11. What would you characterize as the most neglected area or areas in programs for the education of school administrators? While this question was phrased so that respondents might generalize in expressing opinions with respect to neglected areas, a number of the statements submitted contained frank admissions of neglected areas in the programs of the institutions represented. Altogether the statements filed revealed a rather general and healthy sense of inadequacy of purpose, plan, and implementation at many points. Thirty-eight institutions submitted opinions characterizing neglected areas and made reference to some 68 designated area items. The following tabulation reveals the general distribution of these references in terms of the major divisions and questions raised in this inquiry. Problem areas referred to I. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PHILOSOPHY. III. SELECTION AND GUIDANCE OF STUDENTS IV. DEMONSTRATION, OBSERVATION, AND PRACTICE. 3. Group participations for techniques___ V. CONTENT AND ORGANIZAtion of Program.... 2. Materials contributary to total knowledge of individuals.. 5. Socio-economic, political background....... Relationship between school administration and public ad- Too much stress on mechanics and techniques_ - Too early specialization. Too many specialized courses. Ideals and qualities of professional character.. Chapter 6 Conclusions and Suggestions In analyzing returns in this inquiry the general plan has been to select and present materials through which the cooperating institutions tell their own story with respect to current practice and opinion in response to the specific questions raised in each of five major problem areas. Certain implications growing out of these responses have been discussed for the purpose of high-spotting trends, to facilitate the identification of problems, or for general clarification of some of the issues. Some conclusions have been suggested, or conclusions which have been reached by other students of these problems have been verified. These threads will now be drawn together to provide a background for suggestions of some possible next steps in the development of programs for the education of school administrators. For convenience and clarity this presentation will take the form of summary statements presented under each major heading. These will include, first, a statement of certain general conclusions which would probably be accepted by a majority of the respondents on the basis of answers given and explanatory and descriptive statements submitted; second, a brief summary of the present situation with respect to practice as far as the returns provide the picture; and third, some suggestions concerning possible and desirable next steps and their implications. I. The Development and Implementation of a Philosophy of School Administration Conclusions.-Programs of education for school administration will improve and grow in effectiveness as basic agreements are reached as to what constitutes the most desirable program for such education. A continuing study of the place, function, and essential character of administration in the educational scheme should be carried on in order to develop a philosophy to which the developing program can be kept constantly aligned. These efforts should be systematic, continuous, and cooperative. The present situation.—More than 60 percent of the 62 institutions represented indicate that systematic efforts have been made toward the cooperative development and faculty acceptance of a philosophy of school administration and also that these efforts have resulted in basic agreements which offer a framework of objectives for the development of their programs. In reporting on the groups which have been actively engaged in the cooperations referred to, faculty members were mentioned most frequently; local administrators, graduate students, State administrators, and representative laymen were mentioned less frequently and in that order. All of these groups are generally included, with the exception of laymen. Implicit in all these statements was an assumption that schools, colleges, and departments of education have primary responsibility for the development of suitable programs of professional education in administration. Cooperation with other groups and agencies seem for the most part to have been sought for the purpose of verification of conclusions arrived at by the schools, rather than for the purpose of involving them all in responsibility for cooperation and decisions at all stages of the process of developing programs. Suggestions and implications-There are two methods which generally characterize the approach to the development of a philosophy of administration, (a) a job analysis of the work of the school administrator may be accepted as the basis of the program, or (b) a philosophy of administration is developed in relation to the whole philosophy of education in general. While the former method of approach may lead to a conception of administration that is too narrowly conceived as a profession in and of itself and apart from teaching, its use in combination with the second method of approach should minimize that possibility feared by so many students of the problem. The fundamental distinction between administration and teaching is largely one of function. The job analysis approach is necessary in order to identify these functions just as it has been used effectively to identify the teaching functions. There should be no "either, or" confusion here as appears in the thinking of many professional faculties as they consider these problems related to philosophy. areas. The implications with respect to program content which are involved in these two approaches are of course significant. The first approach used exclusively, results usually in a program which consists for the most part in a sequence of courses in the purely technical aspects of administration. The second approach results in a program based upon a more extensive range of so-called education and noneducation Both approaches are sound as far as they go. The thing to be avoided is what has been called "relative adherence" to one or the other of these approaches. The suggestion offered here is that we concern ourselves less with the alleged "purity" of our approach and resultant philosophy and more with the business of canvassing the total problem in terms of an approach that is defensibly sound rather than traditionally orthodox. The time seems to have passed when the problem of developing programs for the education of administrators as well as for teachers is exclusively or even primarily the responsibility and concern of the teachers colleges and universities. Other agencies and groups are giving expression to interests and concerns which should be recognized. The time seems to have arrived when institutions can well afford to waive considerations of primacy of interest and responsibility and become parties to the adoption of an approach which gives due recognition to all interests, and that involves all groups and agencies concerned, actively, in a cooperative attack upon the total problem. Finally, it should be observed that responsibility and power of initiative in this cooperative undertaking rests within that group or agency or institution where consciousness of need and urgency, and the will to do, is most acute. It could well be hoped that this would mean our institutions of higher education. II. Preparation and Competence of Graduate Teaching Staff for the Responsibilities Related to the Education of Administrators Conclusions.-Agreements can and should be reached within each institution with respect to certain distinctive qualifications essential to effective service in this field. These agreements should be concerned with qualification factors based upon a functional analysis of the responsibilities of the members of the staff-as related to the task imposed by the program and its objectives: Conclusions should be reached with respect to the most appropriate educational and experience background, qualitatively and quantitatively; demonstrated functional command of knowledge; on the job skills required, with emphasis upon leadership and teaching skills essential to effective utilization of more recently developed teaching procedures; and the personality traits most essential to satisfactory working relationships, with emphasis upon inter-faculty relationships within the institution as a whole as well as teacher-student relationships. The present situation.-The majority of institutions report that specific conclusions have been reached with respect to what the most distinctive equipment of professional instructors in the field of education for school administration should be. A tabulation of all the specification items submitted provides a distribution of items within all of the categories which have been outlined. No single institution apparently has considered them all to the point of including them all in its report. There is great variation in emphasis and in point of view. Most general agreement is registered with respect to the importance of successful, practical field experience in the public schools. Comments on the proposal submitted, that staff members should be "practicing professors" and should be part-time employees of school systems from time to time, were preponderantly favorable. Fifteen. respondents gave evidence of such employment of staff members in terms of a literal intrepretation of the question. Reports from 20 additional institutions indicated that practicing school administrators are employed as instructors on a part-time basis. Altogether responses here re-affirmed general agreement as to the importance of practical experience with considerable emphasis upon the currency and continuity of such experience and contacts. Encouraging reports of success in bringing about successful collaborations between so-called academic and professional personnel came from one-third of the responding institutions. The remaining institutions had little or nothing to report while a few presented statements of purely negative results in such an effort. Suggestions and implications. Effective implementation of a program of education for administration must inevitably stand or fall in terms of the adequacy of staff and teaching facilities. Increasing emphasis upon the functional aspects of professional programs in education for teaching and administration, and the continuing development of "new" teaching techniques and procedures, are making increasingly varied and more complex demands upon the competence of the teaching personnel as a teaching leadership group. The time has passed when teachers at the graduate level in this field can rest on their laurels of achievement in research or successful experience in the past. and be content to pass on through lectures and assigned readings a body of theory and vicarious experience. More and more attention, therefore, should be given to an analysis of teaching functions at this level which will result in the identification of the knowledges, skills, experiences, and personal qualities most essential to effective teaching service in relation to student needs and purposes. These efforts should be continuous and searching. Because the full utilization of many of the personnel and material resources of a university in the so-called "non-education" areas of content and experience is becoming increasingly obvious as a necessary part of an emerging broader program of professional education, the competence of staff members in bringing about the necessary collaborations and cooperations should be given increasing consideration. The disposition and the ability to promote and improve these relationships are more often than not quite seriously challenged. Surely they should be included as important parts of the "distinctive equipment of professional instructors in the field of education of school administrators." An analysis of the nature of the problems involved in promoting and improving these relationships in any given situation should of course precede any program of action. Among the problems which such an analysis would reveal are the following: (1) Differing basic philosophies with respect to degrees of specialization essential to differing kinds of graduate programs. Here the importance of developing a basic philosophy in school administration and a resultant |