Educational System and the Wallace Foundation - Assignment Example

I have always believed that the school principal is the most crucial component of the educational system and the way their responsibilities and training have changed over the decades makes them an active participant in the evolving educational system of the present and future.

The school principal is the architect of a student's educational life. He is the person who dictates what subjects are to be taught and how. He holds in his hands, the power to educate or dumb down his students. The Wallace Report has proven that principals have slowly come to embrace the fact that just because they are administrators, that does not mean they are no longer educators. Thanks to their continuous training programs, the students of the future will continue to benefit from the skills of principals who concentrate more on the educational welfare of their students rather than the financial bottom line of the school districts.

Overall, I learned a lot from this study about how a principal should perform his job as an administrator. As such, my first order of business is to ensure the quality of education and teaching that the children in my school receive. I have to work towards the end result of having no child left behind in the educational system before making sure that my school is running within its budget and other requirements of the school district.

Summary of the Article
The Wallace Foundation published a book or rather, the results of their decade-long research into what makes for an effective learning environment in schools. With the publication of “ The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and learning, they try to answer key questions that are relevant to the quality of education that our students receive. Their data came back as clear as daylight. The school principal is the most important person within the existing school system. The weight of the quality of education delivered by a school is reliant upon its effective administrative and educator skills.

Every parent has a vision of what the perfect school system should be like and how it must be executed in order to make it a reality. While they dream up scenarios that may or may not be plausible for the educational system, the school principals are hard at work implementing effective guidelines that result in a system that manages to teach students in the most unique and best way possible.

The research informs the readers that principals have, over the years, come to understand that there are 5 key challenges that face in their quest for educational perfection. These 5 key challenges are
1. Shaping a vision of academic success for all students.
2. Creating a climate hospitable to education.
3. Cultivating leadership in others.
4. Improving instruction.
5. Managing people, data and processes to foster school improvement.

Throughout the research paper, the foundation presents success stories from various principals across the country based on their success rate in improving the quality of education in their schools through the use of the 5-challenge system. It is the belief of the foundation that if all principals master these 5 key practices, they will have then developed the best possible educational and leadership system for their schools. Read More