Please discuss the following:
* What is the "Essential Knowledge" from your article that the group should understand/ be able to apply to leadership practice?
* How can the school vision become a tool for leaders to assess school effectiveness?
Remember: Each group member must post at least three times: Once for the essential knowledge from their article, once as an answer to the discussion question, and at least once to someone else in the group.
I read Visions that Blind. This article argues that there can be drawbacks to a vision. The two examples given are when a leader becomes over-attached to a particular vision/philosophy/innovation and the reliance on a charismatic leader to carry a vision. Both situations don't allow for collaboration and the development of positive work cultures. The author argues that the "principal should strive to be not an instructional leader, but rather a leader of instructional leaders (Glickman, 1991, pg. 7)." The lessons from this article for leadership practice include: being open to differing ideas of input from the school and community and making sure that the vision is a collaborative effort, not just on the shoulders of the administrator.
ReplyDeleteYes! By involving the community and collaborating you get the buy-in so much easier.
DeleteI actually think that the focus group project that we are completing for Assignment #3 is a great illustration of how we can use the school vision to analyze a school's effectiveness. The school where I conducted my focus groups is a high achieving school in an affluent section of the county. The mission statement or vision for the school reiterates the school's belief that all students can learn and that student achievement is the school's top priority. However, in talking with the different groups (one group of parents and one group of teachers) I found that there are other areas that are important to both groups: namely, diversity and developing the whole child and/or focusing on working with and getting along with others. I think nowadays, with all the standardized testing, we become too focused on academics and grades. There are other ways to look at success and I think the comments of the focus groups brought that up. I am hoping that we can use the feedback to provide guidance to the school for the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Focus groups allow for other perspectives to be considered. As a leader committed to the greater community taking in those perspectives can really help you assess if the work you are doing is effective for your students. I love hearing that parents and community members are concerned with teaching the whole child. While grades are important to show that you are learning the work, they are not everything! Great ideas Jen!
DeleteI read the article Vision, Leadership, and Change. The article went into great detail defining what a vision is, and then the authors laid out a process for developing a shared vision with various stakeholders working together to write a vision statement. Basically a vision statement should be a road map for where the organization or school wants to look like in the future. Nanus(1992) says that a vision should have 5 characteristics: it should attract commitment and energize people; create meaning in workers' lives; establish a standard of excellence; bridge the present to the future; and transcend the status quo. To develop such a rich vision the authors say you should 1) Know your organization, 2) Involve critical individuals, 3) explore the possibilities, and then 4) Put it in writing. By following these steps a shared vision can be created that is unique to that school's needs.
ReplyDeleteThe school vision can be used as a tool to assess school effectiveness by identifying early on several indicators that relate directly to the school's vision. For example, if your vision for your school is that all students will pass the SOL test in reading, some indicators that you are working toward that vision would be that students are passing the benchmark reading tests throughout the year. If you are not meeting benchmark, then what can you change about your instruction to work toward that vision? Again, this is just an example. Vision statements are unique to each school's goals and community make-up.
ReplyDeleteJenise, I agree, and my post says basically the same thing. I think as a future leader, it is important to develop a vision carefully and make sure we are tracking the things we do throughout the year to be sure we are heading towards reaching that vision. I think something that leaders could do better is modifying their vision if they would like to head in a slightly different direction, but I feel as though too many let pride get in the way and stick with something that is not guiding the school where it should be headed.
DeleteThe essential knowledge in Vision as a Compass is that a school vision should guide every decision made in the building to reach a goal shared by all stakeholders in the school just as a compass will guide the direction you travel when you are trying to reach a destination. Another essential understanding from the article is that if the various stakeholders in a building have different visions it can create problems in the school (or organization) such as a lack of focus and not having the ability to prioritize decisions due to the “compass” guiding them in different directions.
ReplyDeleteA school vision can become a tool for leaders to assess school effectiveness because it allows leaders to look at the programs they are implementing and determine if the individual programs they are implementing are following the “compass” and will ultimately lead them to the overall goal the school has established in the vision. I like to think of a school vision as the overall goal, such as a goal of having a “caring” environment like Christine had in the article, and it also gives us direction for the thousands of small decisions that will be made on a daily basis in the building.