Ethical Leadership.Ethical Leadership More than ever, school leaders are being challenged by national and state efforts to become more accountable for student learning. In response, educators have resorted to testing students more frequently with irrelevant, technical material, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Robert Starratt, author of Ethical Leadership. The result of high-stakes testing A high-stakes test is an assessment which has important consequences for the test taker. If the examinee passes the test, then the examinee may receive significant benefits, such as a high school diploma or a license to practice law. , he claims, will be students void of ethics and purpose. In his book, the Boston College Boston College, main campus at Chestnut Hill, Mass.; coeducational; Jesuit; est. and opened 1863. Actually a university, the school's Chestnut Hill campus comprises colleges of arts and sciences and business administration, the graduate school, and schools of nursing professor charges that the new accountability measures imposed from on high are contributing to "inauthentic learning, superficial learning, fake learning, make-believe learning, rather than something that intrinsically adds value to students' lives." As a former principal and a longtime researcher on ethics in leadership, Starratt offers today's school leader a powerful combination of practical understanding of daily school life and important philosophical underpinnings needed for ethical leadership. To Starratt, ethical leadership comes from the combination of three virtues: responsibility, authenticity and presence. At the outset of his book, the author presents us with an educational leader who is grappling with the moral dimensions of his decisions. Starratt then steps away from the present story and challenges us to reflect in profound ways on the nature and role of responsibility, authenticity and presence in informing ethical decision Real life ethical decisions are studied in sociology and political science and psychology using very different methods than descriptive ethics in ethics (philosophy). Not ethics proper making. At the end we return to our story, enriched by thoughtful and meaningful reflection, prepared to confront the moral dimensions of leadership. Over the years I have found Starratt's writings helpful to both practitioners and students of leadership because of his skill in combining the theoretical with the practical. His treatment of the issues embedded in ethical leadership is clear and compelling. (Ethical Leadership by Robert J. Starratt, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Calif., 2004, 158 pp. with index, $20 softcover soft·cov·er adj. Not bound between hard covers: softcover books; a softcover edition. ) Zach Kelehear Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Alabama at Birmingham UAB began in 1936 as the Birmingham Extension Center of the University of Alabama. Because of the rapid growth of the Birmingham area, it was decided that an extension program for students who had difficulties which prevented them from studying in Tuscaloosa was needed. , Birmingham, Ala. |
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