Improving School Leadership

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• Improving School Leadership
• Policy and Practice,
• North and South
• Deborah Nusche
• OECD Education Directorate
• SCoTENS Annual Conference
• Belfast, 9-10 October 2008

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School leadership a policy priority

• School leadership can improve teaching and
  learning, by influencing the motivation and
  capacities of teachers, as well as the school
  climate and environment
• OECD countries face pressing issues of
  attracting, training and developing the next
  generation of school leaders
• Priority Improving School Leadership activity
  ranked 3/29 activities for the OECD Education
  Committee Programme of Work (2007-2008).

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Todays presentation
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Background The OECD Improving School Leadership
activity (2006-08)
An international perspective on school leadership
policy and practice

• Israel
• Korea
• The Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Northern Ireland
• Norway
• Portugal
• Scotland
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium (French)
• Belgium (Flanders)
• Chile
• Denmark
• England
• Finland
• France
• Hungary
• Ireland

Network of experts
International organisations
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Background Activity objectives

• To provide policy-makers and others with timely
  analysis to help formulate school leadership
  policies leading to improved teaching and
  learning

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School leadership the challenges
The role of school leaders has changed
dramatically
The super principal ?
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School leadership the challenges
More and more tasks have been added to school
leaders workload. Most of the leadership
tasks are carried out by one individual
Need to define and prioritise core tasks
Need to distribute tasks
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School leadership the challenges
Insufficient preparation and training
Approaches to leadership training and development
(2006)
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School leadership the challenges
Difference between maximum principal and teacher
salaries (2003)
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School leadership the challenges

• Inflexible and hierarchical career structures
• Few opportunities for career development
• Principal burnout
• Lack of opportunities to move up to new tasks

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School leadership the challenges
Few people are interested in moving up to
leadership Application numbers are decreasing 15
out of 22 participating countries report
difficulties in finding a sufficient number of
qualified candidates
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School leadership the challenges
Percentage of female principals (2006)
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School leadership the challenges
Percentage of principals aged over 50 (2006)
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The main challenges to be addressed

• Role intensification
• Insufficient preparation and training
• Unattractive working conditions
• Concerns about the recruitment of future leaders

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School leadership the policy

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School leadership The policy
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School leadership The policy
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School leadership The policy
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School leadership The policy
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School leadership the policy

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Next steps How can we make it happen?

• A Toolkit for Policy Makers and Practitioners
• Facilitate interpretation of OECD findings
• Move from recommendations to policy formulation
  and practice development
• Make connections between OECD findings and users
  own experience and context

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• Thank you!
• deborah.nusche_at_oecd.org
• www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership