Educational Leadership

In history, when teachers ran their own one-room schools, structured all their own curricula, and recognized their ability to impact the learning of every student, teacher leadership was mandatory, not an option. As one-room schoolhouses became multi-room buildings and then multi-building school systems, however, the status of the teacher moved from expert to employee. The increasing size of schools and their complexities also led to administrative hierarchies and power structures that placed teachers at the lower end of the order and physically removed them from the administration of the organization, which was moved to a "central office." As growing educational systems became more centralized and the administrative “step removed” became a “step up,” even the professional development of teachers was removed from their control. With such a background, it should not be surprising that some teachers do not think of themselves as leaders or may be hesitant to embrace a role they believe may remove them from their classrooms or separate them from their peers.

This “culture formation” of teacher leadership may appear as daunting to teachers as it does to principals. After all, both administrators and teachers are victims of the same archaic structure. Both teachers and principals must pull away from the inertia which insists that public education needs only hierarchical and positional leadership. Both teachers and administrators must assume and embrace the responsibility for student achievement as well as for building the capacity which would foster genuine ownership of that responsibility.

Teacher-leaders need to place their students’ learning as their primary goal and work within their own classrooms to improve student achievement. This is and should be one of the most important practices of teacher leadership. Additionally, teacher-leaders collaborate with other educators to extend their own learning, advance successful school improvement efforts through professional development, and support shared vision and values.These four roles of teacher-leaders—improving student achievement, extending their own learning, collaborating for school improvement, and supporting shared vision and values—evolve from knowledge, dedication, and experience. But teacher leadership need not be restricted to “years in service”; it can be developed and nurtured in all teachers.

Examples of teacher leadership are already evident, albeit not yet widespread. A revolution of rising expectations has inspired teachers to aspire to more – for themselves and for their students.There is no single path to enlightened teacher leadership, but there probably has never been a better time to examine ways to make it a positive fact of life. We find ourselves in a day and age where millions teachers are slated to leave the field in the next ten years. It is a time and place where school can become a different, and better place in the second decade of the 21st century. There is no shortage of models of teacher leadership; the job now is to choose what might suit a particular teacher, principal, school and/or district and set about making it happen.

Finance

Once again, Finance in Education is a topic that I struggled with in Professional Teacher this semester because as of right now the concepts are above and beyond my head. Finance is not something I have dealt with at least not on that level. I have done some budgeting obviously to be able to go to school, pay the bills and play on the basketball team. Sometimes it's meant working a part time job while going to school and playing basketball, but compared to trying to budget for an entire school or school division my budgeting seems quite small on the grand scale of things.

When asked to write a post about Finance I had to start doing some research.  What I understood from class was that education in Manitoba is financed in a few ways. A large percentage of the revenue comes from the provincial government (nearly two-thirds), another very large sum comes from the municipal government (almost a third), and a very small portion, roughly 6% from "other revenues" such as private organizations, first nations, and/or other school divisions. I also understand that this budget granted to Manitoba schools is distributed in a variety of ways. For starters regular instruction costs contribute for over half of the Manitoba Education expenses. That is simply paying the teachers and aides that provide instruction accounts for over half the budget granted to a school by the Finance Minister . Roughly three percent goes to administration, four percent to transportation of students, another four percent to support services for students, over ten percent operations and management and nearly twenty percent on exceptional. All I really took from that was that considering teachers don't exactly earn the highest wage of all professionals out there, they sure do suck up a lot of the Education Budget.

So I did some searching and I found an article from the Manitoba Teaching Society outlining The Provincial  FRAME Reporting System. What is says is that since 1983, the Government of Manitoba has introduced a province-wide, uniform reporting structure for the education programs and related service of Manitoba public schools known as FRAME, which stands for Financial Reporting and Accounting in Manitoba Education. What it does is it sets out a comprehensive reporting structure for the operating information of a school division and school district. It also provides a budgeting and auditing system. The FRAME budget identifies the amount of funds voted and allocated by the school board to each education program and service in the operating budget authorized for the upcoming fiscal year as well as the student population and teach population of each program. 

The FRAME reporting structure consists of nine main education programs and related service functions pertaining to public schooling each pertaining their own identification number: 100 Regular Instruction; 200 Student Support Services (formally the Exceptional Program); 300 Technology Education (Vocation Instruction); 400 Community Education and Services; 500 Central Divisional/District Administration; 600 Instructional and Other Support Services; 700 Student Transportation; 800 Operations and Maintenance; and 900 Fiscal Services. Beyond that there are a number of sub-functions in which these main functions are divided into.

I still do no entirely understand why so much of the budget comes from the provincial government while this much comes from municipal, but I'm not convinced that anyone completely understands why. What I do like about using the FRAME structure in reporting Education Expenditure across Manitoba is that it is consistent across all school boards and districts across Manitoba and that it provides a uniform definition of educational programs and related services. It easily paints a picture of where the money provided in the budget goes to which is the question every one wants to know right? Where does the money go?

Governance

Education is a provincial government responsibility in Canada. In Manitoba, education is governed principally by The Public Schools Act and The Education Administration Act as well as regulations made under both Acts. Rights and responsibilities of the Minister of Education and the rights and responsibilities of school boards, principals, teachers, parents and students are set out in the legislation.

I found governance a particularly difficult topic to write a blog about. I went over the notes and the slides time and time again but still could not really come to terms with what it all meant. I decided that until I have some experience as one of the actors involved in governance, that is either as a parent, a teacher or principal, a superintendent or school board member, or as part of the provincial government, I probably would not understand everything that there is to know about governance. Since I am no where close to being a parent of a school-aged child, and am not interested in being on Provincial Government, I thought what I would do for my blog is examine the duties of the role I will more than likely fill first in terms of governance in education, and that is the role of the teacher. 

The current version of The Public Schools Act in Manitoba, outlines the duties of the teacher in part VII, section 96 of the document. The Duties of a teacher are as follows:

96(1) Every teacher shall

(a) teach diligently and faithfully according to the terms of his agreement with the school board and according to this Act and the regulations;

(b) keep a record of attendance in the manner and in such form as required by the school board;

(c) maintain order and discipline in the school;

(d) furnish to the minister, or to a field representative, any information that it may be in his power to give respecting anything connected with the operations of the school or in any way affecting its interests;

(e) notify the principal who shall notify the appropriate local health authority of the area in which the school is situated or where there is no local health authority the school board that he has reason to believe that a pupil attending the school has been exposed to or is suffering from a communicable disease as defined in The Public Health Act and regulations made thereunder;

(f) seize or cause to be seized and take possession of any offensive or dangerous weapon that is brought to school by a pupil and hand over any such weapon to the principal who shall notify the parent or guardian warning him that the pupil may be suspended or expelled from the school;

(g) deliver or cause to be delivered or provide the parent or guardian of each pupil taught by him reports of the pupil at the times and in the manner determined by the school board;

(h) admit to his classroom student teachers enrolled in a teacher education institution approved by the minister, for the purpose of practice teaching and of observing instruction. 

To put it in plain English for myself and others to understand I would describe these principles as teaching professionally, that is faithfully, diligently, and responsibly; take attendance; protect the interests of the school, for example health concerns, safety concerns, financial concerns, etc.; provide parent/guardians of students with progress reports and lastly once permitted accept student teachers and prepare them for their future in teaching. 

I think in the duration of my education preparing me to become a teacher, I will learn many things that will help me to become an effective teacher. Until I actually have my degree, and get myself a job though, there are some things that I will not fully understand, governance being one of those things. Knowing my responsibilities as a teacher under the Public Schools Act, I think is a very good place to start. The rest will come in the future with gained experience and knowledge.