...Organizational School Climate Perceptions from Teachers and Principals Name Institution Date Organizational Climate Various academic reformers and researchers have advanced differing definitions of organizational climate yet in all the advanced definitions, the components of an organizational climate seem to be similar. Freiberg and Stein (1999) points to thesis that school climate is the soul and the heart of a learning institution, that is the component of a school that motivates the principal, teachers and the students to be allured to the school and love to stay and always be associated by the school and its environment. The metaphorical reference to a school climate underscores its significance; it gratifies and motivates the school members a feeling of comfort with and without the college, and thus any attributes regarding the school. In lieu of this, the school climate is the aspect of the school that offers it life as well as revealing cherished values of the college. The concepts of organizational climate deals with the perception of the members of the staff about the environment in which they work (Grayson & Alvarez, 2008). This surrounding is influenced and affected by the administration skills projected by the school management which is in turn translated to the motivation and the demeanor of the whole staff membership (Loukas & Murphy, 2011). In a more straight forward way, a climate would refer to...
Words: 4846 - Pages: 20
...Running head: SCHOOL CULTURE ANALYSIS School Culture Analysis Lisa Mack Grand Canyon University EDA 529 Dr. Tony Elmer July 21, 2009 School Culture Analysis The term school culture describes the environment that affects the behavior of the entire school community. School culture can be defined as the quality and character of school life. It is based on patterns of school life experiences and reflects norms, goals, values, relationships, teaching, leadership practices and the structure of the organization. Several studies have concurred that student performance is directly related to school climate. Students in schools with a positive school culture have higher achievements. Therefore, creating and maintaining a positive school culture should be essential to the role of school administrator. Good schools depend on a strong sense of purpose and leadership (MacNeil & Maclin, n.d.). Principals must steer their staff, students, and community in a common direction in an effort to establish a set of norms, goals, and objectives that describes their vision of learning and the overall objective of the school. A school administrator has a strong influence on shaping a schools culture (MacNeil & Maclin). Once a strong school culture is established, it tends to act as a powerful socializer of thought and programmer of behavior (MacNeil & Maclin). Yet, shaping and creating such a culture does not just inexplicably happen. It requires a negotiation...
Words: 1652 - Pages: 7
...Learning Culture Strategy EDU 647 School Operations Submitted To: N/A Graduate Studies in Education N/A ***** University Student Name Address Phone Date Learning Culture Description School climate and culture are critical elements to school performance. The Michigan State University brief School Climate and Learning noted, “The terms school culture and school climate describes the environment that affects the behavior of teachers and students. School culture reflects the shared ideas, assumptions, values, and beliefs that give an organization its identity and standard for expected behaviors. (Michigan State University, 2004, p.1). A school’s learning culture is shaped by various collective experiences, both successes and failures. The learning experiences of students are a reflection of the norms, practices and policies of the school developed as a result of such shared experiences. The following is a snapshot of a local middle school learning environment in Jacksonville, FL. Fletcher Middle School (FMS) has a long tradition of cooperation with surrounding schools, strong partnerships with local community stakeholders and benefits from a high level of parental support. FMS is an attractive, well maintained campus serving to Beaches communities and provides educational services for over 1,200 students (Fletcher Middle School Improvement Plan, 2009, para.3). FMS has an experienced and dedicated staff of seventy faculty and four full time administrators...
Words: 1304 - Pages: 6
...aspects of life, human relations and communication play a pivotal role. They allow for the simplest exchanges and the most profound and powerful ability to make progress and improvements. They carry the weight of ideas, opinions, motivations, and concerns. Human relations and the ability to communicate effectively are the catalyst for connectivity and progress. This is especially true in the arena of education. With so many people involved in the day to day running of a school, positive communication is paramount. Within the field of education, specifically educational leadership, there is a broad history of human relation and communication theories, movements, and practices. While some of these theories, movements, and practices have been widely adopted and promoted, the field of educational leadership still allows for significant amounts of autonomy and express for individual school leaders and administrative teams. While human relations have always existed, the study and application of these principles are fairly new; and it was not until the late 19th century that researchers began exploring how human relations, communication, and motivation affected workers (Razik & Swawnson, 2010). When looking specifically at human relations and its applications to educational administration, this field of study promotes the reduction of employee discrepancies with leadership/management and the promotion of improvement and resolution via problem solving (Razik & Swawnson, 2010). Within...
Words: 2842 - Pages: 12
...aspects of life, human relations and communication play a pivotal role. They allow for the simplest exchanges and the most profound and powerful ability to make progress and improvements. They carry the weight of ideas, opinions, motivations, and concerns. Human relations and the ability to communicate effectively are the catalyst for connectivity and progress. This is especially true in the arena of education. With so many people involved in the day to day running of a school, positive communication is paramount. Within the field of education, specifically educational leadership, there is a broad history of human relation and communication theories, movements, and practices. While some of these theories, movements, and practices have been widely adopted and promoted, the field of educational leadership still allows for significant amounts of autonomy and express for individual school leaders and administrative teams. While human relations have always existed, the study and application of these principles are fairly new; and it was not until the late 19th century that researchers began exploring how human relations, communication, and motivation affected workers (Razik & Swawnson, 2010). When looking specifically at human relations and its applications to educational administration, this field of study promotes the reduction of employee discrepancies with leadership/management and the promotion of improvement and resolution via problem solving (Razik & Swawnson, 2010). Within...
Words: 2862 - Pages: 12
...for Successful Schools: The Norm Supervision for Successful Schools: The Norm Judarrah Hawkins Grand Canyon University (EDA551) May 22, 2012 Introduction Can you imagine happy faces; can do attitudes, and leaders helping staff? School cultures are important to the success of a school but can be very difficult to establish and maintain. In order to establish a successful school culture the leader should understand the basic leadership theories and styles. The type of leadership style is important. Many schools in America can be classified in one of the following three categories: conventional, congenial, or collegial. These classifications can be decided by observing the way the school make decisions, react to stakeholders, the delivery of instruction, and the way the leader does their job. Throughout this essay the reader will understand the difference between the three styles. One school will be classified according to different criteria and determined whether the school and its leader is conventional, congenial or collegial. By the end of this essay the reader will understand the type of supervisory climate that exist on the campus of the chosen school and what category should be the norm in education. What are the Three Categories? There are three categories that exist when discussing the style of a principal and a school. Each category can produce different outcomes. Conventional schools are easily recognized...
Words: 1084 - Pages: 5
... Are Principal evaluations a true assessments of their leadership abilities? EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Are principals’ evaluations a true assessment of their leadership abilities? Throughout this policy brief, justifications for principal evaluations are given, and the evaluation model is explained. Furthermore, a case is built to justify why the evaluation model needs to be reexamined to better represent a principal’s ability to positively lead a school. In addition, suggestions are given to adequately reflect principals’ abilities as leaders and to improve the overall effectiveness of the Tennessee evaluation process of administrators. Justifications for Evaluations Just as teachers should be rated by the performance of their students, principals should be rated by the performance of their schools. Quality school leaders can set high expectations for instructional practices and for creating positive learning environments. They can help improve instruction, and they can build a climate where teachers trust and find value in their own evaluations. In contrast, weak school leaders can wear away the overall school quality by not demanding or supporting excellence. “Principals exert indirect influences on student achievement through their effect on school climate”(Leeper, Tonneson & Xu, 2013). Assessing a school principal’s performance is both necessary and challenging. A principal’s impact is extremely significant because the actions a leader take creates a school environment...
Words: 1227 - Pages: 5
...supervising instruction in most school districts is a deficiency model, whereby supervisors take on the role of "snoopervisor," visiting classrooms to judge what they observe. As a beginning teacher, I grew accustomed to token visits from my principal whose standard advice was that if I kept an orderly room and maintained student behavior, all would go well for me. Never was there any dialogue about the substance of my lessons. Since he rarely visited my classroom, I assumed I was doing all right. Toward the end of my 15 years as a teacher, circumstances changed. The new principal assigned to my building believed the time spent on instructional supervision should benefit not only me, but also my students and the principal himself. Post-observation talks with this principal were just that--talks. He encouraged conversation by asking me open-ended questions about specific aspects of my lesson--why I chose certain strategies over others, what went through my mind during the planning stage of a particular lesson, and so on. All teachers in my school realized this principal expected us to reflect on our teaching and that we could expect him to engage us in post-observation talk that was collegial and nonjudgmental. We also realized that working with teachers on instruction was important to this principal, yet none of us ever felt threatened because we sensed his genuine interest in helping us be the best that we could be. Do supervisors in most schools today help teachers modify their...
Words: 1186 - Pages: 5
...standards for schools. To enforce these standards, legislatures are creating high-stakes assessment systems that hold schools accountable for student achievement. In response to this initiative the president of the United States, Barack Obama, has created an initiative called “Race to the top”. This program was developed to give school districts financial incentives to improve failing schools and motivate educators about attaining these expectations. In addition, this “race to the top” initiative will increase the emphasis of accountability on teachers and school leaders. More than ever, in today’s climate of heightened expectations, principals are in the hot seat. They are being scrutinized on their ability to improve teaching and learning. They need to be educational visionaries, instructional and curriculum leaders, assessment experts, disciplinarians, community builders, public relations experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special programs administrators, and expert overseers of legal, contractual, and policy mandates and initiatives. They are expected to broker the often-conflicting interests of parents, teachers, students, district office officials, unions, and state and federal agencies, and they need to be sensitive to the widening range of student needs. A principal is usually held accountable in formal and informal ways for school outcomes by their superintendent, the school board, the staff, and the parents. The primary administrative role of a principal is hiring...
Words: 3467 - Pages: 14
...at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Teachers’ critical incidents: Ethical dilemmas in teaching practice Orly Shapira-Lishchinsky 1 Department of Educational Administration, Leadership and Policy, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 21 March 2010 Received in revised form 10 November 2010 Accepted 11 November 2010 The aim of this study is to explore ethical dilemmas in critical incidents and the emerged responses that these incidents elicit. Most teachers try to suppress these incidences because of the unpleasant feelings they evoke. Fifty teachers participated in the study. A three-stage coding process derived from grounded theory was utilized. A taxonomy of critical incidents by means of the ATLAS.ti 5.0 revealed a multifaceted model of ethical dilemmas, among them clashing with rules, standards, or norms in school, as well as a multitude of derived responses. The results encourage the development of educational programmes based on teachers’ critical incidents. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Teaching Ethics Ethical knowledge Ethical dilemmas Schools 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical background Teachers deal with many ethical problems in their practice. They encounter issues such as inappropriate allocation of resources, situations in which pupils are being discussed inappropriately, and irresponsible...
Words: 10192 - Pages: 41
...Running head: School Environment 1 School Environment Stacy Paris Grand Canyon University: EDU 575 September 10, 2014 School Environment School Environment Analysis 2 The environment of a school is very complex. There are many elements to consider such as; student demographics, school climate, community environment, geographic location and political climate, and the instructional program. All of these are areas that deserve careful consideration as they influence the perceptions of a school and weather learning does or does not take place in that school. School leadership must use data to identify problem areas, develop possible solutions for these problems, analyze the feasibility and then apply these solutions. Adjustments must be made along the way to ensure that progress is continual. In the case of the target school, more careful consideration is needed in the areas of its instructional program, the school climate, and the political environment. In the following paragraphs, each element will be examined and possible solutions to problem areas will be identified. Environmental and Contextual Factors The target school is a free, public charter school in its fourth year. It consists of two campuses located roughly two miles apart. The primary campus houses one class of 3K (private pay), one class of 4K (private pay) and four classes of 5K students. The elementary campus is made up of four first grade classrooms, four second grade classrooms, four third...
Words: 1327 - Pages: 6
...certificates. School districts have developed professional development systems that provide teachers with opportunities to complete these recertification requirements through inservice trainings, also called continued education (Council, 2008). A principal on the other hand not only has to keep up with their professional development, but is also required to provide continuing education opportunities for the teachers on the staff at their school. At the start of the 2014 school year Florida is required to fully implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a state-led effort to establish a common set of expectations across states for what K-12 students are expected to know and be able to do in English language arts and math (Anderson, Harrison, & Lewis, 2012). School leaders can facilitate a smooth CCSS transition through professional development opportunities. When exploring professional development options a principal should focus on three important areas. These areas are a knowledgeable presenter, student achievement outcomes, as well as best practices (Educational Training Specialists, 2010). Knowledgeable Presenter Quality professional development that leads to school improvement is one of the most important influences on student achievement that occurs in school districts. The hiring of outside sources is impersonal. Research posits that improving collaboration, community, and professionalism among teachers is needed (Sergiovanni, 1996). With that, principals can...
Words: 1413 - Pages: 6
...Administrator’s Role in School Culture NAME Grand Canyon University: UNV 501 04/24/2013 The Administrator’s Role in School Culture “School culture has been described as being similar to the air we breathe. No one notices it unless it becomes foul” (Freiberg, 1998). Culture within schools can create an environment where learning is positive, or it can put serious constraints on the school’s ability to function. Whether you work in a school, in a doctor’s office, or in a major company, employees prefer to work in an environment that is engaging and fulfilling. How does a principal create an environment conducive to learning in today’s society? After reading my articles and reflecting on my own experience, a principal’s role and responsibility in a school is multifaceted. A principal must guarantee classroom instruction is aligned to state standards, design instruction that promotes student success in the 21st century, maintain improvements on the campus, develop meaningful partnerships with all stakeholders; all while developing a culture where everyone feels appreciated. An effective principal has many roles and responsibilities while creating an environment that encourages learning and is engaging for students, teachers and staff. Without a doubt, a principal must embrace all of these roles and responsibilities as they are important factors in leading a school to produce positive results. However, creating a positive culture in school is imperative in welcoming...
Words: 539 - Pages: 3
...Running head: School Improvement School Improvement |School Improvement Team | |Members |Principal, Assistant Principal, Guidance Councilor, 1 Teacher from | | |each grade level, Ell Teacher, Special Education Teacher, Parent, | | |Math coach, Literacy Coach, Curriculum Director | |Objectives |1. All Students at Williamson Elementary will Score a 400 or better | | |on the Ohio Achievement Assessment in reading by the spring of 2012 | | |to show Adequate Yearly Progress. | | |2. All Students at Williamson Elementary will Score a 400 or better | | |on the Ohio Achievement Assessment in math by the spring of 2012 to | | |show Adequate Yearly Progress. | | |3. Williamson Elementary School will improve student...
Words: 686 - Pages: 3
...types of teacher leaders and examine their possible roles in our schools and effect on our educational system. Herein, I focus on the teacher leadership qualities of collaboration, ethics, trust, vision, decisiveness, and thirst for knowledge. Furthermore, I present the notion that teacher are the heart of change, not only because they are the people who instill the change but through shared leadership model it. In achieving this aim, I describe how leadership qualities can facilitate educational reform centered on the present generation of learners. Introduction In this modern era of change and educational accountability, the role of school manager has grown in complexity and many school administrators welcome the effective collaboration of teacher leaders. Many principals find that administrative and accountability tasks can take their time and energy away from being effective educational leaders. The volume of paperwork and the multifaceted nature of the problems to be solved are increasing. It is difficult for school leaders to offer adequate assistance and guidance to teachers who want to experiment and find new ways to engage their students. The school leader may not have the expertise to advise teachers about instruction, curriculum, procedure, new practices, and new technologies (Harrison & Killion, 2007). Furthermore, within the school environment, there is great emphasis on implementing new policies, promoting improvement goals, and documenting student achievement...
Words: 2296 - Pages: 10
