Leadership and accountability in organizational management

Leadership and Accountability

Today's urban schools face problems, which may affect the quality of education that school administrators must overcome in order to effectively, educate the youth of our nation. Goldberg and Morrison (2002) state, "successful leaders are those who manage to rally local efforts around national purpose, and who make national purpose fit local needs" (p.61). This statement describes a leadership vision where national efforts are focused upon local needs. Each urban school encounters special student demographics that should be considered when implementing program reform.

In order to properly prepare students for real-world life experiences such as work, higher education, and responsible citizenship, schools must strive to improve the equality of public education. The authors state that "preparation for life" is more complex than providing instruction in core subjects. The public school system is now expected to provide knowledge and understanding to the students concerning careers, higher science and math skills, and also provide instruction to second language students in forms of English Second Language (ESL) programs or Bilingual education.

The nation has now demanded accountability within the school systems, beginning with school leadership. The No Child Left Behind Act requires all levels of faculty and staff to be or become certified in order to instruct the nation's students. Regulations and laws have been created and enacted in order to reinforce accountability within these concepts. The authors define accountability as "the process of reverse compliance and defines success by the degree to which the system functions smoothly and efficiently" (p.64). Sadly, students pay a high price for bureaucratic accountability. They must sit longer for standardized testing, a year's worth of work may be lost because of failing one standardized test while schools pay the supreme price of possibility losing state or federal funding based solely upon tests scores. The public sometimes views lone tests scores as the only means of school reporting, thus overlooking other vital areas such as teacher certification, high school graduation rates, or low dropout rate.

Goldberg and Morrison (2002) suggest that schools involve the community to achieve professional accountability. By providing community stakeholders an opportunity to help with the school goal setting, strategizing, and regular reviewing of progress within the local school, there become more people involved in the accountability process and area of responsibility. Not only are the school administration, teachers and instructional aides responsible for the school's performance, but the entire community buys ownership in the school system and strives to provide a quality education to the student's of the area.

The authors also explain some of the challenges that school leadership face when working with an urban school. Administration understands that even the most "well-established" school district will face weaknesses that they will continue to have to overcome. Politicians will continue to mandate curriculum in some areas, rules and regulations will continue to be created, and affective communication to all stakeholders will always be a challenge.