The fates of schools are increasingly intertwined. What leaders do in one school necessarily affects the fortunes of students and teachers in other schools around them. Exemplary or high-profile institutions draw the most outstanding teachers and leaders, draining them away from other schools that, in time, become low-status places in which districts dump their difficult students and weaker staffs. For education leadership to be socially just—and sustainable in the long run—school leaders must be responsible to and for the schools that their leadership actions affect. By engaging in a number of practical and positive approaches—such as paired schools, networked districts, community consultation, collective accountability, and environmental impact assessment—socially just leadership can have an actively restorative effect on neighboring schools.

The Ripple Effect

Andy Hargreaves

Dean Fink

School improvement and reform

Poverty

Accountability

Diverse classrooms and schools

Principal effectiveness and evaluation

The Ripple Effect- thumbnail

Built House sand castle with towers on the south shore of the sandy beach blue sea ; Shutterstock ID 444410092

shutterstock_444410092

According to a study of three decades of change in eight U.S. and Canadian schools, one of the key forces leading to meaningful, long-term change is leadership sustainability. The authors assert that most school leadership practices create temporary, localized flurries of change but little lasting or widespread improvement. Leaders develop sustainability, they write by committing to and protecting deep learning in their schools; by trying to ensure that improvements last over time, especially after they have gone, by distributing leadership and responsibility to others; by considering the impact of their leadership on the schools and communities around them; by sustaining themselves so that they can persist with their vision and avoid burning out; by promoting and perpetuating diverse approaches to reform rather than standardized prescriptions for teaching and learning, and by engaging actively with their environments. The authors give examples of sustainable and unsustainable leadership in the eight schools they studied.

Dean Fink

About

Expertise

Articles by Dean

The Ripple Effect

The Ripple Effect

The Seven Principles of Sustainable Leadership

The Three Dimensions of Reform

Write for ASCD

To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to member@ascd.org