In the decade ahead, who will determine and teach the skills necessary for the administration of public education? What will be the future of school boards? These are two of the major questions this author sees as confronting teachers of educational administration if present trends continue

Wilson, Alfred P.

English

Kansas State University

Educational Considerations Volume 1 Number 1 Article 4 4-1-1973 Selected National Trends in Educational Administration Alfred P. Wilson Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations  Part of the Higher Education Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Wilson, Alfred P. (1973) "Selected National Trends in Educational Administration," Educational Considerations: Vol. 1: No. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2156 This Commentary is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Considerations by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k-state.edu. In the decade ahead. ~vho ~vi i I dete rrn ine and teach the .skills necessar\' for the (ldministration of public education? What \-.•ill be the future of school boards? These arc hvo ot the 1na jo1 qucsti01 )S this author sees as coorro1)tillg teachers oi educati01H~I achn ioistration if present tre nds continue . selected national trends in educational administration By Allred P. Wilson Dr. \.\l ilSOJl is Head of the Departn1ent of Ad· ministriJtion an d Fou1 1datioos at Kaosas State Univ ersi ty. Hu1nan l\1 adept \\o'i th facu lty developm ent. he is also pa1tic ularly iot ercsLed in 01gaoizational (lnalysis ai"1d chaoge pro cesses . EDUCATIONAi. CONSIO(;RATIONS, VOi .. I, NO. 1, SPRING 1973 At a recent conference s1>onsored by the 1\mer ican Asso<:iatio n of S<:hool Adm inistrators, educators pondered the question, " What will schools be l ike in 1985?". The resul ts shovv ed a drarnatic movement a\\•ay fro1n us ing Carnegie units for rewarding students. The " futu rists" indicated that most of the schools would be year 'round, indiv idualized, wi th about one third of the student's school program being co1npleted in learning environments outside the sc hool. The group agreed that di fferentiated staffing, adult and early childhood education. collect ive bargaining. and the replacen1 cnt o f the princi pal's role of dec.:ision-n1aking \vith policy-n1ak ing bodies of teachers , •. ,rould be con)1non1) lacc. A review of recent trends by the author suggests that school administrators will be directly affected as each of these and other changes are i1np le1nented. In addition, perhar>s niore than at any time in recent history, the ad-ministrritor's decisions \vi ii be closely 1nonitorcd and often held in suspicion by his many publics . Attacks have been leveled at an ever increasing pace by teforff1crs ,,. 1ho never visit schools, university educators \\•i th sophisticated statistical treatments of old data, large foundations, and universities that give degrees \\•it hout exp ecti ng even rud irncntary con1petency. In addition , state depa rt n ents, regional laboratories, and lhe federal go ver n-ment are beginning to parrot the complaints . For the n1 ost part, educational adn1inistrators \Vi ii be monitored by teachers, classified personnel, state depart-ments, unive rsi ties, leg islatures, federal audi tors, parents, taxpayers, and students. At times the various populations \\ •ill work in tandem, yel at other times cohesion will be like old masking tape - just not there. Administ rators can expect increasi ng fluidi ty in money \\1ith 1n ore basic su oport coin ing from state and federal sources. They will need to adjust with flexibility to the cha nging state and federal gu idelines in using funds. The pressures for expend itu re accountabi l i ty \\'ill increase and be many sided and more sophist icated than in past yea rs, w ith federa l and state auditors in the forefront. The National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and local teacher groups \\ •ill uni te wi th other 1>ublic employee groups into a strong united coal i tion to in.su re rnutual be nefits, and there \\'i ll be hard bargaining for money. The d ilemma of the changing professio nal associations will not be of major importance for most school superi ntendents. The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has voted to dissociate in any 1Wilson: Selected National Trends in Educational AdministrationPublished by New Prairie Press, 2017formal \vay from NEA. For middle rnanagcl"r'H?nt, ho,,:ever, the dilemm a will be painful. Many middle managers, especially E::lementary principals and subject supervisors, desire to continue their professio nal memberships with teachers. Yet teac hers, central office, and scho ol b ards arc emphasizing the 1eed for them to develop and perform in new roles. The school administratO<'s level of !raining will increase at both the pr~service and m-service levels as his position becomes more sophisticated. Hucksters {which may mean not only private concerns but also some universities and state de:partn1ents) are e1,tcring the trainin g m;i rkct . Some degrees \l\iill be cheap, given without extensive learn i"B tilking place . Skilled trainers will sti ll be hard to find. Teacher training institutes without having the ski lled staff will of ten attempt to train administrators in the: s.ame mold as teac hers; business enterprises will attempt to train them without being able to relate to education; and private consulting firms giving superficial training and nooaccredited degrees will abound. Detcrn1i ning vitho can teac h the skill s 0dmi nist rators \van t Md need to have wi 11 be one of the hardest decisions ad-ministrators will ll'H\kc. One trend that will be of major consequence to school administrators will be the selection of competent school board members. As schools come under attack, school boards will have a more difficult time finding skilled people to serve. There will also be many .who will use the school board as a spr ingboard for other publi c office or a sounding IJoard for social reform without having the student's welfare llS cJ prin1ary concern. Anoth er trend becoming evident actoss the nation is that large school systems increas ingly are hiring superintendents and middle managers from within or from other large systems. The small-school-<fistrict-to-large-school-<fistrict pat-tern of movemem has almost stopped. This treod will cause almost an entirely new pattern of mobility for school administrators. In this brief space the author has attempted to discuss $Onle developin g trends in ed'ucational administration. He has made no attempt to present all trends, and depending upon the reader's locality, sorne activities ou tlined may bepresently in practice. However, administrat0<s in any locality will be dramatically affected by one or more of the concepts presented. Increasing pres.sures from various publics; fl uidity of 1n ney; accountabil ity; chang ing relationships \vi th stafi; dweloping new skil ls; and new pattern s of mobility- all are becon1ing realities . l he job of admin istration and the training of ad· ministrators are becoming increas ing ly comp lex, \vi th the success ol our future, in some measure, being the deter-minant of how well we have succeeded. " The school itself, as custodian of ever-larger numbers o f people, for increasing p roportions of their li fe span, for an ever-growing number of hours and interests, is we ll on the w ay to joining armies, prisons, and insane asylums as one o f society's total in-stitutions ." - Everett Reimer Schoo l Is Dead, p. 37 (Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday & Comp any, 1971) 14 EDUCA TION1\ l CONSIDERA TIONS 2Educational Considerations, Vol. 1, No. 1 [1973], Art. 4https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol1/iss1/4DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.2156

Selected National Trends in Educational Administration

Alfred P. Wilson

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Selected National Trends in Educational Administration

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