[Ous-lp-rp13] EDAD 6020 Response to Answer to Question #2

[Miller, Ashton]

Tony,


I think that the fact that you said you never had to worry about administrative concerns, and that you never felt any type of stress from chaos says a lot about the organization of your school district.  As a teacher, you should not have to worry about the way the administrator is dealing with organization.  Being informed is good, but not having to worry for the sake of things going so well speaks volumes, if you ask me.  I think the ideal situation for any stakeholder would be to be able to work in a school district with this type of professional organization.  I think that there should be different situational organizational styles, but for the overall style to be professional is a great thing.


I think that it is great that you can look at your school as being an open system, having loosely coupled tendencies, as well as professional organization because to me that says that your administrator understands that everything isn't always black and white and that sometimes you have to steer away and do something a little bit different than your norm in order to best serve the current situation.  This shows that your school administrator knows how to be flexible and works well with change.


Lastly, I think it's a wonderful thing that your principal trusts you, even though you don't follow specifically all of the policies that he would wish in your classroom, but, even better than that, I think the best part of it is that you can feel his trust.  I agree with you that by not receiving any kind of lecture or redirecting from your principal, it's a pat on the back in support of the good that you are doing in the classroom!






My personal styles and a reasonable alternative career option have allowed me, as a teacher, to perform my teaching job free of administrative concerns.  So far, I have simply worked diligently to teach students the standards adopted by the state of Ohio (along with some motivation techniques via personal understanding...did I mention that I teach Geometry?).  I say this because until now, I have given minimal thought and concern to the organizational structure of my school.  Disregarding my personal attributes about the matter and due to an absence of overbearing administrative pressures, this would likely imply that the structure of my school leans in the direction of having a low bureaucratic type of structure.  Add to the mix my observational opinion that our school is lacking in chaos, the result should be somewhere close to professionally structured.

Almost five years ago our school district went through a 'changing of the guard' with the arrival of our new superintendent Jude Meyers.  The previous superintendent, Dr. Charla Evans, served our district for most of the twelve years prior to the change.  This change was due to her unfortunate loss of a battle with cancer.  As I reflect upon my many conversations with stakeholders, my opinion strengthens that this was a substantial change to our organization.  For me and most of the others I spoke with, these same conversations created a mindset that this was a positive change for our district.  After some reading of the textbook (Hoy and Miskel, 2013), particularly parts of Chapter 3, I think that I am beginning to better comprehend the dynamics behind both leadership styles and why those styles were used.

Being an open system, our district is affected by state, and federal policies and mandates which, in turn, alters one's leadership style.  Case in point, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 as well as The Race to the Top Program of 2009 most likely impacted Dr. Evans' leadership style in a 'not so popular' way.  "Mintzberg argues that the two most effective means to control an organization from the outside are to hold its most powerful decision maker responsible and to impose specific standards, usually the form of rules and regulations" (Hoy and Miskel, 2013, p126).  In retrospect, I am left with a greater level of respect and compassion for the situation in which Dr. Evans found herself in and the style she chose to deal with what she was handed.  She was likely the right person for the job for that particular period of time.  I say all this in an attempt to explain or understand where our high school fits into the typology of school organizational structures.

Again going back to the past interactions and conversations with others, when I started my career at River Valley High School, the rules and regulations seemed to be impersonally applied as well as possible administration positions given due to loyalty of the organization and its superior.  However, the new leadership seems to still be breaking down this type of structure by giving more and more voice to the teachers while involving them in conversations that used to be held behind closed doors.  I remind everyone that these perspectives may be correct or incorrect, but are candid reflections of my thoughts.  With this gathered evidence of reflections, I would have to argue that we seem to be jumping from an authoritarian structure straight to a professional structure.

If I look at the school from the loosely coupled perspective, I feel we have tendencies of that as well.  My principal has some classroom policies that he would like for all teachers to use, one being 'posted' daily learning targets.  To say it tactfully, I have fell short of full compliance with this policy.  Yet, I haven't received any individualized lecture or reprimand for my negligence.  I feel like this is a result in his trust in my teaching abilities or at least 'possibilities' as I continue to grow year after year.  This will most likely work for him, and myself, until my recent 'low' end-of-course test scores begin to put pressure on him.  Hopefully, this year's scores negate the previous statement.

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