1.3 K-12 leadership and the educational administration curriculum  (Page 3/14)

The Past Begets the Future

At its outset, the field of educational administration focused on superintendent preparation (whichencompassed the role of principal). The scope of the field was narrow because its mission was clear. Preparation programs evolvedout of the need to manage schools and supervise teachers. It was still a nation of rural one room schools organized by the localcommunity, and managed by a teacher who often wore the hats of teacher, superintendent, principal, janitor, counselor, and mentorto children. Again, Massachusetts saw the need for improved management of the local school district. In “1827 each district wasauthorized to be represented by a man—elected either by the town or district—who was endowed with authority to employ the teacher” (p.150).

Prince (1901) noted that the evolution of a specialized role for school leadership culminated whenMassachusetts authorized towns and city councils to require the school committee “to appoint a superintendent of public schools whounder the direction and control of said committee, shall have the care and supervision of the schools” (p. 152). By 1879 the idea ofa “full or nearly full time” superintendent with supervisory skills in education was commonplace in Massachusetts cities.

The need to train educational administrators for tasks that were unique to the educational enterprise onlyaccelerated during the mid-1800’s. Prince (1901) explained the Massachusetts experience in developing supervisory leadership asprecedent setting and would spread to other states [which it did].He further explained the evolution of supervision as having two periods in Massachusetts—“one in which the people in their fidelityto local self-government kept the immediate management of the schools in their own hands” and second, the realization by thesesame local communities that they needed to “give into the hands of educational experts the direction of that part of the work of theschools which required professional knowledge and skill” (p. 157). The recognition, one hundred and thirty years ago, on the part ofthese communities to separate professional from practical created the need for professional training.

As long as schools were locally controlled, small in size, and organizationally unsophisticated, the skill torun them resided with the men who ran the local businesses, the preachers who ministered to the community, and the teachers whowore the hat of teacher and administrator. There was, and continues to be even in modern organizations, the practical concerns ofrunning schools efficiently, with common sense, and with skill. When schools began growing into educational bureaucracies, itrequired administrative skill beyond the ability of most individuals in the local community. The specialized role ofeducational administrator—superintendent and principal—became important to the success of the school district because it becameclear that training and experience were necessary. Training and skill as an administrator and educational leader crystallized inthe late 1800’s with the first university-based class to train school administrators, developed at the University of Michigan in1879.