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EdLeader Exchange Conceptual Framework
The EdLeader Exchange Conceptual Framework outlines the five areas that are critically important for school leadership.
Leading School Improvement
Working to improve our schools is a key focus for education leaders at all levels (state, district, local). Improving schools is a systematic effort that involves multiple stakeholders and constituents. An underlying principle of school improvement is team-based continuous improvement—always seeking to create the best learning environment possible.
- Team-based School Improvement: Team-based school improvement enables all interested in improving schools to be engaged in the conversation. The team should include: teachers, administrators, parents, members of the community, and depending on the age group, students.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Stakeholders are those who impact or are impacted by the school and its activities. Engagement of this group (teachers, administrators, parents, members of the community, students) is critical to grow and sustain the work of the school.
- Continuous Improvement: Kaizen is the Japanese word for improvement activities that occur on a daily basis. In seeking continuous improvement, we evaluate all processes and procedures on a continuous basis in order to assess how to improve our schools.
Leading Teaching and Learning
Teaching and learning are the core of what we do in schools. Supervising instruction and regular assessment of the curriculum helps to ensure effective learning environments, thus assisting with closing the achievement gaps. Education leaders at all levels (state, district, local) collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure that the teaching and learning is of the highest quality.
- Supervision of Instruction: Supervision of instruction involves the coordination and facilitation of instructional activities that take place in the school. As stated by Glickman (1991), a successful education leader coordinates the work of teachers as instructional leaders. This will enable the most effective learning environment.
- Curriculum Assessment and Evaluation of Instruction: A systematic review of the curriculum is an important activity for education leaders. Evaluation of instruction on a regular basis is also a key component for creating successful learning environments.
- Closing Achievement Gaps: Achievement gaps have long been measured in schools to better understand the experiences of groups of learners (gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status). We need to continue to gather data on test scores, grade point average, dropout rates, etc. in order to understand where gaps exist so that we can work to close them for all learners.
Leading Strategy & Performance
Strategy and performance are intimately linked. By engaging in strategic planning and management, education leaders can sustain a performance culture.
- Strategic Planning and Management: Strategic planning involves determining short and long-term goals and then identifying the best approaches for achieving the goals. A key role for education leaders is the management of the planning process as well as the regular evaluation of the plan and goals to ensure that progress is being made. This topic/sub-topic includes:
- Strategic planning
- Balanced Scorecards
- Performance Metrics
- Monitoring and Implementation
- Governance: Schools operate under a set of processes, rules and laws, some of which are created at the school level, while others are set at the district or state level. Education leaders are critical in the establishment of the processes, rules and laws as well as in their implementation.
- Sustaining Performance Cultures: Sustaining a culture of performance is a fundamental goal for education leaders. Creating a systematic approach for managing the organization, groups and individuals will enable the creation of a performance culture (Reid & Hubbell, 2005).
Leading Talent Management
Education leaders engage in talent management everyday in recruiting, selecting, retaining, and developing the skills of individual personnel. A key component of talent management is a focus on the individual and on helping him or her achieve his or her potential.
- Workforce Planning: Workforce planning is linked to the strategic planning process with all elements aligned. It involves clearly defining the work, identifying personnel needs, and then selecting and hiring the best talent for the jobs. This topic/sub-topic includes:
- Competency models
- Job descriptions
- Interviewing
- Recruitment and Selection
- Hiring/Placement/Assignment
- Developing Leaders: Succession planning is a key component in talent management. As such, current education leaders seek to support and develop the next generation of education leaders thru formal preparation, induction, development activities and coaching/mentoring. This topic/sub-topic includes:
- Preparation
- Partnerships with districts and Universities
- Partnerships between districts
- District-based preparation
- Induction
- Development
- Practice-based Development
- Executive Development
- Coaching/mentoring
- Preparation
- Managing Individual Performance: While the education leader has a focus on the larger organization, they also are working to manage individual performance. By focusing on the individuals and helping to ensure their success, education leaders contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Managing School Operations
School operations includes resource allocation, project planning and process improvement. By managing school operations, education leaders help ensure that district and state goals are achieved.
- Resource Allocation: Resource allocation involves a systematic process tied to the strategic plan of the organization. Aligning resource allocation to the strategic plan helps to ensure that goals are achieved.
- Project planning: Project planning, a component of project management, involves creating a scope and schedule for each project undertaken. This process enables a focus on critical activities as well as assisting with resource allocation and providing a timeline for completion.
- Process improvement: Process improvement involves indentifying and analyzing existing processes with the goal of improvement. Several strategies can be used to enable process improvement, including: benchmarking and Six Sigma.