The Difficulties of Second-Order Change

Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005), describe that most school reforms, even though, highly researched, thought-out, and articulated, are short lived. Marzano et al. (2005), contribute these “duds” to “leadership that is not consistent with the order of magnitude of change represented by that innovation” (p. 66). To me, this quote is referring to the 21 leadership responsibilities used in ineffective ways and do not coincide with the order of change. Marzano et al. (2005), describe two types of change one being incremental and superficial while the other type of change is more of a “deep transformational” effort. Second order change requires transforming the way an entire school runs and meets the needs of their students. Marzno et al. (2005), gives an example of second-order change as one that exceeds the needs of the achievement gap in under achieving schools to using innovative instructional strategies seen in open education. When a leader embarks in second-order change, they must not tread lightly and continuously analyze the enormous complexities that come with this type of alteration. One way to effectively instigate second-order change is by implementing the most effective 21 leadership responsibilities.

Marzano et al. (2005), explain that of the 21 responsibilities only seven of them affect second-order change the most. These are: knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment; optimizer; intellectual stimulation; change agent; monitoring/evaluating; flexibility; and ideals/beliefs. Since second-order change is so comprehensive and changes the entire way business is ran attention must be given to meeting the requirements of the seven responsibilities. For example, change agent and monitoring/evaluating are very important because they urge for challenging current school practices and then creating an evaluation system that gives feedback on how new practices are affecting student achievement. Fullan agrees with this practice and illustrates that supporting change with student data is one of the best ways to subside anxiety and to implement change itself (video ELC, 2010). Marzano et al. (2005), have researched their findings thoroughly and advise that each order of change is approached in a specific way.

The demands of second-order change requires a thoughtful and flexible administrator because change is a difficult process for people to embrace and difficult to execute from a leadership perspective. Not only does the principal have to use all seven leadership responsibilities but they also have to utilize and balance the use of six leadership styles outlined by Goleman (2000). These demands make the job very complicated; therefore, a principal needs to dedicate a lot of time analyzing and fine-tuning their actions and must possess the willingness to overcome the unexpected. A principal that is rigid or thinks second-order change will happen over night and is not willing to utilize the research supplied to them then status quos will not be broken and student achievement will continue to plummet.

References
Goleman, D. (2000, March). Leadership that gets results. Harvard business review, 78-90.
Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works from research  to results (pp.42-63). Alexandria: ASCD.