Respond to at least two of your colleagues' posts (Note: 2 of my colleague's responses are copied below, I need one response for each person) in at least one of the following ways:

· Offering additional examples of leadership that relate to your colleague's post.
· Suggesting additional resources about leadership that relate to your colleague's post.
· Identifying additional stakeholders and explaining why they are important.
· Proposing additional questions to learn more about the problem.
· Explaining why certain questions are especially relevant to particular stakeholders.

Samantha's Post:

A true leader must possess great communication and problem solving skills that convey a clear commitment to a purpose, inspires people to achieve a common goal as well as promote people to preserve through adversity. These characteristics are what truly makes a leader effective. I have personally witness these characteristics in action with my current administrative leaders within the past three years. Within their first year of leading our school, our school climate and culture changed dramatically amongst the students, but more importantly our staff. Prior to their leadership, our staff exhibit behaviors of chronic absences and tardiness, negative attitudes and no sense of pride in the idea that our students are worth the hard work. Just on this principle alone, before physical change can take place that will impact student behavior and achievement, leaders have to be able to change and mold mindsets into knowing that are agents of change that have direct impact on the recipients. Ultimately, effective leaders have to be understanding and relish in the balance of knowing when to give orders and when to take orders when necessary.

Problem Statement:

To what extent has the Total Management Quality structure has been an effective tool to use in school reformations that have positively impact student achievement as well as a school's culture and climate?

The permission of the school district, building principal, teachers, parents and students are necessary in order to fully explore and seek possible solutions to the problem statement. These stakeholders are crucial to this problem because each group make up the school organization that in some way, shape or form play an intricate part in student achievement.

Questions:

What progress monitoring tool is being used to track continuous improvement at the various levels (students, teachers and leaders)?

What assessment have been used to identify problematic areas of the school organizations and what plans have been put in place to mitigate those issues?

What is the universal responsibility of the school organization (mission and vision statement) and what indicators have been clearly outlined to help assist with meeting the expectation?

What preventive measures have been indicated to ensure the school's organization and what are the reactionary measures to take when certain adversities are unable to be prevented?

Explanation

These four questions are necessary because in order to truly identify and address issues, we have to understand the cause and effect relationship that can negatively and positively impact an organization.

Reference

Hooijberg, R. & Choi, J. 2001. The impact of organizational characteristics on leadership effectiveness models: An examination of leadership in a private and a public sector organization. Administration & Society, 33 (4): 403-431.

Latasha's Post:

PART 1:

a. post a description of the characteristics of an effective leader of change by providing specific examples from your own experience with leaders.

A great characteristic of a change leader is having the ability to see past where things currently are and having the capacity to cultivate that level of vision in others. I participated in a college preparation program at an Ivy League college in grades 8-12. The first week of that program the director shared with us that standing on the shoreline at the beach you can only see 2.9 miles out. From there you see the horizon and it appears that this is where the ocean ends. However, the reality is that the ocean continues for thousands of miles past where you can see. He instructed that group of eighth graders to always have vision past what you can see. I have never forgotten this message. Additionally, change leaders should be able to create and share knowledge and manage the change process.

a. Explain why leaders need to have these particular characteristics to effectively initiate change.

Cast the vision

Most leaders have vision and goals. But a leader cannot succeed alone. He hast to have the ability to cast his vision in a way that causes others to grab hold to that vision and support its growth with their individual abilities and actions.

Create and share knowledge

I have encountered leaders who seemed intimidated by those who may know more than they may. He spent a lot of time trying to discredit others, than working with others toward common goals. An effective leader of change in education needs to be able to create and share knowledge to demonstrate the need for continuous improvement and development and to cultivate a culture of collaboration within the organization (Fullan, 2002).

a. Be sure to include a reference to the scholarly resource you identified on change leadership, and explain how the reference relates to your post. I specifically searched for an article on educational change leadership. The article listed 11 areas that effective educational change leaders posses. Those areas are: leading a culture of change, moral purpose, understanding change, improving relationships, knowledge creation and sharing, coherence making, learning and sustainability, developing the social environment, cultivating leaders at all levels enhancing and teacher proficiency

Fullan, M. (2002). The Change Leader. Beyond Instructional Leadership, 59(8), 16-21. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may02/vol59/num08/The-Change-Leader.aspx

Shamus, K. (2015). College ready? Critical thinking, curiosity matter. Lansing State Journal. Retrieved 10 February 2016, from http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/11/15/college-ready-critical-thinking-curiosity-matter/75735354/

PART 2: Can entrepreneurship improve critical thinking skills of middle school students?

a. post the key stakeholders related to your selected problem statement

Parents, Teachers, School Administration and Local Industry

b. Post an explanation as to why these stakeholders are relevant to the problem.

Parents, Teachers and School administration - Learning to think critically is a huge component of being career and college ready (Shamus, 2015). If we can provide problem based learning opportunities that are connected to real life experiences we could measure the impact on student perception, grades and critical thinking. Local industry could benefit in the long run my cultivating local talent equipped to meet workforce needs.

c. identify at least four questions about the problem that you would like stakeholders to respond. As a parent, what skills sets and abilities does a student need to be college and career ready? To teachers and administrators . . .Do you think a traditional approach to education produces innovation and creativity in students? To industry experts....How can your organization get involved in local education? To all: What happens if we are unable to produce a qualified or skilled workforce in the next generation?

d. explain why the responses may be important in order to understand and address the problem. Many organizations are stakeholders in education at the local level and are unaware. By asking how can you get involved, you are asking someone to buy in through partnership. Also, many parents are unaware of what is really needed for college and career readiness. Good grades are not an immediate indication of academic proficiency.

Reference

Shamus, K. (2015). College ready? Critical thinking, curiosity matter. Lansing State Journal. Retrieved 10 February 2016, from http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/11/15/college-ready-critical-thinking-curiosity-matter/75735354/