The Key to Effective Staff Development: the Enlightened School Principal

Abstract

In the summer of 1980, members of Group B conducted field studies, interviewing area superintendents of schools and/or assistant superintendents in twenty-two Connecticut communities which included, among others, such towns/cities as Bethel, Deep River, East Lyme, Easton-Redding, Fairfield, Guilford, Meriden, Monroe, New Canaan, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Stratford, Trumbull, and West Haven. The purpose of these interviews was to determine the major areas of educational concern as perceived by the chief school officer of each school district. The superintendents/assistant superintendents expressed many concerns, which group members analyzed for patterns of concern. The most frequently mentioned concern was staff improvement and renewal, an aspect of effective schools which much of the professional literature read by various Epsilon team members also acknowledged as in need of serious attention. “It is generally agreed that if there is to be adequate growth in student performances and attitudes, primary consideration should be given to improving the way in which teachers work in the schools.” Dale Mann in his “Politics of Inservice” sets the tone for the decade ahead by reminding us that …in the past, school reform through teacher turnover and recruitment has been relatively easy. But now and for the future, mobility will be greatly constricted by the teacher surplus, availability of maternity leaves, need for multiple incomes, and effective unionization. School reforms must now be accomplished through existing personnel. Those who seek to change schools must change teachers, while they are working in the schools. Therefore, staff development becomes vital if schools are to keep pace with the rapid changes and complexity anticipated in the immediate future. To maintain themselves as contributing institutions, schools must change. Such changes as school organization, grouping procedures, testing practices, teacher evaluation concepts, the role of the community, demands for accountability, and many others have produced outcomes which require cooperatively and constructively planned staff development. In “Learning Designs for Tomorrow," Harold Shane states that “there are needs for new skills as technosocial changes emerge, and for knowledge in fields in which one studied a quarter of a century before.” Mann believes “that people can be changed, that they are malleable, that people are rational and, if provided with more information about something, that they will modify their behavior accordingly.” Unfortunately, change is not quite so simple and unfortunately, school principals cannot generally find the time necessary to read and cull out the research as a basis for effective staff development, especially in view of the vital role of the principal. Central to the whole process of change in the schools is the principal. The concept of principal as an agent of change is supported by Licata, Ellis, and Wilson, who state “that the principal can be an effective change agent by initiating the structure for innovations in the school organization.” The model for staff development under consideration incorporates the principal's role as the key role in staff development and recognizes the pro-active position he/she must assume in the complex and essential process of planning, implementing, and evaluating staff development activities which result in a meaningful program for improved classroom instruction. The need for a manageable staff development model surfaces throughout much of the literature. Fred Hood of the University of Pennsylvania reports that leaders in the field have indicated to him that “school based inservice which stresses inservice at the building level is not working while others at the same time say that inservice should focus on school based staff development.” such conflicting data further reinforce the need for review and reassessment. Although the need for staff development is apparent, its direction is not. Therefore, this project will address the need for direction.