Webster School District’s Leader Interview

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Table of Contents

The Organizational Change in the Webster School District
Needs Assessment and the Problem Identification
Identification of Obstacles
The Change Implementation
The Change Evaluation
Conclusion
References

Change implementation is a challenge for a leader in any organization, and leaders in the educational setting need to address obstacles associated with the change perceptions demonstrated by not only teachers but also students and the community. While implementing the organizational change, an educational leader needs to pay much attention to the change process in order to gain the stakeholders’ support and achieve high results (Hallinger & Heck, 2010). The focus on virtual education is one of the latest trends in the sphere of K-12 education. Many school districts implement organizational changes in order to address the necessity of proposing virtual learning to their students (Ingerham, 2012).

James Erickson, District Superintendent of the Webster School District located in Webster, Wisconsin, was interviewed in order to analyze his approaches to the organizational change in the context of the leadership theory. The questions for the interview were formulated to represent the strategy that was used by Mr. Erickson as the change process. This paper aims to provide the results of the interview with Mr. Erickson on the recent organizational change in the Webster School District, on the process steps used by the leader to implement the change successfully, and on possible obstacles and barriers to the change.

The Organizational Change in the Webster School District

In the interview, Mr. Erickson stated that the Webster School District joined the program developed by the U.S. Department of Education in the context of the National Education Technology Plan of 2010. The program is oriented to improving education in states with the help of implementing technologies and innovations in school settings. Mr. Erickson noted that their project of virtual learning is the part of the Wisconsin Virtual School project that provides technological support for the initiative (J. Erickson, personal communication, October 30, 2015).

The organization of the virtual education for students in the Middle and High Schools of the Webster School District meant the significant organizational change because it was necessary to restructure the teaching staff to choose the virtual learning leaders and to determine leaders for the development of the hybrid and fully online courses for students. In order to implement the change, Mr. Erickson followed four stages of the traditional organizational change process.

Needs Assessment and the Problem Identification

The needs assessment was conducted by Mr. Erickson in several stages. The first ideas regarding the restructuring of the learning process were developed in 2010, but the information and technology base of the school district was not enough to implement hybrid and online courses. The final needs assessment was conducted during the past year, and it was found that the Webster School District should follow the pattern adopted by the other school districts in Wisconsin regarding the implementation of the virtual education. The problem was clearly identified and required its further analysis as the number of parents’ applications requesting the provision of online education to their children increased.

Mr. Erickson consulted the specialists of the Wisconsin Virtual School and organized the survey in the community to identify the need for virtual learning in Webster. These approaches Mr. Erickson to the problem identification can be discussed as being in line with the first stage of the organizational change process (Frank, Zhao, Penuel, Ellefson, & Porter, 2011). The analysis of these activities in the context of the organizational change theory indicates that the leader completed the necessary steps in order to determine the gaps to address while implementing the innovations.

Identification of Obstacles

Speaking of obstacles to the change implementation, Mr. Erickson determined the unwillingness of several teachers to develop new hybrid and online courses, take new leadership positions and responsibilities, and change the traditional learning process. The teachers in the Webster School District opposed the innovation and change in the organization of the educational process. The task of the leader in this situation is to motivate stakeholders to admit the necessity of the change as beneficial for them (Leo & Wickenberg, 2013; Seashore, 2009).

Transformational leaders in educational settings are able to overcome this barrier most effectively as they can inspire the members of the staff to share their position and communicate the necessity of the change (Mette & Scribner, 2014). Mr. Erickson coped with the obstacles appropriately while explaining the advantages of virtual education to students and to the community representatives. The benefits of taking new leadership positions by teachers were also accentuated in public meetings and face-to-face conversations.

The Change Implementation

The next step in the change process is the actual implementation of the change, and Mr. Erickson developed policies regarding the organization of the virtual education in the Middle and High Schools of the district. He also appointed administrators and leaders from the teaching staff in order to develop courses and start their implementation in the teaching-learning process. According to the traditional scheme of the organizational change process, this approach is known as the “Top Down” one. This strategy is effective when the level of the stakeholders’ opposition is minimal (Scribner & Crow, 2012).

Mr. Erickson demonstrated the qualities of the transformational leader in order to convince teachers to participate in the change process more actively (Green, 2015, p. 680; LaFrance & Beck, 2014, p. 161). Following Mette and Scribner (2014), it is possible to state that Mr. Erickson motivated the teaching staff “to invest in the improvement process by grounding efforts in values, goals, and beliefs to improve student achievement” (p. 13). The outcomes of the selected strategy were rather positive as the teachers received clear guidelines regarding the virtual learning implementation and followed them strictly while understanding the goal and expected results.

The Change Evaluation

Mr. Erickson noted that he also evaluated the change after completing the process of implementation in order to identify weaknesses and areas that required further modifications and improvements. The standard change assessment form was used in order to evaluate the organizational change results. The attention was paid to the opinions of teachers, students, and parents. In order to assess the completed project or implemented change, the leader needs to know the opinions of the interested stakeholders on the results to conclude about the effectiveness of the made steps and used tools (Hauge, Norenes, & Vedoy, 2014).

It was found that the majority of the teaching staff supports the change, and they also express the desire to perform as leaders in developing the online courses for students (Bogler, Caspi, & Roccas, 2013, p. 376). The percentage of teachers who opposed the spread of the change was minimal, and Mr. Erickson chose to use the PowerPoint Presentation in order to illustrate the positive changes associated with the implementation of the virtual learning methods in the Webster School District. While evaluating the success of the change implementation process, leaders need to compare the achieved results with the previously set goals (Rusch & Brunner, 2013; Teague, 2013). Mr. Erickson found that the goals were achieved, but more attention can be paid to increasing the number of courses that can be proposed as hybrid and online for particular groups of students, depending on the survey results.

Conclusion

The interview with Mr. Erickson can be discussed as useful to determine how the organizational change can be implemented in the school settings and what leadership qualities need to be demonstrated by the school principal in order to achieve the high results. While proving the necessity of virtual education in the district and restructuring the courses, Mr. Erickson acted as the transformational leader. He motivated the teaching staff and community to accept the benefits of the change and contribute to the overall process.

The leader also followed the steps of the organizational change process that are traditionally regarded as important ones in order to complete the set goals. The success of Mr. Erickson’s approach is also based on his ability to explain the benefits of virtual education for the community. In the future, Mr. Erickson can pay more attention to persuading the staff to accept the change in order to support the activities referring to the teachers’ intrinsic motivation. The change implementation process can become a challenge for leaders, and success depends on the appropriateness of selected strategies and completion of the change process steps.

References

Bogler, R., Caspi, A., & Roccas, S. (2013). Transformational and passive leadership: An initial investigation of university instructors as leaders in a virtual learning environment. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(3), 372-392.

Frank, K. A., Zhao, Y., Penuel, W. R., Ellefson, N., & Porter, S. (2011). Focus, fiddle, and friends experiences that transform knowledge for the implementation of innovations. Sociology of Education, 84(2), 137-156.

Green, T. L. (2015). Leading for urban school reform and community development. Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(5), 679-711.

Hallinger, P., & Heck, R. H. (2010). Collaborative leadership and school improvement: Understanding the impact on school capacity and student learning. School Leadership and Management, 30(2), 95-110.

Hauge, T. E., Norenes, S. O., & Vedoy, G. (2014). School leadership and educational change: Tools and practices in shared school leadership development. Journal of Educational Change, 15(4), 357-376.

Ingerham, L. (2012). Interactivity in the online learning environment: A study of users of the North Carolina virtual public school. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 13(2), 65-75.

LaFrance, J. A., & Beck, D. (2014). Mapping the terrain: Educational leadership field experiences in K-12 virtual schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(1), 160-189.

Leo, U., & Wickenberg, P. (2013). Professional norms in school leadership: Change efforts in implementation of education for sustainable development. Journal of Educational Change, 14(4), 403-422.

Mette, I. M., & Scribner, J. P. (2014). Turnaround, transformational, or transactional leadership: An ethical dilemma in school reform. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 17(4), 3-18.

Rusch, E. A., & Brunner, C. C. (2013). Transforming leadership identity in a virtual environment: Learning about the leading self. Journal of Transformative Education, 11(1), 45-69.

Scribner, S., & Crow, G. (2012). Employing professional identities: Case study of a high school principal in a reform setting. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 11(3), 243-274.

Seashore, K. R. (2009). Leadership and change in schools: Personal reflections over the last 30 years. Journal of Educational Change, 10(2), 129-140.

Teague, C. L. (2013). Learning at Georgia virtual school. Distance Learning, 10(4), 15-25.

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