An effective principal fosters success for all students by developing

and implementing a clear school vision that is created and supported by all
stakeholders. This becomes the foundation and focus of a well-developed
school leading towards excellence. The process of creating a vision for the
school has to be a shared process including teachers, students, staff,
parents, community members, and the Board of Education working with the
principal to determine what students needs to know and how they will learn
it as they work towards becoming well-rounded individuals. These shared
beliefs foster the type of culture the school will develop through a sense of
community and cooperation during the collaborative efforts of creating and
fulfilling the schools vision (Marzano 26).
Analyzing data is imperative when articulating the stewardship of the
schools vision. Since the vision is a shared process that requires the support
of all stakeholders, initiating a strong building leadership team encourages
input from various people to aid the principal in the decision making process
and policies. The data this team will analyze will provide information about
curriculum, assessment, and instruction to continue goal setting while
working towards meeting their vision (Marzano 87). Being part of this
important process will require a purposeful community of teachers who are
empowered as leaders in their buildings (Marzano 26). The type of leaders
the principal will deliberately choose for her team will include empowered
teachers who collectively form a team who will operate based on the
following principles: responsibility, integrity, ethics, and openness (Marzano
50).
The information derived from data will lead to clear goals established
by the principal as she works with the leadership team to create a focus on
student management that includes high expectations for all students, the
systematic routine of the school, and how curriculum and instruction
influence assessments and vice versa (Marzano 50). This type of constructive
transactional leadership provides clear direction for attaining goals, provides
feedback about positive and negative results from data to create new goals,
and finds ways to maintain improvement when it is recognized (Marzano14).
Sustaining improvement revealed from data requires recognition of
what is working well within the management system and monitoring areas in
need of improvement. The responsibility of affirmation from the principal
creates honest and open dialogue about how students needs are being met
(Marzano 44). By monitoring current school practices and providing teachers
and students with feedback, goal setting will continue to be revised through
continuous reflection of best teaching practices. An effective leader nurtures
the needs of the organization to continue improvement by providing
strategies and resources to develop skills necessary for students
achievement (Marzano 17). This type of servant leadership fosters
continuous growth by helping others to support student success as
determined by the schools vision.
An effective principal is an advocate of student success for all by
promoting a positive school culture and instructional program. The culture of

a school is based on relationships, which involves everyone in the learning

community (Marzano 59). Marzano refers to the culture of a school being
defined as a purposeful community built on trust and a desire to improve.
This includes the collegiality and professionalism of a schools climate
(Marzano 89). Effective leaders build culture by positively influencing
teachers to positively influence students (Marzano 47)
When trust exists between the principal and her staff, teachers feel
empowered to take risks when developing and implementing rigorous
instruction. To create an instructional program that is purposeful to
supporting academic growth, choosing the right work is essential. This is
determined by teachers and administrators being reflective about how their
students are performing based on action steps that have been taken and
how student achievement can increase by new approaches to an issue
(Marzano 109). Based on data, quality instruction should be personalized to
meet students needs and engaging in a way that prompts students to
independently explore their own learning. Direct instruction, the School
Development Program, and Success for All are examples of Comprehensive
School Reform models that are federally funded initiatives. According to
Marzano, the purpose of these models is to provide research-based
approaches that enhance student achievement, particularly in lowperforming schools (Marzano 77).
Instructional leadership provides support to increase teachers efforts
and skills of implementing curriculum through best teaching practices.
Beyond text books and worksheets, principals can provide instructional
support in various forms. They can collaborate with teachers to design,
implement, and assess curriculum and instruction by providing appropriate
resources, such as technology or equipment, time to collaborate, ideas and
guidance (Marzano 59). This will develop the capacity of staff to maximize
the experts in the principals building. Once again, monitoring the
effectiveness of an instructional program will allow leaders to determine the
validity of instruction and revise goals when necessary.
An effective principal promotes a safe, efficient, and effective learning
environment that supports student success for all. Management and
operational systems need to be organized and consistent so staff and
students are aware of the principals expectations and the systematic order
of the building. This will minimize the amount of discipline a principal will
encounter which limits interruptions of instructional time. Structure and
procedures in a class are just as important as how the principal structures
her building. Walberg (as mentioned by Marzano) claimed, classroom
management as the factor that has the greatest impact on student
achievement out of a list of 228 variables (90) Marzano refers to this as
buffering potential discipline issues (48). When discipline is in order,
situational leadership requires the leader to focus on a task and provide
guidance by adapting her behavior to the situation and individuals involved
(Marzano
The welfare of students and staff is always a first priority. Clear

boundaries and rules protect the structure of class management and building
wide systems. Marzano defines order as the extent to which the leader
establishes a set of operating principles and routines (57) Situational
awareness refers to the leaders intuition about how the school functions and
knowing how to address different situations based on the culture of the
building. Anticipatory leaders always have a finger on the pulse of their
building and are aware of potential problems before they exist so they can
take a proactive approach to discipline compared to being reactive (Marzano
60).
An effective learning environment is mainly focused on change agents that
work towards improvement for the better of the learning community, which
is an example of total quality management (Marzano 15). While working with
a building leadership team, as previously mentioned, everyone in the
building can have a voice when establishing school priorities and making
decisions. This impacts positive culture by valuing everyones input, which
distributes leadership among teachers who want to be empowered. This type
of participative management utilizes the strengths of all staff members
with diverse backgrounds, which attributes to the effectiveness of the
learning community (Marzano 52).
Managing teachers organizational time supports student learning by
ensuring quality instruction. Again, utilizing instructional leaders to
determine the right work is important. This may include department chairs,
instructional coaches, or the principal herself who decides appropriate
instructional strategies and offer support aimed at curriculum, instruction,
and assessment. Teachers should be given instructional frameworks that
include research based strategies while also encouraging creative freedom
for their own ideas to be integrated (Marzano 90). Once again, feedback from
data will provide information about the type of professional development
staff needs to continue improving quality instruction.
An effective principal collaborates with faculty and community
members to ensure the success of every student by responding to diverse
interests and needs by activating resources within the community. Data that
comes from collecting and analyzing information to make instructional and
organizational decisions is not only from curriculum, instruction, and
assessments. Making personal connections to the people who directly impact
students is imperative; therefore, communication is one significant tool to
collecting data about students. Principals with open door policies encourage
conversations to occur with their staff, students, parents, and community
members (Marzano 103). The home environment is the most influential
aspect of a students education. By knowing where students are coming to
school from and the type of life they have been exposed to, the principal can
use this data to collaborate effectively with families in the community to
ensure students are getting what they need at school. Utilizing people in the
community can also provide rich, educational experiences that will expose
children to new opportunities and diverse ways of learning.
Every student needs to be given the same opportunities regardless of their

home environment. According to White (1982) research has proven that

students can be supported by their home environment regardless of income,
occupation, or education level of their parents or guardians they live with.
Parents can support their childs education by providing open dialogue at
home about the students academics pertaining to areas of strength and
struggles he or she may be experiencing so the parent can provide
encouragement and resources to support them. Supervision is the second
way parents can be suportive of their childs education by monitoring their
activities, including time spent on homework and who they are associating
with. Lastly, an authorititative parenting style is most strongly connected
with supporting a students academic achievement (Marzano 94-95).
Educating parents about ways they can create a supportive home
environment such as this and providing training is how an effectice prinicpal
can effectively communicate with parents about students needs.
Educating students to become more worldly by promoting social justice
promotes relationship building among students, families, and community
partners.
An effective principal acts with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical matter to
promote success for all students. An integral part of the decision making
process and the core of all leaders in education are the ethics they value,
while respecting those of all stakeholders involved in a situation. Therefore,
Marzano explains the importance of flexibility as an administrator associated
with transformational leadership. Leaders must protect and encourage the
voices of all participants who offer differing points of view. (49)
Exercising transparency gives students, staff, parents, and the
community a clear understanding of the ideals and beliefs the principal
values which center around the schools vision for success. Decisions about
learning, teaching, and current systems placed in a school reflect how
familiar a principal is with her staff and the students in her building, which
holds everyone accountable for students mental, physical, and social wellbeing (Marzano 51). The ideal and beliefs of a school leader model
Modeling ethical behavior involves safeguarding values of democracy,
equity, and diversity by adapting a leadership style to the needs of all
stakeholders involved in a situation. This involves considering moral and
legal consequences of decision making to promote social justice for every
student. Therefore, principals are often faced with difficult decisions that
involve differences of opinions between stakeholders or between the
administrator and a stakeholder and re
b. Model principles of self-awareness, reflective practice, transparency, and
ethical behavior
b. Ideals and beliefs: core of effective leadership. The leader should possess
well-defined beliefs about schools, teaching, and learning, share beliefs
about school, teaching, and learning with staff, demonstrate behaviors that
are consistent with beliefs (marzano 51)

c. Safeguard values of democracy, equity, and diversity

a. adapt leadership style to needs of specific situations, be directive or
nondirective as situation warrants, encourage expression of diverse and
contrary opinions, be comfortable making major changes in how things are
done

VI. Understand, respond, and influence political, social, economic,legal and

cultural
context
a.
Advocate for children, families, and caregivers
a.
Outreach: extent to which the leader is an advocate and
spokesperson for the school to all stakeholders. The leader ensures school
complies with district and state mandates, advocate of the school with
parents, central office, and with the community at large (marzano 58)
b. Act to influence local, district, state, and national decisions affecting
student
learning
c. Assess, analyze, and anticipate emerging trends and initiatives in
order to
adapt leadership strategies
a. Transformational leadership: individual consideration, intellectual
stimulation, inspirational motivation, idealized influence (marzano 15)
b. Optimizer: extent to which the leader inspires others and is the driving
force when implementing a challenging innovation or initiative. Leader
inspires teachers to accomplish things they think is beyond their grasp,
driving force behind major initiatives, portray positive attitude about ability
of staff to accomplish substantial things (marzano 56)