Autonomy for School Leaders

The School Administrator
January 2010, Number 1, Vol. 67

In this article, Jim Eck, McREL's senior director of field services, and Bryan Goodwin, McREL's vice president of communications and marketing, discuss a key finding from McREL's research on district leadership, which suggests that effective districts intentionally create "defined autonomy" for school leaders: they set clear, non-negotiable goals for student achievement and classroom instruction district-wide, while offering the principals the autonomy and support necessary to achieve those goals.