Givenemtn Recently Introduced a Bill Called the

¶ … Givenemtn recently introduced a Bill called the. No Child Left Behind Act which was an amendment to the Public Law 94-142 Education of the Handicapped Act where education became free and appropriate for all children with a disability. This law emphasized that teachers and principals should accord equal attention to all studetns regardless of educational capactieis and background and that each should be ncouraged to excel academically according to his or her best ability and characteristics.

The Act emphasized the setting of high stanfards and measurable goals in schools in order to achieve this goal and strongly called for schools that may be termed as 'stuck' to move towards improvement (American Youth Policy Forum (n.d.)) The 'stuck school' may be termed School A according to Leithwood and May (1992) where top-down power is the modus operandi, principals expect teachers and students to act in a certain manner, schools are conducted along traditional grounds, control is centralized, and there is expected status differences between workers, staff, and students.

The high-involvement school, or the improving school that we want to transfer to, is termed by Leithwood and May (1992) as School Z. where collaborative or transformational school policies are the rule. Here, staff, principals, parents, and stakeholders join together in participative decision-making. Decision-making is collaborative rather than 'facilitative' and it is manifested with and through other people rather than over and above other individuals. Through collaborative or transformational teaching, teachers are helped to find meaning and motivation in their work and to enhance their skills.

They are helped to do so because rather than told to act in a certain way, or according to the rules, by a principal who commands conduct according to traditional school methodology and rules, the principal sits down with the teachers and helps them work together with the school taking their capacities and interests into consideration.

In order to restructure schools, recent government policies have encouraged 'instructional leadership' where administrators are making 'first-order changes through supervising teachers and students but are integrating that with second-order changes where they work on introducing a shared vision, collaborative understanding, and improving communication between all individuals associated with the school. Leithwood and May (1992) have conducted numerous studies on how transformed schools can best be achieved and thy have come to the conclusion that three elements are constant figures in the equation.

These are: (1) where principals are involved with staff in establishing a collaborative school environment, (2) where teacher development is encouraged and (3) enhancing and working on communication skills through all levels of the schools structure so that problems are solved more effectively.

Breaking them down into categories so we can work at them in a practical way, we get the following: (1) Principals are involved with staff in establishing a collaborative school environment -- in a study of 12 school, Leithwood and May (1992) observed that the practices were the same: staff and students as well as principal maintained an open and trusting environment where they discussed changes and problems, and actively communicated the school's values, as well as principal and teachers delegating power to others and confidence in that they could accomplish.

(2) Teacher development is encouraged -- one of Leithwood and May's (1992) studies demonstrated that teacher motivation and loyalty to the school is strengthened when they are encouraged to structure their own goals for professional growth. Principals can discuss.