Improving School Leadership 1 st Workshop of Participating Countries Beatriz Pont Education and Training Policy Division Workshop of National Coordinators July 5, 2006

Purpose of the meeting r Share information on progress in the activity, from OECD and countries perspective r Clarify methodology and calendar r Raise common issues of concern r Explore other relevant work in this field r Agenda

Improving School leadership: Update on the activity r Objectives r Content r Methodology r Timeline r Outputs r Who we are

High priority in OECD Education work r OECD Teacher Policy Thematic Review (Teachers Matter, OECD, 2005) r Education Chief Executives’ Meeting, Copenhagen, Sept r Ranked #3 out of 20 Education Directorate activities in the recent Education Committee meeting (March 2006)

High priority in OECD Education work: 20 participating countries/regions (June 2006) Australia Austria Belgium (Flanders) Chile Denmark Finland France Hungary Ireland Israel Korea The Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom (England) United Kingdom (Scotland)

Why is it important? Rising expectations of schools and schooling (knowledge economy, globalisation, migration, decentralisation…) From teachers with additional responsibilities to full time managers of human and financial resources: l Instructional leadership l Staff evaluation l Budget management l Performance assessment l Community relations l Held accountable for results THE SUPER PRINCIPAL

Changing responsibilities of school leadership But, principals’ development has not been a priority in school reform agendas until recently: r Shortages of high-qualified school leader candidates. r Australia: 92% of principals expected to retire/resign more than five years before they 'have to'. (Grady et al’s (1994)) r Ontario, Canada: 75% of principals and > 40% vice principals expect to retire by 2007 (Williams, 2001) r England: 4/10 deputy/assistant principals: no plans to become a principal; 4/10 principals considering early retirement (Earley et al, 2002). Quality school leadership: find ways to make school leadership an attractive career (incentive structure to attract and retain those on the job)

The objective of the activity To provide information and analysis to help policy makers in formulating and implementing school leadership policies leading to improved teaching and learning. Objectives: r to synthesise research on issues related to improving leadership in schools; r to identify innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices; r to facilitate exchanges of lessons and policy options among countries; r to identify policy options for governments to consider.

Key Issues to respond to  What are the roles and responsibilities of school leadership  How to best develop effective school leadership

Roles of school leadership Role of school leadership under different governance structures r Demands on school leaders r Different roles and responsibilities of school leaders under different governance r Types of skills required r Is there a set of core competencies? r Promising policies and conditions for linking school leadership with improving school outcomes

Developing school leadership How can effective school leadership be best developed and supported? r Should it be a career path? Types of profiles – pedagogical or other r Employment conditions r support structures r Type of training (pre-service, on the job, further training) r Types of institutions to develop school leaders

The methodology Analytical strand Country Background Reports : Policies and structures that impact on the role and development of effective school leadership Innovative practices strand: Case studies of innovative practices to complement analytical strand 1) New models of school organisation and management that distribute leadership roles and responsibilities in innovative ways 2) Promising programmes and practices to prepare and develop school leaders

The methodology Additional research PISA data analysis: explore PISA questionnaire for school principals in collaboration with Indicators and Analysis Division. Links school principals questionnaire to students variables (school engagement, motivation and attitudes and performance) in

The timeline Calendar 1-4q q q q q q q 2008 Tasks Participating countries prepare Country Background Reports Activity workshop and international conference n. 1 Organisation of 1st set of case studies and visits Organisation of 2nd set of case studies and visits Activity workshop and international seminar n. 2 Final international conference Delivery of comparative report

Outputs of the Activity r Country Background Reports (2006) r International workshops (2006 and 2007) r Expert papers/reports r Selected case studies ( ) r A final international conference (2008) r A final comparative report (2008) r An activity website:

The staff Beatriz Pont – Education and Training Policy Division Fani Stylianidou – OECD Consultant, Hunter Moorman – OECD Consultant, Ross Wilkins - Assistant

Thank you very much.