Strategic leadership, resource management and effective school reform
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239810238447 |
| Pages | 445-461 |
| Author | Brian J. Caldwell |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Strategic
leadership
445
Strategic leadership, resource
management and effective
school reform
Brian J. Caldwell
Professor and Dean of Education, University of Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia
A feature of school reform around the world has been the systematic
decentralization to the school level of authority, responsibility and
accountability within a centrally-determined framework of curriculum, policy,
priorities and standards. Indeed, it is now hard to find a nation where changes
along these lines have not taken place or are planned or are proposed (see
Caldwell, 1994; 1998; Whitty et al., 1998 for an account of driving and
constraining forces). How these changes have impacted on the professional
actions and cultures of teachers and their leaders is of critical importance , as is
the extent to which they have had impact on learning outcomes.
Context for research
Reform along these lines has occurred in every state and territory in Australia
over the last quarter century. In this paper, particular attention is given to the
most recent wave of reform in Victoria, which has occurred since early 1993
under the rubric of Schools of the Future. Almost 90 percent of the state’s
budget for public education has been decentralized to schools for local decision-
making within a curriculum and standards framework in eight key learning
areas. Schools have a capacity to select their own staff, who remain employed by
the central authority, with provision for annual and triennial report to the local
community and the state education department on a range of indicators. With
1,700 schools, this is the largest system of public education anywhere to have
decentralized such a high proportion of the total budget, covering virtually all
non-capital expenditure, including teaching and non-teaching staff.
Schools of the Future was implemented at the same time that the state
government took action to rein in a high level of public debt and bring Victoria
into line with funding and other standards for public education that form the
basis of fiscal transfers between national and state governments (in Australia,
education is a responsibility of the states but the national government is the
only level of government with an income taxing capacity). About 300 schools
Journal of Educational
Administration,
Vol. 36 No. 5, 1998, pp. 445-461,
© MCBUniversity Press, 0957-8234
Dr David Gurr, Department of Education Policy and Management, University of Melbourne,
analyzed data from the most recent survey of principals in the Cooperative Research Project
reported here (Cooperative Research Project, 1998) and provided helpful comments on a draft of
this paper. Dr Ken Rowe, Senior Research Associate, Centre for Applied Educational Research,
University of Melbourne, carried out the structur al equation modelling.
Journal of
Educational
Administration
36,5
446
were closed and about 8,000 staff considered in excess of requirements left the
system. State debt has been reduced through extensive privatisation of public
sector services.
The starting point in this paper is a description of the research program from
which findings are drawn. Then follows an account of emerging roles and
preferences of principals for the new organizational arrangements. A
description of new mechanisms for the management of resources sets the scene
for a review of findings on learning outcomes, with a relatively stable model of
direct and indirect effects now evident. The final section describes the
professional culture of the principalship that is emerging under these
conditions.
Research program
Findings are drawn from several research projects. The primary source is the
Cooperative Research Project, a joint endeavour of the Education Department,
the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, the Victorian Primary
(Elementary) Principals’ Association, and the University of Melbourne through
its Department of Education Policy and Management. The Cooperative
Research Project began in mid-1993 and concluded in mid-1998, completing on
schedule a planned five-year longitudinal study of the processes and outcomes
of Schools of the Future. Seven state-wide surveys of representative samples of
principals have been conducted and these have covered virtually every aspect of
the reform, including its impact on lear ning outcomes for students (Cooperative
Research Project 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 1997, 1998). Findings from the final
survey are reported here (Cooperative Research Project, 1998). Seventeen
investigations have focused on discrete elements, including leadership,
professional development, new work place practices, resource allocation and
school improvement. Four of these investigations are reported (Ford, 1995; Gurr,
1996; Johnston, 1997; Wee, 1998).
The second source is the School Global Budget Research Project conducted
over three years from 1994-1996 that gathered information on approaches to
resource allocation in a representative sample of Victorian schools to guide
recommendations to the Minister for Education on how resources should be
allocated to schools (“how the cake is to be cut”) (see Education Committee,
1994; 1995; 1996).
The third source is an international project focused on approaches and
impacts of resource allocation under conditions of decentralization. This is a
cooperative effort of the University of Melbourne (Brian Caldwell, co-chief
investigator) and the University of Wisconsin at Madison (Allan Odden, co-
chief investigator), with the involvement of the Open University in the UK
(Rosalind Levacic, associate investigator). This study is funded in Australia by
the Australian Research Council, with two main purposes:
(1) to develop and test a theoretical school-based funding model for per
capita resourcing of schools based on the learning needs of students,
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