0.4 The art of successful school-based management  (Page 28/36)

For school leaders the message from the example above was that as schools engaged in professionaldevelopment, they must attend to the needs of those caught in the change in specific and intentional ways. And only after individualsbegan to understand how they would manage the change could the staff development move to its most important point . . . studentachievement. Understanding this process could help reduce frustration and ambiguity amidst the storm of change. As NCLBbegins to disappear on the political horizon and the next“miracle plan”arises, then school systems can be confident that they are already attending to what matters most, helping children beproductive, reflective, and knowledgeable citizens in a global society. Indeed, staff development can support high standards whilealso supporting a range of approaches. When staff development, as well as other school-based decisions, allows for shared values anddiverse approaches, then those efforts support the diversity of ideas . . . the color of successful schools.

Element #7

Texture: feel or appearance of an object or surface

The Artist’s View:

Texture is the art element that refers to how things feel or look as if they might feel. Touch and vision are howwe perceive texture. One can use tactile sensitivity by using skin receptors to feel texture but one can also experience visualtexture by looking at the illusion of a three dimensional surface. Once again the element of value comes to the forefront. Without therelative lightness and darkness of the surface arrangement, theillusion of a surface texture could not be seen. Texture is important to every art medium.

ISLLC Standard #4: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students bycollaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing communityresources.

A Leadership Perspective:

Successful school leaders recognize that schools are a tapestry of people, interests and communities.Weaving those very different, and very important, stakeholders is a delicate and intricate process and will almost always result insome degree of stress and anxiety for all concerned. When bringing the various constituencies together, the school can become aseamless fabric of diverse perspectives that agree to celebrate student achievement. Or, if leadership does not effectively connectthe various stakeholders, the school can begin to unravel into patches of angry parents, frustrated teachers, and misbehavingstudents. Successful leaders take the time to invite participation by all stakeholders. This invitation, then, would be offered toparents, community leaders, students, teachers, administrators, and support staffs. To the level that these constituencies are includedthen there would be more commitment by all concerned and less opportunity for subterfuge and negative energy. The notion that weare all in this together would serve to elevate the commitment for all and help create a fabric that embraces and supports rather thana blanket that smothers creativity and individuality. In many ways, the effectiveness with which leadership brings together the manyconstituencies that comprise the school can be measured by the safety and care that students feel in the day-to-day activities. Inother words, when we can imagine a school environment that celebrates diversity of thought, perspective, and pedigree, then wecan draw comfort that the stress of expectations (e.g., standardized tests, NCLB, AYP) will not tear at the texture of theschool.