Casestudy

Thinking Globally: The National College of School Leadership: A Case Study in Distributed Leadership Development Diane R. Dean Illinois State University Leadership matters. Excellent school leaders are pivotal in creating and maintaining effective schools, as defined by student achievement (Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Mulford, 2002; Rosenholtz, 1989). This knowledge, coupled with an ongoing national agenda for raising student achievement, drives a call for improvement in school leader preparation. Local, state, and federal governments, education organizations, businesses, and foundations match that call with increased investments in leadership development. Yet, although we know leadership matters, the complexity of leadership yields a wide variety of opinions and research conclusions on what leadership is, how it works, and how to develop it within people. Although scholars and practitioners alike lack universal agreement on what leadership is, both can see clearly that the nature of school leadership has changed. Leaders’ responsibilities have increased tremendously and now include: • instructional leadership for narrowing the achievement gaps between demographic groups; • • human resources leadership for teachers and staff; community leadership for developing and sustaining a collective vision for the school and maintaining a positive organizational culture and climate; • resource leadership for strategic management and leveraging of fiscal, physical, technological, and community resources, including the use of data to guide decision-making;

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governance, administration, and policy leadership for working with governing boards; navigating local and state politics; understanding, applying, and shaping policy; and

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change leadership for identifying gaps between current and desired outcomes, analyzing underlying problems and challenges, navigating and balancing competing interests, strategizing, and ultimately implementing appropriate changes....