4 INVITED CHAPTERS
Short (1994) was also correct in her predictions when she suggested that there will be
“movement from competition to cooperation, from isolation to interdependence, from
hierarchical power structures to participative decision making.” These are the reality of
today’s schools and systems. The list of essential skills and competencies needed for the 21st
Century include: critical thinking, creative problem-solving, higher order thinking, lifelong
learning, flexibility and adaptability to evolving needs, cooperation, collaboration, and
simultaneous adherence to standards of effectiveness and efficiency. Once again, the theme is
no less important for us today. “We need to prepare kids for their future not for our past”
(Pink, 2008). The students of today and the jobs of the future require new abilities. These are
not only those included in the left brain success model of the past—logical, analytical, linear,
and textual worldview—but also the largely undervalued and ignored right brain tendencies
toward creative, holistic, graphical, contextual, empathetic and synthesized world views. In
other words, we still need all the abilities from the left-brain, but one-sided thinking is no
longer sufficient.
We need to create relationships in school not just among students, faculty and
stakeholders but also in all aspects. The mission and vision should emerge from the context
but not delimit the context. For instance, children in rural, poor, or of specific genders should
not be expected to underachieve or to be less capable in mathematics. The mission and vision
should be clear and connected to the ways we finance and resource our schools, what we
choose to measure and value, how we select curriculum and carryout instruction. We must
remind ourselves daily of the opportunity and challenges of a system of education such as
ours—a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment for all children. In
her 2008 speech to NASSP attendees, Jennifer James said, “We [your students] grow up—you
[educators] save us—no matter how bad we look if you notice us... it makes all the difference
[in what our futures can become]. [This is particularly important,].... when we have the
fastest, deepest, and broadest changes in history happening.” In other words attending to
students, and our relationships with them, as well as how relevant the learning is to their
current and future lives will directly impact not only their individual success but the
democratic ideals of our educational system.
We must be the leaders of our profession and the challengers of practice. Linda Morford,
in her presidential address only a year ago (2007), drew from the literature on the effect size
of leadership. She cited Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003), as well as Leithwood, Louis,
Anderson, and Wahlstrom (2004) on the quality of the school leader having an effect size of
.25 on a school. My question each morning in the mirror and to each reader is: does our
leadership as professors, as departments of educational leadership preparation, as an
organization, account for a similar effect size in the quality of the school leaders we prepare?
Are we, in our actions and our words, ensuring the highest quality of professional
development for one another, modeling and promoting ethical and just leadership, refining the
knowledge base and application of theory and research on practice in our discipline, serving
as advocates for professors and including, no embracing, under-represented groups? If not,
then we are not being who we say we are.
Morford further suggested, “We create an epidemic in our profession where we summon
the will to work with others to address issues facing schools and, thus, improve our
preparation programs.” Have we? What have you specifically done? Are you sharing your
knowledge with others in the field? How much more evidence do we need that the time to act
is now and the persons who must act are us? One of the quotes cited by Gerber (2002) from
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the
utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience” (it was