1. Education and Leadership
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Marzano's 21
Responsibilities of the
School Leader
These 21 Responsibilities of the
School Leader are taken from Marzano's book
"School Leadership that Works." These are the
results of his study to determine effective
practices for school leadership and a
description of each responsibility.
1. Affirmation
When one mentions affirmation, one can

2. describe it as communication of
accountability. The school leader has the
responsibility to praise and celebrate
accomplishments, but yet must still have the
courage to address negatives.
2. Change Agent
It is the responsibility of the school leader to
challenge the status quo, to challenge the
practices that are in place and to push towards
new practices. Similar to Zygotsky's Zone of
Proximal Development, the leader's
responsibility is to take the staff out of their
comfort zone in an attempt to develop new and
better practices.
3. Contingent Rewards
This responsibility is reflective of
Transactional Leadership, or the swapping of
rewards for performance. It is fairly common
to compliment groups, but isolated when
recognizing individuals, and the leader needs
to understand that not everyone should be
treated equally.

3. 4. Communication
Communications seems to possibly be the
most important responsibility because it is
integrated into most aspects of leadership.
5. Culture
Culture is the shared values, beliefs, and
feelings of a community, and is evident in the
artifacts and symbols that illustrate those
priorities. Culture, like communication, is
evident in many theories of leadership, and
establishing a culture of achievement in the
school might be one of the most important
responsibilities of the leader.
6. Discipline
Discipline refers to protecting teachers from
issues and influencesthat would detract from
their instructional time or focus. (Marzano,
2005) Instructional time is paramount to
teaching; more time on task, more learning,
theoretically. The principal has the
responsibility to decrease the amount of
distractions that impact instructional time.

4. 7. Flexibility
Conflict:Change. Flexibility is about realizing,
or creating, chaos, and then adjust to it.
Leaders realize the situations and adapt their
behaviors to address the situation. These
traits also evident in the change agent
responsibility.
8. Focus
Focus is similar to discipline in that it also
associates with lessening the distractions to
instructional time. Focus is the leader's ability
to communicate and reinforce the goals and
vision, and to minimize the distractions to
those ends.
9. Ideals/Beliefs
It is the leader's beliefs which shape the
culture of the school, and creates followership.

5. 10. Input
A school's effectivenesscorrelates to the
amount, and type, of input that teachers have
into the running of the school. This input
builds shared sense of purpose and consensus.
11. Intellectual Stimulation
Learning about learning and inspiring the
organization to grow is all about professional
development. Providing the research and
theories allows the staff to implement and
experiment with new strategies.
12. Involvement in Curriculum,
Instruction, and Assessment
The involvement of the leader in Curriculum,
Instruction and Assessment is critical to the
concept of instructional leadership. (Marzano,
2005) The leadership should be hands on with
curriculum and instruction so that knowledge
of strategies and resources can be shared.
Assessment practices are also important
because maintaining consistent and focused
assessment allows for adjustment of

6. instruction for the content for greater student
achievement.
13. Knowledge of Curriculum,
Instruction, and Assessment
Having knowledge of curriculum, instruction,
and assessment allows the leader to provide
specific, research-based strategies to teachers
for improved instruction. While the
Involvement responsibility is "hands on", the
Knowledge responsibility involves maintaining
current research and theories about those
areas. This also allows the leader to prescribe
specific professional development
opportunities for staff to increase areas of
need.
14. Monitoring/Evaluating
Monitoring and evaluating are important
because of the specific feedback they provide

7. to teachers. Through this process, the
feedback provided can be specific and focused
to aid in achievement.
15. Optimizer
The Optimizer responsibility is the positive,
inspirational emotion that the leader brings,
especially when confronted with a meaningful
change.
16. Order
Order is the set of processes established to
allow for the flow of work to be standardized.
Efficient procedures allows for effort to be
focused on areas of greater importance, such
as student learning.
17. Outreach
The leader is an advocate for the school and
the students to the various stakeholders in the
community. Communication and
partnerships are required for the school to
achieve in a complex environment.
18. Relationships

8. Relationships is central to the achievement of
many other responsibilities. It is with face-to-
face connections that one can build the
credibility with other people.
19. Resources
It is imperative for efficient operations that
one have the right tool for the task, and it is
the responsibility of the leader to not only
ensure that the tools are available, but that the
teachers are trained to utilize the tool
effectivelyand efficiently. "Resources" can
include physical resources (stuff), monetary
resources (money), and human resources
(people).
20. Situational Awareness
Situational awareness is knowledge of what is
going on in the school, feelings and emotions,
day to day activities. This will allow the leader
to anticipate any issues, or be better prepared
should a situation arise.
21. Visibility
Visibility is the extent to which the leader is in

9. classrooms and available throughout the
school. By being available, the leader shows
that they are interested in what goes on in the
school. The leader is also able to communicate
more informally with the teachers about
classroom practices.
Works Cited
Marzano, R. J. (2005). School Leadership that
Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.