In any society, education serves as an “instrument of subsistence” for its members. The primary role of education is to equip all individuals with the essential tools to become productive members of society. Education should further serve as a vehicle that creates opportunities and maximizes “life chances” for each individual. In an ever-changing and fast-paced global economy, developing critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills is crucial. Education must foster a desire for inquiry, exploration and discovery, while generating and nurturing a passion for lifelong learning. A school must embody responsibility for safety, providing a safe haven where students feel accepted and able to take risks. Diversity must be accepted and every child must feel celebrated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Although education is considered primarily for its contribution to job placement, it also serves to function in a society as: owner of the socialization process, transmitter and transformer of the social personality, and historian - storyteller of cultural heritage. Superintendence: strategic, educational, operational and political leadership. Public education aims to ensure “equal” access to quality education, leveling the playing field for all individuals to succeed throughout their lives. . This is no small feat and a huge responsibility! Leaders in the professional education community have an increasingly challenging and demanding job, the primary goal of which is to maximize the potential of every child. While a leader is simply defined as “someone who guides or directs others,” the role of school district leader is described as much more comprehensive. The responsibility of a district-level leader is to “develop, advocate, facilitate, articulate, collaborate, respond, collect and analyze data, and design and implement programs” (Green, p. 26). Embodying these responsibilities and challenges, the role of superintendent involves leadership of the entire school district! The superintendent may be credited with progress or discredited if he or she lacks progress toward achieving a district's educational mission, short-term goals, and long-term vision. This immense charge encompasses four distinct areas of leadership that a superintendent must manage: strategic, instructional, operational, and policy. Continuous improvement is an essential organ in the growth body of any organization. This is particularly true in education because the good produced is human (skills, attitudes, attributes, and competencies) and high stakes (lifelong implications). A superintendent must embrace strategic leadership with a growth mindset, a keen sense of opportunity, and a commitment to making changes that benefit STUDENTS and the organization. This requires the use of progress monitoring and evaluation tools to determine whether a program, policy, practice, or implementation plan is effective and supports a district's current vision and priorities. The strategic leadership lens requires a superintendent to consider these two key questions: Is the organization making appropriate progress in achieving the school's vision (specific to academic achievement, school culture , student safety, continuous improvement, etc.)? If not, what action steps can the district take to maximizeprogress and fill deficits where they currently exist? Before committing to a cycle of change, a superintendent should seek to understand district dynamics by considering variables such as student performance data, staff configurations, sources of pride and concerns, norms, culture current and cultural history, traditions, etc. Additionally, the superintendent must listen, observe, ask questions, score and develop adequate assessment tools to identify growth opportunities spanning the organization in areas such as: organization, curriculum and education, budget and finance, human resources, facilities, transportation and political relations with stakeholders. Finally, a superintendent must possess, demonstrate and employ strategic leadership skills, taking a long-term approach to problem solving and decision-making through trend and data analysis. These skills include the ability to identify, clarify and resolve issues that hinder the achievement of the common goal, both in the short and long term. Regardless of the organization's area of ​​focus, strategic leadership begins with recognizing that an opportunity for change exists within the organization. . Once identified, the superintendent should invest time and energy to develop a thorough understanding of the current situation, involving as many stakeholders as possible in the exploration. Detailed, specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented and time-bound action plans should be agreed to be implemented as a "strategic action", but only after the stakeholder team has developed a common understanding of the problem to be solved. A collaborative partnership with stakeholders in the action plan phase is crucial for developing ownership and accountability for faculty, staff, and families (where applicable). It also promotes a greater likelihood of successful implementation of the action plan, initiative or solution. The implementation of any strategic action must be followed by an evaluation period. The superintendent and stakeholder groups should determine a timeline for benchmarking and then explore: 1) Did the strategic action generate gains? If so, the superintendent should lead the celebration of his success, regardless of the measure of value added! 2) If the strategic action did not result in gains, the team should use the evaluation process as an opportunity to fill unforeseen gaps in the solution model. An effective strategic leadership model is recursive, providing the superintendent and school district with a model for continuous improvement. . This model also lends itself as a scaffold and natural transition into the development of a strategic planning tool, the School Improvement Plan – which provides insight into current levels of achievement and the plan to achieve desired levels of efficiency, efficiency and competence in academic areas. success.A superintendent serves as the educational leader for a district, from K-12, and across all content areas! Although this leadership responsibility may be distributed and shared with leaders in other roles, the superintendent is ultimately the primary learner and responsible for ensuring that the district has a viable curriculum, solid teaching practices with continuous assessment practices, respectful and rigorous tasks for all learners (including adults!) and an environmentsafe and supportive learning experience. A superintendent's instructional leadership must be strategic by design. Academic performance data must be leveraged to fuel and drive change in teaching practices and pedagogy. A data-driven teaching cycle includes the elements of assessment, analysis, and action. It is a key framework for examining a district-wide systems approach to student success and allows a district to identify strengths and target areas of deficit. It is the responsibility of district leaders to use data from multiple measures and develop action plans to close achievement gaps. Superintendents, designees and/or educational teams may identify deficits in the following areas: viable curriculum and programming, vertical and/or horizontal alignment of a program's scope and sequence, commitment , educational delivery models of support and/or extension, evaluation, rigor. teaching, etc. An identified deficit area may prompt consideration of numerous action steps, which may have implications for teachers and teachers, which may require professional development. In John Hattie's review of more than 1,200 meta-analyses, the two main variables correlated with student achievement were teachers' expectations of student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Since Hattie's original work in 2009, effect sizes have not changed significantly over time. This is compelling research and evidence suggesting that educational leaders need to build teachers' capacities to implement highly engaging teaching and work with a wide range of learners. In addition to the deficit areas mentioned above, factors such as diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as variability in student preparation, interest, and learning style should be considered. . A superintendent can draw on student achievement, APPR observation data, and review of current instructional practices to determine and drive professional development learning needs. Along with best practices in educational delivery for students, professional development opportunities should be research-based and customized to meet the needs of practitioners in the field. Another consideration for the superintendent as an instructional and strategic leader is establishing a safe and supportive learning environment. The district culture must exemplify the idea of ​​high expectations for all students and staff. The culture must be conducive to learning and provide a sense of safety for students and staff (physical, emotional and mental). This should also include attention to sense of belonging, power and social competence, freedom and autonomy, pleasure and physical needs. In the event that the learning environment does not meet the safety and supportive criteria, the superintendent has the responsibility to commit as a strategic leader to a safe and supportive learning environment that is prepared to learning. The role of the superintendent encompasses leadership of the entire organization. This charge is broad and all-encompassing, including responsibility for management and oversight of countless areas. As such, one of the facets of the superintendent as an organizational leader includes general management skills suchsuch as planning, organizing, time management and setting priorities. Effective management involves the development and deployment of a “plan” that enables the organizational leader to effectively initiate, analyze, react, and respond to all facets of professional responsibility. A second facet of organizational leadership encompasses the development and implementation of integrated systems and structures for various organizational constructs, such as communications (internal – district, faculty, staff and students, and external – school board and community), collaboration opportunities between various stakeholders (leadership team members, faculty, district, data teams, teachers and related support staff, etc.), organizational meetings (Board of Education, budget , technology, facilities, transportation, etc.) and professional development (superintendent conference days, grading days, faculty meetings). The superintendent's organizational leadership includes identifying, articulating, and/or managing and overseeing the district's leadership hierarchy and related job responsibilities. This organizational hierarchy includes assignment of other district administrators (ASIs, principals, etc.), building level leadership (ES, MS, HS levels), student personnel services, human resources, office commercial, transport, facilities, catering and sports. The superintendency carries a political burden unlike any other role in the educational community. Political charge is felt from both internal and external loci of control. A superintendent is responsible for developing an understanding of the political climate and educational context outside the district. The superintendent is a leader in the defense of public education and must participate and become involved in local, regional, state, and national discussions as necessary and appropriate. Within the current service district, the superintendent assumes the role of “lead” expert, administrator, teacher, practitioner, and community advocate. This carries immense responsibility, as the entire learning community looks to the superintendent for LEADERSHIP in the form of encouragement, honesty, support, answers, and action. The superintendent must be visible, accessible and approachable. The Superintendent must possess strong listening skills and the ability to engage in courageous conversations while maintaining integrity, professionalism and confidentiality. The superintendent must also possess the ability to interact effectively with stakeholders such as the school board, teachers association, support staff association, parent-teacher association, transportation and others special interest groups that emerge as “partners” in the work of public education. There must be a commitment to being responsive and attentive to stakeholder concerns and requests while maintaining the integrity of information that may not be available for public consumption. One of the main objectives of superintendence must be the human element. Contemporary theories of effective leadership incorporate the ideology that people, regardless of their position, have a necessary and legitimate role to play in achieving the school's vision. Effective district leaders must use a distributive leadership style to create a transformative culture of motivation and morality, using principles such as profit maximization andequal respect. By cultivating strong interpersonal relationships and sharing authority, effective school leaders empower, inspire, and motivate others to work as a unified team toward a common goal: student success. In this way, the skills and talents of staff and other education stakeholders are put to the service of a common objective, namely learning. The headteacher must be a resolute and confident “learner leader”. This can be best accomplished in an environment of open communication, shared responsibilities, accountability and trust. In her book Trust Matters, MeganTschannon shares her research on the factors that impact the development of trust. Five elements appear to be integral to the development of trust: kindness, honesty, openness, reliability and competence. A superintendent should strive to develop high-quality relationships with all stakeholders based on these attributes to achieve positive results in the school organization. The school community must develop confidence in the integrity of the superintendent and in his or her ability and commitment to identify, clarify, and resolve issues that hinder the achievement of the common goal. In the event that the working relationship with a stakeholder group is less than effective or compromised, the superintendent should engage in strategic leadership practices – identify deficit areas, deliberate on solutions, decide on action action, implement, then evaluate – to remedy it. Essentially, to gain stakeholder support around the school's vision or any new program or initiative, leaders must foster relationships; achieve effective communication and strengthen the effectiveness of working relationships between staff and the educational community. As the elected governing body of the organization, the school board represents the voice, values, heart, history, culture and priorities of the community it serves. . The Board of Education works collaboratively with the Superintendent to develop and/or manage a district vision that reflects the heart of a district's work and captures with simplicity the goal that all members of the organization strive to achieve in collaboration. A superintendent must work closely with the Board of Education to ensure effective calibration and service as a manager of the district's mission and vision. The superintendent must also work openly, honestly, and collaboratively with the school board to ensure that the goals of the community, as reflected in the district's mission, vision, priorities, and improvement plan, are valued and preserved and to collaboratively establish a roadmap of action steps to achieve the desired results. Additionally, the Superintendent shall provide updates to the Board regarding personnel, programming and achievement results, review and recommend policy review and revisions with the Board, and organize/participate in policy meetings, budget, capital improvements and facilities with council. The superintendent is responsible for the judicious allocation of human and financial resources for the district. The superintendent must remain firmly committed to the district's vision and, as such, prioritize budgetary responsibilities and demands for implementation and adherence to fiscally responsible budgeting practices. The development of the annual school budget must be fully aligned with the goals and priorities of the school board and encompass the.