I'm feeling some CHANGE

Marzano outlines the following seven responsibilities of a school leader as being most necessary for second-order change, in order of importance:

1) Knowledge of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
2) Optimizer
3) Intellectual Stimulation
4) Change Agent
5) Monitoring/Evaluating
6) Flexibility
7) Ideals/Beliefs

It seems to me from the reading and from personal perspective that the effective school leader must be extremely thoughtful and flexible due to the complex nature of innovation. Second-order change requires a swift and direct change in strategies to address Type III problems – those that cannot be solved with the status quo and require deeper thought and innovative ideas.

In the past three weeks, I have been thrust into a leadership case study of sorts at my own school. I can see the tangibility of our studies before my eyes. At the highest level of leadership, we have transitioned from transformational to transactional, placing our faculty leaders in a position of leadership not often found in public schools. I have experienced second order change at this school in its first two years of existence, and am now observing our administration attempting to use the status quo of other institutions at our school to address mostly Type I and II problems. I can see how the lack of authentic leadership is affecting our school culture, and find myself in an unintended position of instructional leadership.

I have been a change agent at my school for the past year and a half, and feel more pressure than ever to continue in this role. I have to serve as an optimizer for my fellow department chairs as we interact with a new administration with little to no knowledge of our instructional practices. Even while teaching five classes (out of six in the schedule) of four different math courses, I feel as though I am experiencing all seven of the responsibilities listed above without any formality. I am fixing the master schedule, student schedules, and technology issues. I am answering questions about curriculum, school culture, technology, assessment, professional development, and much more. I didn’t intend for my internship to be this realistic, and look forward to feeling the reality of the position more and more. I just hope my classes don’t suffer too much, as teaching is my first love in education…