Competency 2

Lead and manage the institution's operations and resources.

Educational leaders must have the ability to:

• Lead and manage the budget process
• Lead and manage facilities management process
• Lead and manage human resources process
• Examine leadership and managerial challenges related to the organizational operations and resources.
• Examine the organization's strategic operational planning, implementation, and evaluation.
• Provide leadership for an organization's technology services and information technology infrastructure.

Traditionally, educational leaders were expected to be efficient and effective managers of the institution's buildings and oversee the business of teaching by the professional staff. They typically were promoted from within the organization but were not generally expected to possess strong expertise in the art and science of teaching and learning. In addition, they needed to be well organized and good managers of systems and "stuff." Today's educational leader is expected to be much, much more. In fact, according to the Council of Chief State School Officers, in their 1996 publication, Standards for School Leadership, "States recognize that schools and districts will not meet demanding requirements for improving achievement without effective leaders" (Council of Chief State School Officers, 1996, pg. 1).

Over the past decade, dramatic changes have placed education leadership at the forefront of education policy research and debate.

Research has taught us that educational leaders are crucial to improving instruction and raising learner achievement. Leaders can no longer just be managers of systems and facilities. Federal and state laws have placed the educational leader and the staff at the center of an accountability debate that continues to hold educational institutions increasingly accountable for raising achievement among learners from all population subgroups.

Standard 2 of The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards for School Leaders mandates that educational leaders must "ensure the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders" (pg 14). This charge is further refined by explaining that today's educational leader must be able to:

• Collaboratively develop and implement a shared vision and mission.
• Collect and use data to identify goals, assess organizational effectiveness, and promote organizational learning.
• Create and implement plans to achieve goals.
• Promote continuous and sustainable improvement, while
• Monitoring and evaluating progress and revise plans when necessary.

The enlightened leader of today and tomorrow must also have knowledge and understanding of the basic research behind learner growth and development and know how to apply newly developed learning theories. They must be able to motivate a diverse staff to adequately meet the individual needs of the learners, while facilitating the development of creative and rigorous curriculum. They must guide a professional staff to ensure engaging lesson plans, effective instructional delivery, and appropriate attention to the affective domain. The leader of today and tomorrow must be proficient in the use of data to drive decision making and know how to involve all stakeholders in that process. And they need to stay abreast of a rapidly changing world of technology that is making the whole notion of local control into a global issue.

In addition to framing leadership requirements with professional standards, these standards must be wrapped in basic, non-negotiable beliefs and values to meet the demands of the American public. In order to succeed and effectively lead in the twenty-first century, educational leaders must focus all of their efforts on the premise that learning is the fundamental purpose of education and that in the center of this premise is the notion that all students can learn. They need to accept that there is no single way to cause learning to happen but that a variety of ways are necessary to meet the unique needs of each person. Today's educational leader must strive to instill the need to become and remain lifelong learners who continually seek new and more effective ways to improve learning. Each educational leader must embrace diversity, incorporate embedded professional development into the culture of the institution, and ensure that even the softest voice is heard. The learners they are responsible for today will be the leaders of our society tomorrow.

References

Council of Chief State School Officers. (1996). Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards for school leaders. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved January 12, 2006, from http://www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/isllcstd.pdf

Council of Chief State School Offiers (2008) Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards for school leaders. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved January 9, 2009, from http://www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/elps_isllc2008.pdf