What Every Principal Needs to Know: Instructional Leadership for Equitable and Excellent Schools

• In Event: Transformative Leadership on the Front Lines: In Pursuit of Excellence and Equity for All Students

Abstract

Research and practice make clear that school leadership plays an essential role in establishing, improving and maintaining high quality instructional programs that serve all students well (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Luppescu, & Easton, 2009; Fullan, 2002). Administrators have an important responsibility, not only to provide high-quality instructional leadership but also to facilitate and support an educational environment where educators throughout the school community are empowered as instructional leaders (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Yet instructional leadership is commonly conceived as a technical and value-free set of behaviors, roles and activities (Larson & Murtadha, 2002). There is often an implicit assumption that effective instructional leadership looks the same, regardless of the student population’s diversity, idiosyncratic community dynamics, content, or the dispositions of educators toward their students. However, recent research on educational leadership suggests that this assumption is erroneous, and it is indeed critical that instructional leaders learn about the specific equity issues in their schools and seek to understand how they influence learning through instructional leadership (Johnson, 2002; Scheurich & Skrla, 2003; Spillane, 2005). In this paper, we argue that there are three key equity issues that instructional leaders have the agency to influence: access, processes, and outcomes.

Educational Leadership and Access

In many schools minority students’ access is compromised by practices such as: disproportionate placement of minority students into special education programs (Harry & Klinger, 2006; Losen & Orfield, 2002); tracking minority and students identified as having behavioral issues into lower-level and remedial classes (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003; Singleton & Linton, 2006); a lack of reasonable accommodation for English language learners (Byrnes, Kiger, & Manning, 1997). In the context of these issues, we will explain how instructional leaders can provide greater and more equitable access to students.

Educational Leadership and Process

Corollary to issues of access are those related to organizational processes in the school. Among process issues instructional leaders can influence are: internal and external communication norms (Arlestig, 2007; Osterman, 1994); the structure of committee, task force, and teamwork within and across content areas (Scribner, Sawyer, Watson & Myers, 2007), and; the coordination and alignment of instructional practices and curricula as students matriculate through the system (English & Steffy, 2001). School leaders can influence these school processes if they understand the underlying assumptions of their actions, evaluate the reasons they might influence a process, and are thoughtful and purposeful about how they should initiate and monitor the change (Fullan, 2001, 2003, 2007).

Educational Leadership and Equitable Outcomes

Of course, educational leaders are responsible for a variety of educational outcomes, including performance on achievement tests, graduation/dropout rates, course grades, and grade-level promotions, among others (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004). In this paper, we heighten leaders’ awareness of these issues, relate them to instructional leadership and show how they can positively and thoughtfully influence access, processes and outcomes for student and school improvement. We further argue that a leader’s knowledge and comfort with specific areas, such as mathematics or special education, better positions them to address equity issues.

Authors

• George Theoharis, Syracuse University

• Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Idaho