Standards that describe the nature and scope of a professional’s work are usually referred to as ‘content’ standards. As in educational measurement generally, content standards set out the domain of what is to be assessed (but not what counts as meeting the standard). They set out the main areas of practice and provide elaborations on what the standards mean in terms of what practitioners should know and be able to do.
Here is a set of three core leadership practices grounded in research that could form part of the content domain of a set of school leadership standards. They are taken from a recent report by Leithwood et al. (2005) that reviews research on how leadership influences student learning. Each could be seen as an area within which a school leader could exercise leadership and lead and manage a change initiative. 1. Setting directions
2. Developing people
3. Re-designing the organisation (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005)
Each is elaborated on in the report, but together they form a strong set of organisers for the content of a set of leadership standards. As the research reviewed by Leithwood et al. (2005) indicates, these core practices are related (indirectly) to student achievement. It is possible to argue that, as standards, they have content validity. That is, the standards arguably identify the knowledge, skills and attitudes possessed by effective leaders. Other reviews of effective leadership practices could be used to define content standards for school leaders (e.g. Mulford, 2003a; Mulford, 2005b).
As another example, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) standards from England have, instead, six main organisers, setting out the content of the standards:
1. Shaping the Future
2. Leading Learning and Teaching 3. Managing the Organisation
4. Developing Self and Working with Others 5. Securing Accountability
6. Strengthening Community
While each of these sets from Leithwood and the NCSL provides a powerful group of organisers for the content of school leadership standards, a full set of content
standards needs to drill down deeper to accurately represent what school leaders need to know and be able to do to provide quality learning opportunities for students. For example, most recent sets of standards for school leaders usually have a standard that refers to the importance of Building Professional Culture along the following lines:
Research indicates that the knowledge and skills of its teachers are the most important educational resource that a school possesses in meeting its mission to provide quality opportunities for students to learn. Highly accomplished principals establish a strong professional culture in their schools that nurtures and develops those resources.
This standard, Building Professional Culture, might be found under Leithwood’s Developing People organiser above, or the Developing Self and Working With Others organiser from the NCSL. The standard can be justified in terms of research. Over the past twenty years, increasing numbers of researchers have identified the existence of an active, accountable professional community within and across schools as important for effective teacher development and high quality teaching (Little & McLaughlin, 1993; Louis, Marks, & Kruse, 1996).
The final step in this approach to writing content standards is to provide a more detailed explanation or elaboration of the standard. Box 2 gives an example of an elaboration of the standard, Building Professional Community, developed by ACER. Once again it is important to note that the elaboration starts to tease out the various facets of the professional community concept, to illustrate the areas where school leaders might take action, and to point to types of evidence that one should see in, for example, a portfolio entry that a school leader was submitting to show that they had met this standard.
Box 2: Elaboration of the standard - Building Professional Community Research indicates that strong professional communities are characterised by shared norms and values, a collective focus on student learning and welfare, collaboration, deprivatised practice and reflective dialogue (Louis et al., 1996).
Highly accomplished principals focus on building the capacity of their teachers to teach to high professional standards. They ensure that the workplace is as much a site for teacher learning as it is for student learning. They enable professional reflection and learning in the workplace and, thereby, enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers work in teams that enable them to explore one another’s ideas and to question their beliefs and practices. Teachers engage in collegial planning and review of how well their teaching is meeting students’ needs. An ethic of enquiry pervades the school about teaching and learning. Schools with a performance and development culture know that feedback, in as many forms as possible, is essential to effective professional learning and the improvement of practice.
Box 2 continued..
Highly accomplished principals establish a working environment that enables teachers to teach as well as they possibly can. Principals in these schools know that the quality of their teachers is the most important educational resource they have. Teachers feel supported and valued in schools with a performance and development culture. There are shared standards for accomplished teaching and credible mechanisms for providing recognition to teachers who meet those standards. Principals take steps to maximise the time that teachers can spend productively on tasks related to teaching.
Highly accomplished principals recognise that leadership is a quality that pervades effective organisations, not a responsibility restricted to staff in designated administrative positions. They provide teachers with leadership roles and opportunities to learn through taking on wider responsibilities. They provide leadership roles and time for highly accomplished teachers to work with other teachers on the core business of monitoring and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.
Highly accomplished principals establish a professional community characterised by collegiality, joint work, innovation and research to enhance the school’s problem-solving capacity. Practice in professional organisations is guided by professional values and expertise. Professionals need to play a strong role in decisions related to their practice, but, as they often face non-routine problems, they also need time to bring their values and expertise to bear on those problems – interpreting the evidence and identifying appropriate courses of action. Schools with a performance and development culture ensure time for such purposes is available.
Highly accomplished principals establish an accountable professional culture characterised by high expectations for student learning, deprivatisation of teaching practice and norms of collective responsibility for student learning outcomes. Professionalism is understood to imply mutual accountability among teachers for the quality of practice, not autonomy interpreted as privacy. Teachers expect to keep up with research in their teaching field. Principals in schools with a performance and development culture model the professional development and accountability practices they seek to promote among staff members.
Highly accomplished principals establish a culture of continuous improvement. A performance and development culture is not an end point. It is a collective state of mind characterised by continuing self-evaluation of practice and openness to better ways of doing things. A strong professional community is a learning community. A learning profession is tolerant of risk-taking among its members so that teachers can refine their practice and deepen their understanding about they can best support students in their learning. This quest never ends.