At a recent gathering of retired school administrators, I listened to conversations that I have titled “what gets noticed.” What I mean by that title is the following comments from administrators in the room are experiences that caught their attention—“what got noticed.”
- A standout athletic event or performance involving their school
- Difficult personnel matter
- Working with difficult parents
- Working with difficult governing boards
- A student who succeeded despite difficult odds.
While each of the remembrances shared common qualities—emotionally charged, a challenge or conflict, a human story—they all lacked any connection to what school mission statements point to as an aim of schooling—raising the level of student thinking and reasoning. If the men and women seated around me were pursuing mission-driven goals, then the following experiences would have caught their attention—“what got noticed.”
- The nature of student work.
- The substance of lessons
- Student sense-making
- Classroom discourse
- Teacher responsiveness
My takeaway from that retirement gathering, the same takeaway I had from numerous administrative meetings, is that the primary function of our occupations as school administrators is improving teaching and learning in our schools. Mission-driven leadership asks leaders to notice not the most visible moments of schooling—but the most meaningful ones—the moments where thinking is being shaped, extended, and revealed.
Alan C. Jones 