Standard I: Strategic Leadership
School executives will create conditions that result in strategically re-imaging the school’s vision, mission, and goals in the 21st century. Understanding that schools ideally prepare students for an unseen but not altogether unpredictable future, the leader creates a climate of inquiry that challenges the school community to continually re-purpose itself by building on its core values and beliefs about its preferred future and then developing a pathway to reach it.
School executives will create conditions that result in strategically re-imaging the school’s vision, mission, and goals in the 21st century. Understanding that schools ideally prepare students for an unseen but not altogether unpredictable future, the leader creates a climate of inquiry that challenges the school community to continually re-purpose itself by building on its core values and beliefs about its preferred future and then developing a pathway to reach it.
As an aspiring school leader and fellow in the North Carolina Leadership Academy at NC State University, I have the privilege of participating in the Distinguished Leadership in Practice (DLP) program. Aligned with the standards by which I will be evaluated as a school administrator, the program guides us through the process of strategically analyzing how to implement "distinguished" school leadership through the application of a problem-based approach to real-world topics.
In DLP Assignment 1.1, I had the opportunity to analyze West Greene's current status in regards to our mission statement, vision statement, and core values. By having the authentic experience of examining these foundational elements, I am prepared to conduct an informed assessment of these the ideals that are embodied at the school where I will lead. My assessment of these components is below:
In DLP Assignment 1.1, I had the opportunity to analyze West Greene's current status in regards to our mission statement, vision statement, and core values. By having the authentic experience of examining these foundational elements, I am prepared to conduct an informed assessment of these the ideals that are embodied at the school where I will lead. My assessment of these components is below:
Element Ib. Leading Change: The school executive articulates a vision, and implementation strategies, for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
West Greene's administrative staff gathered for our Leadership Retreat on August, 10, 2017, in preparation for the upcoming school year. We agree that our PLTs need to be structured around impacting students' academic achievements. In an effort to facilitate common practices to anchor how we analyze and address students' academic progress, we chose to adopt a new protocol for PLTs at West Greene Elementary. To facilitate this change, our first PLT meetings were designated for establishing norms and expectations for all subsequent meetings. By coupling the PLT form below with the "Here's What, So What, Now What" protocol, we devised a common process for weekly analysis of students' progress towards mastering grade level standard(s). By utilizing the compiled data, our teachers are able to make informed decisions about how to adjust instructional practices to meet students' academic needs. As a building administrator, our duty is to be available to facilitate PLT discussions and offer advice on best practices for implementing the PLT process with fidelity. Throughout the academic year, we are able to examine common instructional practices, offer feedback for improvements, and implement necessary changes in order to realize positive academic strides in our school community!
The artifact below depicts the newly adopted PLT Protocol, as agreed upon by West Greene Elementary's 2017-2018 School Leadership Team.
The artifact below illustrates a memo that I created to communicate with staff regarding a newly adopted PLT protocol. This is an easy way to ensure that everyone gets the same message regarding the new initiative. In order to further address this topic, is addressed during PLT meetings and a whole staff meeting. Teachers have the opportunity to ask questions and note any concerns as the strategy is launched. Through utilizing this form, we aim to gain consistency in how we conduct our PLT meetings and better focus our discussions on instructional data and methods to impact students' academic achievements.
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The artifact below outlines the minutes from our leadership retreat. As a member of the leadership team, I had the opportunity to vote on the "norms" of how we conduct leadership business as well as educational initiatives to impact our students. One item on our agenda was the new PLT Protocol picture above. We decided what should be included on the PLT form to best affect our PLT practices.
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Element Ic. School Improvement Plan: The school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision, values, goals and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.
The artifact below displays minutes from one of our leadership team meetings. During our meeting on February 12, 2018, we were tasked with choosing new indicators. I advocated for the following indicators of focus:
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Element Id. Distributive Leadership: The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
This year, we have focused on SIOP strategies with a small cohort of teachers at the school level. I had the opportunity to participate in training alongside our ESL teachers prior to the start of the 2017-2018 school year. During the training, I assisted with the creation of a presentation which introduces various SIOP topics to our teachers. This became a "working document" that helped our ESL teachers to lead mini SIOP sessions with our teachers at West Greene. The artifact below indicates the components of focus: