Responsibility in a high-accountability system: leading schools in England

Daniel Muijs, University of Southampton

A hotbed of reform• An era of rapid policy change and strong government

intervention

• Dual policy direction since 1988:

– Greater autonomy for schools (especially from local authorities)

– Increasingly strong central accountability mechanisms

• Current trends:

– Academies and Free schools

– Tightening up of Ofsted inspections and performance standards

Current trends

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• Academies and Free schools

• Tightening up of Ofsted inspections and performance standards

• System leadership and executive headships

The role of the head teacher• Long tradition of strong head teacher leadership

• Hierarchical school structures

• More recent:

– School-based management

– Emphasis on role of head teacher in school improvement

– National training programmes

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Role of the head teacher• Central and broad

• Issues of

– Head teacher capacity

– Recruitment to headship

– Distraction from key instructional leadership roles under SBM

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Responses to these issues• Leadership development

• Distributed and delegated leadership

• School Business Management

• Networking and collaboration

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Leadership development• Strong emphasis with development of NPQH

• NPQH regularly reformed, now more collaborative model

• Based on view that leadership is learned

• Limited evidence of impact

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Distributed and delegated leadership• Relatively strong research evidence

• Encouraged by National College and other (quasi) governmental organisations

• In practise, differential uptake in schools

• Sometimes strong central leadership may be more appropriate model

• Common half-way house: extended leadership teams

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School business managers• Central theorem:

– Head teachers should concentrate on instructional leadership

– Head teachers not necessarily best skilled at business management

• Therefore, SBM’s appointed in many schools

• Increased specialised training provision for SBM’s

• Positive evidence for this model, though does not work in all circumstances

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Leading networks• Increasing prevalence of school networks and

Federations of schools

• System leadership – interdependence between schools

• Evidence of positive impacts

• New roles for head teachers:

– Horizontal leadership

– Network leadership

– Executive headships

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Conclusion• Leading under pressure:

– Strong accountability + strong autonomy + rapid system change

• Some creative solutions have emerged

• More needed:

– Policy support

– Creative use of capacity of HE, private providers and schools themselves

– Chains of schools

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