Role of education leaders - Essay Example

Running Head Role of Education Leaders Role of Education Leaders In the USA, public schools are controlled by so called 'a school district'. This is an independent body usually funded by the Title I program (federal aid to local schools). Many of the school districts cover same geographical territories as cities. The largest school districts are Baltimore, Broward County, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, etc. the school district consists of a schools board (board of trustees) which assigns a superintendent (Sergiovanni et al 2003).

Educational leaders, including, superintendents, central office specialists, and principals, among others, greatly influence how standards are interpreted and how curriculum and instruction change as a result. The main functions of the school district are to employ teachers and take corrective actions, solve disciplinary matters and taxation. Maryland is an exception in this case. All schools are controlled by the county. In general, it is possible to distinguish the following forms of control: (1) school district governments; (2) state-dependent school systems; (3) local-dependent school systems and (4) education service agencies (Dembowski 1999).

Educational standards and practices are the engine driving the changes public schools are experiencing today. These bodies control schools and establish education standards and procedures. The school district provides qualified teachers, adequate instructional materials, and sound facilities. As such standards for opportunity to learn are articulated, the accountability question arises as to how to monitor and report on them. The school district articulates a means of observation in schools and classrooms in order to determine the degree of adherence to these standards (Sergiovanni et al 2003).

Two aspects of this must be considered: the quality of individual teachers and the quality of the school as a whole. The control is exercised through school review process. Variations of inspectorates and school quality reviews have been developed in New York, Rhode Island, Maine, and other states. In order for such reviews to serve the purpose of school improvement, it is essential that observations and data collection be done in a critical manner through a combination of school self-assessment and collegial visitations.

(Sergiovanni et al 2003).2. The school district, and the chief executive, is responsible for decision making and policy formation. The chief executive is responsible for political accountability (pressures from school boards and parents), professional accountability (ideas from national associations like the National Council of Teachers), and moral accountability (the individual leader's sense of right and wrong). Secondly, the process of interpreting and acting on demands from state assessments and other accountability demands is fragmented.

Leaders in different roles get different information and interpret it through different lenses so that it is difficult to reach consensus on a course of action. Thus, the chief executive follows the state and federal policies unified for all schools. (Gorton et al 2006). Federal and state education boards develop educational standards while implementation and control is exercised by the school district. Also, the school district develops policies aimed to reduce drinking and drug abuse at schools, etc.

The current reform framework includes the creation of common standards, challenging assessments, and enhanced accountability for student performance. Central to these reforms is the notion that each student is entitled to instruction that is grounded in a common set of challenging content standards and that schools and individual students must be held accountable for achieving equally high levels of performance on these standards (Wong, 1999). Federal and state statutes and rules use classification as a means for controlling the allocation of resources and for assuring that the legal protections and entitlements are targeted at the members of a protected class.

The purpose of a standards-determination committee is to identify the content standards (in their subject area, for instance, mathematics) that, thereafter, would guide state-level instruction in a particular subject. References2. Dembowski, F. (1999). Effective School District Management: A Self-Review Instrument and Guide. ScarecrowEducation. 3. Gorton, R.A., Alston, J. A., Snowden, P. E. (2006). School Leadership and Administration: Important Concepts, Case Studies, and Simulations. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. 4. Sergiovanni, T. J., Kelleher, P.

, McCarthy, M., Wirt, F. (2003). Educational Governance and Administration, Allyn & Bacon.5. Wong, K.K. (1999). Funding Public Schools: Politics and Policies (Studies in Government and Public Policy). University Press of Kansas.