Schools that exist today and thrive are those that recognize that educational leadership is a collaborative venture.  Schools should bring parents, students, teachers, and administrators together to form a vision that prepares students for adult life so that they may be self directed, problem solvers. These goals are achieved by cooperatively and democratically attending to the intellectual and developmental needs of every student. Thomas J. Sergiovanni, a Professor of Education at Trinity University, in San Antonio, Texas wrote that "Covenantal communities have at their center shared ideas, principles, and purposes that provide a powerful source of authority for leadership practice. In covenantal communities the purpose of leadership is to create a shared followership. Leaders in covenantal communities function as head followers" (2000, p.167). A good leader who can foster the implementation of meaningful change, and who has the ability to work with others to create working and learning environments that  foster individual motivation and success.

Schools need to be structured in a way that allows for authentic learning on the part of our students. Curriculums need to be designed in a way that draws upon the connections between education and the personal experience of the student. John Dewey, the great educational theorist noted that "one of the weightiest problems of education is the isolation of the curriculum from life experience" (1916,p.11). Teaching subjects in the abstract does not promote true authentic learning. Students need to become actively engaged in the learning process to gain true meaning. This type of learning environment allows the student to create natural problem solving activities and allows for social interaction and collaboration with others. Their curiosity and questions need to be rewarded and not looked upon as an annoyance. We need to get away from the past ways where information was learned and all that was needed were memorized facts for the test. Michael Gelb, the author of How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci said it best when he wrote "although we all started life with a Da Vinci-like insatiable curiosity, most of us learned, once we got to school, that answers were more important than questions" (Gelb,1998,p.65). We also need to keep in mind that students need to be heterogeneously grouped like they would in the real world so they can work together almost as peer mentors.

The role of the teacher is dramatically changed in this type of environment.  No longer the "sage on the stage" imparting facts to be learned for the test the teachers now encourage the learners to question, challenge and formulate their own ideas, opinions and conclusions. Working as a guide or even co-explorer the teacher moderates and makes suggestions to the class. Alfie Kohn, a modern educational theorist probably said it best when he wrote "it requires a set of skills related to teaching itself, such as asking open-ended questions and creating an environment where students can make their own sense of things. ...Any kind of teaching that's more rigorous and demanding of students is likely to be so for teachers, too" (Kohn, 2000, p.185). Teachers also need to work collaboratively with fellow teachers and students on thematic units that draw the interdisciplinary units together. These units should include higher order thinking that includes problem solving and gives the student the opportunity to apply their past knowledge to future learning experiences.

The curriculum that a school designs needs to be sequential to benefit the learner's needs and not as any type of convenience for the administration. A spiral curriculum that uses what comes out of present experience as the groundwork for wider and richer future experiences. Every effort should be made to break away from a fragmented curriculum that has teachers teaching every subject in nice neat individual compartments. The only way to succeed in doing this type of curriculum is to create opportunities for both vertical and horizontal articulation between staff members. This will improve coherence between grade levels in specific subjects and it will also help define the interrelationships between the various subject areas.

The way that students are evaluated needs to be as authentic as possible. I am not necessarily saying that we need to completely replace tests or even grades.  However, in 1995 a coalition of educational organizations called the National Forum on Assessment proposed a principal that said "The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning" (National Forum on Assessment, 1995, p.6). Assessment should be as varied as possible and should include such formats as student teacher conferences, portfolios, performances, graphic organizers, informal observations and artifacts. It can also include casual conversations between a teacher and a student to make determinations along the way. We need to remember that assessment is a way to evaluate student performance. It shouldn't be used as a way to judge a students success or failure but as a way to help them improve their learning. True assessment should be used as an indicator of areas of study that need to be readdressed by the teacher or the student. Standardized testing should also be used to improve teacher and student performance. This testing should never include norm reference criteria that judges one student against another student but more a criterion referenced test that would only improve student learning.

Technology should be used as a tool in our schools to enhance the teaching and learning experience. We should never invest in technology for its own sake. Rather we should choose our technology as wisely as we can and use it well to support our educational goals. It should be viewed as a wonderful educational tool in much the same way as other media forms.

Leaders of today need to be democratic in their leadership and view our schools as communities made up of parents, teachers, students and administrators.Effective leaders need to build a school community that is based on trust among its members. Authentic leaders also need to lead by example. School staff will be more likely to follow someone who has a clear vision, is very ethical, and clearly cares about their staff and the ideas of the staff. This has to be achieved in a very sincere way or the staff won't really follow a leader. Robert Evans has said in his book entitled the authentic leader that "Leaders who are followed are authentic; that is they are distinguished not by their techniques or styles but by their integrity and savvy. Integrity is a fundamental consistency between personal beliefs, organizational aims, and working behavior" (Evans,2000, p.288).

Our schools need to be learning environments for everyone where the goals are always toward learning and improvement. We need to keep in mind what Peter Senge wrote in the book entitled Educational Leadership that "the organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels of the organization" (Senge, 2000, p.14).

Sources

Collaboration. (Online image) June 28, 2004. Available http://www.drugdesign.com/collaborations.html

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York:Simon and Shuster.

Evans, R. (2000). The Authentic Leader. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Gelb, M.J. (1998). How to think like Leonardo da Vinci. New York:Delta Trade Paperbacks.

Kohn, A. (1999). The schools our children deserve.New York:Houghton Mifflin Company.

National Forum on Assessment Report (1995).

Senge, P.M. (2000). Give me a lever long enough...and single-handed I can move the world. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Sergiovanni, T. (2000). The lifeworld of Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.