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Decision Making Strategies – High Performing Leaders plan effectively, use
critical thinking and problem solving techniques, and collect and analyze data for
continuous school improvement

Is developing a set of problem solving techniques and decision making
skills
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Understands that events and problems can have a variety of explanations

Explains and defends decisions made

Uses data to inform decisions

Uses others to assist in the accomplishment of organization goals

Supports student learning when making curricular and instructional
decisions

Has a problem-solving model to use when confronted with unsettled
questions or undesirable situations

Conforms to appropriate legal standards
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Makes decisions in a timely fashion using the best available information

Provides opportunities to involve family and community in a broad range
of school activities
High performing school leaders plan effectively to ensure the success of their
school. I quickly realized the extensive amount of time which goes into
preparation for school events. School leaders must anticipate needs, take
initiative, and respond quickly. Stephen Covey delineates this quality as Habit 1:
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Be Proactive in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). As a
school leader, I do not want to spend all my time putting out fires. It is a much
more efficient use of my time to be proactive and anticipate some of the
emergencies which might arise. After my practicum experiences, I realize
emergencies will still arise regardless of preparation. Regardless, the time
invested in the initial preparation of events outweighs the time spent dealing with
unanticipated situations.
During my practicum experience at Summer Reading Academy, I was
extensively involved in the preparation. There was so much for my mentoring
principal to prepare while still being responsible for her regular contracted
responsibilities. She delegated many tasks to me to fulfill. I was still under my
teaching contract as well, so I needed to practice Covey’s 7 Habits in order to
accomplish successfully all the tasks delegated to me.
High performing school leaders use critical thinking and problem solving
techniques to make decisions which impact their school. Habit 2: Begin with the
End in Mind must be prevalent during decision making (Covey, 1989). School
leaders must reflect on where the school is, where they are going, and how the
decision will affect the entire organization. This awareness is crucial to becoming
a high performing leader. After my week long training session and the continued
practice of Covey’s 7 Habits, I realized the essentiality of all 7 Habits to the
development of a high performing school leader.
Problem solving has become the primary function of school leaders. Their
decisions impact the school negatively or positively and therefore must be
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thoroughly considered. Realizing that school administrators put out fires all day
emphasizes the necessity to employ such techniques as site-based
management. The utilization of group problem solving methods for each case
enabled us to come to a consensus and determine what was best for the
organization. During a group project in my graduate course, Case Studies, my
group was not in agreement on a specific case called “Lounge Talk” (artifact 30).
Researching topics before making decisions has proven to be beneficial for me. I
found an interesting study which exemplified transformational leadership as the
path to a healthy organization (Korkmaz, 2007). We concluded that school
administrators need to practice understanding, tolerance, motivation, and selfrealization effectively in order to create a positive organizational health through
shared decision making.
The analysis of this case helped me to see the transformational leadership
qualities in my current principal. It is clear to me now that he is decisive in his
decisions and often defers them to the labor management team, not because he
is lazy or uncommitted, but for the reasons behind the transformational
leadership style. When I question him on matters, he often turns it back to me. I
now realize this is because he wants me to be self-reliant and confident in my
abilities. These are the qualities I aspire to bring out in others as a school leader.
Leaders, regardless of academic or business setting, have the same decision
making behavioral options: ignore, act instinctively, delegate, duplicate a decision
made by someone else, and use the professional knowledge base to formulate a
decision (Kowalski, 2005, p. 7). During my career in education, I have seen
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leaders choose each of the options. There are always consequences for our
choices; however, some consequences are positive and some are negative. I
have learned the value in thoughtful, knowledge based decision making.
During my graduate studies, I came to appreciate the rational-analytical
model which is widely used in administration. This model consists of four steps:
define the problem, diagnosis the problem, search for alternate solutions, and
evaluate alternative solutions (Kowalski, 2005, p. 7). During Case Studies, I
realized how important the alternate solutions are to analyzing situations. In
many cases, my initial solution did not produce the desired outcome. One
specific example of something I learned from the case studies was related to
zero tolerance policies. At first, I thought this was an effective practice which was
occasionally misused. After completing case 16 on excessive punishment, I
realize how these policies negatively impact our society (artifact 32).
Schools are generally seen as places where children are cared for,
supported, and nurtured into becoming productive citizens. School leaders have
an ethical role of creating and maintaining a learning environment which respects
students by allowing them to mature into productive citizens of our larger
democratic society. In order to meet that goal successfully, administrators must
look at what individual students need to be successful at school without taking
away the rights and safety of everyone else in the school. In order for this to
happen, administrators must employ ethical problem-solving and moral decisionmaking instead of zero tolerance policies. One size never fits all and this could
not be more emphasized than when zero tolerance is utilized in school discipline
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(Gorman & Pauken, 2003). There are ridiculous cases of student suspensions
which have resulted from interpretations of zero tolerance policy across the
United States. I am more conscious of these cases now. I intend to be a
proactive principal who utilizes ethical problem solving and moral decision
making when handling school discipline.
The rational-analytical decision making model involves collecting and
analyzing data for continuous school improvement. School leaders must evaluate
data based on decisions through reflection and analysis. Many people are
skeptical about theories. A study of the ethical decision making of school
principals analyzed the nature and consistency of principals' ethical decisionmaking processes and showed that principals require guidance to formulate
processes which lead to sound ethical decision-making (Dempster, Carter,
Freakley, & Parry, 2004). The results of the study showed that on the whole,
principals do not posses the ethical knowledge, skills, or confidence to maneuver
through difficult ethical terrain (Dempster et al, 2004). This research reinforces
my trust in utilizing the rational-analytical decision making model.
As part of my practicum experience, I was part of the Child Assistance Team
(artifact 33). The team includes teachers, parents, administrators, and specialists
such as Speech Pathologist, reading teachers, social worker, and school
psychologist. This team collaborated, listened, brainstormed, and made
decisions based on the information presented. The collaboration was
phenomenal. I began each meeting by having everyone present introduce
themselves. We followed the rational-analytical decision making model. First, a
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teacher would present a student’s difficulty, which could be academic or
behavioral, to the team, accompanied by the parents’ perspective. Each team
member would review the student’s cumulative file and other pertinent
information. The teacher or parent would often share their desired outcome of the
meeting, which could be an array of interventions such as further academic
testing. The team would then discuss alternative interventions by evaluating each
until we reached a consensus as to what was best for that student. Each
situation accompanied by the decision making process contributed to my
knowledge base as a school leader.
Another task of my practicum was attending truancy court with my
administrator (artifact 34). The students and parents were under court order to
attend truancy court every month. We reviewed attendance records and spoke
with current teachers before we left school. The process was very interesting. It
was a wonderful learning experience watching the judge listen, interpret, and
make recommendations for each of the cases. For me, this was the ultimate
decision making process. The judge is the professional ethical decision maker. I
watched in amazement as he deliberately and systematically went through the
decision making process. He made recommendations regarding what was in the
best interest of the students’ education. I learned a tremendous amount about
decision making during this experience.
In conclusion, high performing leaders plan effectively using techniques like
Covey’s 7 Habits. Juggling the responsibilities of a school administrator requires
prioritization. School leaders must use critical thinking and problem solving
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techniques such as the rational-analytical decision making model. The analysis I
experienced during case studies transformed my decision making processes as
well as helped me be more understanding of others’ decision making processes.
School leaders must collect and analyze data for continuous school
improvement. Often people say they are life-long learners; however leaders must
mean what they say. Leaders must continually learn from their decisions utilizing
self-reflection.
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References
Covey, S. (1989). The 7 habits of highly successful people: Powerful lessons in
personal change. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Dempster, N., Carter, L., Freakley, M., & Parry, L. (2004). Conflicts, confusions
and contradictions in principals' ethical decision making. Journal of
Educational Administration, 42(4/5), 450-461. Retrieved July 3, 2007, from
ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 707535461).
Gorman, K., Pauken, P. (2003). The ethics of zero tolerance. Journal of
Educational Administration, 41(1), 24-36. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from
ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 303000551).
Korkmaz, M. (2007). The Effects of leadership styles on organizational
health. Educational Research Quarterly, 30(3), 22-54. Retrieved March 19,
2007, from ProQuest Education Journals database. (Document
ID: 1231195631).
Kowalski, T.J. (2005). Case studies on educational administration (4th Ed.). New
York: Allyn & Bacon.