STANDARD ONE: Strategic Leadership
A. School vision, Mission and Strategic Goals: The school’s identity, in part, is derived from the vision, mission, values, belief and goals of the school, the processes used to establish these attributes, and the ways they are embodied in the life of the school community
In the first week of full staff PD, I created this PD and led the staff through the day's activities in order to build understanding and ownership of their "why" for being a teacher at our school. My goal was for the staff to internalize and own the mission of our school and understand that the mission is a figurative "Everest" and to be ignited to start that "climb" at the beginning of the year. Note: Page 2 of the document outlines the main objectives, Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, and Agenda for the day. |
B. Leading Change: The school executive articulates a vision and implementation strategies for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
After a culture inspection in September, it became apparent that the focus of quarter 2 needed to be surrounding student culture. After receiving the inspection results, I created the agenda and presentation for the full staff collaboration, then trained two other leadership members to deliver the presentation to the staff so they could understand the what/why/how of the nine-week initiative to enhance student culture from "compliant" to "inspired". |
C. School Improvement Plan: The school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision. Values, goals and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.
After Quarter 2 Benchmark Data, there were a number of classes and grade levels that achieved lower data than this time last year. After reflecting on this, it became apparent that the "9 Week Win Plan" for Quarter 3 needed to revolve around moving student data systematically. To roll this out, I created this "rollout plan" and trained two staff members to deliver the rollout to the full staff. The staff used the agenda/PPT as a resource during this rollout to understand the "what/why/how" of the nine-week win plan. The full staff then engaged in a nine-week pursuit to "move the data" systematically, and every week, I led Instructional Coaches meetings, Leadership Team meetings, and "standing meetings" with instructional coaches and teachers to achieve the weekly "win" in this pursuit. |
D. Distributive leadership: The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
Distributive Leadership at the Middle School Level:
This distributive leadership set up at the Middle School level allows the Principal to be the true instructional leader of the building. Throughout the day, there are many occurrences that need attention, often immediate attention. If the Principal were the sole responder to these situations, they would not be able to accomplish their daily agenda/calendar. While extenuating circumstances did force me to draw attention to situations and deter from my set calendar, I honored this distribution of leadership and allowed the adults in each of these roles to assume their leadership role in order for the "machine" of the building to continue to run in the many directions it needed to, while focusing the majority of my time and energy into my staff, specifically developing their skills instructionally.
Distributive Leadership at the Middle School Level:
- Director of Operations: Owner of operations of the school: Arrival/Dismissal/Nutrition/Budget/Attendance, Parent Liaison, etc.
- Dean of Students: Owner of student culture and discipline, Parent Liaison
- Instructional Coaches: Owners of teacher development
- Department Heads: Owners of content-specific development within the ELA, History, Math, Science, and Elective Departments
- Grade Level Chairs: Owners of grade-level specific culture, discipline, and events
This distributive leadership set up at the Middle School level allows the Principal to be the true instructional leader of the building. Throughout the day, there are many occurrences that need attention, often immediate attention. If the Principal were the sole responder to these situations, they would not be able to accomplish their daily agenda/calendar. While extenuating circumstances did force me to draw attention to situations and deter from my set calendar, I honored this distribution of leadership and allowed the adults in each of these roles to assume their leadership role in order for the "machine" of the building to continue to run in the many directions it needed to, while focusing the majority of my time and energy into my staff, specifically developing their skills instructionally.