Educational leaders must routinely make decisions affecting students, staff, and parents within schools as well as within the entire school district in the moment and looking into the future. Most of these decisions will have a substantial effect on all stakeholders, particularly on the future lives of each student. Educational leaders must then possess a clear understanding of how to make effective decisions, utilizing as much related data and information as possible, considering other related factors and circumstances, being aware of previously established precedents, consulting others, and determining all possible outcomes on stakeholders. At the school-district level, educational leaders must know when it is best to implement a personal decision affecting schools or when to support school-based decision-making.

Educational leaders must also engage in conflict resolution, with these outcomes again substantially affecting all stakeholders, particularly students. How do educational leaders effectively manage conflict between themselves and other stakeholders, as well as support conflict resolution between staff, students, parents, and even board of education members? During conflictual situations, effective educational leaders support a win-win solution for all involved parties. The effective leader never becomes the depositor or resolver of conflict between others, while still attempting to assist others to resolve it amongst themselves as much as possible.

Utilizing the assigned readings for the course as well as additional applicable scholarly sources, put yourself in the role of an educational leader and complete Parts I through IV of the assignment below:

Parts I and II: Decision-Making

Part I: Decision-Making Flow Chart Process: Develop a visual illustration involving a flow chart of your decision-making process. Be sure to clearly depict how you would make effective decisions at the school or school district level within an educational setting of interest, refer to the Owens and Valesky text for an example. You may wish to use an applied example of how you would arrive at a decision within your visual illustration. References: Minimum of 2 scholarly resources

Part II: Decision-Making Top-Down vs. School-Based: Defend when it would be more appropriate to make decisions at the leadership level and when it would be more appropriate to support school-based decision-making. You may wish to use an applied example for each form of decision-making.

References: Minimum of 2 scholarly resources

Parts III and IV: Conflict Resolution

Part III: Five Orientations of Conflict Resolution: Describe the five common orientations (competitive, avoidant, accommodation, sharing, and collaborative) for addressing conflict in relation to leader cooperativeness (high vs. low) and assertiveness (high vs. low). Provide an applied example within an educational setting of interest of how you would utilize the sharing or collaborative orientations to realize effective conflict resolution.

References: Minimum of 2 scholarly resources

Part IV: Dealing with Difficult Individuals: Using an applied example within an educational setting of interest, describe how you would manage a difficult individual (e.g., staff, student, parent, board of education member) to successfully diffuse a conflictual situation.

References: Minimum of 2 scholarly resources