Standard One: Strategic Leadership
Principals 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.
Element 1a: 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.
Action: Lead staff through a Circle of Identity "Core Values Activity" that helped staff examine their individual core values and the values that we share in common.
Circle of Identity/Values: Teachers filled out a bubble graph with the 6 core values that they identify with most. Staff got into 2 concentric circles facing one another. Using the bubble maps, partners discussed answers to questions with each person speaking for 1 minute. After each partner has shared, the outside circle rotated, so they got a new partner for each question. Questions: "Which one of these values do you most identify with and why? "Which value do you feel is most important in your classroom?" "Give an example of a time you applied one of these values and had a positive impact on a child's life. "Give an example of a time you forgot one of these values, and it had a negative impact on a child's life. "If you could only put one of these values in our school mission statement, which would you included, and why?" At the end, teachers wrote their answer to this final question on large post-it paper to share with the other grade levels. In a later staff meeting we had a tribal consul meeting and Established our schools core values: Respect, Compassion, Commitment, and Innovation.
Action: Lead staff through a Circle of Identity "Core Values Activity" that helped staff examine their individual core values and the values that we share in common.
Circle of Identity/Values: Teachers filled out a bubble graph with the 6 core values that they identify with most. Staff got into 2 concentric circles facing one another. Using the bubble maps, partners discussed answers to questions with each person speaking for 1 minute. After each partner has shared, the outside circle rotated, so they got a new partner for each question. Questions: "Which one of these values do you most identify with and why? "Which value do you feel is most important in your classroom?" "Give an example of a time you applied one of these values and had a positive impact on a child's life. "Give an example of a time you forgot one of these values, and it had a negative impact on a child's life. "If you could only put one of these values in our school mission statement, which would you included, and why?" At the end, teachers wrote their answer to this final question on large post-it paper to share with the other grade levels. In a later staff meeting we had a tribal consul meeting and Established our schools core values: Respect, Compassion, Commitment, and Innovation.
ex. Circle of Identity
Collection of Teacher's Core Values
Action: Preparing for Vision Statement-In a staff meeting, I led teachers through a visualization activity where they closed their eyes and envisioned the perfect school. While imagining the perfect school, I asked them to think about where our students would be in 10 years. In groups, I had teachers list characteristics of the perfect school including the type of students they would produce reminding them to consider our core beliefs and the purpose of education. We then had a gallery walk where teachers went around the room placing stickers by the characteristics that they agreed or disagreed. We then ended the staff meeting by discussing the characteristics that had a group consensus. Below is a twitter post that a teacher tweeted expressing her enjoyment of this staff meeting.
Staff Meeting Working on Vision Statement
Action: After working with the whole staff to establish our core values and characteristics needed in our vision statement, I formed a committee with a representative from each team to complete the vision statement. We gathered together and took into consideration our core values, our compelling why, and the input from the staff and wrote Speight's new vision statement.
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.
Action: Presentation on Chronic Absenteeism-At the beginning of the year, I identified Chronic Absenteeism as a significant issues that was affecting student achievement at Speight. I researched Chronic Absenteeism and presented my findings at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education at Ohio State University. Below is the powerpoint that accompanied my presentation.
Action: Presentation on Chronic Absenteeism-At the beginning of the year, I identified Chronic Absenteeism as a significant issues that was affecting student achievement at Speight. I researched Chronic Absenteeism and presented my findings at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education at Ohio State University. Below is the powerpoint that accompanied my presentation.
Chronic Absenteeism Presentation
Action: Established Attendance Committee-To address the Chronic Absenteeism at Speight, I established an Attendance Committee that meets regularly to track student attendance. We discuss the needs of individual students and develop strategies and offer support to help these students improve their attendance. Below is a sample agenda from one of our meetings.
Sample Attendance Committee Agenda
Action: POP Results Ignite Presentation (Pending)
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.
Action: I am an active member of the School Improvement Team. I have been assigned several action steps. I completed an analysis of our School Improvement Plan. Since I was not at Speight when the plan was written, I was able to analyze it from the perspective of an outsider looking in. I identified several steps that the plan said we had implemented that I had not seen in action in the school. I shared these concerns with the Leadership Team Chair, which helped us address several steps that were being neglected. Below is a copy of my analysis including the correspondence between the Leadership Chair and myself and a snapshot of the Indistar action step that I have been assigned.
Action: I am an active member of the School Improvement Team. I have been assigned several action steps. I completed an analysis of our School Improvement Plan. Since I was not at Speight when the plan was written, I was able to analyze it from the perspective of an outsider looking in. I identified several steps that the plan said we had implemented that I had not seen in action in the school. I shared these concerns with the Leadership Team Chair, which helped us address several steps that were being neglected. Below is a copy of my analysis including the correspondence between the Leadership Chair and myself and a snapshot of the Indistar action step that I have been assigned.
Analysis of the School Improvement Plan
School Improvement Indistar Assignment
Element Id. Distributive Leadership: The principal/assistant principal creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision-making throughout the school.
Action: The steps that I took to establish a vision statement demonstrate that I believe involving the whole staff in decision-making is important, but it also reveals that I realize there are times that the task requires a smaller group of leaders to be successful and at that time I will form a committee or team to advise me or to help get the job done just as I did by establishing a vision committee (see above Element Ia).
Action: I best practiced distributed leadership while working with the attendance committee. During our meetings, we would decide that certain team members were best to work with certain students or to get certain steps in our plan done. I would make sure each person's role was clearly documented in our minutes. A few weeks after our meetings, I would send reminder emails asking for updates on our progress. When we reconvened, we began our meetings by sharing our successes and concerns. Below is an example of an Attendance Committee Update that I sent following Christmas break to make sure we did not loose focus. This update was a google doc, so members of the team recorded their progress in blue.
Action: I best practiced distributed leadership while working with the attendance committee. During our meetings, we would decide that certain team members were best to work with certain students or to get certain steps in our plan done. I would make sure each person's role was clearly documented in our minutes. A few weeks after our meetings, I would send reminder emails asking for updates on our progress. When we reconvened, we began our meetings by sharing our successes and concerns. Below is an example of an Attendance Committee Update that I sent following Christmas break to make sure we did not loose focus. This update was a google doc, so members of the team recorded their progress in blue.
Attendance Committee Meeting Update
Action: I established a Cougar Conversations Box that is located in the teacher's lounge that teacher's use to share their concerns. I check this box regularly and practice distributed leadership by taking the concerns to the appropriate leader who can address the concern. Below is an excerpt from the March Leadership Minutes where I shared the concerns from the box with the leadership team.