Organizational Leadership : Knowledge and Skills for K-12 Success

The purpose of Organizational Leadership: Knowledge and Skills for K-12 Success is to provide the reader with the foundational knowledge and skills that are necessary to become an effective educational leader. The topics addressed in this book are based on the content knowledge and professional skills that are found in the ELCC Building Level Standards. These standards also serve as the foundation of the course content of our accredited and nationally recognized by CAEP Master’s Degree Program in Educational Leadership. Each chapter in this book is based on the knowledge and professional leadership skills presented in each of the courses in our M.Ed. Leadership degree program here in the College of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

This book targets both current and aspiring educational leaders. Current leaders could use this book as a reference to refine their educational leadership knowledge and skills. Educational leader preparation programs will find that this book could be assigned as a textbook for aspiring educational leaders as an informative guide so that they can better understand the characteristics and concepts of effective school leadership.

The topics addressed in Organizational Leadership: Knowledge and Skills for K-12 Success will provide the reader with variety of organizational leadership knowledge and skills. Chapter 1, Organizing a Just School in the Age of Accountability presents Rawl’s concept of justice which states that all students have freedom to learn and freedom to learn in a manner that best suits the learning style of the student. The chapter also discusses the roles that each of the domains of knowing plays in the teaching and learning process. Educators must realize that learning involves more than just the cognitive domain and that the attributes of the affective and psychomotor domains must be merged with it. The process for developing a School Improvement Plan (SIP) is discussed in Chapter 2. In this chapter the reader will learn that a SIP is a necessary element which guides the school improvement process. Chapter 3 defines the meaning and purpose of a school vision. The reader will learn in this chapter, how to use data to guide the process of creating a school vision. The fourth chapter of this book addresses the topic of community engagement and focuses on how schools should develop communication plans to effectively communicate with the people in the community it serves. Chapter 5, Inspiring and Leading the Change Process, deals with the change process, school climate and culture, and teacher efficacy. In the sixth chapter, Systems Alignment, the reader will learn about the need to align district and building level policies with state and federal rules and regulations. In chapter 7, School Leadership and the Law: A Field Guide for Instructional Leaders, important topics such as constitutional rights of students and employees, free speech, religion, and special education are discussed.