Modern School Business Administration: A Planning Approach (Peabody College Education Leadership Series)

This text in ABL’s new Educational Leadership series from Peabody College covers historical and current trends in leadership in a very practical way, using cases and a problem-solving approach as vehicles for examination.

 

The text was developed by a leading scholar in educational leadership as part of a series from one of the leading schools of education in the world. It has a strong basis in current research, and easy-to-use, intuitive features. It strikes an effective balance between the informational and the pedagogical. It covers trends (both historical and current) in educational leadership. The “Modern” approach of this book explores professional challenges, performance expectations, and operating conditions encountered by contemporary American school leaders. The case studies and interactive pedagogy make this a very practical text.

Table of Contents:

 

Preface

            i.    Series Description

                        a. Specification of how this volume aligns with ELCC Standards

b. Clarification of approach to citations/references via provision of further readings section and end note citations

            ii.   Foreword

            iii. Acknowledgements

 

Section 1: Contextual Factors Influencing Schools and Educational Leaders

 

1.  The Evolving Context of Strategic Education Leadership

·         The evolving nature of 21^st Century life and its consequences for education

·         The changing nature of leadership when change itself is the dominant force in the world

·         Strategic leadership contrasted with historical predecessors

·         Forces shaping,  including those opposing, the new globalism

·         Consequences for organizations of the new global dynamic

 

2.  Qualities of Strategic Education Leaders

·         A discussion of the definition of leadership

·         Historic insights regarding the origin of leadership, nature or nurture

·         Characteristics that distinguish a modern, “strategic”, leader.

·         Significance of vision

·         The application of strategic leadership to educational settings though cycles of appraisal, analysis and action

·         Strategic teacher leadership

 

3.  Creating a Strategic Organization

·         Alignments between strategic leadership and a strategic organization

·         Components of organizations as systems

·         What is known regarding organizational change

·         Organizational change imperatives

 

Section 2: Knowledge Strategic Leaders Need

 

4.  Governance

·            The organization and control of American education

·            The never-ending layers of statutory and legal authority that impinge on education leaders

·            The multiple constituencies with which education leaders are inevitably involved

 

5.  Politics and Policy

·            The application of Systems Theory to politics and education policy

·            A system paradigm explaining political actions

·            Conceptual lenses through which a leader may view policy

·            A brief history of key American education policies

 

6.  Finance

·            The financial magnitude of the operation of the United States public school system

·            The evolution of United States Education finance Polices

·            Means by which revenues are generated and distributed to support public school in the Untied States

·            Mechanisms by which resources are allocated (budgeted) within school districts and schools

·            Inefficiencies inherent in the operation of school fiscal management

·            Factors contributing to the stasis in educational accounting practices

·            The fiscal landscape that education leaders will likely confront in the upcoming decades

 

7.  Law

·            The role of law in shaping the operational context for education leaders.

·            Constitutional and jurisprudential underpinnings of American education.

·            Court cases of historic significance for American education and, hence of professional importance for leaders.

·            Criteria for judicial intervention in an issue.

·            Cases illustrating students’ judicially protected and restricted rights.

·            Cases illustrating employees’ judicially protected and restricted rights.

8.  Learning

·            The link between student achievement expectations, expressed in today’s policy environment as academic standards, and individual learning

·            Theories of how people learn

·            The issue of knowledge transfer via a discussion of the distinction between learning to acquire skills and learning for deeper understandings

·            Approaches to motivating learners

·            The role of teachers in the learning process

 

Section 3: The Application of Skillful Education Leadership

 

9.  Planning

·            The definition of strategic planning and the tactical components comprising the planning process.

·            The advantages strategic planning holds as a dynamic management instrument for an education agency. 

·            Who should be engaged in planning.

·            What comprises a reasonable planning time frame and time horizon.

 

10.  Power

·            What is included in the concept and application of power

·            Sources of power for a leader

·            Effective uses of power in leading an organization

·            Approaches to power practically available to a strategic leader

·            Limits on a leader’s use of power

 

11.  People

·            The significance of people for schooling’s success

·            The profile of America’s education professionals

·            Contemporary educator personnel incentives and compensation practices

·            Educator compensation reform possibilities

·            Suggestions for recruiting and selecting personnel

·            Strategies for ensuring productive professional development for educators

·            Strategies for providing effective evaluation of educators

·            Motivating people to promote organizational effectiveness

 

12.  Program Issues in American Education

·            The influence of A Nation at Risk and the No Child Left Behind act on school programs

·            The role of the “standards and accountability” movement in American education

·            Approaches to rating the efficacy of state academic standards

·            The importance of alignment between standards, assessments and instructional programs

·            Mechanisms for assessing and enhancing the content of school programs

·            Links between K-12 and University programs

 

13.  Performance Issues in American Education

·               Approaches to assessing the performance of K-12 school students

·               Mechanisms for assessing the performance of education leaders

·               Issues associated with evaluating school effectiveness

·               Value-added performance measures

·               Performance-based compensation systems for educators

·               National and international perspectives on educational performance

 

14.  Practicing Leadership

·               Consciously crafting a personal leadership style

·               Identifying one’s core values relevant to leadership

·               Constructing a professional philosophy of education and of management

·               Setting priorities for leadership action

·               Considerations in deploying people, resources, and time

·               Communicating with a spectrum of audiences

·               Employing leadership symbols and influencing follower impressions

·               Difficult conversations with colleagues, subordinates, and upperlings

·               The significance to a leader of personal ethics and consistent behavior

 

15.  Involving Communities and Families in Schooling

·               The importance and impact of community and family involvement

·               Strategies for effectively connecting schools, families & communities

·               Collecting data on community and family involvement

·               Including families and communities in school decisions

 

16. Strategic Approaches to Decision Making in Education Organizations

·               The complex context facing strategic education leaders

·               The importance of data-driven decision making for education leaders

·               A systematic process for making data-based decisions

·               The use of performance data in the design and operation of instructional programs and in guiding staff development

·               A consideration of data infrastructure requirement to support school and district data-based decisions

·               Various ways that school leaders can use data to guide programmatic, personnel and resource-based decisions

 

17. Preparing to be a Strategic Education Leader

·            The magnitude of the demand for education leaders

·            The evolving global context shaping education’s leadership roles

·            Why strategic leadership necessitates preparation different from the past

·            The Remuneration of Education Leaders

·            Opportunistic and activist paths to leadership positions

·            The high return on investment (ROI) for leadership training

 

Appendices

Glossary

Index

Subject

Author