Managing Productive Schools.

N

25

Administrator Effectiveness; Administrator Role; Educational Improvement; Elementary Secondary Education; Instructional Leadership; Leadership Training; Management Development; Principals; School Administration; School Supervision; Staff Development; Supervisory Training; Teacher Administrator Relationship

The organizational and human productivity knowledge-base expansion of the past 5 years indicates that educational leaders and support staff must assume responsibility for schooling together to change student achievement patterns. The sociological management challenge is one of empowering groups to address educational productivity. The administrative challenge is one of instructional leadership and restructuring through the integration of teachers into the decisionmaking process of the schools. To measure the existing training needs for principals and district personnel, a needs assessment instrument was developed that examined seven specific categories, including the Principalship, Problem Solving, and Long Range Planning. The instruments were administered to 263 elementary, middle, and secondary school principals and central office personnel in three Texas school districts. The results indicate that principals want training in the elements of annual schoolwide, team-level, and individual teacher planning, coaching, and evaluation. In addition, they want skills for designing successful staff development programs, providing on-the-job teacher coaching, monitoring performance and program development, implementation, and evaluation. The message is clear: if principals are expected to accomplish different kinds of performance results from those for which they were trained, their development in knowledge and skills must become a district priority. (57 references) (KM)

1990

ED316931