Our Mission
The National Center for School Leadership is focused on leadership and organizational issues that impact k-12 public schools and school districts today. The Center was founded to work with schools on a range of issues related to this central theme including:
- Addressing school climate and culture
- Developing leadership capacity with public schools
- Improving and strengthening organizational structures within public schools and school districts
The Center recognizes that there are a myriad of issues facing public schools today. Much of the effort today is on curriculum, instruction and assessment as warranted by their direct link to student achievement and the accountability facing schools.
However, we believe that simply addressing these issues completely misses the largest enabler (or, conversely, disabler) for schools which is leadership. Through the develop of existing and prospective leaders, schools and school districts will create the ability to execute more effectively.
“There is more to execution that simply having the right answer.”
We could not agree more. What good is having the “best” instructional programs if the people in the organization do not believe in it or the school? What are the benefits of a data-driven assessment system if the faculty are not in agreement for how it should be used or even convinced of its merits? Effective leadership is required to change how organizations operate. Having the “right answer” is not enough.
Leadership
Scott Wallace, Executive Director
Mr. Wallace has extensive experience in working with K-12 public school districts in the areas of leadership development, school culture and organizational effectiveness. He has authored two books on those subjects including Getting Started With: Improving School Culture and Resource Guide: Process Improvement for School Systems. He is frequently asked to speak at national and regional education conferences and he also conducts leadership workshops and leads principal discussions on behalf of school district clients. He has consulted to many school districts on the topics of school district effectiveness, strategic planning, cost reduction, technology integration and alignment, leadership development and, of course, understanding and improving school culture.
Mr. Wallace was formerly with eSchool Solutions in several executive posts including Senior Vice President of Consulting and Executive Director of the eSchool Solutions' Institute for Best Practices. At eSchool Solutions he led a group of consultants, trainers and systems integrators who worked with school districts across the country focusing primarily on school districts with 5,000 or more students.
Prior to eSchool Solutions, Mr. Wallace founded an educational technology company in 1999 that was focused on developing content-rich, data-rich web publishing platforms for schools and school districts. This company was acquired by eSchool Solutions in 2000.
Previously he worked as a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting where he worked with Fortune 1000 clients across a range of industry segments. He is currently Executive Director of the National Center for School Leadership. Mr. Wallace holds a B.S. degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
