System Leadership for School Transformation Deans Lecture Faculty of Education, University of Melbou

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development Review of School Leadership
Presentation made at the NUT Conference
on The Future of School Leadership London,
Tuesday 1st May 2007
Professor David HopkinsHSBC Chair of
International Leadership
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Today I will speak about.

• Why school leadership is important at the
  policy level
• What is the focus of the OECD study on school
  leadership
• How we are contributing on the issue of system
  leadership

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Why is it important?

• Rising expectations of schools and schooling
  (knowledge economy, globalisation, migration,
  decentralisation)
• Greater accountability for schools and principals
• From teachers with additional responsibilities to
  full time managers of human and financial
  resources
• Instructional leadership
• Staff evaluation
• Budget management
• Performance assessment
• Community relations
• Held accountable for results
• THE SUPER PRINCIPAL

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Why Different responsibilities for leaders
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Why Evidence draws a challenging picture

• Is there enough capacity?
• Shortages of high-qualified school leader
  candidates.
• Australia 92 of principals expected to
  retire/resign more than five years before they
  'have to'. (Grady et als (1994))
• Ontario, Canada 75 of principals and gt 40 vice
  principals expect to retire by 2007 (Williams,
  2001)
• England 4/10 deputy/assistant principals no
  plans to become a principal 4/10 principals
  considering early retirement (Earley et al,
  2002).
• Many OECD countries dont have any requirements
  for becoming principals.

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Why High priority in OECD education work

• OECD countries want answers
• The OECD Teacher Policy Thematic Review (Teachers
  Matter, OECD, 2005)
• Education Chief Executives Meeting, Copenhagen,
  Sept. 2005
• Ranked 3 out of 29 activities for the Education
  Committee Programme of Work (2007-2008)

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Why 22 participants

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

• Korea
• The Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Portugal
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom (England)
• United Kingdom (N. Ireland)
• United Kingdom (Scotland)

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What Our objective

• To provide policy-makers with information and
  analysis to help them formulate and implement
  school leadership policies leading to improved
  teaching and learning. By
• Synthesising research on issues related to
  improving leadership in schools
• Identifying innovative and successful policy
  initiatives and practices
• Facilitating exchanges of lessons and policy
  options among countries and
• Identifying policy options for governments to
  consider.

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What Our view of school leadership

• A broad view of leadership
• Rather than focusing on leaders as individuals
• View that authority to lead can be distributed
  within schools and among different people.

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What Key Issues to respond to

• What are the roles and responsibilities of
  school leadership
• How to best develop effective school leadership

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What Roles of school leadership

• Role of school leadership under different
  governance structures
• Demands on school leaders
• Different roles and responsibilities of school
  leaders under different governance
• Types of skills required
• Is there a set of core competencies?
• Promising policies and conditions for linking
  school leadership with improving school outcomes

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What Developing school leadership

• How can effective school leadership be best
  developed and supported?
• Should it be a career path? Types of profiles
  pedagogical or other
• Employment conditions
• support structures
• Type of training (pre-service, on the job,
  further training)
• Types of institutions to develop school leaders

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How Methodology of the Activity

• Analytical strand Country Background Reports to
  focus on policies and structures that impact on
  the role and development of effective school
  leadership (January 2007)
• Innovative practices strand Case studies to
  innovative practices
• New models of school organisation and management
  that distribute leadership roles and
  responsibilities in innovative ways (UK October
  2006, Finland, January 2007 Belgium February
  2007)
• Promising programmes and practices to prepare and
  develop school leaders

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How Outputs of the Activity

• Country Background Reports (2007)
• School governance and leadership
• Enhancing learning and school leadership
• The attractiveness of school leadership
• Training and professional development of school
  leaders

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How Outputs of the Activity

• International workshops (2006 and 2007)
• Expert papers
• Selected case studies (2006-2007)
• A final international conference (2008)
• A final comparative report (2008)

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• 1st meetings of the activity, London, 5-6 July,
  HSBC Headquarters Contributed to clarify key
  questions on new and changing roles of school
  leaders.
• 1 Workshop of participating countries
• 50 participants (28 national delegates, 9
  international organisation, 8 experts) discussed
  the activity and country practices in this area.
• Common agreement on the timeliness According to
  countries OECD has become a catalyst for thinking
  on school leadership at a national level.
• 2 Workshop of participating countries Brussels,
  1-2 February 2007
• Presentation of Country Background Reports

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School Leadership for Systemic Improvement

• leadership for systemic improvement the
  distribution of school leadership roles and
  responsibilities to improve schooling outcomes.
• Meaning still developing, and practice includes
• Leadership shared across schools so overall
  system improves
• Connection of systems of leaders to create
  culture and pool of expertise to support school
  improvement
• Collaboration of education/non-education
  organizations within the larger context to
  sharpen focus on school outcomes and
• Systemic interaction in schools of
  administrators/teachers/ students as learning
  communities in which leadership is distributed
  according to expertise and need.
• Different approaches to the challenge of
  developing leadership across the system.

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High Excellence High Equity Raising the Bar and
Narrowing the Gap
560
High excellence Low equity
High excellence High equity
Finland
540
U.K.
Canada
Korea
Japan
520
U.S.
Belgium
500
Switzerland
Spain
Germany
Mean performance in reading literacy
480
Poland
460
Low excellence Low equity
Low excellence High equity
440
420
60
80
100
120
140

• 200 Variance (variance OECD as a whole 100)

Source OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life
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Every School a Great Schoolas an expression of
moral purpose

• What parents want is for their local school to be
  a great school.
• (National Association of School Governors
  Education and Skills Select Committee 2004).
• The three system leadership commitments
• relentless focus on reducing within school
  variation
• collaborative working to eradicate between school
  variation
• the embracing of segmentation or lateral
  approaches since a focus on individual school
  improvement always distorts social equity.

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Towards system wide sustainable reform
Building Capacity
Professionalism
Prescription
National Prescription
Every School a Great School
Schools Leading Reform
System Leadership
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4 drivers mould to context through system
leadership
Personalised Learning
Networks Collaboration
Professional Teaching
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP
Intelligent Accountability
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The Logic of System Leadership
Learning Potential of all Students
Student Repertoire of Learning Skills
Teacher Repertoire - Models of Teaching
Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work
Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and
Pedagogic Consistency
Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and
Between Schools, Clusters, Districts, LEAs and
Nationally
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4 drivers mould to context through system
leadership
Leading
Personalised Learning
Below floor target
Success-ful
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP
Networks Collaboration
Professional Teaching
Low attaining
Intelligent Accountability
Internal variation
Underperforming
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Networking and SegmentationHighly
Differentiated Improvement Strategies
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System Leadership A Proposition

• System leaders care about and work for the
  success of other schools as well as their own.
  They measure their success in terms of improving
  student learning and increasing achievement, and
  strive to both raise the bar and narrow the
  gap(s). Crucially they are willing to shoulder
  system leadership roles in the belief that in
  order to change the larger system you have to
  engage with it in a meaningful way.

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System leaders share five striking
characteristics, they

• measure their success in terms of improving
  student learning and strive to both raise the bar
  and narrow the gap(s).
• are fundamentally committed to the improvement of
  teaching and learning.
• develop their schools as personal and
  professional learning communities.
• strive for equity and inclusion through acting on
  context and culture.
• understand that in order to change the larger
  system you have to engage with it in a meaningful
  way.

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Leadership as Adaptive Work
Technical Solutions
Adaptive Work
Technical problems can be solved through applying
existing know how - adaptive challenges create a
gap between a desired state and reality that
cannot be closed using existing approaches alone
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Act as a Community Leader
Work as a Change Agent
Managing Teaching and Learning
Developing Organisations
Personal Development
Partner another School Facing Difficulties and
Improve it
Moral Purpose
Lead a Successful Educational Improvement
Partnership
Strategic Acumen
Developing People
Lead and Improve a School in Challenging
Circumstances
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System Leadership Roles

• A range of emerging roles, including
• Lead a successful educational improvement
  partnership
• Executive Headship or partnering another school
  facing difficulties i.e. run two or more schools
  (or softer partnership)
• Lead in extremely challenging circumstances or
  become an Academy Principal.
• Civic or Community leadership to broker and shape
  partnerships across local communities to support
  welfare and potential.
• Change agent or school leader able to identify
  best practice and then transfer and refine it to
  support improvement elsewhere.

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Principles for System Transformation
School Improvement
Teaching and Learning
System Leadership
System Wide Reform
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So, for Transformation, System Leadership needs
to be reflected at three levels

• System leadership at the school level with, at
  essence, school principals becoming almost as
  concerned about the success of other schools as
  they are about their own.
• System leadership at the local level with
  practical principles widely shared and used as a
  basis for local alignment with specific
  programmes developed for the most at risk groups.
• System leadership at the Government level with
  social justice, moral purpose and a commitment to
  the success of every learner providing the focus
  for transformation.

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Paulo Freire once said

• No one educates anyone else
• Nor do we educate ourselves
• We educate one another in communion
• In the context of living in this world

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Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair in
International Leadership