Decision Making Strategies – High Performing Leaders Plan Effectively, Use Critical Thinking And Problem Solving Techniques, And Collect And Analyze Data For Continuous School Improvement

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Decision Making Strategies – High Performing Leaders plan effectively, use critical thinking and problem solving techniques, and collect and analyze data for

continuous school improvement

 Is developing a set of problem solving techniques and decision making

skills

 Understands that events and problems can have a variety of explanations

 Explains and defends decisions made

 Uses data to inform decisions

 Uses others to assist in the accomplishment of organization goals

 Supports student learning when making curricular and instructional

decisions

 Has a problem-solving model to use when confronted with unsettled

questions or undesirable situations

 Conforms to appropriate legal standards

 Makes decisions in a timely fashion using the best available information

 Provides opportunities to involve family and community in a broad range

of school activities

High performing school leaders plan effectively to ensure the success of their school. I quickly realized the extensive amount of time which goes into preparation for school events. School leaders must anticipate needs, take initiative, and respond quickly. Stephen Covey delineates this quality as Habit 1: McElroy 2

Be Proactive in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). As a school leader, I do not want to spend all my time putting out fires. It is a much more efficient use of my time to be proactive and anticipate some of the emergencies which might arise. After my practicum experiences, I realize emergencies will still arise regardless of preparation. Regardless, the time invested in the initial preparation of events outweighs the time spent dealing with unanticipated situations.

During my practicum experience at Summer Reading Academy, I was extensively involved in the preparation. There was so much for my mentoring principal to prepare while still being responsible for her regular contracted responsibilities. She delegated many tasks to me to fulfill. I was still under my teaching contract as well, so I needed to practice Covey’s 7 Habits in order to accomplish successfully all the tasks delegated to me.

High performing school leaders use critical thinking and problem solving techniques to make decisions which impact their school. Habit 2: Begin with the

End in Mind must be prevalent during decision making (Covey, 1989). School leaders must reflect on where the school is, where they are going, and how the decision will affect the entire organization. This awareness is crucial to becoming a high performing leader. After my week long training session and the continued practice of Covey’s 7 Habits, I realized the essentiality of all 7 Habits to the development of a high performing school leader.

Problem solving has become the primary function of school leaders. Their decisions impact the school negatively or positively and therefore must be McElroy 3 thoroughly considered. Realizing that school administrators put out fires all day emphasizes the necessity to employ such techniques as site-based management. The utilization of group problem solving methods for each case enabled us to come to a consensus and determine what was best for the organization. During a group project in my graduate course, Case Studies, my group was not in agreement on a specific case called “Lounge Talk” (artifact 30).

Researching topics before making decisions has proven to be beneficial for me. I found an interesting study which exemplified transformational leadership as the path to a healthy organization (Korkmaz, 2007). We concluded that school administrators need to practice understanding, tolerance, motivation, and self- realization effectively in order to create a positive organizational health through shared decision making.

The analysis of this case helped me to see the transformational leadership qualities in my current principal. It is clear to me now that he is decisive in his decisions and often defers them to the labor management team, not because he is lazy or uncommitted, but for the reasons behind the transformational leadership style. When I question him on matters, he often turns it back to me. I now realize this is because he wants me to be self-reliant and confident in my abilities. These are the qualities I aspire to bring out in others as a school leader.

Leaders, regardless of academic or business setting, have the same decision making behavioral options: ignore, act instinctively, delegate, duplicate a decision made by someone else, and use the professional knowledge base to formulate a decision (Kowalski, 2005, p. 7). During my career in education, I have seen McElroy 4 leaders choose each of the options. There are always consequences for our choices; however, some consequences are positive and some are negative. I have learned the value in thoughtful, knowledge based decision making.

During my graduate studies, I came to appreciate the rational-analytical model which is widely used in administration. This model consists of four steps: define the problem, diagnosis the problem, search for alternate solutions, and evaluate alternative solutions (Kowalski, 2005, p. 7). During Case Studies, I realized how important the alternate solutions are to analyzing situations. In many cases, my initial solution did not produce the desired outcome. One specific example of something I learned from the case studies was related to zero tolerance policies. At first, I thought this was an effective practice which was occasionally misused. After completing case 16 on excessive punishment, I realize how these policies negatively impact our society (artifact 32).

Schools are generally seen as places where children are cared for, supported, and nurtured into becoming productive citizens. School leaders have an ethical role of creating and maintaining a learning environment which respects students by allowing them to mature into productive citizens of our larger democratic society. In order to meet that goal successfully, administrators must look at what individual students need to be successful at school without taking away the rights and safety of everyone else in the school. In order for this to happen, administrators must employ ethical problem-solving and moral decision- making instead of zero tolerance policies. One size never fits all and this could not be more emphasized than when zero tolerance is utilized in school discipline McElroy 5

(Gorman & Pauken, 2003). There are ridiculous cases of student suspensions which have resulted from interpretations of zero tolerance policy across the

United States. I am more conscious of these cases now. I intend to be a proactive principal who utilizes ethical problem solving and moral decision making when handling school discipline.

The rational-analytical decision making model involves collecting and analyzing data for continuous school improvement. School leaders must evaluate data based on decisions through reflection and analysis. Many people are skeptical about theories. A study of the ethical decision making of school principals analyzed the nature and consistency of principals' ethical decision- making processes and showed that principals require guidance to formulate processes which lead to sound ethical decision-making (Dempster, Carter,

Freakley, & Parry, 2004). The results of the study showed that on the whole, principals do not posses the ethical knowledge, skills, or confidence to maneuver through difficult ethical terrain (Dempster et al, 2004). This research reinforces my trust in utilizing the rational-analytical decision making model.

As part of my practicum experience, I was part of the Child Assistance Team

(artifact 33). The team includes teachers, parents, administrators, and specialists such as Speech Pathologist, reading teachers, social worker, and school psychologist. This team collaborated, listened, brainstormed, and made decisions based on the information presented. The collaboration was phenomenal. I began each meeting by having everyone present introduce themselves. We followed the rational-analytical decision making model. First, a McElroy 6 teacher would present a student’s difficulty, which could be academic or behavioral, to the team, accompanied by the parents’ perspective. Each team member would review the student’s cumulative file and other pertinent information. The teacher or parent would often share their desired outcome of the meeting, which could be an array of interventions such as further academic testing. The team would then discuss alternative interventions by evaluating each until we reached a consensus as to what was best for that student. Each situation accompanied by the decision making process contributed to my knowledge base as a school leader.

Another task of my practicum was attending truancy court with my administrator (artifact 34). The students and parents were under court order to attend truancy court every month. We reviewed attendance records and spoke with current teachers before we left school. The process was very interesting. It was a wonderful learning experience watching the judge listen, interpret, and make recommendations for each of the cases. For me, this was the ultimate decision making process. The judge is the professional ethical decision maker. I watched in amazement as he deliberately and systematically went through the decision making process. He made recommendations regarding what was in the best interest of the students’ education. I learned a tremendous amount about decision making during this experience.

In conclusion, high performing leaders plan effectively using techniques like

Covey’s 7 Habits. Juggling the responsibilities of a school administrator requires prioritization. School leaders must use critical thinking and problem solving McElroy 7 techniques such as the rational-analytical decision making model. The analysis I experienced during case studies transformed my decision making processes as well as helped me be more understanding of others’ decision making processes.

School leaders must collect and analyze data for continuous school improvement. Often people say they are life-long learners; however leaders must mean what they say. Leaders must continually learn from their decisions utilizing self-reflection. McElroy 8

References

Covey, S. (1989). The 7 habits of highly successful people: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Dempster, N., Carter, L., Freakley, M., & Parry, L. (2004). Conflicts, confusions and contradictions in principals' ethical decision making. Journal of Educational Administration, 42(4/5), 450-461. Retrieved July 3, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 707535461).

Gorman, K., Pauken, P. (2003). The ethics of zero tolerance. Journal of Educational Administration, 41(1), 24-36. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 303000551).

Korkmaz, M. (2007). The Effects of leadership styles on organizational health. Educational Research Quarterly, 30(3), 22-54. Retrieved March 19, 2007, from ProQuest Education Journals database. (Document ID: 1231195631).

Kowalski, T.J. (2005). Case studies on educational administration (4th Ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.