1 Improving School Leadership: Were to go from here Beatriz Pont Education and Training Policy Division Brussels, VLOR 2 nd Workshop of Participating Countries 1-2 February 2007

2 In summary… r The Background Reports r The comparative report r Other

3 The background reports r Catalyst for change at national level and for international comparison. r March 30 th, 2007, Friday: Final/almost final versions: 11 ready, still waiting for other 11. r Edit and revise them to: l Refine the final section to provide assessment of key challenges, critical analysis; executive summary l We might contact you individually for additional information; l Ensure that the final version is OK for public distribution l Inform us on the impact it is having: national seminars, workshops, influence in policy making and legislation, in national level discussions: For our Newsletter updates.

4 The comparative report: issues l Challenges for school leadership: external factors, dealing with complexity within and from outside the system: social, economic and policy context; l Governance traditions/structures and impact on school leadership. No common concept of leadership or practice l Leadership: is there a new ‘paradigm’ or ‘beast’? –What is the nature of effective leadership? –Is the systemic approach at the heart of it? Is distributed leadership part of it? –What are the characteristics required?

5 The comparative report: issues l Leadership for learning and achievement: at the heart of leadership –Professionalism –Accountability (reciprocity) –Skills of successful principals l The core: Developing (quality/sustainable) school leadership –Different models of sustainable investment/leadership –initial training programmes –in-service training, (support for the profession). l And supporting school leadership: –Making it an attractive career –Ensuring recruitment, –Employment conditions,

6 The comparative report The process: Highly consultative. r Develop outline and send for feedback: End of march 2007 by e- mail. r June seminar to discuss annotated outline with small group??? r Discuss draft at Ireland Oct/November 2007 Workshop. r Present findings to the OECD Education Committee for comments. r Discuss final report in Final Conference March/April Dissemination – no budget!!!! r Final Comparative Report distribution r Develop short stand alone papers on assessment and recommendations for dissemination r Strongly encourage organisation of national dissemination events: We can help you with OECD presence and press dissemination.

7 THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS