Even in the second decade of the 21st century, there is still some confusion among Board members (and even occasionally Heads!) about who is the principal stakeholder in an independent school.
When I ask this question of Boards, more often than not I get the answer that they see their role as taking fiduciary responsibility to oversee the effective use of financial resources provided by fee-paying parents. A second answer, although often with less force, is that they are their to ensure that students receive a high quality educational experience. For the most part, this is about "inputs"; programmes and services offered, co-curricular opportunities provided, quality of faculty employed, etc.
When I ask this question of Boards, more often than not I get the answer that they see their role as taking fiduciary responsibility to oversee the effective use of financial resources provided by fee-paying parents. A second answer, although often with less force, is that they are their to ensure that students receive a high quality educational experience. For the most part, this is about "inputs"; programmes and services offered, co-curricular opportunities provided, quality of faculty employed, etc.
Unfortunately, in 21st century schools, input-based governance, just doesn't cut it!
Independent School Management (ISM) postulates that schools must demonstrate "service leadership". This is an indication that students are the centre of every decision. They note that: "Great schools understand that the Board serves the Management Team through the provision of resources; the Management Team serves the faculty through its translation of those resources; and the faculty serves the students by delivering the mission."
This is a continuum. Every Board decision for the provision of resources must be able to demonstrate a resultant positive outcome for student learning. Every Leadership decision must be designed to increase the capacity of faculty to optimize the teaching and learning experience; and every action of faculty must have student performance, engagement and enthusiasm for learning as its focus.
What we are really talking about is distributed leadership, that is "leadership practices [that encourage] professional growth and renewal"; and a collaborative approach in which each level of leadership from Board to classroom teacher has an understanding of the mission with respect to student outcomes that is "intrinsic to every individual who works at the school."
To be effective, this means implementing a leadership development process at every level because to implement 21st century learning a school "needs a network of leaders for it to be successful."
As long as Boards, Heads, academic leaders, faculty and staff are constantly aware that the real goal of the school is to maximize the learning experience for every student then no-one will lose track of who the real stakeholders are.
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