This historical account of the New Brunswick Centre for Educational Administration has been adapted from an article written by Ken Cameron entitled "Looking to the Future: The Role of the N.B.C.E.A. in these Changing Times" which appeared in issue 24 of the New Brunswick Educational Administrator dated 1992 June. As such it is not entirely up to date but it does cover the important formative period of the Centre. Professor Cameron, now retired, divided the history of the N.B.C.E.A. into three phases beginning in 1984, the year the Centre began.
Phase One
Phase Two
Phase Three
Conclusions
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Phase One
In the first of these, extending from January of 1984 to the Winter of 1987, we lacked the resources to become proactive as a source of inservice activity. The Centre came into existence as a result of a meeting initiated by Harvey Malmberg, then deputy minister. At this meeting Larry Bezeau and Ken Cameron, professors of educational administration at the University of New Brunswick, agreed to become co-directors of a centre which would be supported by a ten thousand dollar start-up grant from the New Brunswick Department of Education. The co-directors were motivated in large part by what they saw as a need to counteract the adversarial relations then existing among the various stakeholders in public education. It seemed to us that a university-based centre might provide an arms-length forum where these groups could collaborate, addressing issues of common concern in a non-confrontational atmosphere. We brought together an advisory board representing the Department of Education, the Superintendents' Association, the School Trustees' Association, the District Supervisors' Association, and the Principals' and Vice-Principals' Council of the Teachers' Association. Our major initiative in these beginning years was the organization of a series of annual conferences dealing with such issues as superintendent and school board relations, staff renewal, and the educational reform proposals of the Office of Government Reform. We also began publication of the New Brunswick Educational Administrator Our involvement in professional development activities was limited to occasional contributions to the programs of various of our stakeholder groups. A more proactive role was not possible because the Centre operated in a hobby farm mode; our limited resources meant that the Centre's work was carried out by the co-directors as a voluntary add-on to their other responsibilities.
This began to change during the winter of 1987. Marven Betts volunteered his services to spearhead an exploration of how we might become more active in professional development. We put together a task force of representatives from the above-mentioned stakeholders plus the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, identified a number of leadership development centres in Canada and the United States, and studied their operations. This was made possible by funding from the Department of Education. Professor Gene Burdenuk of the Educational Leadership Centre at the University of Western Ontario was particularly helpful during this period. The task force proposed that we become actively involved in leadership development and that this work be supported by funding from the Department of Education, the New Brunswick School Trustees' Association, and the New Brunswick Teachers' Association. With the support of these three organizations, we were able to employ Marven Betts on a part time basis during the Fall of 1987 and the Winter of 1988 to launch our first major professional development initiatives.
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Phase Two
In this way, the Centre entered the second phase of its development. We now had someone who could give undivided attention to the work of the Centre. (Marven Betts didn't seem capable of working only part of the time.) These were exciting times for us as we initiated various programs which were to become linchpins between the Centre and the public education community. It was also a period of marked uncertainty. Our survival was totally dependent upon annual grants, so it was difficult to plan and make commitments which reached beyond our fiscal year. There also was the uncertainty which accompanies changes in personnel. Marven Betts became Executive Director of the New Brunswick School Trustees' Association in mid-1988 and we operated without an executive director during the final months of that year. Beginning in January 1989, we were able to fill this void by seconding Rod Campbell from the New Brunswick Teachers' Association on a half-time basis for an 18 month period. In July of 1990 we succeeded in extending his secondment for an additional year and were able to offer him a full-time appointment. Following several years of intermittent secretarial assistance, we also were fortunate enough to be able to employ Carolyn McHugh as full-time secretary to the Centre beginning in October of 1989.
Our task force had decided that one of the cornerstones of our leadership development program should be participation in the assessment process developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Reston, Virginia. The process is consistent with assessment centres which have been conducted by business and military enterprises for many years for the purpose of identifying and developing potential leaders. The Centre at the University of Western Ontario facilitated our entry into this activity.
The process operates in the following manner. School boards are encouraged to identify teachers and vice-principals they feel are strong candidates for appointment to principalships in their districts. These individuals are invited to attend an assessment centre at which they engage in six group and individual activities over an intensive two-day period. Their performance is scrutinized by a panel of trained assessors after which the data from these observations are analyzed for evidence of the participants' proficiencies in twelve skills associated with successful leadership. Reports are then prepared which include developmental suggestions tailored to the competencies of each participant and intended to assist in the preparation for the assumption of administrative responsibilities. These suggestions may involve mentoring experiences, specific reading and study, and involvement in specific leadership experiences. The N.B.C.E.A. also conducts workshops intended to facilitate development in various of the skills dimensions.
We were attracted to this process by the broad range of opportunities it offers for leadership development. Foremost, of course, are the growth opportunities available to the participants preparing for administrative positions at what has been identified above as the increasingly critical level in our system, the level of the individual school. By mid-1992, we had conducted nine assessment centres attended by a total of approximately 80 teachers and vice-principals. There also are developmental opportunities for practising administrators. The intensive training to become an assessor and the experience of serving as an assessor provide for significant professional development. We have conducted two assessor training sessions here in New Brunswick and have sent an additional fifteen administrators to Ontario for assessor training. This has given us a cadre of approximately 75 trained assessors, the majority of whom are principals. However, four superintendents, three assistant superintendents, six district supervisors, two Department of Education officials, and six University faculty members also are included in this group. Assessment centres offer valuable opportunities for these various groups to engage collaboratively. Further leadership development has resulted from the training of four administrators -- Pam Campbell, Nancy Estey, Basil Hurley, and Bruce MacMillan -- to conduct follow-up workshops; the training of Rod Campbell to direct assessment centres and train assessors; and the involvement of Jim Stevenson, Jack MacKay, Jim Jackson, and Ken Cameron as assistant directors of assessment centres. With the exception of three of our smallest school districts, all anglophone districts have become involved in this assessment process.
A second cornerstone of our entry into professional development was our participation in I.D.E.A. (Institute for the Development of Educational Activities). I.D.E.A. provides a structure within which administrators, assisted by a facilitator, may come together to collaborate in the planning and implementation of improvements in their schools. The Centre financed the training of ten facilitators -- district supervisors, superintendents, and principals -- all of whom have assisted in establishing working groups in various parts of our Province. Nine of these groups were still operating in mid-1992. There is one group in districts 30 and 31, two groups in districts 28 and 29, one group in districts 25 and 26, two groups in District 8, two groups in District 19, and one group in District 16. These groups became autonomous and had reached the point where they are updating and adapting the I.D.E.A. materials to their particular needs.
A third major initiative launched as a part of our entry into professional development was our annual Educational Leadership Academy. The theme of the Academy changes from year to year and there have been slight adjustments in its format. Typically, the subscribers in a given year meet for a Spring workshop in Fredericton, engage in a week of activities and planning at Mount Allison University during the Summer, and then participate in some form of debriefing session in the late Autumn. The first two academies, conducted by Rod Campbell of the Centre and Jim MacKay, the professional development officer of the Nova Scotia Teachers' Union, focused on the development of a positive school climate. For the last two academies, we have used the expertise of Dean Fink, a superintendent of the Halton (Ontario) Board of Education. The Summer session of the 1992 academy will be held at Mount Allison University on July 13-16. The most recent academies have explored applications of the school effects research, research on organizational change, and invitational education, to specific school settings. While our projects were not limited to these three ventures during the 1987-1991 phase of the Centre's development, they were the central focus of our efforts.
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Phase Three
Our third phase of development may be dated from July of 1991, and was preceded by several months of discussions and negotiations. This activity was prompted in large part by an intensification of the uncertainties described above. We were approaching the end of Rod Campbell's second secondment from the N.B.T.A. and the Association simply could not be expected to continue this arrangement; their forbearance in acceding to our needs had already gone beyond anything we could have hoped for. The outcome of our negotiations was that the Minister of Education and the President of the University of New Brunswick signed an agreement which gives the N.B.C.E.A. some longer term security. The Department agreed to provide financing to the University which will fund the employment of a full time executive director of the Centre for a period of six years. At the end of that time, the University will assume the responsibility for this position. With this agreement in place, Rod Campbell chose to continue his work with the N.B.C.E.A., but now as an employee of U.N.B. Readers will understand our sense of relief occasioned by the signing of the agreement and by Rod's decision. However, it is vital that any attendant euphoria not obscure two important points. The first is that the N.B.C.E.A. could never have reached this point without the unflagging support of the Department of Education, the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, and the New Brunswick School Trustees' Association. The second point is that the future success of the Centre's activities is similarly dependent upon the support, participation, and guidance of these agencies.
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Conclusions
This calendar of activities reflects a number of values and goals which have guided the development of the Centre. These are as follows.
We continue to believe it is important that the Centre function as an agency which facilitates the collaboration of the various stakeholders in our public education system.
We believe that an important part of our mission is to serve as a resource for individuals and groups in the field.
We believe that we should not only initiate our own inservice programs, but also support and collaborate with other agencies in the promotion of their activities.
We believe that inservice activity is most effective when it is sustained over the longer term and characterized by follow-up and support for participants.
We believe that leadership development needs to move beyond a narrowly managerial focus, if it is to have a significant positive impact on students in classrooms.
We believe that administrative responsibilities and skills are broadly distributed in the field of public education, rather than being limited to the upper ranks of organizational hierarchies.
We believe the N.B.C.E.A. can play an important role in increasing the number of females in leadership positions in our school system.
Finally, we believe that, as well as exposing our stakeholders to expertise from outside New Brunswick's boundaries, the Centre also has a responsibility to assist in the development and utilization of our own home grown leaders.
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