Case Study 1: Educational Assistant in School

Background
Mark is in his first assignment as principal and has been in that role at Grove Elementary
School for the past three years. He has a solid relationship with the parents and the
community, and is always receptive to new ideas from parents. The school community
has benefited from Mark`s extensive background as an instructional leader in the Arts as
well as his ability to find creative solutions. As a confident leader he is committed to his
decisions and is action oriented.

The school is in a diverse community including a number of students with special

needs. This September, the school was allocated eight Educational Assistants (EA’s),
which was a reduction from last year`s allocation of ten. Mark has received numerous
complaints from parents that student needs are not being met by the current number of
staff. Although he brought the parents’ concerns to his superintendent, no EA’s have
been added.

Present situation
Earlier this week, the mother of Alex, a child on the autism spectrum, came to see
Mark. Alex was assigned a full time EA to support him in his regular Grade Three
classroom. His mother shared that she had recently completed training in Intensive
Behavioural Intervention (IBI) and is excited about her new knowledge. She offered to
volunteer full time to support Alex in the classroom and believes this would improve her
relationship with her son as well as help him succeed.

Mark has strong empathy for families with children who have special needs and
accepted her kind offer. He immediately started to think of where he could reassign the
EA to help support other needs in the school. At the end of the day, he initiated a
conversation with the EA currently assigned to Alex and told him he would be
reassigned to another classroom to begin the next day.

The next morning, the Grade Three teacher was surprised to find Alex’s mother
organizing Alex`s work space in her classroom. His mother excitedly told the teacher
that she would be working with her from now on, as Alex’s EA. The teacher was
speechless and stormed into the office to confront Mark.

The teacher demanded that Mark remove `that parent` from her classroom. Mark was
surprised as this teacher was usually very flexible and supportive of parental
involvement. He listened attentively and redirected her back to the classroom promising
to monitor the situation for the next week. The teacher unhappily returned to her class
but made a quick call on her cell phone on the way.

The day seemed to have gone smoothly until Mark listened to two messages on his
voicemail at the end of the day. The first was from his superintendent: “I understand that
a parent is acting as an EA in support of a child with special needs in one of your
classrooms. Can you please you need to call me back as soon as possible?”. The
second message was from the local trustee, thanking him for proactively addressing

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both the student and parent needs. Mark is vindicated by the trustee’s phone call and is
wondering what the superintendent could be concerned with.

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Personal Leadership Resources (specific to the case study)

 Problem-solving expertise
o articulates principles and values and identifies constraint
 Knowledge about schools and classroom conditions with direct effect on student
learning
o organizational and family conditions
 Ability to perceive emotions
o discerning emotional responses in others through verbal and non verbal
cues
 Systems Thinking

Leadership Practices at the School Level

 Consider staff members’ opinions when initiating actions that affect their work.
 Engage teachers in decisions that impact their instructional work.
 Demonstrate respect, care and personal regard for students, staff and parents.
 Involve staff in the design and implementation of important school decisions and
policies.

Leadership Practices at the System Level

 Encourage staff to be innovative within the boundaries created by the district’s

instructional guidance system.
 Ground interactions with, and advice to, trustees in sound evidence.
 Expect and assist schools to allocate instructional resources equitably.
 Align personnel policies and procedures with district’s improvement goals.
 Provide prospective and existing leaders with extended opportunities to further
develop their leadership capacities.
 Develop open, accessible and collaborative relationships with principals.
 Expect schools to focus on needs of individual as well as groups of students.

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Reflective Questions

1. Has Mark successfully found a viable solution to a problem in the school?

Explain.
2. What other school management problems has Mark created as a result of the
solution?
3. How can Mark rebuild trust with and between stakeholders?
4. As Mark`s superintendent, what are the issues that you face as a result of Mark’s
decision to allow the parent to act as her child’s EA?
5. As the superintendent, how would you approach the trustee?...Mark?
6. How will Mark restore his relationship with Alex’s mother if he is required to
withdraw her from the classroom?

Personal Leadership Resources (PLR) Questions

1. What personal leadership resources (cognitive, social, and psychological) does

Mark think he demonstrates strength in? Do you agree? Elaborate?
2. With reference to the PLR, describe Mark`s demonstrated cognitive abilities
(problem solving, knowledge and system thinking)?
3. Using the principal as an example, what dissonance can be created as a result of
an imbalance between the cognitive, social and psychological personal
leadership resources?

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Case Study 2: Leadership for School Improvement

Background
The Sigma Pi District School Board has an enrolment of 20,000 students in a diverse
community including both rural and urban communities. The Senior Management team
is made up of five Superintendents of Education each with their own portfolio and family
of schools. The Director of Education is new to the community having being hired only a
few months earlier.

Marcia, the Superintendent of Program presented the Board’s EQAO results to the
Board of Trustees at their September meeting. For the past several years, the Board
has performed very well in EQAO compared to its statistical neighbours, except for flat
results in the area of Mathematics. This year’s results show continued improvements in
Literacy but a dramatic drop in all levels of achievement in Mathematics and, for the first
time, the board is well below the provincial average. The local paper published a full
page article outlining the board`s dismal results and even provided opinions on how
Math should be taught. The trustees are not happy.

The new Director believes in empowering his senior leaders, and wants Marcia to “fix”
the Math problem. The day after the trustee meeting, he meets with her and makes it
clear that the Math challenge is her responsibility and that she will be held accountable
for future results.

Present situation
Marcia has strong problem solving skills, and knowledge of effective school and
classroom practices, but considers herself to have gaps in Mathematics instruction. She
understands the need to move the system forward by improving student achievement
and wished her colleagues shared her belief in the strength of working together. She
recognizes the need for an intensive focus on professional development for all staff in
Mathematics and, within her current budget, has struggled to find the funds to ensure
teachers receive the training they require. To make matters worse, earlier that budget
year, there was a reduction in the number of curriculum coordinators and consultants
who provide instructional support to teachers.

Marcia is concerned about how principals will respond to potential challenges from
parents, given the news articles. She has observed, in her school visits and in District
Reviews, an inconsistency in teaching practices, low student engagement, and general
apathy. She wonders if staff members lack the confidence to provide strong
Mathematics instruction.

After reviewing the Board Improvement Plan, Marcia calls an emergency meeting of her
consultants in order to develop a strategy to address professional development in the
area of Mathematics instruction. She quickly realizes they do not share her sense of
urgency.

At the next Senior Management meeting, Marcia requests support from her colleagues
to reallocate funds from other budgets, as there are insufficient funds for system wide

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training at this point. Her colleagues remain silent. The superintendent with
responsibility for IT suggests that she focuses on the enhanced computer resources that
were recently placed in the schools as the solution. No other superintendents made
suggestions or offers. Marcia feels isolated and is annoyed and disappointed that her
colleagues do not recognize the EQAO Math issue and are not helping with her
situation. She remains silent as the Director moves to the next item on the agenda
dealing with parking space allocations.

Marcia is frustrated by the lack of support from her colleagues and director. She is at a
loss personally and professionally as she is used to being able to find solutions more
easily and collegially. She wonders how she will get through this and how she can
create a sense of urgency around the EQAO Math problem.

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Personal Leadership Resources (specific to the case study)

 Systems Thinking
o engaging in futures thinking and consequences of action or inaction
o able to understand the dense, complex and reciprocal connections among
different elements of an organization
 Resiliency
o being able to recover from or adjust to change
 Proactivity
o being able to stimulate and effectively manage change on a large scale
under complex circumstances
o showing initiative and perseverance in bringing about meaningful change
 Problem-Solving Expertise

Leadership Practices at the System Level

 Spend sufficient time to ensure the mission, vision and goals of the system are
widely known, understood and shared by all members of the organization.
 Insist on ambitious goals for teaching and learning.
 Encourage collaboration in the interpretive use of data.
 Set a manageable number of precise targets for district school improvement.
 Create structures and norms within the district to encourage regular, reciprocal
and extended deliberations about improvement progress within and across
schools, as well as across the system as a whole.
 Align the allocation of resources with district and school improvement goals.
 Create structures to facilitate reciprocal forms of communication. These
structures and norms should result in deeply interconnected networks of school
and system leaders working together on achieving systems directions.
 Knowledge of effective business practices that directly affect or improve our
business practices

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Reflective Questions

1. As Marcia, how would you engage your Senior Management colleagues to

develop a system solution?
2. As team leader, how might she approach her program staff to engage them more
fully in the solution ensuring accountability and collaboration?
3. Is Marcia fully accountable for the outcome? How should she engage her Director
to promote collective responsibility and accountability?
4. As the new Director how might you nurture productive working relationships with
staff and stakeholders?
5. What role does the Director have in collaborative implementation of the Board
Improvement Plan?
6. As a member of the Senior Management team what is your role in addressing this
issue and how would you support school principals?
7. Would your approach to this scenario be different if Marcia had applied for the
Director`s position and was not successful?

Personal Leadership Resource (PLR) questions

Cognitive
1. What cognitive resources has Marcia demonstrated?
2. What cognitive resources does Marcia need to work on?
Social & Psychological
3. What social and psychological resources will Marcia need to reflect upon to
personally get through the situation?
Overall PLR
4. In what areas does the Director need to focus for development of his personal
leadership resources?
5. Reflecting on the Personal Leadership Resources (cognitive, social and
psychological) what appear to be the needs of the senior team? As Director, what
steps would you take to address these needs?

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Case Study 3: An Accident Involving a Student

Background
Evelyne is a school principal with three years of administrative experience. She is
currently principal of De La Prairie High School, an urban school of 750 students.
Evelyne is known for her instructional leadership as she has worked as an educational
consultant in various environments for fifteen years. She has a clearly focussed
approach to education and has started leading her team in this direction. She has
committed to seeing her staff succeed and grow professionally and has introduced
professional learning communities (PLC’s). Her staff has started showing interest and
openness to this approach to professional conversations. A climate of trust between and
among staff and Evelyne has emerged. She has an understanding that change is slow
and incremental and provides strong support to her staff. She demonstrates high EQ
with students, parents and staff alike and is very much present within the school
environment. Evelyne is also involved within the community as a member of the
Optimist Club and is a model of community leadership.

Evelyne finds it difficult to strike a proper work-life balance. Since her own children are in
university, she has a lot of free time, which she invests in the school. Evelyne spends
long hours at school during the week as well as on weekends. She prefers working on
her own and has avoids distributing leadership. She has high expectations of herself.
Nonetheless, she is able to recognize the accomplishments of each of her staff. She has
previously worked with some of them when she was an instructional consultant, and
there is a perception that some have privileges and are favoured over others. Evelyne is
always available for students, parents and for some, but not all, staff members. One of
her objectives is to increase the school’s graduation rate by being especially present and
supportive of at-risk students.

Current situation
A co-op teacher meets with Evelyne to voice his concerns regarding students safety as
they travel to and from co-op placements. Evelyne senses that the co-op teacher may
only wants the best students to get placements and does not want to help students who
are experiencing difficulties. His concerns include reports of student drug use, students
having trouble getting to placement locations, and student absenteeism, which make it
seem as though his intent is to exclude problem students from placement opportunities.
Evelyne feels this is the real reason he has shared his concerns and doesn’t investigate
any further. An employer meets with her to ask that more students be admitted to the
program. His experience has shown that these placements encourage students to stay
in school and graduate. Since they are both Optimist Club members, this discussion
takes place during a club meeting. Some parents have contacted her to say how proud
they are of their children’s improved performance.

Evelyne has analyzed the absenteeism rate of co-op students and has noted an
alarming rate for some of them. She decides to meet with them to remind them of the
importance of being on time and present at their placements.

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The following week, during one of Evelyne’s rare absences, her secretary, Pauline, calls
to tell her that one of the co-op students was involved in an accident on his way to a
placement, but at this time there is no further information. The police have come to the
school and are trying to reach the parents.

A group of students have gathered in the guidance office and it is rumoured that the
student has died.

Evelyne must return to school to deal with this situation. She experiences much stress
on her return to school, but must nonetheless trust in her abilities and keep her emotions
in check. How will she deal with everyone and maintain a safe and secure learning
environment?

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Personal Leadership Resources (specific to the case study)

 Optimism
o taking positive risk
 Self-efficacy
o persistence in the face of initial failure
 Resilience
o recover from misfortune
 Proactivity
o show initiative and perseverance in bringing about change
 Problem-Solving

Leadership Practices as the School Level

 Demonstrate respect for staff, students and parents by listening to their ideas,
being open to those ideas, and genuinely considering their value
 Distribute resources in ways that are closely aligned with the school’s
improvement priorities.
 Regularly encourage staff to evaluate their progress toward achieving the
school’s goals.
 Distributer leadership roles on selected tasks.
 Demonstrate respect, care and personal regard for students, staff and parents.
 Model responsibility, integrity and thoroughness in carrying out tasks.
 Exemplify, through their actions, the school’s core values and its desired
practices.

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Reflective Questions

1. What next (or first) steps should Evelyne be considering in order to address the
impact of the student accident on students, staff and parents?
2. What are possible solutions to the problem Evelyne faces with the co-op teacher?
3. In these circumstances, how could you redirect resources to be better aligned
with school priorities?
4. How would you go about developing appropriate transportation
policies/procedures for students and ensure that these are put in place on a daily
basis?
5. As Evelyne’s SO, what system problems do you foresee this situation creating?
How would you resolve them?

Personal Leadership Resources (PLR) Questions

1. What personal leadership resources (cognitive, social, and psychological) does

Evelyne think she demonstrates strength in? Do you agree? Elaborate?
2. With reference to the PLRs, describe Evelyne`s demonstrated cognitive
resources (problem solving, knowledge and system thinking)?
3. Using Evelyne as an example, comment upon the dissonance that can be created
as a result of an imbalance between the cognitive, social and psychological
personal leadership resources?

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Case Study 4: School Closure

Background
Joseph has been a superintendent for nearly seven years. He grew up in the community
in which he works and he has been asked to participate in the process to review the
potential closure of St-Exupérie Elementary School, the community school. He has been
both a teacher and the principal at the school and he is now the school’s
superintendent. He is well known in the community as a hockey coach in the winter and
a baseball coach in the summer.

Joseph knows the school board trustees very well. The local school trustee is a
childhood friend.

Joseph strongly believes in transparent and consultative decision-making. He tries to

reach consensus when making decisions. School principals thoroughly appreciate this
approach. Joseph models shared leadership; he gives his principals quite a bit of
autonomy, which can feel undermining to some senior management colleagues. He is
sometimes perceived as making decision that are more in the interest of the community
than the system.

Current situation
The local community has been impacted by the loss of the town’s main employer which
has caused many families to leave in order to find employment elsewhere. Since the
appointment of the new Director of Education a year ago, Joseph has been concerned
that the loss of the town’s main employer has resulted in a decline in the school’s
enrolment and therefore, a decline in the available financial resources. The Director is
required to implement a systemic plan to streamline board and school operations in light
of this significant decrease in the budget.

For a year now, difficult discussions concerning potential school closures have been
ongoing. Joseph is often left to defend the need for community schools with dwindling
populations to the Board of Trustees.

He is very committed to St-Exupérie School, and knows it must close, even though he
would rather it remain open, particularly since the school has excellent academic results
and was awarded the EQAO Recognition Award last year. The nearest school is in the
neighbouring community and there has been a sports rivalry between the two for a long
time.

The school trustee has tried asking Joseph some questions about the fate of the school,
but Joseph remains silent and strategic. During a senior management meeting, he
learns that another school is even more at risk of losing students, but the director of
education is still recommending the closure of St-Exupérie School because there is
room for growth in the other neighbourhood, which is more strategically located near
urban centres.

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Joseph learns that he must be present during consultation meetings regarding the
potential school closure, but that the Superintendent of Operations will lead the
project. Following a board meeting, the director calls Joseph to her office where he
shares his personal disagreement with the potential closure. Notwithstanding his
personal belief, the director reminds him of his duty as a senior leader and insists that he
support whatever the Board decides.

At the Board’s subsequent Tuesday evening meeting, the Director announces the
consultative process and the potential closure of St-Exupérie Elementary School. The
school’s trustee meets with Joseph following the meeting to find out whether he agrees
with this recommendation and why he hadn’t spoken to him about it previously.

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Personal Leadership Resources (specific to the case study)

 Ability to perceive emotions

o recognizing one’s own emotional response
 Managing emotions
o reflecting on our own emotional response and their potential
consequences
 Act in emotionally appropriate ways
o being able to control what emotions guide our actions
 Systems thinking
 Resiliency

Leadership Practices at the System Level

 Encourage trustees to focus on district policy and the achievement of the district’s
goals and priorities (policy governance model of trustee practice).
 Align organizational structures with the district’s improvement goals.
 Encourage reciprocal forms of communication with and among schools.
 Demonstrate the importance the district attaches to its community connections.
 Develop communication systems and processes throughout the district to keep all
members informed.

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Reflective Questions

1. What is at stake in this situation? Who should this information be shared with?
Why should it be shared and how should it be shared?
2. Should Joseph outwardly support the decision by being the lead instead of the
operations superintendent? Why or why not?
3. In these circumstances, what should be included in the board communications
plan?
4. What steps are required in order to ensure a smooth transition for students and
staff?

Personal Leadership Resources (PLR) Questions

1. What personal leadership resources (cognitive, social, and psychological) does

Joseph think he demonstrates strength in? Do you agree? Elaborate?
2. With reference to the PLRs, describe Joseph`s demonstrated cognitive abilities
(problem solving, knowledge and system thinking)?
3. Using Joseph as an example, what dissonance can be created as a result of an
imbalance between the cognitive, social and psychological personal leadership
resources?

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