Abstract
Designing schools as learning centers is more than just about restructuring the physical space of schools. There are many variables that need to be considered when rethinking education delivery for the 21st century. Schools seem to just keep constructing buildings that merely reinforce an obsolete paradigm that will not prepare students for real-world challenges. The focus of this chapter asks the question: What does re-thinking education mean at the school leadership level? Numerous stakeholders, from policymakers to providers to end users affect the structure, content, and delivery of K-12education systems. A case study exploring the effect of district and school leadership styles on teaching and learning prompted by the question, Were the principals in High Scoring Schools (HSS) engaged in different instructional leadership practices than those in the Low Scoring Schools (LSS)? A significant feature of this study is the sizeable database that incorporated nine states, 43 school districts, and 180 elementary, middle, and secondary schools.
TopIntroduction
Pranati Panda, notes that the delivery of education evolves through research and practices to generate new knowledge and also to maintain an accountable profession Numerous stakeholders, from policymakers, to teachers, to learners, who are the end users, affect the structure, content, and delivery of education programs (2019). Effective education delivery, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined by the Glossary of Education Reform, as an education system that maximizes students' understanding, which increases student participation and enhances the quality of student work.
There are many variables which need to be considered when rethinking education delivery for the 21st century. Goldberg, in 1991, documented the role of environmental variables in motivating and assessing improved student performance. “This position is not a new or revolutionary claim, but a message that seems to need to be repeated because (schools) seem to just keep constructing buildings that merely reinforce an obsolete paradigm that will not prepare students for real world challenges. (Nair, 2011). However, designing schools as learning centers is more than just about restructuring the physical space of schools (Ripple, 2014; Nair, 2011; Rosenblum, S & Spark, B, 2002; Sabo, 1998; Goldberg, 1991; Chan, 1981).
Reevaluating education delivery will incorporate a range of topics as:
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Learner’s comfort level- physically, mentally, and emotionally
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Teacher-training courses in colleges and universities (C/U)
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Teacher and school counselor professional development
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School district administration’s attitudes towards delivery
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School auxiliary personnel understanding of the importance of their roles
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Community support and buy-in
Instead of centering focus on the actual purpose of education, the learner and learning, states and school districts seem to be fixed on the idea of learning requiring following a fixed pattern of education delivery, which occurs only in particular spaces and is delivered in a specific way. These are outmoded ideas of the industrial revolution. Spaces that allow for personalization, collaborative learning, self-directed learning, are environmentally conscious and connected to the broader community surrounding the school will be the schools of the future (Nair, 2011).
This chapter considers how the educational process might be reconstructed to ensure the minds, hearts and bodies of learners are involved, and engaged, in the process of learning. According to David Gamberg, the superintendent of both the Southold Union Free School District and the Greenport Union Free School District, on Long Island, N.Y., school districts must do more than ‘efficiently manage the system or pits stakeholders against one another’ (Gamberg, 2012). Teachers must be effectively trained and supported in the classroom.
Key Terms in this Chapter
School Redesign: Anything politicians, policy makers, government agencies, school leaders, teachers, educational reformers, experts, are doing, effectively or ineffectively, to improve school performance, teaching effectiveness, or educational results for students.
Shared Leadership: Separate from instructional leadership, the practice of governing schools by expanding the number of people involved in making important decisions related to school’s organization.
Effective Teacher Development: Action Research to gain better understanding of what’s working or not working in academic programs; using findings to improve educational quality and results.
Distributed Leadership: Individuals or groups identified as providing leadership; a combination of principals, assistant principals, and teachers.
Rethinking Education: Reforms that impact elementary, middle, and high school programs; district-wide or statewide reforms seeking to make changes throughout a defined system.
Education Delivery: Maximizes students' understanding, which increases student participation and enhances the quality of student work.
Co-Created Learning: Student participation in creating lesson plans; learning created jointly.
Collective Leadership: Influence organizational members and stakeholders exert on decisions in their schools.
Instructional Leaders: Involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement.