By Karen Gross, author of Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door and Breakaway Learners
Just as we are hearing about positive research efforts to combat the Read More
Hunger, homelessness, and inconsistent living situations are growing problems for students in higher education institutions — from the two year public college to the four year private university.
Twelve years ago, in 2007, Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education, provocatively put forth the question of what defines and bounds early care and education (ECE) as a field of practice. Twelve years later, the field’s defining questions remain unanswered. And it’s showing!
When Alex Caputo-Pearl was elected the president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) in 2014, I knew that children, families, and communities would soon have a newly energized and empowered defender in the teachers union. Today, as a Los Angeles native and a supporter of public schools and their teachers, I am on the edge of my office chair following the news of the first strike by L.A. Unified School District teachers in 30 years.
In our recent book, we argue that a grounded and practical educational leadership theory must not be diverted by today’s policy preference for a narrow range of school outcomes. Tested student achievement is important, but leadership studies that look for particular behaviors that are associated with test scores miss an essential point: To have a positive influence on any other person or group, actors must ground their observable behaviors in moral and ethical principles.
