Leadership for Effective Inclusive Schools: Considerations for Preparation and Reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (01) ◽  
pp. 65-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Billingsley ◽  
David DeMatthews ◽  
Kaylan Connally ◽  
James McLeskey
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Educational Administration ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Guidance Document ◽  
Inclusive Schools ◽  
Inclusive School

School leadership is critical to provide students with disabilities with opportunities to learn in inclusive schools. We summarise research about inclusive leadership, outlining factors that promoted and impeded inclusive schools in the United States. Next, we provide an example of a national collaboration between the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center that linked theProfessional Standards for Educational Leaders(PSEL; National Policy Board for Educational Administration, 2015) to a supplemental guidance document, titledPSEL 2015 and Promoting Principal Leadership for the Success of Students With Disabilities. The latter illustrates what effective inclusive school leadership means for each of the 10 PSEL standards, and provides recommendations for improving leadership preparation and policy, including licensure. We also consider possible implications of this work for those in other countries, emphasising the need for widely understood and shared leadership practices and the need to link such practices to initial and ongoing leadership development.

Principal leadership for students with disabilities in effective inclusive schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 539-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
David DeMatthews ◽  
Bonnie Billingsley ◽  
James McLeskey ◽  
Umesh Sharma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Inclusive Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inclusive Schools ◽  
The World

PurposeCreating inclusive schools for students with disabilities is a major leadership responsibility for principals throughout the world. Each national, regional and local context is different, but every principal can help create and support inclusive schools. The purpose of this article is to describe the evolving context of inclusive education and school leadership in the United States aligning what is known to an established leadership framework (Hitt and Tucker, 2016), as there are similarities between the Hitt and Tucker domains and the work of leaders in inclusive schools. The authors emphasize that inclusive leadership is consistent with existing conceptualizations of principals' work. The authors consider specific policies and organizational conditions that support inclusive schools and highlight successes and continuing challenges for principals that can be applied throughout the world.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes an exploratory approach to review the US policy-related and empirical literature on school leadership for effective inclusive schools. The authors draw across time from research syntheses in school and inclusive leadership from leading journals in educational leadership, special education and edited volumes focused on school leadership. The authors analyze common themes centered on leadership practice, organizational and social conditions and challenges.FindingsThe research review identified effective leadership practices that support inclusive education in the United States and provides a critical discussion of how these findings relate to international research and practice.Practical implicationsThe paper considers the relevance of national policy contexts coupled with a review of school leadership for inclusive schools that is insightful for policymakers and practitioners seeking to create more inclusive schools throughout the world.Originality/valueThe paper offers a situated review of leadership for inclusive schools in the United States. As such, this review lays the foundation for a comparative and international conversation on school leadership for inclusion.

Assistant principal leadership development: a narrative capture study

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Petrides ◽  
Cynthia Jimes ◽  
Anastasia Karaglani
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Assistant Principals ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Assistant Principal ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Teacher Professional

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge base on the ways in which assistant principals view their roles, and on the potential challenges involved in a distributed leadership model. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a narrative capture method, in which assistant principals from two large urban school districts were asked to relate and self-interpret two leadership stories through a web-based narrative capture form. A total of 90 stories were collected from 45 assistant principals. Participants rated their stories based on a set of leadership indicators (including method of decision making and type of teacher interaction present in the story, among others); the results were analyzed statistically. Findings – Overall, participants tended to view their roles in terms of instructionally focussed leadership. However, leadership challenges emerged in several areas of leadership practice, including operational management and teacher professional development (PD). Demographic factors were found to influence leadership perceptions and practices. Research limitations/implications – This study begins to fill the empirical gap on assistant principal leadership roles, practices, and perceptions. Further research, using other methods (e.g. observation), is needed to collect evidence of in situ leadership practices of assistant principals, and how those practices impact and relate to school objectives for teaching and learning. Practical implications – The study sheds light on the leadership development needs of assistant principals and on the importance of ongoing, tailored PD, based on factors including where leaders are in their careers and how they envision their roles. Originality/value – This paper contributes to nascent scholarship regarding assistant principal school leadership.

Professional Standards for Educational Leadership

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle D. Young
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Educational Administration ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Professional Standards ◽  
School Level ◽  
Professional Fields

Standards are used in a variety of professional fields to identify core elements of practice within the field as well as to describe a desired level of performance. The first set of standards for the field of educational leadership in the United States was introduced in 1996 by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). Since then, they have become the de facto national standards for educational leaders. The ISLLC standards have been updated three times and were recently renamed Professional Standards for School Leaders (PSEL) under the authority of the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA). Over this same period of time, multiple sets of sister standards (e.g., standards for leadership preparation) have emerged as have evaluation tools and practice resources. Soon after their release, a variety of concerns were raised about the standards and their potential impact on the practice of education leadership, particularly school level leadership. Some argued that the standards were too broad, while others argued that they were too specific. Similarly, concerns were raised about the focus of the standards and what was left out or only weakly included. These and other concerns continued to plague newer versions of the standards. Concerns notwithstanding, today, educational leadership standards are fully embedded in the lifeworld of the educational leadership profession. They have been adopted and adapted by states, districts, professional organizations, and accrediting bodies and used in a variety of ways, including: setting expectations for educational leadership preparation and practice, state certification, leadership recruitment, professional development and support, and evaluating leadership practice.

Leading Inclusive Schools: Principal Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges to Meaningful Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2091389 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. DeMatthews ◽  
Amy Serafini ◽  
Terri N. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
Meaningful Change ◽  
Inclusive Schools

Background: For over 50 years, special education has been used as a tool to maintain racial segregation, particularly in schools located in low-income communities of color. This study utilized tenets found in disability critical race theory (DisCrit) and inclusive school leadership literature to examine the perceptions, practices, and challenges associated with meaningful change in inclusive schools. Purpose: The purpose of this article was to understand how six elementary school principals, identified as effective inclusive leaders, perceived students with disabilities within a low-income Mexican American immigrant community along the U.S.–Mexico border. Findings: Our study highlights the important role principals play in creating inclusive schools and the ways in which race, disability, family background, language, and immigration status effect principals in their efforts to promote inclusion. While each principal recognized the noted factors above and confronted a multitude of challenges, they differed in their beliefs and approaches to creating inclusive schools. Some leadership practices were aligned to research focused on effective school leadership while others more closely resembled social justice leadership practices. Conclusion: Findings suggest that principals must take into consideration a variety of factors to create inclusive schools and must draw upon a broad range of practices amid resistance and challenges to meaningful change.

scholarly journals A INCLUSÃO ESCOLAR DE JOVENS E ADULTOS COM DEFICIÊNCIAS: AÇÕES GESTORAS NECESSÁRIAS

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 506
Author(s):  
Julimar Santiago Rocha ◽  
Antonio Amorim ◽  
Maria Da Conceição Alves Ferreira ◽  
Mariana Moraes Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
National Policy ◽  
School Management ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Inclusive School ◽  
Municipal Schools ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
The Right

We are living today the challenge of instrumentalizing schools in a way that meets all the subjects respecting diversity. It is up to school management to work collectively to consolidate public educational policies that ensure the right to education for all. Managing actions become even more necessary when we perceive the increase of students with disabilities who reach the Youth and Adult Education Mode, leading us to understand the role of the management team in the construction of an inclusive school. The objective was to analyze the planning of actions of the school that contemplates the realization of the national policy of special education with focus on the execution and evaluation of these actions. Through of a qualitative approach and study of multiple case, in two municipal schools in Salvador, involving 16 subjects, we investigated if the official documents of the school contemplate actions that aim the inclusion of the person with disability in the EJA and how the management team manages the resources for the reach of them. The research reveals the need to redefine the internal performance of the manager, to achieve bigger articulation between the school management and the municipal secretaria for the implementation of an inclusive education in the EJA.

scholarly journals Leadership for Equity and Inclusivity in Schools: The Cultural Work of Inclusive Schools

Inclusion ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth B. Kozleski ◽  
Jeong Hoon Choi
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
English Language ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Administrator ◽  
Administrative Leadership ◽  
Inclusive Schools ◽  
School Leadership Practices ◽  
Implementation Tool

Abstract A set of schools located across the United States partnered with a federally funded inclusive schools systems approach to improving outcomes for all students—both general and special education students, including students with extensive support needs stemming from intellectual and developmental disabilities. Two years of data from the schools provided evidence of changes in specific school leadership practices. Schools that received targeted, feature-specific technical assistance in the Administrative Leadership domain improved their administrative leadership performance as measured by the Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation Fidelity of Implementation Tool (SWIFT-FIT). Improvements were noted in the two major aspects of leadership measurement: Strong and Engaged Site Leadership and Strong Educator Support System features. Improvements corresponded with higher achievement scores on English Language Arts and Math as measured by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment. These results show promise for continued focus on improving school administrator leadership in order to install more inclusive systems of support for learning that are associated with higher levels of student achievement.

scholarly journals Becoming skillful leaders: American school principals’ transformative learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-378
Author(s):  
Taeyeon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
School Principals ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Dimensions Of Learning ◽  
Actual Change

In this study, I explore how school principals experience transformative learning in relation to leadership development and how these experiences influence their leadership practices and perceptions. Transformative learning is critical for school leaders because it can lead to meaningful learning that qualitatively changes their leadership practices. Assuming that personally significant incidents are important for transformative learning, I analyzed qualitative data collected from 12 school principals in the United States. Analysis revealed that with these transformative learning experiences, school principals established strong foundations of leadership assumptions and strategies by changing and expanding their views of themselves and others. My findings suggest that education for principal leadership development should provide opportunities to explore multiple dimensions of learning, how relationships and school contexts influence leadership decision making, and how principals perceive themselves as leaders. This study contributes to a more dynamic understanding of how school leaders make actual change in their leadership practices.

Principals’ and School Leaders’ Roles in Inclusive Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Pazey ◽  
Bertina Combes
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
School Environment ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Full Membership ◽  
Special Education Leadership ◽  
Inclusive School ◽  
Values And Beliefs

The United States and other developed countries have acknowledged and supported the rights of students with disabilities to receive an appropriate education for decades. The role of the principal and school leader in overseeing educational programs and ensuring these entitlements become a reality for students with disabilities has taken center stage. Discussions related to principals and school leaders fulfilling the roles of leader and manager on behalf of students with disabilities linked the complementary disciplines of general and special education leadership. The leadership approach they adopted led to debates surrounding the concept of inclusion and the provision of an inclusive education on behalf of students with disabilities. Current definitions of inclusive education are typically linked to concepts of equity, social justice, and recognition of the student’s civil right to be granted full membership in all aspects of the educational enterprise. The processes involved in creating an inclusive school environment require principals and school leaders to examine the values and beliefs that influence their own thinking and behaviors before they can communicate a vision of inclusion. Principals and school leaders must be willing to act in concert with others to create the type of school culture that unanimously and positively responds to difference so every student can achieve full membership and feel welcomed and valued.

scholarly journals The Analysis of Dyscalculia Students Learning Difficulty in Inclusive Education of Primary School Level in Tasikmalaya

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 238
Author(s):  
Nani Ratnaningsih ◽  
Ebih A R Arhasy ◽  
Edi Hidayat
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
School Level ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Inclusive Schools ◽  
Inclusive School ◽  
Class Teacher ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Inclusive education is a government program that is realized through an inclusive school program to help students with disabilities so that their formal education can be well served. The implementation of inclusive education in Tasikmalaya City and District is less encouraging, various plans for implementing inclusive education need to be taken seriously. The purpose of this study: studying, analyzing, and describing the learning difficulties of dyscalculia students; discuss the challenges or learning process in inclusive schools for dyscalculia students. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative and think aloud was carried out at 4 inclusive schools in Tasikmalaya namely SDN Manggungjaya 1, SDN Sukasirna, SDN Cibungkul and SDN Tanjung 2. The subjects in this study were principals, class teachers in inclusive schools, and dyscalculia students in grades 4, 5 and 6 of each. The methods used in this study were descriptive qualitative and think aloud. The instruments used the researchers themselves and questionnaires. The data were collected using observation, exploration, and interviews, all data obtained analyzed then described narratively. Based on the results of data analysis concluded: dyscalculia students in grades 4, 5 and 6 still have difficulty in reading and counting operations in numbers up to 50, do not understand negative integers. Just learning to study is still very difficult to condition, teachers who often teach dyscalculia students with their own learning styles. Learning is still held by the class teacher when the teacher comes from the Special Needs School. Ideally, at least two students with disabilities, provided by teachers who have a special education background.

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