32 INVITED CHAPTERS
and suggest new strategies for enhancing the profession that are better adapted to the multiple
and diverse demands in today’s crowded office.
AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE, & VALUES
The crowd in the modern school office necessitates adding new dimensions to both
knowledge-based and values-based strategies for strengthening the profession. Together with
Colorado colleagues, I have worked for several years to frame new ways of thinking about the
principalship that could guide decision-making in practice. Our exploration of possibilities has led
to a particular conceptualization of principal practice, one that begins with the view that schools
are both adaptive and instrumental organizations. This conceptualization incorporates an eclectic
knowledge base and renewed consideration of the values shaping knowledge and practice
(Bellamy, Fulmer, Murphy, & Muth, 2006; O’Rourke, Provenzano, Bellamy, & Ballek, 2007).
Principals succeed by getting learning results for students and creating schools that respond to
community values, and they do this through stewardship for important school conditions.
REACHING GOALS THROUGH NINE SCHOOL CONDITIONS
To lead schools that reach these dual goals of student learning and school character,
principals are responsible for stewarding nine critical school conditions. (See Figure 1.) We
call these conditions “accomplishments” to emphasize that they are positive results achieved
by the school, not just not circumstances imposed by others. Four of these accomplishments
define the learning environment, influencing student learning and school character by the kind
of student effort they support: learning goals defined, instruction provided, student climate
sustained, and related services provided. Four other accomplishments create the environment
for teaching as they influence the level and focus of professional effort: resources mobilized,
operations supported, staff climate sustained, and school renewal supported. The ninth
accomplishment, family and community partnership sustained, influences both the learning
and teaching environments when the schools activities stimulate family involvement in the
school and family support for student effort at home.
On the surface, our list of accomplishments is not unlike other efforts to identify systemic
components of school work and principals’ responsibilities (Knapp & McLaughlin, 2003;
Leithwood & Montgomery, 1986; Levine & Lezotte, 1990 ). We have defined the elements
in a particular way, however, in order to emphasize the breadth of a principal’s
responsibilities. Each of the nine accomplishments is a school condition over which the
school has some influence, and each is the continually evolving result as the school
implements important organizational processes.
Each accomplishment serves a dual function. Each is a means through which student
learning is promoted; research has linked variability in each of the nine to differences in
student learning (Bellamy et al., 2006). Each accomplishment is also an end in itself, as it
combines with other conditions to make up the school’s character. This second feature of
accomplishments is important, because families care about the school conditions that their
children experience, and pressures for distinctive school cultures differ from one community
to another. So, while some quality features for each of the nine accomplishments can be
established through research (e.g., what kind of school climate is most likely to result in
student effort?), many other quality features must be determined locally, chosen to reflect a
working balance of what various members of the community want their school to be like