Leaders for Productive Schools Joseph Murphy, Stephen N. Elliott, Ellen Goldring, and Andrew C. Porter All authors are educators at Vanderbilt University Leaders for Productive Schools Either at the school or the district level by developing a vision statement a leader tries to explain the beliefs and governing policies of their school system, first for themselves, and then for the community. A vision statements should be easily understood and shared by members of the administration, school, and community, it should be broad enough to include many views, it should be motivating to everyone involved in the leader’s desire for the school community and lastly it should be easy to communicate as well as easily understood. …show more content…
A leader must examine the test data yearly, and use that information to make changes that ensure that the best practices used by the teachers are retained and that the less useful practices are replaced based on the data gained from the yearly review and the data that supports the best practices used by the teachers. A leader can examine the teaching methods used by the teachers with one group of students and use the data to ensure that the best version of that lesson is used with the next group of students. A leader’s decision on effectiveness is not a quick, easy, or once a year decision, but an ongoing process that uses the best information that is available from all educational resources and many observations in the classrooms to collect data on the best teaching methods. A leader must be involved in a school’s curriculum program, at both the school and district level, and develop several steps for teachers to follow in order to have a educational program that meets the needs of the students. The first step is to create a professional learning committee (PLC) to help plan the curriculum and to provide views on what are the