Preparing Connecticut’s Educational Leaders
Anthony Rigazio-DiGilio, Professor and Chair, Educational Leadership




Ask any school administrator who has been on the job for a few years, and he or she will tell you that the job of leading a school is very different today. The major change administrators face now is how to move from an isolated, one-teacher--one-classroom model of schooling to a model that maximizes the strengths and skills of all teachers by working in teams. Business and industry made the transition from individual work designs to teams during the 1980s and ’90s. This is the transition schools are currently working through.

Administrators and teachers are working extremely hard to improve the academic performance of students. Many educators will tell you it was sufficient for an administrator to be a good communicator, an efficient manager, and a fair disciplinarian. Today, administrators must also be instructional leaders who are current with the latest research in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Administrators must be aware of the emerging research on how students learn, and specifically how this generation -- the post- computer generation -- are affected by the high-tech, low direct human contact world they are living in. They must know about the socio-emotional development of their students and their legal rights. Knowledge of these areas has great potential to help educators reach all students, but it might be beyond the grasp of any one school leader, and we know it can’t be done one classroom at time.

Today, more than ever, we need collaborative school leaders who are able to create a shared vision of a school where teams of teachers can work together--and with parents--to help all students be successful, not only intellectually but also in terms of their social and emotional growth, their global understanding, and their financial means. Our students deserve the best we can provide and that means tapping everyone’s knowledge and skill to deliver educational services that will prepare the students for life in the 21st century.

To accomplish this goal, beyond the limited range of the standardized tests, administrators must be able to work with diverse groups to ensure that the best instructional practices are implemented throughout the school. This requires collaborative leadership that models for groups how they should work together. This is much more difficult than simply telling teachers they must work together. It requires that administrators provide support and guidance on how to be effective teams. Only when we are able to combine the knowledge and skills that reside in the school community, can we ensure that all students will succeed.

The work of school administration is hard and the challenges never cease. At Central, through a variety of degree and non-degree professional development programs, we are preparing school leaders to be effective team members themselves, and who know how to support others in becoming high performing teams. Our goal is to help create new, collaborative learning environments in which truly no child is left behind.
 

 
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