Reflections on the 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader

This self-assessment exercise was an eye opening experience.  As I was reading the assigned chapter, 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader (Marzano, Waters & McNulty, 2005), I was struck by the thought that every single one of those responsibilities seems equally important in developing an effective school leader.  I was also moved by the statistically significant correlation between many of these responsibilities and student academic achievement.  Finally, a research-based argument in favor of these responsibilities, that, without careful attention to them, student academic achievement would suffer.

In scoring the self-assessment, it was difficult to accurately determine strengths and weaknesses, as I have no real experience being a school principal.  To make this more relevant to my situation, I chose to rank what I would be most skilled in at the start, considering my interests, beliefs, and values about school leadership. I discovered that several of my strengths and interests ranked on the lower end of the scale of correlation with achievement, and vice versa: Several of my self-assessed weaknesses were closer to the top of the scale.  This was interesting, indeed.

Of the 21 responsibilities I ranked myself highest, the top seven included:  Change Agent, Ideals & Beliefs, Intellectual Stimulation, Optimizer, Resources, Input, and Involvement with Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment.  Of these, Change Agent, Resources, and Input rank almost exactly in the middle of the scale of correlation to student achievement.

At the bottom of the list, containing seven of my weakest attributes, included:  Discipline, Focus, Outreach, Relationships, Monitor/Evaluate, Order, and Affirmation.  Of these, Discipline, Outreach, and Monitor/Evaluate were those responsibilities showing the strongest correlation with student achievement, behind Situational Awareness and Flexibility!

What does this mean to me?  I conclude that all 21 of these responsibilities are very influential in achieving the goal of improved student learning and achievement.  That is why the job of a principal is such a tough one!  Looking at the correlation statistics, when weighed against my self-assessed rankings, I see that I need to further develop skills in Discipline, Outreach, and Monitor/Evaluate in order to more effectively impact student achievement. 

Reference

Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. (pp. 41-64). Denver, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. DOI: www.mcrel.org