Successful strategies for secondary succession

27 July 2011

Presenter Christine Cawsey

President NSW Secondary Principals’ Council

Principal Rooty Hill HS

LEAP Conference 2011

NSW SECONDARY PRINCIPALS’ COUNCIL

Scenarios for the Future

• Succession planning is a major issue for NSW government secondary schools, the regions and the system.

• It is estimated that 40% of principals will retire between 2012 and 2015.

• The average age of deputy principals is higher than principals and 67 new secondary deputy principals were appointed for 2011 in NSW.

• There are significant shortages of teacher and leader expertise in some parts of the state.

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• As a school leader you knew that you would need to replace 12 teachers for 2012 as senior teachers retired or moved to other schools?

• As a systems leader you had to advertise 5 times to get sufficient applicants for a remote school principal position?

• As a systems and school leader you were faced with replacing 5000 expert and experienced teachers and leaders in the next five years.

What would you do if?

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Where are you now?

Where do you want to be?

Succession secured

+ Things that will

help you get there.strategies, etc.

- Things that will hinder your

progress

What would you do?

Strategies, actions

• Pipelines, pools, reservoirs – how do Dean’s metaphors apply to secondary schools in NSW?

• Your school? Your system? Secondary education?

• The strategic choice: recruit and reward the few or leverage the whole profession through standards……

You would get serious about succession planning

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The skills shortage…..

• Middle managers • Teachers

The Application Rubric- rate skill levelsMasterful: fluent, flexible and efficient. Able to use knowledge and skills

and adjust understandings in novel, diverse and difficult contexts.

Skilled: Competent using knowledge and skills and adapting

understandings in a variety of demanding contexts.

Able: Able to perform well with knowledge and skills in a few key contexts

with limited repertoire, flexibility or adaptability to diverse contexts.

Apprentice: Relies on limited repertoire of routines. Able to perform

well in familiar or simple contexts, with little or no coaching needed. Limited

use of personal judgment and responsiveness to specific feedback or

situations.

Novice: Can perform only with coaching or relies on highly scripted,

singular, “plug in” (algorithmic, mechanical) skills, procedures, approaches.

Area of need % Novice % Experienced (more than 5 years)

% Expert

Curriculum & assessment

Teaching

Student welfare

Faculty leadership

School leadership

Other?

Other?

Other?

Rate your own team – 2011 & 2015

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What is a school of professional practice?

It is a school that has Improvement in

student learning &teacher learning

at its heart.

1. Academic & professional goals

focus onlearning not performance

Personalisedlearning

3.Teacher& leadership

expertise is built &sustained

2.Data & evidence underpin

planning, programs and practices.

What do leaders do in leading a school of professional practice?

In a school that has improvement in

student learning &teacher learning

at its heart, leaders…

4. Act strategically

Leadershiplearning

6. Build & sustain their own

pedagogical and leadership

expertise

5. Manage change With people

Strategic leadership & stupidity prevention Observables, behaviours, practices, activities, content, professional learning, artefacts

Rituals, stories, myths, principles, processes, skills, conversations, sociofacts, espoused values

Values, beliefs, vision, culture, concepts, ideas, reflection, mentefacts, underlying assumptions

HAVE

DO

BE

Strategic leadership links.

Mapping professional learning – building teaching capability

What expert teachers do….

Louden, 2006

Expert teachers have “complex repertoires” and almost all of the following 33 elements would be seen in any one lesson:1.High levels of participation –attention, engagement, stimulation, pleasure and consistency2.Deep knowledge focus – environment, purpose, substance, explanations, modeling and metalanguage3.Orchestrating the demands of the classroom – awareness, structure, flexibility, pace and transitions.4.Strong scaffolds – constant formative assessment and working from where students are at, scaffolding tasks, quality feedback, responsiveness, explicitness (of words and texts) and persistence.5.Targeted and differentiated instruction – intellectual challenge, individualisation within the full class, inclusion, variation, connection6.Mutual respect – warmth, rapport, credibility, attention to citizenship, independence.

Mapping professional learning- for secondary leaders

The skills of expert school leaders

Expert leaders use quality tools for planning, implementing and evaluatingExpert leaders get permission to leadExpert leaders understand positional and personal leadershipExpert leaders ask powerful questions and have powerful conversationsExpert leaders have emotional intelligenceExpert leaders have clever ways of thinkingExpert leaders know how to lead for changeExpert leaders manage ideasExpert leaders use diagnostic maps

• Focus on preparation not induction• Recognise that the school is a critical and powerful

learning place…so make it work.• Give real life experience in real situations..internships,

mentoring, coaching and all those skills of leaders.• External programs have a place..but your leaders need

to be able to “hit the ground running” in times of shortage.

• Build teaching & leadership capability at the same time …don’t wait.

• Not everyone will be a leader…act strategically as though they will…focus on the whole team.

Succession strategies that work

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Details

Christine CawseyPrincipal Rooty Hill HSPresident NSW Secondary Principals’ Council

PO Box 70 Rooty Hill 2766Phone: 612 96258104Fax: 612 96254208Email: christine.cawsey@det.nsw.edu.au

Learning for Leadership: Building a school of professional practice ACER 2008