Administrative Decision Making

Teachers and school administrators want to develop nurturing and productive school communities that embrace teaching and learning. The challenge for school administrators is in making decisions that will move their schools in this direction. Thus, decision making is a fundamental process that contributes to the overall culture and climate of a school.

School administrators want to make sure that the decisions they make with respect to hiring highly qualified teachers and implementing new curriculum strategies and school programs continue to provide learning opportunities that are challenging for creative and gifted and talented students. The challenge for classroom teachers lies in making decisions with respect to facilitating the learning process for all students; deciding what to teach and how to teach it; and what needs to be done to make sure that students possess the social, emotional, and academic skills they will need to achieve success both inside and outside of the school environment.

Today, more than ever, both teachers and administrators need to be decision makers. The increasing demands that are being placed on a school administrator to be a jack-of-all-trades with respect to being a visionary; a competent manager; maintaining the facility; managing a budget; providing guidance to teachers, students, and parents; and being an instructional leader require both teachers and school administrators to be school leaders and to work collaboratively for the benefit of the primary stakeholders, the students and parents of the school community.

In a collaborative school environment, decisions are made collectively, involving all constituents affected by the decision. Yet even in a collaborative school environment some decisions need to be made immediately without an opportunity to obtain input, especially when the safety of students and/or staff is at risk without immediate action. Because making good decisions is contingent upon several factors, including time, the situation, and the expertise needed, there is no one best style, model, or process that is more effective than another. Therefore, the effectiveness of the decision making of school leaders is determined by how effective they are in determining when to make decisions collaboratively, and when to make decisions independently.