Pathway to School Leadership

PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

An IB Teaching certificate has FAR more utility then an IB Leadership certificate.

There are essentially four routes to becoming an admin:

1) You start at a lower tier IS as an IT, and sometime after your first contract you stay, and when everyone else leaves youre there and you get more responsibility, until your running the IS. The problem is you have to stay somewhere that isnt likely a great place to be.

2) You get the right degree, and qualifications and experience and you apply, and you get that first appointment to senior leadership. The hardest part is breaking in, but once in its pretty easy.

3) You make the right friends, marry the right person, and ownership likes you, and you know way more about education then they do, so they ask you to run their IS.

4) You start your own IS.

Leadership in an IS is very different from leadership roles in a regulated DS where you spend a decade or more slowly working your way up. IE is a very transient profession ITs and admins move around all the time outside of the elite tier ISs. Everyone has a plan and a goal, and a dream vision that they are chasing. If that dream includes running an elite tier IS your waiting for someone to die or retire, and then there is a LONG line of candidates who want that job, and usually its an internal candidate. Those who "end up in admin" dont typically plan on it. They end up ina lower tier IS, get married, and then stay, growing roots int he community, and when the community accepts you and likes you, when a vacancy opens they ask you to do it. Thats something most ITs dont get about lower tier ISs its not about executive search firms, and grandiose schemes, its being accepted by the community because ownership is either the community or its an individual in the community. I've met many HOSs who have nothing more than a Bachelors degree, and IT experience in the community at an IS. They dont have advance degrees or credentials, they just know the IS, the parents, the students, and ownership likes them and trusts them.
XYZwords
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Re: Pathway to School Leadership

Post by XYZwords »

Another leadership-related question. Does accepting a position as an athletic director aid/harm one's ability to move into a school administration position later on?
wrldtrvlr123
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Location: Japan

Re: Pathway to School Leadership

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

XYZwords wrote:
> Another leadership-related question. Does accepting a position as an
> athletic director aid/harm one's ability to move into a school
> administration position later on?
---------------------------------------------
That depends on where you are right now. If you are moving from a teaching role to an AD then the leadership experience would be a nice stepping stone towards admin. If you are an asst. principal, dept. head (non-PE) or in another academic leadership position already then an AD role could be a bit of a sidestep depending on the school, responsibilities entailed etc (e.g. would you have supervisory, budgetary experience).

So it depends, but in general it couldn't hurt and would be somewhat helpful (IMHO).
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@XYZwords

Their may have been some misunderstanding in @WT123s response, I read your inquiry as an AD 'aide' position as opposed to appointment as an AD.

We would need more information and specifics on what the duties and tasking you performed as an AD aide?

Do you have authority in the form of supervisory (hiring/firing), tasking, or evaluative responsibility? Is a portion of your duties instructional? Are your duties organizational or professional support?

If your basically an office assistant than its going to hurt your career. If youre an IT with some administrative duties then your looking at an HOD or coordinator equivalent depending on the degree and nature of the tasks and responsibilities. It could be an IT appointment with some TLR.
wrldtrvlr123
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Re: Pathway to School Leadership

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

I read it as will it aid/harm, meaning aid or harm future prospects.
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@WT123

Your interpretation sounds right.

@@XYZwords

It depends what you do as AD. Are you an IT with more desk time but all you do is make sure the supply room is sorted, and organize production some with some light scheduling? Do you have reports, any supervisory authority? Would you go to leadership meetings, do you have input at those meetings.

If your going into AD and giving up a classroom you need to be doing more than office tasking.
Lastname_Z
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Re: Pathway to School Leadership

Post by Lastname_Z »

One question about leadership. Is a Masters in Education essential to being in leadership?

I've got a Masters in my subject area, and I was wondering if that would be just as suitable.
marieh
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Re: Pathway to School Leadership

Post by marieh »

"One question about leadership. Is a Masters in Education essential to being in leadership?"

I am wondering this as well. And would it need to be an M.Ed in Administration or would something like an M.Ed in Ed Tech suffice? Also, how much does the name of the school actually matter in the long run? I ask mostly out of curiosity, as it seems that everyone I work with has an M.Ed in Admin or Curriculum Design, so part of me feels like the field has to be super-saturated at this point.
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@Lastname_Z

No an M.Ed is not essential. The majority have an M.Ed in Ed.Ld followed by an M.Ed in C&I, but there are those with MBAs, MATs, and non education and non management Masters degrees.
Are you organized, can you manage people, competent in fiscal aspects? Those are what matter more than the title of your degree. There are leadership that dont even have Advance degrees.

@marieh

An M.Ed in Ed.T would generally be fine. Though there will be ISs that want something specific.

Unless you went to one of the global "Ivys" your graduate degree doesnt matter as long as it wasnt a diploma mill.

Its not saturated, it looks that way because thats the expectation and the trend in IE leadership. Thats what ownership wants or expects a leadership candidate to have.
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