I had the privilege of sitting in on a session led by Jon Eckert at CESA this past year. He is such a great encourager in pointing to the true mission of Christian education. Since that session, I’ve done my best to read anything he has written. I found Leading Together to be a great resource to confirm some things I’m already experiencing and to articulate some areas where I need to grow to serve my team well. I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…
- The 5Essentials survey (University of Chicago, 2016) reliably measures organizational changes and indicates probability for school success around five key factors.
- Effective leaders
- Collaborative teachers
- Involved families
- Supportive environments
- Ambitious instruction p. 7
- Our goal for leadership is that we are spreading vision and culture. Every profession and environment is goin to have some gripers. As a leadership team, we are going to focus on the 90 percent who are doing a great job. We are going to build their leadership skills. p. 121
- Ideal practices for Leadership Development:
- Leadership is about the work. The work dictates the development and who the leaders really are.
- Collective leadership work requires diverse expertise, not buy-in. Leaders need humility to know what they do not know and the ability to seek the help of others with more expertise.
- Professional development should include teachers and administrators learning together. The best professional learning impacts practice in schools. This is most likely when the learning opportunity is shared.
- Collective leadership work in schools should be rooted in the classroom. The best administrators long for the classroom and return whenever possible, and the best teacher leaders never lose the perspective of their students.
- Student outcomes should drive everything. Whenever possible, we should engage students in collective leadership development. Their success is always the focus of any great educator I have ever met. And it isn’t just lip service. You can almost always tell when it is. p. 174