Leadership 360
Leadership experts in the K-12 field Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers wrote about challenges and possibilities for administrators in the 21st century. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: school leadership and district leadership.
Families & the Community
Opinion
Leadership Endings and Personal Lessons
Themes of inclusiveness, of passion and purpose, of questioning and listening, and of integrity, respect and courage permeate our five years of writing. They are attributes of leadership that go beyond the knowledge and skill of the work itself.
School & District Management
Opinion
Schools Must Continue to Teach and Practice Respect
We wish it were as easy for a respectful leader to build a respectful culture system-wide. It isn't, but it is definitely worth the daily effort. And, it has integrity.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Students' Perceptions of Teacher Quality
John R. Jones and Misty Henry report: "Today, schools are under tremendous pressure to improve student achievement and sometimes at the expense of failing to help teachers get better at instruction. It seems the emphasis is placed on lack of student achievement and not on its remedy."
Teaching Profession
Opinion
The Invisible Work of Teachers
Mostly, the public doesn't understand the work of educators. The invisible efforts of the teachers and their leaders that result in successes is often not broadcasted well.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Children Deserve Their Childhoods. Schools Can Do Something About That.
We still hope for some bits of innocence in childhood. We aspire to days that are carefree and playful. We think those days help form us as adults. Schools can play a role.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
The Effects of Unequal School Discipline Strategies
Guest blogger Amanda Ronan writes, "The harsh reality is that certain discipline practices are the reflections of institutionalized racism and outward discrimination against people of color and other underserved communities."
Education
Opinion
The Women We Need in Leadership
In all fields, women are seeking and finding greater voice. As they do, we remind all who lead that voice is what matters. Allow a person voice and they will speak and sing, become orators and actors and work together on teams.
School & District Management
Opinion
Learning and Safety in the Time of School Shootings
It is important to teach children to understand something beyond 'us and them' and 'good or bad'. It is in the opposition of terms that fear, and sometimes hate, can develop.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Unequal School Discipline Strategies Set the Stage for Lifelong Discrimination
Guest blogger Amanda Ronan says, "As a school leader, you probably don't need federal guidelines to tell you whether these practices are negatively impacting your school and your students. School climate is under your jurisdiction, so you know what's bubbling up in your environment."
School & District Management
Opinion
The Superintendent's Paradox: Time vs. Complexity & Ethical Behavior
No matter what a leader is facing, when both sides hold strong and in their own way are right, it takes time for a leader to resolve within her or himself how to proceed.
Curriculum
Opinion
Teaching History With STE(A)M
We wonder if in teaching history as a story of facts, we have scrubbed it clean of the emotional story that carries the important messages.
Education
Opinion
Redefining Instructional Leadership
As a leader in any school, it is important to learn and study what great leaders do and have done. One thing that must be learned is that great leaders surround themselves with great people, and then get out of their way and let them do their jobs.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Does The School Schedule Serve Teaching and Learning?
The schedule should be developed to support the curricular needs of the teaching and learning.Teaching and learning should not be forced into a schedule's demands, but they have been and still do.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
When Budgets Require the Loss of Teachers, Difficult Conversations Follow
As school budgets are being developed, in systems where funds are decreasing and student population as well or where priorities are shifting, excessing personnel often becomes a leader's reality.