Standard One: Strategic Leadership
Element Ia - School Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals
The school’s identity, in part, is derived from the vision, mission, values, beliefs 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.
The school’s identity, in part, is derived from the vision, mission, values, beliefs 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.
Below is the school's mission statement as it appears on the school website. This mission is the driving force behind all decisions made at the school. Whenever there was a decision that came to my desk or an instance that required my attention, I would first look through a student safety lens and then I would determine who I could go to to get help among the staff with coming to a resolution if the issue would have an impact on them. For instance, when I was given the reins on the WorkKeys, my first consultation was with the school's testing coordinator and department chairs to gather ideas on how we could implement activities across the curriculum that would benefit our students on WorkKeys related problems as well. Whenever possible, I would also enlist the assistance of parents to help out in regards to their children and encouraged open, two-way communication with them as well.
Below is my reflection from our first DLP session on the importance of strategic leadership for North Carolina principals. In this reflection, I discussed the importance of having a clear mission and vision to drive the school and why it is necessary to include all stakeholder groups in the development of the schools mission and vision statements. As a future building leader, I will strive to create a shared vision among all stakeholders rather than simply viewing a mission and vision as a "compliance document" that is simply on the wall of the office and the website that no one knows. All decisions as a school should be rooted in this mission and vision as a driver of school policy and practice to improve student learning and achievement. The School Improvement Plan is a living document that should be consulted and altered as changes occur.
Element Ib - Leading Change
The principal/assistant principal articulates a vision, and implementation strategies, for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
The principal/assistant principal articulates a vision, and implementation strategies, for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
When I got to my new school, my principal mentioned that she was considering going to a new discipline system and asked that I take the lead on looking it over and implementing the system schoolwide. After sending the email below, I met with the staff in grade level meetings and ran through the system with them, modeling the process of setting up their account submitting a referral. Within two weeks, we had eliminated the use of paper referrals for teachers, saving on costly triplicate forms as well as teacher and administrator time processing paperwork by going digital.
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 school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision, values, goals and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.
Bunn High School's School Improvement Plan (below) - This plan was developed by the elected representatives from each department, parents, and administration as a guide for how to continue to move the school forward. I developed plans to help the school achieve some of these goals in English and with respect to the WorkKeys. By constantly keeping an eye on the school improvement plan's goals and the steps that needed to be taken to achieve the goals listed within the plan, we were able to keep up with how we were performing and which parts of the process were working and those which needed tweaking.
In a meeting with central office staff early in the school year, I was tasked with reviewing the English II remediation and monitoring plan in order to meet the goals in our School Improvement Plan. Below is the agenda from the meeting where I reviewed it with representatives from our Curriculum and Instruction department. I established a system where students would travel with a cohort and rotate through different teachers' classrooms during our weekly remediation period in order for teachers to focus on their strengths and minimize time required for planning. While not mentioned in this agenda, I was also responsible for helping the school meet its goal on the WorkKeys assessment for the year. By enlisting the help of over 20 staff members to address specific concepts and skills and have them integrated in their curricula, the students achieved our goal of 80% on the WorkKeys in December.
Element Id - Distributive Leadership
The principal/assistant principal creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
The principal/assistant principal creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
While serving as a resident in a high school, I was placed over the English department at my school. In this capacity, I served as a co-facilitator for the district-wide English PLC following the first round of benchmark testing. While I was working with the English teachers, my background is in social studies. With this in mind, we asked that the teachers from around the district go through the results of students throughout the district to determine strengths and weaknesses and then reflect on what they believed were high-leverage practices and those that may need to be adjusted. Below is the results of their collaborative work. We then asked that they drill down and do the same activity in PLCs at the school site level. The result was the teachers realizing concepts that could be tweaked to create more opportunities for students to succeed. Allowing the teachers to do this instead of us standing up and delivering what we thought was a much more powerful practice and allowed us to take ownership as a group and not seem as if we were pointing fingers or playing favorites. Once teachers developed these lists, we combined them and led a debrief discussion with them regarding next steps. We also asked for their help in determining what we could do to better support them at the administrative and district levels.