Nontraditional Educational Leadership

NONTRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Introduction

The nontraditional educational leadership has been said to be the best alternative of effecting change to traditional leadership . This has been seen as away of improving the academic performance of educational institutions and at the same time , those hired to manage the nontraditional schools offer the best managerial skills . Parents of the children in those schools seem to support this system because it has been proved to be the better option . The other purpose of introducing the nontraditional educational leadership was to bring decentralization Decentralization seeks

to centralize authority in to enhance accountability and overcome impediments of school boards politics and bureaucratic inefficiencies

Gunslingers have been the best alternative for managing , controlling and effecting change in schools . They have been thought to be more interested in achievement measures , as they measure their achievement by use of the quantifiable indicators . These people are not purely educationists but come with modern management skills . They speak of pleasing their customers and promise to bring business practices that will bear good returns in terms of good management and improved performance . They recognize that they are not educators , but want to be leaders of the education system . However there are many challenges which come with this system that need to be considered first before embracing it . The entry of political influence into the management of schools can affect the management and performance of those institutions . For a long time most public schools have been run by individuals who are educationists but their management and administrative skills have not been pleasing . The performances of their schools have not been encouraging , even the enrollment rate has been too high thus affecting the general performance of the school . This has necessitated the introduction of the nontraditionaleducational leadership in these schools to rectify the deteriorating situation . In general the nontraditional educational leadership in public education is about bringing better leadership by describing it , introducing more better reforms and exploring their implications to public education

Critique in the body

Many reasons have been given on the importance of introducing the nontraditional educational leadership in the United States . Some of the major reasons of introducing it includes high dropout rates disciplinary problems , chronic truancy , and most important , low test and achievement scores , seen as enough evidence of the incapability of public educational institutions to achieve their basic goals . The appointment of the Chief Executive Officers or gunslingers and mayors rather than school superintendent has its disadvantages . Their professional backgrounds lie entirely outside the sphere of public education . They have no exposure to the standard education school curriculum they have not shaped their professional identity by championing on the particular education practices or practices . The hope of employing them to bring new ideas and perhaps bring radical changes to teaching , teachers and curriculum matters is at times not attained

Though they offer the best managerial skills , they know little about teaching children , tend to hire their deputies , who are professionally qualified and conform to the professional norms...