Leadership and Taking Risks
Nancy Flanagan had a great piece last week at EdWeek. "Defining Teacher Leadership" kicks off with her reaction to this handy meme:
She finds the first part is right on point. But the second part?
Most of the school leaders I encountered in 30 years in the classroom were good people, but the overwhelming majority were cautious rule-followers and cheerleaders for incremental change. The principals followed the superintendent's directives and the folks at Central Office looked to the state for guidance. Most recently, everyone has experienced the heavy hand of the feds--for standards, assessments and "aligned" materials. "Successful" leaders hit benchmarks set far from actual classrooms.
That sounds about right. As does this:
If I had waited for my school leaders to be risk-takers before feeling comfortable with change in my classroom, decades could have gone by.
I'm not sure we need school leaders who are risk takers; it's not the modeling that is most important. The biggest power that principals and superintendents have is not the power to demonstrate risk, but the power to define it.
School leaders get to decide two key aspects of risk-- what constitutes going outside the lines, and CURMUDGUCATION: Leadership and Taking Risks: