1. Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair of International Leadership
“The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Review of School Leadership” Presentation made at the NUT Conference on
‘The Future of School Leadership’ London, Tuesday 1st May 2007
Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair of International Leadership 1

2. Today I will speak about….
Why school leadership is important at the policy level
What is the focus of the OECD study on school leadership
How we are contributing on the issue of ‘system leadership’

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

4. Why: Different responsibilities for leaders

5. Why: Evidence draws a challenging picture…
Is there enough capacity?
Shortages of high-qualified school leader candidates.
Australia: 92% of principals expected to retire/resign more than five years before they 'have to'. (Grady et al’s (1994))
Ontario, Canada: 75% of principals and > 40% vice principals expect to retire by 2007 (Williams, 2001)
England: 4/10 deputy/assistant principals: no plans to become a principal; 4/10 principals considering early retirement (Earley et al, 2002).
Many OECD countries don’t have any requirements for becoming principals.

6. Why: High priority in OECD education work
OECD countries want answers:
The OECD Teacher Policy Thematic Review (Teachers Matter, OECD, 2005)
Education Chief Executives’ Meeting, Copenhagen, Sept. 2005
Ranked #3 out of 29 activities for the Education Committee Programme of Work ( )

7. Why: 22 participants Australia Austria Belgium (French)
Belgium (Flanders)
Chile
Denmark
Finland
France
Hungary
Ireland
Israel
Korea
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom (England)
United Kingdom (N. Ireland)
United Kingdom (Scotland)

8. What: Our objective
To provide policy-makers with information and analysis to help them formulate and implement school leadership policies leading to improved teaching and learning. By:
Synthesising research on issues related to improving leadership in schools;
Identifying innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices;
Facilitating exchanges of lessons and policy options among countries; and
Identifying policy options for governments to consider.

9. What: Our view of school leadership
A broad view of leadership:
Rather than focusing on leaders as individuals
View that authority to lead can be distributed within schools and among different people.

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

11. What: Roles of school leadership
Role of school leadership under different governance structures
Demands on school leaders
Different roles and responsibilities of school leaders under different governance
Types of skills required
Is there a set of core competencies?
Promising policies and conditions for linking school leadership with improving school outcomes
Are demands on school leaders changing?
What are the different roles and responsibilities of school leaders under different governance structures?
What types of skills would be required from school leaders under different governance structures and in different contexts?
Are there in fact a set of core competencies that all school leaders need, independent of governance structure and community context, and if so, what are they?

12. What: Developing school leadership
How can effective school leadership be best developed and supported?
Should it be a career path? Types of profiles – pedagogical or other
Employment conditions
support structures
Type of training (pre-service, on the job, further training)
Types of institutions to develop school leaders
Employment conditions can be most supportive of school leaders’ careers?
support structures can be put in place to help school leaders do their job more effectively?
Type of training (pre-service, on the job, further training) and support seems likeliest to equip leaders with the requisite knowledge and skills to be successful?
What kind of partnerships between higher education institutions, non-governmental organisations and school will be required to produce and support the next generation of effective school leaders?

13. How: Methodology of the Activity
Analytical strand: Country Background Reports to focus on policies and structures that impact on the role and development of effective school leadership (January 2007)
Innovative practices strand: Case studies to innovative practices
New models of school organisation and management that distribute leadership roles and responsibilities in innovative ways (UK October 2006, Finland, January 2007; Belgium February 2007)
Promising programmes and practices to prepare and develop school leaders

14. How: Outputs of the Activity
Country Background Reports (2007)
School governance and leadership
Enhancing learning and school leadership
The attractiveness of school leadership
Training and professional development of school leaders

15. How: Outputs of the Activity
International workshops (2006 and 2007)
Expert papers
Selected case studies ( )
A final international conference (2008)
A final comparative report (2008)

16. 1 Workshop of participating countries:
1st meetings of the activity, London, 5-6 July, HSBC Headquarters: Contributed to clarify key questions on new and changing roles of school leaders.
1 Workshop of participating countries:
50 participants (28 national delegates, 9 international organisation, 8 experts) discussed the activity and country practices in this area.
Common agreement on the timeliness: According to countries OECD has become a catalyst for thinking on school leadership at a national level.
2 Workshop of participating countries: Brussels, 1-2 February 2007
Presentation of Country Background Reports
We had quite successful first formal meetings of the activity on Improving School Leadership last July in London, supported by a grant from the HSBC Education Trust and held in their headquarters. High level participation and outcomes were reached.
A short update on the workshop and the international conference.
Workshop: had numerous and qualitative participation, with countries, international organisations and experts sharing experiences and concerns. International conference (International perspectives on School Leadership for Systemic Improvement) explored the distribution of school leadership roles and responsibilities in innovative ways that lead to improved schooling outcomes. It was opened by UK Minister of State for Schools, Barbara and presentations from HSBC Chairman, Prof. Richard Elmore from Harvard and country innovative examples. Panels discussed implications of new and distributed roles for school leaders.
Overall, the activity is moving forward constructively and on schedule.

17. School Leadership for Systemic Improvement
“leadership for systemic improvement”: the distribution of school leadership roles and responsibilities to improve schooling outcomes.
Meaning still developing, and practice includes :
Leadership shared across schools so overall system improves;
Connection of systems of leaders to create culture and pool of expertise to support school improvement;
Collaboration of education/non-education organizations within the larger context to sharpen focus on school outcomes; and
Systemic interaction in schools of administrators/teachers/ students as learning communities in which leadership is distributed according to expertise and need.
Different approaches to the challenge of developing leadership across the system.

18. High Excellence High Equity – Raising the Bar and Narrowing the Gap
560
High excellence
Low equity
High excellence
High equity
Finland
540
U.K.
Canada
520
Japan
Korea
U.S.
Belgium
500
Switzerland
Spain
Mean performance in reading literacy
Germany
480
Poland
460
Low excellence
Low equity
Low excellence
High equity
440
420 60 80
100
120
140
200 – Variance (variance OECD as a whole = 100)
Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life

19. ‘Every School a Great School’ as an expression of moral purpose
What parents want is for their local school to be a great school.
(National Association of School Governors; Education and Skills Select Committee 2004).
The three system leadership commitments:
relentless focus on reducing within school variation;
collaborative working to eradicate between school variation;
the embracing of segmentation or lateral approaches since a focus on individual school improvement always distorts social equity.

20. Towards system wide sustainable reform
Prescription
Building Capacity
Professionalism
National Prescription
Every School a Great School
The real challenge we all face is to move the system from National Prescription  Schools Leading Reform.
As the Minister says, to move from a situation where Government delivers policy  to one that builds capacity.
This is not a chronological shift, it takes time and it is always a blend, but we want to shift the balance.
The aim is to go from a)  through b)  c). When at c) = High Excellence High Equity
Schools Leading Reform
System Leadership

21. 4 drivers mould to context through system leadership
Personalised
Learning
Professional
Teaching
SYSTEM
LEADERSHIP
Networks & Collaboration
Intelligent Accountability

22. The Logic of System Leadership
Learning Potential of all Students
Student Repertoire of Learning Skills
Teacher Repertoire - Models of Teaching
Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work
Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and
Pedagogic Consistency
Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and Between Schools, Clusters, Districts, LEAs and Nationally

23. 4 drivers mould to context through system leadership
Leading
Personalised
Learning
Below floor target
Success-ful
SYSTEM
LEADERSHIP
Professional
Teaching
Networks & Collaboration
Low attaining
Intelligent Accountability
Internal variation
Underperforming

24. Key strategies – responsive to context and need
Networking and Segmentation: Highly Differentiated Improvement Strategies
Type of School
Leading Schools
Succeeding, self-improving schools
Succeeding schools with internal variations
Underperforming schools
Low attaining schools
Below floor target
Key strategies – responsive to context and need
- Become leading practitioners
- Formal federation with lower-performing schools
- Regular local networking for school leaders
- Between school curriculum development
- Consistency interventions: such as AfL.
- Subject specialist support to particular depts.
- Linked school support for underperforming depts.
- Underperforming pupil programmes, e.g. catch-up.
- Formal support in Federation structure
- Consultancy in core subjects and best practice
- Intensive Support Programme
- New provider: e.g. Academy.

25. System Leadership: A Proposition
‘System leaders’ care about and work for the success of other schools as well as their own. They measure their success in terms of improving student learning and increasing achievement, and strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s). Crucially they are willing to shoulder system leadership roles in the belief that in order to change the larger system you have to engage with it in a meaningful way.’

26. System leaders share five striking characteristics, they:
measure their success in terms of improving student learning and strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).
are fundamentally committed to the improvement of teaching and learning.
develop their schools as personal and professional learning communities.
strive for equity and inclusion through acting on context and culture.
understand that in order to change the larger system you have to engage with it in a meaningful way.

27. Leadership as Adaptive Work
Technical Solutions
Adaptive Work
System Leadership
Technical problems can be solved through applying existing know how - adaptive challenges create a gap between a desired state and reality that cannot be closed using existing approaches alone

28. Lead and Improve a School in Challenging Circumstances
Act as a Community Leader
Work as a
Change Agent
Managing Teaching and Learning
Developing Organisations
Personal Development
Partner another School Facing Difficulties and Improve it
Moral Purpose
Lead a Successful Educational Improvement Partnership
Strategic Acumen
Developing People
Lead and Improve a School in Challenging Circumstances

29. System Leadership Roles
A range of emerging roles, including:
Lead a successful educational improvement partnership
Executive Headship or partnering another school facing difficulties i.e. run two or more schools (or ‘softer’ partnership)
Lead in extremely challenging circumstances or become an Academy Principal.
Civic or Community leadership to broker and shape partnerships across local communities to support welfare and potential.
Change agent or school leader able to identify best practice and then transfer and refine it to support improvement elsewhere.

30. Principles for System Transformation
Teaching and Learning
School Improvement
System
Leadership
System Wide Reform

31. So, for Transformation, System Leadership needs to be reflected at three levels:
System leadership at the school level – with, at essence, school principals becoming almost as concerned about the success of other schools as they are about their own.
System leadership at the local level – with practical principles widely shared and used as a basis for local alignment with specific programmes developed for the most at risk groups.
System leadership at the Government level – with social justice, moral purpose and a commitment to the success of every learner providing the focus for transformation.

32. Paulo Freire once said…
“No one educates anyone else
Nor do we educate ourselves
We educate one another in communion
In the context of living in this world”

33. Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair in International Leadership
David Hopkins was recently appointed to the inaugural HSBC Chair in International Leadership, where he supports the work of iNet, the International arm of the Specialist Schools Trust and the Leadership Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has also just been appointed a Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills. Previously, he was Chair of the Leicester City Partnership Board and Professor of Education, Head of the School, and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham. Before that again he was a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. Before becoming a civil servant he outlined his views on teaching quality, school improvement and large scale reform in Hopkins D. (2001) School Improvement for Real, London: Routledge / Falmer. His new book Every School a Great School has just been published by The Open University Press.