Professor David HopkinsProfessor David HopkinsHSBC Chair of International LeadershipHSBC Chair of International Leadership

““The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development Review of School Leadership”Development Review of School Leadership”

Presentation made at the Presentation made at the NUT ConferenceNUT Conference on on

‘‘The Future of School Leadership’ The Future of School Leadership’ London, Tuesday 1London, Tuesday 1stst May 2007 May 2007

Today I will speak about….

• Why school leadership is important at the policy level

• What is the focus of the OECD study on school leadership

• How we are contributing on the issue of ‘system leadership’

Why is it important?

• Rising expectations of schools and schooling (knowledge economy, globalisation, migration, decentralisation…)

• Greater accountability for schools and principals

• From teachers with additional responsibilities to full time managers of human and

financial resources:

• Instructional leadership

• Staff evaluation

• Budget management

• Performance assessment

• Community relations

• Held accountable for results

• THE SUPER PRINCIPAL

Why: Different responsibilities for leaders

Figure 1. Percentage of decisions relating to personnel management taken by schools by mode,

lower secondary education, public schools, 2003

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Net

her

land

s

Eng

land

New

Zea

land

Cze

ch R

epub

lic

Hun

gary

Sw

eden

Slo

vak

Rep

ublic

Den

mar

k

Kor

ea

Nor

way

Icel

and

Ital

y

Port

ugal

Fin

land

Bel

gium

(Fr.

)

Fra

nce

Luxem

bou

rg

Ger

man

y

Spa

in

Aus

tral

ia

Aus

tria

Gre

ece

Jap

an

Mex

ico

Tur

key

I n f ull autonomy I n consultation with others Within a f ramework

Source : OECD, Education at a Glance 2004

Notes : Countries are ranked in descending order of the percentage of decisions taken at the school level. The domain "personnel management" considers the hiring and dismissal of staff; the duties and conditions of service of staff; and the fixing of salary of staff. The school level includes school administrators and teachers or a school board or committee established exclusively for individual schools. "In full autonomy" means that decisions are subject only to any constraints contained in the constitution or in legislation that is of a general nature and not specifically aimed at education. "In consultation with others" means that decisions are taken in consultation with bodies located at another level within the education system. "Within a framework" means that decisions are taken within a framework set by a higher authority (e.g., a binding law, a preestablished list of possibilities, a budgetary limit, etc.). Data for Turkey refer to primary education. See OECD (2004a) for further details.

%

Why: Evidence draws a challenging picture…

Is there enough capacity?

• Shortages of high-qualified school leader candidates.

• Australia: 92% of principals expected to retire/resign more than five

years before they 'have to'. (Grady et al’s (1994))

• Ontario, Canada: 75% of principals and > 40% vice principals expect to

retire by 2007 (Williams, 2001)

• England: 4/10 deputy/assistant principals: no plans to become a

principal; 4/10 principals considering early retirement (Earley et al,

2002).

• Many OECD countries don’t have any requirements for becoming

principals.

Why: High priority in OECD education work

OECD countries want answers:

• The OECD Teacher Policy Thematic Review (Teachers Matter,

OECD, 2005)

• Education Chief Executives’ Meeting, Copenhagen, Sept. 2005

• Ranked #3 out of 29 activities for the Education Committee

Programme of Work (2007-2008)

Why: 22 participants

Australia

Austria

Belgium (French)

Belgium (Flanders)

Chile

Denmark

Finland

France

Hungary

Ireland

Israel

Korea

The Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Portugal

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom (England)

United Kingdom (N. Ireland)

United Kingdom (Scotland)

What: Our objective

To provide policy-makers with information and analysis to help them formulate and implement school leadership policies leading to improved teaching and learning. By:

i) Synthesising research on issues related to improving leadership in schools;

ii) Identifying innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices;

iii) Facilitating exchanges of lessons and policy options among countries; and

iv) Identifying policy options for governments to consider.

What: Our view of school leadership

A broad view of leadership:

Rather than focusing on leaders as individuals

View that authority to lead can be distributed within schools and among different people.

What: Key Issues to respond to

What are the roles and responsibilities of school leadership

How to best develop effective school leadership

What: Roles of school leadership

Role of school leadership under different governance structures

• Demands on school leaders

• Different roles and responsibilities of school leaders under different governance

• Types of skills required

• Is there a set of core competencies?

• Promising policies and conditions for linking school leadership with improving school outcomes

What: Developing school leadership

How can effective school leadership be best developed and supported?

• Should it be a career path? Types of profiles – pedagogical or other

• Employment conditions

• support structures

• Type of training (pre-service, on the job, further training)

• Types of institutions to develop school leaders

How: Methodology of the Activity

Analytical strand: Country Background Reports to focus on policies and structures that impact on the role and development of effective school leadership (January 2007)

Innovative practices strand: Case studies to innovative practices

1. New models of school organisation and management that distribute leadership roles and responsibilities in innovative ways (UK October 2006, Finland, January 2007; Belgium February 2007)

2. Promising programmes and practices to prepare and develop school leaders

How: Outputs of the Activity

• Country Background Reports (2007)

School governance and leadership

Enhancing learning and school leadership

The attractiveness of school leadership

Training and professional development of school leaders

How: Outputs of the Activity

• International workshops (2006 and 2007)

• Expert papers

• Selected case studies (2006-2007)

• A final international conference (2008)

• A final comparative report (2008)

1st meetings of the activity, London, 5-6 July, HSBC Headquarters: Contributed to clarify key questions on new and changing roles of school leaders.

1 Workshop of participating countries: 50 participants (28 national delegates, 9 international organisation, 8 experts)

discussed the activity and country practices in this area. Common agreement on the timeliness: According to countries OECD has

become a catalyst for thinking on school leadership at a national level.

2 Workshop of participating countries: Brussels, 1-2 February 2007• Presentation of Country Background Reports

School Leadership for Systemic Improvement

“leadership for systemic improvement”: the distribution of school leadership roles and responsibilities to improve schooling outcomes.

Meaning still developing, and practice includes :

1. Leadership shared across schools so overall system improves;

2. Connection of systems of leaders to create culture and pool of expertise to support school improvement;

3. Collaboration of education/non-education organizations within the larger context to sharpen focus on school outcomes; and

4. Systemic interaction in schools of administrators/teachers/ students as learning communities in which leadership is distributed according to expertise and need.

Different approaches to the challenge of developing leadership across the system.

High Excellence High Equity –High Excellence High Equity –Raising the Bar and Narrowing the GapRaising the Bar and Narrowing the Gap

Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life

Low excellenceLow excellence

Low equityLow equity

High excellenceHigh excellence

Low equityLow equity

Low excellenceLow excellence

High equityHigh equity

High excellenceHigh excellence

High equityHigh equityU.K.

BelgiumU.S.

GermanySwitzerland

Poland

Spain

Korea

Finland

JapanCanada

Mea

n p

erfo

rman

ce in

rea

din

g li

tera

cy

• 200 – Variance (variance OECD as a whole = 100)

420

440

460

480

500

520

540

560

60 80 100 120 140

‘‘Every School a Great School’Every School a Great School’as an expression of moral purposeas an expression of moral purpose

• What parents want is for their local school to be a great school.

(National Association of School Governors; Education and Skills Select Committee 2004).

• The three system leadership commitments:

− relentless focus on reducing within school variation;

− collaborative working to eradicate between school variation;

− the embracing of segmentation or lateral approaches since a focus on individual school improvement always distorts social equity.

Towards system wide sustainable reformTowards system wide sustainable reform

Every School a Every School a Great SchoolGreat School

National National PrescriptionPrescription

Schools Leading ReformSchools Leading Reform

Building Capacity PrescriptionPrescription ProfessionalismProfessionalism

System Leadership

Networks & Collaboration

PersonalisedLearning

ProfessionalTeaching

SYSTEM

LEADERSHIP

Intelligent Accountability

4 drivers mould to context through 4 drivers mould to context through system leadershipsystem leadership

The Logic of System Leadership

Learning Potential of all Students

Student Repertoire of Learning Skills

Teacher Repertoire - Models of Teaching

Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work

Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and Pedagogic Consistency

Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and Between Schools, Clusters, Districts, LEAs and Nationally

Networks & Collaboration

PersonalisedLearning

ProfessionalTeaching

SYSTEM

LEADERSHIP

Intelligent Accountability

Leading

Success-ful

Internal variation

Underperforming

Low attaining

Below floor

target

4 drivers mould to context through system leadership4 drivers mould to context through system leadership

Networking and Segmentation:Highly Differentiated Improvement Strategies

Type of School

Leading Schools

Succeeding, self-improving schools

Succeeding schools with internal variations

Underperforming schools

Low attaining schools

Below floor target

Key strategies – responsive to context and need

- Become leading practitioners

- Formal federation with lower-performing schools

- Regular local networking for school leaders

- Between school curriculum development

- Consistency interventions: such as AfL.

- Subject specialist support to particular depts.

- Linked school support for underperforming depts.

- Underperforming pupil programmes, e.g. catch-up.

- Formal support in Federation structure

- Consultancy in core subjects and best practice

- Intensive Support Programme

- New provider: e.g. Academy.

System Leadership: A PropositionSystem Leadership: A Proposition

‘System leaders’ care about and work for the

success of other schools as well as their own. They

measure their success in terms of improving

student learning and increasing achievement, and

strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).

Crucially they are willing to shoulder system

leadership roles in the belief that in order to change

the larger system you have to engage with it in a

meaningful way.’

System leaders share five striking characteristics, they:

• measure their success in terms of improving student learning and strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).

• are fundamentally committed to the improvement of teaching and learning.

• develop their schools as personal and professional learning communities.

• strive for equity and inclusion through acting on context and culture.

• understand that in order to change the larger system you have to engage with it in a meaningful way.

Leadership as Adaptive WorkLeadership as Adaptive Work

Technical SolutionsTechnical Solutions

Adaptive WorkAdaptive Work

Technical problems can be solved through applying existing know how - adaptive challenges create a gap between a desired state and reality that cannot be closed

using existing approaches alone

System Leadership

Personal Development

Strategic Acumen

Managing Teaching and Learning

Developing People

Developing Organisations

Work as a Work as a Change Agent Change Agent

Lead a Lead a Successful Successful Educational Educational Improvement Improvement Partnership Partnership

Moral Purpose

Partner Partner another another School School Facing Facing Difficulties Difficulties and and Improve itImprove it

Lead and Improve a School in Lead and Improve a School in Challenging CircumstancesChallenging Circumstances

Act as a Act as a Community Community LeaderLeader

System Leadership Roles

A range of emerging roles, including:

• Lead a successful educational improvement partnership

• Executive Headship or partnering another school facing difficulties i.e. run

two or more schools (or ‘softer’ partnership)

• Lead in extremely challenging circumstances or become an Academy

Principal.

• Civic or Community leadership to broker and shape partnerships across

local communities to support welfare and potential.

• Change agent or school leader able to identify best practice and then

transfer and refine it to support improvement elsewhere.

School

School

Improvem

ent

Improvem

entSystemSystem

LeadershipLeadership

System Wide System Wide ReformReform

Teach

ing a

nd

Teach

ing a

nd

Learn

ing

Learn

ing

Principles for System Transformation

So, for Transformation, System Leadership needs to be reflected at three

levels:

• System leadership at the school level – with, at essence, school principals becoming almost as concerned about the success of other schools as they are about their own.

• System leadership at the local level – with practical principles

widely shared and used as a basis for local alignment with specific programmes developed for the most at risk groups.

• System leadership at the Government level – with social justice, moral purpose and a commitment to the success of every learner providing the focus for transformation.

Paulo Freire once said…Paulo Freire once said…

“No one educates anyone else

Nor do we educate ourselves

We educate one another in communion

In the context of living in this world”

David Hopkins was recently appointed to the inaugural HSBC Chair in International Leadership, where he supports the work of iNet, the International arm of the Specialist Schools Trust and the Leadership Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has also just been appointed a Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills. Previously, he was Chair of the Leicester City Partnership Board and Professor of Education, Head of the School, and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham. Before that again he was a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. Before becoming a civil servant he outlined his views on teaching quality, school improvement and large scale reform in Hopkins D. (2001) School Improvement for Real, London: Routledge / Falmer. His new book Every School a Great School has just been published by The Open University Press.

Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair in International Leadership