educational leadership trends Essay Example

educational leadership trends Essay Example educational leadership trends Essay educational leadership trends Essay Educational Leadership Trends Todays school principals, assistant principals and administratorsface a quickly- changing educational environment. Keeping up with the latest educational trends is an important aspect of effective leadership. Just as professionals in every industry must anticipate whats coming next to stay ahead of the competition, principals must study educational trends and keep their skills and knowledge updated. Its clear: when the principal falls behind, students are more likely to follow suit. Managing trends can be tricky. Its not easy to differentiate a passing fad from a valuable new ay to communicate. And it seems that every week, the next big thing to improve the business of educating students comes along. But its also true that many trends have great value and real staying power. One example is the Internet first dismissed by some which has been embraced by nearly all educators. Currently emerging trends like social media, the increasing use of technologyand performance- based teacher pay, could also be here to stay. So why not brush up on whats happening now in the fast-paced world of education? Principals: Expand Your Network Through Twitter Twitter is a great way for principals to develop relationships with supporters, fellow educators and even news organizations. Creating an account is easy and with a few keystrokes, you can connect with education professionals from coast to coast and around the world. Imagine developing a relationship with a principal in France and arranging for a Skype presentation to your French classes! Interactions like this take place every day in classrooms across the country. Does Your School Have a Blog? Blogging is another method to advance your profile as a principal. The main purpose f writing a blog is providing interesting and useful information to your audience; a common side effect is that a sense of community is created. Interacting with parents and teachers through a blog is one of the best ways to communicate your message while you discover what your audience is really thinking. Communicate Quickly Through Text Messages Text messaging to students and parents cell phones is an instant way to convey important, time-sensitive information. School emergencies and weather-related delays can be announced directly to the people who need to know whats happening. Clearly, social media is not going away. Principals who embrace these tools can improve communication and expand resources available to students. Another Emerging Trend: Aligning Teacher Pay with Positive Outcomes The Obama administration is providing over one billion dollars to The Teacher Incentive Fund, which it hopes will increase the number of top-notch teachers in the nations neediest classrooms. Through school reforms like performance pay for teachers, some believe educators will work harder to achieve results. Teachers might receive bonuses for mentoring their peers, improving student achievement or teaching in troubled schools. Several states and the District of Columbia are launching new regulations to tie teacher salaries to student test scores or other merit-based pay plans. The idea is not without controversy; teachers unions are fighting performance well planned. But with states Wing for federal dollars that require merit pay, its one educational trend thats likely to stick around at least in the near term. The Trend Toward Increasing Technology in the Classroom Harnessing the increasing availability of high-tech tools will be vital to delivering quality education to upcoming generations of students. Major educational trends hat principals need to keep up with include increasing use of computers and the Internet in the classroom, unprecedented access to mobile computing devices and preparing teachers to take advantage of educational technology. The classroom can now come to any computer anywhere, facilitating learning through 2417 access to lectures, how-to videos and podcasts. Another great way to support distance learning is by sharing presentations through sites like Slideshare. And online interactive whiteboards make it easy for students and teachers to collaborate, no matter where they might be. Education: Current Trends and Issues Print Collect It! Email By G. Olsen I M. L. Fuller Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall Updated on Jul 20, 2010 As we have seen, public policy can drive the issues that create a cultural climate looking for change. Several issues that are finding platforms for discussion among politicians, teachers, and communities could provoke changes in the next few years. The trends we currently see in family support services are: States adopting a variety of tax credits for working families giving them help with childcare and in-home care expenses (Hirschhorn Donahue, 2006) Family-leave policies, allowing both parents pportunities to spend time with newborn babies in the early formative years of infancy Flexible work schedules and Job-sharing opportunities for parents who want to continue on their career path Internet and media control legislation to assure parents that children will not view or find inappropriate materials while using these media for learning Improvement in the quality and availability of infant and toddler care Educational trends and research that we will see in the coming years include: Standards-based education, focusing on outcomes for student learning (Schumacher, Irish, Lombardi, 2003) Full-day kindergarten providing more time for in-class experiential learning (Walston West, 2004) Research on the economic impact of the chil d-care industry and its effect on the local community; employment needs are identified to maintain a workforce (Rolnick Grunewald, 2003). Prekindergarten opportunities for every four-year-old in the United States, the universal Pre-K movement (Pre[K] Now, 2006) National School Readiness Indicators Initiative, creating a set of measurable indicators defining school readiness (Getting Ready, February 005) Quality Rating Systems, a system of rating the quality of child-care programs that is tied to incentives and reimbursement rates (NCCIC, June 2002) TEACH, professional development for early-care and early-education teachers tied to education and training incentives (TEACH, 2004) Early childhood assessment, looking at appropriate assessments spurred on by the debate surrounding the Head Start National Reporting System assessment (Horton Bowman, 2001). Gubernatorial used in measuring the quality of early childhood programs (Harms, Clifford, Cryer, 1998)