McRELs Balanced Leadership Framework:

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McRELs Balanced Leadership Framework

• School Leadership That Works

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Operational Definitions

• Effective leaders influence individuals and
  organizations. At the individual level, leaders
  support learning that leads to individual and
  organizational goals. At the organizational
  level, leaders develop a shared vision and broad
  goals. Leaders accept responsibility for
  achieving results and create the necessary
  environments that contribute to individual and
  organizational success.

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Operational Definitions

• Leadership is a shared responsibility for
  achieving collective/organizational goals
  regardless of positional or organizational
  authority acknowledging that increasing levels
  of positional authority yield greater impact in
  an organization. Leadership is accomplishing
  together what individuals cannot accomplish alone.

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Operational Definitions

• Distributed leadership implies shared
  responsibility and mutual accountability toward a
  common goal or goals for the good of an
  organization. Distributed leadership is not a
  program or a model. It is a condition that
  can be enabled and sustained through
  organizational authority.

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Rationale Why Distributed Leadership is Important

• Depending on the complexity of an organization
  and the implications of the changes it is
  attempting to implement, leadership demands more
  than what one person can provide. Distributed
  leadership is important because it creates
  conditions for maximizing the collective
  strengths of all individuals within a coherent,
  adaptive, and sustainable organization as they
  strive to adapt, learn, and grow. It requires
  each person to assume responsibility and take
  action for the good of the whole.

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Methodology Used In McREL Study

• Meta- analysis of the quantitative research on
  leadership practices associated with student
  achievement
• Review and synthesis of theoretical research
• Professional wisdom of 3 lead researchers based
  on more than 100 years of experience

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Background on McRELs Leadership Study

• 3,000 dissertation citations
• 2,000 other study citations
• 70 studies met their criteria for inclusion
• Quantitative data
• Achievement as the dependent variable
• Standardized scores
• Teacher perceptions

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Benefits of Meta-Analysis

• The 70 studies included
• 2,894 schools,
• 1.1 million students, and
• 14,000 teachers.
• Initially 80 of those 70 studies found no
  significant relationship to student achievement

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Six Big Findings

• The effect size of general leadership
• Specific leadership responsibilities and
  practices with statistically significant effects
  on achievement
• Strong leaders do not always have a positive
  effect on achievement
• Two major factors general leadership and change
  leadership
• Responsibilities with positive correlations to
  leadership of 2nd order change
• Responsibilities with negative correlations to
  leadership of 2nd order change

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Finding 1The average correlation between
principal leadership behavior and school
achievement is .25

• This means
• A one standard deviation increase in principal
  leadership is associated with a 10 percentile
  point gain in school achievement.

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Finding 2

• The McREL research identified
• 21 leadership responsibilities and
• 66 leadership practices
• each of which has a statistically significant
  relationship to student achievement.

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Finding 3

• The Differential Impact of Leadership
• Leadership can have a positive or a negative
  effect.

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How do the Researchers Explain the Differential
Impact of Leadership?

• Or, what factors mediate leadership behavior?
• Focus of the change
• And
• Magnitude of the change

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The Focus of Change

• Includes
• School factors,
• Teacher instructional factors, and
• Student factors

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The Magnitude of Change

• Change can be
• 1st order change, or
• 2nd order change
• The difference is not a result of the size of the
  change but rather the difficulty it presents to
  the individual.

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McRELs View of Change

• A change is defined by the implications it has
  for the people expected to implement it or those
  who will be impacted by it.
• The same change can be perceived differently by
  different stakeholders.

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Characteristics of First Order Change

• Consistent with current values, beliefs, and
  practices
• Can be carried out with existing knowledge and
  skills
• Can be implemented by others, including outside
  experts

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Characteristics of Second Order Change

• A break with the past
• Conflicts with prevailing norms, beliefs, and
  behaviors
• Implemented by stakeholders
• Complex
• Requires new knowledge and skills

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Finding 4Result of a Factor Analysis

• Two major factors
• General leadership
• Positive and negative correlations with 2nd order
  change

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Finding 5Positive Correlations with 2nd Order
Change (rank order)

• Knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and
  assessment
• Optimizer
• Intellectual stimulation
• Change agent
• Monitor and evaluate
• Flexibility
• Ideals and beliefs

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Finding 6Negative Correlations with 2nd Order
Change (rank order)

• Culture
• Communication
• Order
• Input

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The Art and Science of Leadership

• The art of progress is to preserve order amid
  change and preserve change amid order.
• Alfred North Whitehead

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The Personal Impact of 2nd Order Change

• Its not so much that were afraid of change or
  so in love with the old ways, but its that place
  in between we fearits like being between
  trapezes. Its Linus when his blanket is in the
  dryer. Theres nothing to hold on to.
• Marilyn Ferguson
• The Aquarian Conspiracy