Literature Review on "Principals Role in an Effective Dual Immersion Program"

Literature Review 30 pages (9119 words) Sources: 20 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Curriculum

The Principals Role in an Effective Dual Immersion Program

This introductory literature review will provide a preliminary overview of relevant literature as it pertains to the challenges that affect the principal's role in student success, effective teaching practices and accountability. The literature review will provide information on (a) promoting collaborative problem solving and open communication, (b) collecting, analyzing and using data to identify school needs, (c) using data to identify and plan or needed changes in the instructional program, (d) implementing and monitoring the school improvement plan, and (e) using systems thinking to establish a clear focus on student achievement goals.

Schools across the country are struggling with severe issues ranging from indiscriminate eruptions of violence and collapsing facilities to staff deficits and never ending low academic outlooks for students. But a lot of people think that a shortage of competent education leaders is among the most severe of the issues. Without tough leaders, schools have little probability of meeting any other tests. Schools are constantly shifting. They are shifting in answer to a variety of pressures, including parent grievances about the superiority of education, labor market demands for more and more skilled workers, quick proceeds in technology, and the rising fame of public school options such as charter schools and support for vouchers for private education. No one can say for sure how the schools of this new time will differ from those of the past, but there can be little reservation that these schools will necessitate different kinds of leadership in order to be successful (Access Denied: Restoring the Nation's Commitment to Equal Educational Opportunity, 2001).

Effective leadership adds worth to the force of classroom and teacher practices and makes certain that permanent change flourishes. Consciousness of the school and teacher practices that impact student achievement is vital, but without effectual leadership, there is less of a chance that schools and districts will address these things in a rational and consequential manner. There are many leadership responsibilities that affect relationships to student achievement that, when time and again are implemented, can have a substantial impact on student achievement. These responsibilities include such tasks as instituting a set of standard operating measures and habits; involving teachers in the plan and execution of important decisions and policies; and supervising the success of school practices and their impact on student learning (Witziers, Bosker, & Kruger, 2003).

For the reason that leadership has such a major impact on student achievement, many state and district policymakers are changing leader preparation programs to a twofold focus on leadership abilities and management training. Principals have to have a basic core of knowledge, as well as management abilities, to enlighten and guide change. Also, as districts and schools move toward more and more data-driven systems, it is vital that principals understand how to interpret research findings and evaluative data (U.S. Department for Education Statistics, 2002).

Strong, collaborative leadership by the authority group is a main foundation stone of the basis for elevated student achievement. This type of leadership is necessary in shaping a community vision for children, creating long-range goals and plans for elevating the achievement of every child, enhancing the professional development and position of teachers and other staff, and making sure that the guidance, support, and resources needed for success are accessible. The authority team must work cooperatively and together to assemble their communities to aid in directing the educational services of today's students with future ready skills for optimal success and output to face the challenges of tomorrow (Prater, 2004).

Promoting collaborative problem solving and open communication

Creating a collaborative environment has been portrayed as the most important factor for victorious school improvement proposals (Balsamo, 2004). Nearly all modern school reformers call for augmented occasions for teacher collaboration (Marzano, 2003). Student achievement is thought to be the best when teachers and administrators work together, in small groups and across the school as a whole, in order to classify foundations of student success and then struggle collectively to put into practice school improvement (Smith, 2007). Generating and supporting change necessitates having a vital mass of educators within the school who are prepared and capable to function as change instruments (Prater, 2004).

Collaboration asks members of a school community to unite in enduring problem-solving projects. This necessitates pooling their knowledge, talents, and idea in order to move forward. In school systems, district and building leaders unite with teachers, support staff, and parents in teams in order to discover improvement issues. This is often easier said than done, successful collaboration entails leadership skills in generating frequent and diverse partnerships, supporting a vision, centering on group problem-solving, utilizing conflict resolution, and compromising (Donaldson, 2001).

As the instructional leader at the building level, the principal is the most important element to the successful implementation of standards-based instruction and, consequently, to student achievement (Balsamo, 2004). When troubles happen, principals must make sure that there are open lines of communication and collaborative problem solving methods in place in order to attain success. According to Smith, (2007), principals must lead their school all the way through the goal-setting procedure in which student achievement data is examined, development areas are recognized and actions for change are put into practice. This process entails working collaboratively with staff and school community in order to recognize inconsistencies between current and desired outcomes. The purpose is to set and prioritize objectives to help close the gap, to develop enhancement and monitoring strategies intended at accomplishing the objectives, and to communicate goals and change efforts to the whole school community. Principals must also make sure that staff growth needs are acknowledged in association with school improvement main concerns and that these needs are addressed with suitable professional learning occasions (Smith, 2007).

In the past there has been a tendency for principals to deal with instructional issues from the perspective of when they were teachers (Prater, 2004). Principals need to instead work directly with students, developing teaching methods and processes as a means for accepting teacher perspectives and for instituting a base on which to make curricular decisions (Smith, 2007). Schools need principals who will work collaboratively with everyone involved in order to determine the best ways to go about doing things.

Producing a collaborative environment has been portrayed as the single most significant issue for successful school improvement proposals (Balsamo, 2004). Collaboration promotes learning along with the standard of continuous professional growth. Structural support by way of planning meetings, informal problem-solving sessions, frequently scheduled professional development time during school, and shared planning periods for teachers who need to work together also contribute to organizational learning (Donaldson, 2001).

According to Prater, (2004) principal communication with staff is an element of principal managerial leadership. Effective principal communication practices include normal discussions with staff members in such areas as instructional, administrative, and budgetary decisions. Formal practices include goal statements, staff bulletins, newsletters and handbooks, staff meetings, parent and teacher conferences, and assemblies, along with informal practices such as conversations as opportunities to practice effective communication skills. One task of the principal is to make sure that school objectives and directives are interpreted into classroom practice. When leaders deal with constructing a shared vision, improving communication, and developing a collaborative decision making procedure, they become concerned in creating change.

The function of the principal is one which has been plainly shown to have a significant impact on the performance of the school, and the conviction that the principal has an impact on student learning has long been sustained in educational research. Frequently school leaders condemn the major function of the principal as one of instructional leadership; yet, there has yet to be developed a commonly accepted definition for that term. While most principals communicate to teachers that their main role is one of instructional leadership, they do not operationally define that term (Watkins, 1992).

Principal leadership is united closely with management of the curriculum and instruction. Principals may advance the task of sharing their knowledge with control or by focusing as an alternative on authorizing their teachers with information and offering support in using that information to develop practices (Edwards, 2006). The principal's job is to help their faculty to learn a new manner of thinking about curriculum as vibrant tools for improvement rather than stationary archives of student goals.

Successful problem solving in schools brings all concerned parties collectively to look at consequences, devise a common theory or understanding, reflect on possible reactions, classify needs for new resources and means, and move into accomplishment in reaction. The productive school community collaborates in the course of problem solving so that the progression is extensively regarded as lawful. Diverse viewpoints are welcomed and actions determined upon are widely accepted, which leads implementation being widely accepted. All through the process, the objective is to grow a common appreciation of the issue and to rally the school to respond intelligently and energetically (Smith, 2007).

According to (Donaldson, 2001), collaborative problem solving is improved by numerous conditions. Finding sufficient time is clearly a major… READ MORE

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