by Ed Coet

Created on: September 26, 2010   Last Updated: September 27, 2010

The documentary movie “Waiting For Superman” has been largely embraced by liberals and conservatives alike. Now that’s an anomaly these days. It’s not possible to fully address this complicated subject in a single article. So, I will address only one aspect of the education problem – leadership. Frankly, if we can fix the educational leaderhship problem that will be the ctalyst to resolving all other problems that we face in education today.

I want to first point out that I fully understand that the job security of any teacher ought to be tied to his or her mastery as a teaching professional. Good teachers deserve to be secure in their jobs and be well compensated for their work. Poor teachers should not have a job in the teaching profession. Academic student achievement is far too important to accept anything less. But, what do you do when you have good teachers who suffer under bad leadership?

Anyone who can think understands that poor leadership negatively impedes good employees from doing their best work. This is also true in education. Hence, educational leadership issues must be solved before any other problems can be solved.

First, we have far to many administrator/managers and far to few "leaders" in education.  School districts nation wide are "top heavy" with administrator/managers and their support staff.  They are expensive. They re are high maintenance.  They don’t produce much of anything except more work for already overworked teachers. In fact, they are much more inclined to "make work" than "do work." Their shear numbers impede quality education rather then help it. Big government in general is expensive and problematic and that also applies to “top heavy” school districts that are bleeding taxpayers dry.

When senior administrators/superintendents earn more then our nations top generals, admirals, governors and cabinet secretaries, that is both a taxpayer problem and an employee morale problem. When a board made up of former superintendents and school board members recommended pay standards for their peers, it’s hard to see how that differs from unions recommending pay and benefit standards for their rank-and-file. Senior administrator/superintendent salaries ought never be compared to the corporate world. Rather, they should be based on merit and compared to compensation for like responsibilities in the government sector. School districts are not profit-oriented corporations, they are governmental entities.

Senior administrators should be more focused on “leadership” and less on “management.” If they don’t understand the difference, then they’re certainly not leaders. They should “lead by example” as all great leaders do. Quality “leadership” is paramount to fixing the problem our nation faces in education. Leadership is why soldiers led by a great leader can fight outnumbered and win. It’s why a sports team with great players but lousy coaching still results in a losing team? Conversely, a mediocre to average team of players with great coaching can achieve commendable and winning results. Leadership is key!

Let's begin this education debate by first looking at “leadership” issues. If we have great educational leaders, they’ll fix the other problems.

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