Leadership Dynamics Promoting Systemic Reform for Inclusive Service Delivery

Abstract

This article presents a multicase study of two systems of schools striving to reform service delivery systems for students with special needs. Considering these systems as institutional actors, the study examines what promotes the understanding and implementation of special education service delivery within a system of schools in a manner that strengthens the capacity of schools to welcome students with special needs. Key findings illustrate how central office support and relationships across horizontal, vertical, and diagonal dimensions mediate efforts to reorient organizations, establish policy coherence, provide instructional leadership, and maintain the focus on reform. The article concludes with implications across school sectors for policies and practices that promote inclusive service delivery for students with special needs. Effectively and inclusively serving students with special needs is a compelling and elusive goal of school leaders. This pursuit is typically an isolated endeavor of individual school leaders working to reform a specific school rather than an effort undertaken by colleagues working across a system. As such, these pursuits can create pockets of innovative practice in individual schools, often largely dependent on key leaders at the school. This article examines an alternative to this: leadership dynamics within and across schools in systems striving to improve service delivery for students with special needs. Special needs is used as an umbrella term encompassing students with diagnosed disabilities and those facing undiagnosed barriers to school success. This study compares and contrasts two school systems, answering the question, What promotes the understanding and implementation of the learning consultant model within a system of

An Urban School Leader’s Approach to School Improvement

“…Much of what is considered SJL is categorized in different areas of marginalization. Some examples of this propensity toward equity or social justice can be witnessed in the work of Black principals (e.g., Bloom & Erlandson, 2003;Gooden, 2005;Lomotey, 1989;Tillman, 2004) or principals who advocate for disability inclusion (Scanlan, 2009). In addition, issues of ELLs (Theoharis & O 'Toole, 2011), sexual orientation (Reed & Johnson, 2010), and class (Lyman & Villani, 2002) are part of the SJL agenda.…”