-Newsletter - November 2008 Issue

Leading Schools

The pressure on school administrators and teachers is intense. Faced with increased academic accountability, student diversity and staffing challenges, school districts are investing in leadership development as one way to improve performance.

"Professionals in public education face extremely complex challenges that match the challenges facing their counterparts in the private sector," says Mike Renn, manager of CCL's Education Sector work. "It makes sense for school districts to address the leadership question head-on."

When school districts invest in leadership development, the results can be very positive, says Renn, himself a former school administrator.

Eight years ago, for example, the South Carolina public school system engaged CCL to develop a program that would help teachers move into roles as principals.

"We knew that educators were moving from jobs as classroom teachers to school principals more rapidly than ever and the role of principal had shifted dramatically from administrator to chief instructor and CEO of the school," says Mark Bounds, deputy superintendent of the Division of Educator Quality and Leadership in South Carolina. "The question was how to solve the problem. We needed to give the school principals the tools to be innovative and effective leaders."

The state of South Carolina and CCL created the School Leadership Executive Institute to infuse the public schools with strong leaders. After eight years, the program is widely praised and credited with improvements that reach into the classroom, including:

• Principals and administrators who are more adept at delegating, dealing with difficult relationships, coaching teachers and working collaboratively.
• Improved teacher retention rates.
• Stronger parent satisfaction.
• Higher student test scores on statewide mandatory tests and SAT tests.

"This program has given me the opportunity to analyze my strengths and areas of improvement, to expand best practices and to experience new growth both personally and professionally," says South Carolina elementary school principal Glenn Huggins, who credits the recent accolades his school has received from the state to CCL and the leadership institute.

In other school systems, leadership training is also helping schools fill a leadership gap that has been created as baby boomers retire from key administrative positions.

"Fairfax County Schools in northern Virginia, for instance, experienced a tremendous population boom about 30 years ago, and as a result they are now facing the retirement of a large majority of their most experienced leaders," says CCL's Renn. "The school system came to us to help them create a sustainable leadership program."

"The issue for us was how to start incubating pools of people and then accelerate those pools," explains Andy Cole, director of Employee Performance and Development at Fairfax, the 12th largest K-12 district in the country.

"I was looking for an organization that could provide the foundation for developing large numbers of people for excellence in an intentional way," says Cole. Fairfax partnered with CCL to create the Educators Leadership Development program.

The result: Fairfax has had nearly 1,900 administrators graduate from the program in the past three years, filling more than four dozen positions from this talent pool. The system has now expanded the program to include students as well as the community.

Learn more about CCL's Education Sector work.