Final Semester Exam Assignment for School Management Course

FINAL SEMESTER EXAM ASSIGNMENT FOR SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COURSE QUESTIONS: 1. With the enactment of Law No. 32 of 2004 concerning Regional Government which emphasizes regional autonomy policies, the School-Based Management pattern is the most relevant pattern to the needs and demands of autonomy. a. Provide arguments against the assumption that the MBS format is the closest way to improving quality and relevance! b. Conduct an analysis using the SWOT analysis model on the implementation of MBS that is already running in our education system! 2. Stakeholders help schools to focus on student learning and to increase the capacity of school organizations through three strategies: setting standards for learning from high intellectual quality, providing continuous staff development and using deregulation to increase school autonomy. a. Explain the three strategies for increasing the capacity of school organizations above! b. In addition to the strategies above, mention other strategies in increasing the capacity of school organizations to realize superior schools! 3. School development based on bureaucracy or top-down policies is the most commonly applied model. School development based on this pattern has advantages and disadvantages. a. State the advantages and disadvantages of school development based on bureaucracy or top-down policies! b. Describe strategies to reduce the negative impacts of the shortcomings of school development based on bureaucracy or top-down policies! 4. The school effectiveness movement is nothing new. This is the crystallization and reconfiguration of various belief systems, policy interventions and ideologies that education has gone through since the 1960s. a. Try to identify important factors that influence school effectiveness and explain them! b. State the real steps that can be taken by a principal in creating an effective school! 5. Case Study: Educational Innovation Management What is meant by innovation in this article is any form of change that is considered qualitatively better than the previous state. Educational innovation is any form of change aimed at improving the quality of the student learning process, which in turn improves learning achievement. Based on this concept, efforts to carry out educational innovation are the responsibility of educational professionals. At the level of educational organizing units, namely in school institutions, innovation activities must be carried out by teachers, school principals and supervisors should facilitate all forms of educational innovation efforts. Educational innovation activities do not need to be commanded. In the organizational structure of education, there seems to be a mistaken perception and practice. Educational innovation seems to be the responsibility of the "superiors", namely the responsibility of structural officials at the central level. Meanwhile, the school system is just waiting for the command to implement it. Good schools are often described as institutions that obey orders, namely institutions that implement all provisions that come from "above". This condition can create a culture of conformity that will gradually eliminate initiative and creativity. In practice, it is possible that educational officials (structural and functional) who are authorized to foster schools are also shackled in a culture of conformity. Without realizing it, they act merely to secure the system, maintain stability, and maintain stability in accordance with standard regulatory guidelines. As a result, principals and teachers are asked to work within the existing standard guidelines. These officials seem to be less aware that principals and teachers are professionals who must make efforts to improve and develop education in their schools. The next problem is what efforts must be made in order to create a culture of educational innovation. Of course, it is necessary to gradually overcome the above obstacles. This is not easy to do. However, education actors (teachers, principals, supervisors and other supervisors) should realize that without the opportunity to innovate, efforts to improve the quality of education seem difficult to do. The essence of educational innovation is the continuous improvement of the quality of education. Questions and tasks: • Fact analysis - actors, substance of the problem • Problem formulation • Cause and effect analysis • Formulation of alternative solutions to the problem • Evaluation of alternative solutions to the problem • Selection of the best alternative. Answer: 1. Before answering the question related to the assumption that school-based management (SBM) is the closest path to improving the quality and relevance of education, it is necessary to understand that school-based management (SBM) itself is an education management model that provides autonomy or flexibility to schools in making their own rules or policies. Autonomy itself in the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI) is defined as self-government, so it can be interpreted that granting autonomy to school policies in MBS is the granting of power or flexibility in managing, utilizing and empowering all school resources, including encouraging the participation of school residents (teachers, students, principals, and school employees) to improve school quality as optimally as possible. a) Based on the understanding of school-based management (SBM) above, it can be assumed that SBM itself provides schools with the flexibility to manage their resources effectively in achieving the desired goals. Before the implementation of SBM, there were several factors that triggered why after many efforts were made to improve the quality of education but had not provided optimal and significant results and influences, including the policy of implementing education that was oriented towards results, the implementation of education that was carried out centrally (all directed to central policies), and the lack of involvement of the community, especially parents of students in implementing educational practices. The concept of SBM itself, which provides schools with the flexibility regarding their policies, is expected to be able to carry out total educational development that aims to serve the needs of children and students to be more effective and relevant according to needs. Through SBM, schools are also expected to be able to maximize school personnel including teachers, principals, employees and the community as well as parents in developing more convincing programs to meet the educational needs of students. Therefore, the implementation of SBM can be assumed as the closest way to improving the quality and relevance of education. b) Education always moves with the times. The advancement of technology in the industrial sector inevitably pushes education to move forward, which is the cause of changes in people's behavior. In responding to the changes that occur, schools as education providers must also change and be more open to new conditions by implementing new concepts that are more in line with the development of the situation. One of the concepts introduced in school management is SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis itself can be interpreted as an analysis of conditions that see something from four perspectives, namely strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. • Strengths One of the objectives of implementing school-based management is the freedom of schools to regulate and make policies in their schools in an effort to support and improve the quality of education for students in their schools. The freedom to make and determine this policy allows competent individuals in schools to make decisions that are felt to improve students' learning abilities. The implementation of MBS is also felt to increase teacher enthusiasm and maintain new leadership at all levels and layers of education and lead to greater creativity in designing resource programs to support the goals developed in each school. • Weakness In addition to its advantages, of course this school-based management program has its drawbacks. One of them is the possibility of a desire not to be involved in school management from either the principal or teachers including school employees. In addition, this school-based management (SBM) is also considered less efficient because the decision-making system implemented in a participatory manner will cause frustration and the decisions taken are also slower when compared to autocratic decision-making. Another weakness of the implementation of school-based management (SBM) is the difficulty of carrying out effective and efficient coordination between school members because the implementation of SBM which of course includes various activities of course becomes so that if communication and coordination do not run effectively and efficiently, it could be that the program will run alone and result in being far from the initial goals that the school wants to achieve. • Opportunity Every application or implementation of something will certainly have its own advantages and disadvantages, including having profitable opportunities from the implementation of the implementation. Schoolbased management (SBM) also has opportunities in its implementation, one of which is to increase the work spirit of educators or teachers in maintaining new leadership at all levels of management in schools. Another opportunity from the implementation of school-based management (SBM) is to increase greater creativity in designing resource programs to support the achievement of goals that are to be developed in each school and encourage compact and intelligent teamwork between school residents involving the principal, teachers, community and parents of students. • Threats The opportunities created in the implementation of something in this case is school-based management (SBM) will certainly also create threats that occur during the implementation of SBM, one of which is the emergence of group thinking in the implementation of SBM itself. The group thinking in question is when holding discussions to make joint decisions, of course within a certain period of time it will create cohesion or a bond among members of the school board. This cohesion, in addition to having a positive impact because the members of the school board will support each other, also has a negative impact that makes the members of the school board too compromising and gives rise to a feeling of "uncomfortable" in raising new opinions that may conflict with the opinions of other members. This backfires on itself, resulting in decisions no longer being based on relevant and realistic bases. Another threat that could occur is confusion over new roles and responsibilities when implementing MBS. The parties who are likely to be involved in MBS are certainly accustomed to the work climate they are in. The implementation of MBS will certainly change the work climate from the usual one, which changes the roles and responsibilities of the parties concerned. This change is assumed to cause shock and confusion, so that many members hesitate to take on and assume these responsibilities. 2. School capacity development a. Developing school capacity through three strategies 1) Setting high intellectual quality standards Of course, one aspect or indicator of a school being said to have capacity or not is through the low or high number of graduates from the school with satisfactory or unsatisfactory grades. At the high school level, this can be assessed from the graduation of students at college. Intellectual ability itself can be interpreted as a basic ability that a person has and is used to solve problems experienced individually or in their surroundings. Therefore, setting high quality standards can be one way to develop and improve school capacity. 2) Providing continuous staff development Staff or workers who work in schools are an important aspect in efforts to develop and improve school capacity. School staff or workers themselves include homeroom teachers, subject teachers, business teachers and so on. Improving the quality of teachers or school staff will certainly have a major impact on improving the quality and capacity of the school as a whole. 3) Using deregulation to improve school autonomy Basically, deregulation itself refers to the reduction or elimination of a rule that can hinder certain activities. Deregulation itself is used to reduce obstacles that give rise to various kinds of competition and also improve efficiency in a government in this case school autonomy. Therefore, with the deregulation carried out in school-based management (SBM), it will certainly have a positive impact and effect on the development and improvement of school autonomy and capacity. b. Other strategies to improve school capacity In addition to the three strategies above which are used to improve school capacity, professional development can also be done by improving individual work, improving ineffective learning and work practices, facilitating changes in learning and work styles or performance and to establish a basis for policy implementation. 3. School development based on bureaucracy or top-down policies a. Advantages and disadvantages of top-down policies Before discussing the advantages and disadvantages of top-down planning policies, it is necessary to first understand what top-down planning is. Top-down planning is a planning model carried out by superiors directed at their subordinates where the decision-making is done by the superiors or higher-ups. While members or subordinates only work as implementers. In other words, this top-down planning is planning made by the government (head or school board) and directed at the community (school residents). Top-down planning itself will usually produce effectiveness that is time-bound because it is created on the basis of coercion so that it is less effective. • Advantages of top-down planning a) The community or in this case the school community is less involved in making the policy system that is applied. b) The community cannot see to what extent the program being implemented has been implemented. c) The community only plays a role as a decision-maker • Advantages of top-down planning a) The community or school residents do not need to be involved much in the policy-making process because of the role of higher-ups b) The results issued can be optimal because the implementation costs are borne by the government c) Can optimize the performance of the community or school community in implementing a program b. Strategies that can be applied to reduce the negative impacts or shortcomings of top-down policies, namely: • Involving school community members in the decision-making process and policy-making for programs to be implemented • Providing ongoing supervision of regulations or programs to be implemented 4. School effectiveness movement a. Important factors that influence school effectiveness School effectiveness itself refers to the empowerment of all components of the school as a learning organization based on their respective main tasks and functions in the program structure with the aim that students learn and achieve the results that have been set, namely having competence. There are several factors that influence increasing school effectiveness: • Qualified and authorized teachers who are able to involve students in an effective learning process • School management with the leadership of a principal who is able to utilize the potential of both natural resources and human resources • Education management guaranteed by law • The existence of social cohesion that is able to accommodate the growth and development of various cultures and customs. b. Steps to create an effective school • Conduct open communication between the school board and the principal with the community or school community and students' families • Open management, making decisions for policies together • Pay attention to the needs of educational staff (teachers) • Pay attention to the needs of students • Have integration with the surrounding community 5. Case Study: Educational Innovation Management a) Analysis of facts-substance actors of the problem In the case study above, it is said that educational innovation is something that should be done by teachers, principals and supervisors who make it a shared responsibility. However, in the facts that occur in the field, school innovation itself is only thought of and conceptualized by superiors (top down planning) where teachers who should also be responsible in this case only play a role as implementers. Comprehensive educational innovation planning by the center makes it ineffective because it does not match the needs of the school. b) Problem formulation Based on the case study, the problem in educational innovation management in schools is that schools generally only play a role as implementers who wait for commands from above to implement the results of the educational innovation design. This is done for the conformity of education officials to secure the system, maintain stability and maintain stability without wanting to leave their comfort zone. c) Cause and effect analysis In the case study above, it can be seen that the cause of the problem is that principals and teachers are mostly only asked to be workers and implementers of the educational innovation design that has been designed by education officials. This certainly has an impact on the ineffectiveness of the design because it does not match the needs and conditions in the field. d) Formulation of alternative problem solving As a leader, education officials must be able to direct and motivate principals and teachers to always make innovations in education. Teachers and principals must always foster a creative and innovative attitude so that education in Indonesia is increasingly advanced and does not just stagnate. One of the efforts or strategies for educational innovation is "Dare To Be Different", which means daring to be different or the courage to be extraordinary. Starting from the word DARE, an acronym can be made, namely: Dream, Attitude, Relationship, and Excellence. • Dream, meaning a dream or ideal that will be achieved by a person or group of people. With a dream or ideal, all activities will be filled with extraordinary enthusiasm. With this dream, it will be the carrier of the enthusiasm of educators and education personnel in carrying out educational innovation. • Attitude, meaning attitude. A positive attitude tends to focus more on the positive aspects of a problem, thus creating joy and tranquility. After the dream, educators and education personnel must have a positive attitude towards educational innovation. • Relationship, meaning networking or friendship. Who we make relationships and cooperation with determines future success. Who we must establish relationships and cooperation with in implementing educational innovation. • Excellence, meaning perfection. When we measure the peak of success of educational innovation as something excellent, the following guidelines need to be considered: 1. Excellence is not money (Perfection is not about money); 2. Excellence is not determined by situation (Perfection is not determined by circumstances); 3. Excellence does not mean to have all (Perfection does not mean having everything); 4. Road to excellence (Long road to perfection).