Leadership practices are essential aspects of an institution willing to achieve a particular objective. Leadership theory determines the practices and policies applied by an individual believed to act as leaders for a group or an organization. A leadership process is a continuous approach where people have to keep on learning, depending on new experiences. Leadership co-exists with management though the two aspects are different. Leadership is more of rallying people around to achieve a particular vision, while management is more of monitoring day to day activities. The issue associated with standardized testing needs leadership strategies and management practices to alleviate all the challenges. Solving issues associated with standardized testing require stakeholders to review academic programs and set a maximum time for exposing students to tests as well as adopting a diploma network approach.
Part 1: Process as a new leader
Leaders apply different theories in an attempt to perform their duties successfully. For instance, transactional leadership requires a person in authority to influence the perception of followers by giving rewards. After studying the different methods, I find transformational leadership theory as the most appropriate approach to apply in leadership practice. The best part of this approach is that it creates an opportunity for a person in authority to remain connected to their followers. As a result, transformational leadership indicates that leadership is not a one-way process, but it has to borrow ideas from followers (Odumeru & Ogbonna, 2013). Motivation and morality are essential features for ensuring collectivism in the decision-making process and leading the lives of followers. The transformational leadership approach helps leaders in gaining trust and loyalty, thus creating an opportunity for encouraging workers to get committed. Consequently, I believe that applying this theory will be making my leadership approach successful.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Management and leadership are two aspects that people need to apply to lead a group. I believe that the two terms are different though they are both used by any person in power. Leadership is a strategy applied by an individual presumed to be in control to comprehend and get people behind him to achieve a set goal (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014). Leadership is more of influencing followers to believe in a set vision and welcome suggestions from people to achieve such goals. However, management is a way of overseeing and monitoring activities by people believed to be in a lower position than the manager. Management is a mechanism for administering and ensuring that day to day activities remain operational and in the right direction. Successful leaders need to be able to combine the two aspects to rally people to achieve a particular objective.
Successful leaders have exceptional skills for leading followers. According to Abu-Tineh et al., (2009), dedication to delegation is one of the essential aspects that leaders should apply to bring all the followers onboard. I find this practice vital and appropriate approach to use in leading a group to a reliable outcome. This process has been applicable in my leadership practices, but through research, I have been able to address some of the challenges experienced in delegating duties. Duty delegation is an approach that leaders find challenging to implement. For example, newly appointed leaders need time to understand the functionality of a recently occupied position and organizational culture. At this point, it is understandable for a leader to get all activities done without assistance. However, such traits should develop within a short period for followers to feel involved in organizational achievements. For instance, a leader should focus on evaluating and creating awareness among employees on the importance of delegation before implementing such a leadership strategy.
The findings of the research have played a critical role in strengthening my leadership philosophy. For example, I focus on changing the attitudes of an individual in a group by assisting participants in exercising teamwork and inclusivity as critical values. As a result, inclusivity and partnership can only be achieved through duty delegation and providing guidelines on strategies for making the set objectives. Duty delegation involves giving some of the workers designed for leaders to followers and trustworthy individuals to accomplish (Schyns & Schilling, 2011). Previously, it has been challenging to exercise inclusivity and duty delegation in a newly formed group. However, I have learned that these are common challenges and developed mechanisms for addressing such difficulties. Consequently, there is a need to take a short time to understand the perspectives of each member regarding duty delegation. As a result, duty delegation is a way for proving to employees and team members that you trust their services. Duty delegation will motivate group members to perform well for a particular project because they feel part of the project.
The decision-making process takes place in an organization, and people likely to be affected by the choices. In effect, whenever making decisions, I have to consider several factors to avoid criticisms associated with my options. For example, cognitive factors play a role in deciding the best approach to solving a problem. Creativity and thinking form the basis for giving personal views that are subject to discussion by group members (Shibl, Lawley, & Debuse, 2013). The capacity for memory is limited, indicating that people can only perform a limited number of calculations regarding decision making. Moreover, risks and uncertainty show some of the consequences likely to influence public perceptions of a decision made by leaders. In circumstances where I have to make a decision, I have to consider possible risks and define strategies applicable in addressing the issues. Risks and uncertainty are unpredictable. Therefore, I find it beneficial to have policies that can be applied in minimizing such adverse consequences of a particular decision. This factor calls for a need for balancing personal ideas and inputs from group members.
The decision-making process requires care and commitment to avoiding all possible risks and uncertainty. These challenges may be reduced through the application of a diagram highlighting steps to be followed in making choices. Steps highlighted in a diagram assists in building a more deliberate alternative that serves the interests of different parties likely to be affected by a decision. Each step identifies a particular incidence that an individual should address before proceeding to the next stage (Shibl, Lawley, & Debuse, 2013). For instance, most decisions focus on solving a problem experienced by a group or an organization. If the issue is correctly identified, it indicates that there is a possibility of identifying viable alternatives. If the problem is identified, there is a guarantee that data collection and evaluation enables leaders and followers to determine the consequences of adopting an option.
This course has been helpful to me in identifying that my area of specialization has professional standards that have to be followed. Initially, I thought qualification was the only essential aspect for a person to work as a teacher. However, the information obtained from this course is both educative and informative on the code of conduct and values needed to make an individual a successful teacher. For instance, the standardized testing approach required for all public and private schools in the United States are some of the rules that ought to be applied to any individual working as a teacher (Goldring et al., 2009). This finding is an indication that all career professions need to follow.
The information obtained from this course is insightful on curricular as the next area to apply professional standards. Curriculum and instruction are the centers through which teachers give instructions to students to achieve the success of the education program. Curriculum reform in education causes a significant transition in the way teachers pass knowledge, and students acquire knowledge (Goldring et al., 2009). The means applied in teaching depends on the expected outcomes of education. Consequently, it is beneficial for a person informed in a curriculum program to identify the expected standards and mechanisms for fulfilling these needs.
Part II: Distance Learning
In week three, I chose standardized testing in education and the U.S military as the educational problem that ought to be addressed. Generalized testing is generally applied in the United States, where teachers promote students to the next level based on achievement from a standard exam. The consequences of widespread testing policy reveal through situations where teachers expose students to many tests compromising other essential activities that ought to be included in the syllabus. Though standard testing intends to prepare students for skills and competence in career working areas, the outcomes contradict the expectations for policymakers. Opponents of standardized testing quote various actions that show generalized teaching as an ineffective approach for promotion. Institutions such as the military have adopted this policy, but it has created many problems than benefits. For instance, the U.S military is accused of high levels of discriminated, leading to criticisms of the promoting strategy. The Second World War is existing evidence of the issues that standardized testing has never been productive (Shepherd, 2017). Recruitment and promotion strategies are associated with high levels of corruption, thus leading to an imbalance in leadership.
In an attempt to justify standardized testing as a problem in the educational sector, I gathered information from different perspectives. For example, analyzing the effects that the policy can cause to community, teachers, community, and workplaces were some of the sources found to be informative on the impact of standardized testing in education. From the students' perspective, standardized testing is an inappropriate program because it consumes most of their time, leaving little time to concentrate on other essential elements such as education. For instance, exposing students to tests approximately 25 hours per year to exams justifies the reasons for declining performance in academics in the United States since the introduction of the standardized testing program (Wiliam, 2010). Research has also gone beyond analyzing views of stakeholders to exploring the future of education in the United States if the problem remains unsolved. A continuous decline in scores in mathematics by schools in the United States indicates that the problem is likely to continue if intervention mechanisms are not implemented. The issue also has several documents, including social media platforms and publicized research papers that question the effectiveness of standardized testing.
Impacts of standardized testing need to be analyzed from technological, structural, political, and symbolic perspectives. From the technical view, I considered the mechanisms that teachers can apply, ensuring monitoring, and administering standardized testing. For instance, the emergence of technology has created an opportunity for educators to implement distance learning approaches as a way of offering education to people in remote areas. However, this technological improvement proves to be incompatible with standardized testing because teachers have to administer and supervise students as they perform the tests. The structural perspective shows that there is a gap between critical stakeholders about the effectiveness of generalized testing as a fundamental principle in the education system. Education structure involves policymakers, teachers, school boards, parents, and students. As a result, analyzing the effects that standardized testing has on these stakeholders revealed a difference in their views. Community, teachers, and students associate universal testing with adverse effects while policy formulators support the policy. Political leaders are perceived as lawmakers, and their perception of the impact of a system plays an essential role in determining the viability of a program. I applied political analysis and symbolic strategies in analyzing the costs of education in different states and the indication of this budget allocation to the nation's level of income. According to William (2010), the District of Columbia allocates $114 per student. This information shows that most of the resource in this region goes to education, creating different views among politicians.
I analyzed the issue of standardized testing based on the leadership approach. As a result, I identified a large gap between education policy makers and teachers. In an attempt to address the issues associated with standardized testing, I had to apply horizontal analysis to identify the connection among schools at the same level. For instance, public schools usually use shared learning models, platforms, and testing approaches. In effect, schools can analyze and produce information regarding proposed changes in the education system (Kempf, A2016). This approach calls for a need for analyzing the issue from both a structural and leadership approach. For example, people occupying higher positions in the educational sector should welcome ideas from teachers as their followers to present challenges and solutions capable of addressing this issue.
Diploma networks can be an alternative approach for addressing the issues associated with the application of standardized testing in the education system. Implementing this approach calls for a need for districts and networks to petition for an assessment exemption. This approach requires the parties to submit a document of learners' profiles. The success of the process depends on the level of security that the petitioners assure to be implemented on students' profiles. Alternatively, education stakeholders need to come up with strategies designed to limit the number of tests that students should take in entire school life. Comparability analysis will be applied in determining the reliability and accuracy in reporting students' progress. Filtering the information is based on assessing the compatibility of proposed solution with federal policy, time needed to achieve the outcomes, and budgetary allocation (William, 2010). If the approach satisfies all the requirements for federal policy formulation, it will be okay to submit the strategy to different schools for piloting. This strategy would cover various learning aspects, such as reading, writing, and mathematics. The primary objective is to ensure that the process incorporates all the different learning aspects, thus avoiding the challenges associated with standardized testing. The main issue with standardized testing is because of its time consuming nature, thus reducing the time available for other learning activities. However, the network assessment approach creates a chance for measuring the progress and growth of students in academic performance.
Part III: Recommendable Solution
Revising the academic program and setting a limit to the maximum number of tests that students ought to perform in school is a recommendable approach for solving the controversy associated with standardized testing (Kempf, 2016). Though it is possible to combine different solutions, the leadership in the education sector is diverse with many stakeholders, thus calling for a need for a campaign and awareness of the changes. As a result, the process would make changing the program an expensive approach. Therefore, setting a limit for the number of tests for a student is appropriate approach because it takes less time and small allocation of resources compared to the Diploma Network program.
Conclusion
Leadership theories and practices are applicable to different institutions in an attempt to achieve the set goals. The controversy associated with the application of standardized testing in the United States reflects a failure of involvement and seeking opinions of key stakeholders in the education sector. However, the followers operate by the professional standardized as required by the teaching profession. The majority of stakeholders do not agree with the outcomes of the standardized testing program. In effect, limiting the number of tests that a student should take while in school is a recommendable approach for addressing the controversy in the education sector.
References
Abu-Tineh, A. M., Khasawneh, S. A., & Omary, A. A. (2009). Kouzes and Posner’s Transformational Leadership Model in practice: The case of Jordanian schools. Journal of Leadership Education , 7(3), 265-283.
Goldring, E., Porter, A., Murphy, J., Elliott, S. N., & Cravens, X. (2009). Assessing learning-centered leadership: Connections to research, professional standards, and current practices. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 8(1), 1-36.
Kempf, A. (2016). The pedagogy of standardized testing: The radical impacts of educational standardization in the US and Canada. Springer.
Landis, E. A., Hill, D., & Harvey, M. R. (2014). A synthesis of leadership theories and styles. Journal of Management Policy and Practice , 15(2), 97.
Odumeru, J. A., & Ogbonna, I. G. (2013). Transformational vs. transactional leadership theories: Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(2), 355.
Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2011). Implicit leadership theories: Think leader, think effective?. Journal of Management Inquiry , 20(2), 141-150.
Shepherd, K. J. (2017). Measuring Up: Standardized Testing and the Making of Postwar American Identities, 1940-2001.
Shibl, R., Lawley, M., & Debuse, J. (2013). Factors influencing decision support system acceptance. Decision Support Systems, 54(2), 953-961.
Wiliam, D. (2010). Standardized testing and school accountability. Educational Psychologist , 45(2), 107-122.
