Leadership & Policy

The Need

The new century demands a collaborative, diverse and technically savvy workforce. Our schools must respond by preparing the next generation with innovation, flexibility and a commitment to meet the needs of all learners. In an environment of wide gaps in student achievement and school quality, educational leaders are called upon to build opportunities, collaboration, and community among a wide variety of stakeholders. This takes skilled educational leadership and sound policy.

The provision of high quality, equitable educational opportunities for all children is commonly viewed as one of the most important priorities of state and federal governments. Despite the high degree of agreement surrounding this goal, the development of laws, regulations, and policies to address educational quality and equity remains a profoundly complex endeavor. The diverse conditions that exist in many of the nation’s schools, competing agendas of key constituencies, differing beliefs and philosophies, the lack of solid (or timely) data to inform decision-making, and the general absence of systematic feedback mechanisms to evaluate past decisions are factors that contribute to fractured education policy environments in many states.

Critical Need in California

In California education laws, policies, regulations, and practices are significantly impacted not only by decisions made by the Governor, the legislature, and numerous other state entities such as the California Department of Education, but also by ballot measures submitted directly to voters through the initiative process and by findings that stem from numerous legal proceedings.

Our challenge is to champion a policymaking process that is, to a just and reasonable extent, rational, collaborative, research based and data driven, and that finds the balance between short-term need and long-term, thoughtful deliberation.
As the state’s growing educational system demands more leaders, the need for administrators with advanced training is great. Managing and leading schools or community colleges in California is an increasingly more complex and challenging task. At the top of the list of challenges for leadership are the movement for greater accountability in student achievement, fiscal responsibility, and the growing diversity of California’s students.

According to the California Department of Education, at the turn of the century, about 26,400 school administrators were needed to manage 8,900 schools, an increase of almost 16 percent since 1997. Yet, the number of administrators with a doctorate had declined to 8 percent in 2002. In addition, community colleges face a decrease in executive officers’ average tenure and a shrinking pool of well-qualified candidates for key positions.

Leaders must also be prepared to influence and implement local, state and national education policy. Policymakers are beset with a wide variety of issues in education that they are asked to address through policy. Without a research-based understanding of the efficacy of the policies they put in place, policymakers often create policies that are contradictory and counterproductive. The result is that education leaders at the district and school level are faced with an avalanche of complex and confusing regulations and policies they must enact.