| 4. Leadership - The Backbone of Our School. Before we even look at the organization of a school that is expected to meet the needs of a very diverse population of students, we must first understand the requirements of a school when it comes to Leadership. Principals and assistant principals must have the skills needed to solve problems in all school situations. Public schools face a shortage of school leaders. As of the 2015-20016 school years, approximately 35 percent of the school system's school principals and vice principals have five or fewer years of experience. With this crisis in leadership comes an intricate set of challenges. Not only has finding qualified candidates to succeed outgoing school administrators become increasingly difficult but current superintendents, who are themselves, inexperienced, are finding it increasingly difficult to provide a comprehensive professional development program for newly hired principals. To meet these challenges, states must establish local centers which will oversee and facilitate a range of efforts to recruit, develop, and retain school leaders. These initiatives include coaching new leaders and providing qualified mentors and technical training to them. How can we expect teachers to effectively improve instruction when our educational leaders, the professional mentors of our teachers in many cases have served less than ten years in a classroom? Federal and state designed standards for school leaders should insure that professional development and implementation of research-based programs will set the standards for evaluating the effectiveness of all administrators. These standards are associated with the following areas of Leadership: • Strong Instructional Leadership • Organizational Leadership • Staff Development • Student Support Services • Community Relations and Communication • Observing teachers to improve instruction. • Balanced Literacy to improve student achievement. • Meaningful Academic Intervention Services. • Using technology to improve instruction. • Developing a realistic Professional Development Plan. • Conducting meaningful faculty conferences. • Building an effective PA/PTA: with successful parent outreach. • Looking at assessments and how to use them to improve instruction. Today when we look at administrators, we understand that their main role is to be instructional leaders of the school. Their role as instructional leaders is to foster a vision and mission that advocates, supports, and sustains a standards-based culture focused on improved student achievement. It is the administrator’s values and beliefs that will identify student learning as the fundamental mission of schooling, ensuring the right of every student to an education of the highest quality in the least restrictive environment. It is these values and beliefs that will create a standards-based educational program in which all students can learn and teachers will recognize the specific knowledge, skills, and values that students need so as to become successful and productive adult members of society. By providing mini-schools within the school, principals will not only ensure success for their students, but they will also create the opportunity for the students to show improved attendance, behavior, satisfaction and greater self-esteem which many educators feel is the backbone for student success. These small school models also let teachers create their own learning environment in which their visions of successful schools can be realized. By allowing teachers to generate distinctive environments where there can be greater student success, we will also allow all students to feel greater self-esteem which is the number one factor for improving instruction, and enhancing morale. A child’s emotional life strongly influences his behavior, and learning. A child with a healthy sense of self-esteem feels that the important adults in his life accepts him, and would go out of their way to ensure their safety and well-being. A child with a low self- esteem or a child who feels unwanted, unloved, and unaccepted will often develop learning disabilities, disciplinary problems, and depression later in life. Schools can foster positive self-esteem in their students by having at least one reliable, responsive adult connected to each and every student and be available to them for the long term. Many consider this fostering of self-esteem in students is the first step in creating a school culture. A warm and caring adult can sometimes tip the balance between a child who learns and a child who fails. Communication is the vehicle for intellectual development, exchanging information, sharing feelings, and developing strong emotional bonds. A teacher who chats encouragingly with a child about many of the things he is doing, thinking, and feeling helps him build confidence in his pursuit of independence. When teachers are humanized by effective administrators, who do not criticize and condemn but give honest and sincere appreciation will produce a culture where the teachers will see the school as a family. Since brain power is not a function of economics, an emphasis on developing self-esteem and character can create a school that fosters both intellectual and emotional growth. First we must understand that all students no matter what grade they are in are going through an intense biological and psychological period that taxes their ability to work at their full capacity. And too often the schools fall far short of meeting the educational and social needs of millions of these students. But, when the most important factor a teacher must strive for is looking at the emotional needs of children, the school will create a community of adults and young people linked together with a network of support which will enhance the commitment of students to learning. This partnership of adults with children will foster a shared community of adults with a common interest in the student’s success especially if he is at risk of being left behind. When children are in school we see a time when rapid physical, intellectual and emotional change takes place. Children at all ages go through emotional peaks and valleys, students are vulnerable to emotional hurt and humiliation and they are exploring their new identity and social roles and trying to develop a code of ethics to guide their behavior. Even confident children may experience a severe drop in self- esteem. Children will compare themselves to their peers, and may decide that they just don’t measure up to others whom they believe to be smarter or more popular. But, with a responsible caring adult to help these students through a difficult time, self-esteem will resurface once they feel like they have safe classroom environment. By understanding the concepts presented on this web site, principals will have the ability to reach their teachers by transforming their teaching environment. By understanding how different students learn and applying this knowledge to classroom instruction, teachers will be able to teach to the different learning variations of their students. And, principals will ensure success for all students in their school. |
| 3. The School's Professional Plan and its Ten Essential Practices. Our greatest challenge in our schools is to encourage innovation, experimentation and creativity to foster a shared vision which will create a community of life-long learners who will be the leading citizens of tomorrow. In order to meet these challenges, we must have a successful professional development program in all of our schools. Professional development starts where the new and experienced educators are now and where they will need to be to meet the new challenges of guiding all students to higher standards of learning and development. This approach emphasizes collaboration through leadership teams, respect for the knowledge base of the professional staff through their understanding of the literacy framework and the use of curriculum integration through all subjects and the participation by all through shared decision making and school based management. High quality professional development refers to rigorous and relevant content, strategies, and organizational supports that ensure the development of teachers and others who influence the teaching and learning environment. The mission of your professional development plan is to prepare and support educators to help all students achieve these high standards of learning and development. Adherence to this principle ensures that professional development is relevant. When teachers help design their own learning, they are likely to feel a greater sense of involvement in the professional development experience. Without collaborative problem solving, individual change is possible but school change is not. Collaborative problem-solving activities allow educators to work together to identify both problems and solutions. Activities may include interdisciplinary teaming, curriculum development and critique, and study groups. Teachers learn from their work. Learning how to teach more effectively on the basis of experience requires that such learning be planned for and explored in a real context. Curriculum development, assessment, and decision making processes are all occasions for learning. When built into these practices, professional development addresses real needs. Professional development must also address teacher’s beliefs, experiences, and habits. When teachers have a good understanding of the theory behind particular practices and programs, they can adapt the strategy they are learning to the circumstances in which the teacher is trying to use it. Teachers must be ready to use assessments to guide their instruction. They must have the instructional knowledge and skills in how children learn and an understanding on how interdisciplinary teams work. Teachers must also have an understanding on how young children and adolescents develop and their needs for emotional stability. Finally, teachers must be willing to participate in the school’s governance system with the knowledge to support a safe and healthy school environment which will engage parents and the community in supporting all students of the school. The mission of professional development program includes: 1. Focusing on teachers as the center of student learning, yet includes all other members of the school community. 2. Expecting outcomes on individual and organizational improvement. 3. Using available research and practices in teaching, learning, and leadership. 4. Planning collaboratively with those who will participate in and facilitate that development. 5. Evaluating teacher effectiveness and student learning by creating assessment guides to be used for subsequent professional development. This professional plan should be developed to address nine areas. By understanding these essential practices teachers will be able to address the real needs of all children in the school. 1. The Literacy Framework and its instructional strategies: All schools must successfully implement the Literacy Framework and continue to support the use of the Literacy Framework instructional strategies throughout each classroom. Collaboratively, staff developers, language arts and guided reading teachers evaluate standardized test scores as well as holistic, alternative assessment. Using these assessments, teams of teachers will identify students in need of remedial reading or additional academic intervention services. The school guided reading program should supplement and provide these students the additional services when needed. 2. Curriculum consistent with standards becomes the focus of classroom instruction. Your goal is to develop curriculum mapping, to engage all teachers to look more closely at curriculum guidelines. A monthly outline will include topics in the content areas, instructional skills, and means of assessment. For the future, it will allow teachers to modify curriculum to meet the needs of all students. 3. Thematic units provide an interdisciplinary approach to instruction and will be introduced to your teaching teams. The purpose is to allow students to draw connections from one content area to another and to implement literacy across curricula. 4. Print-Rich Environments include classroom libraries and meeting areas, charts of books read, rubrics and process charts, word walls that display strong images, original student work and displays that are updated, published student books, and class Big Books. Classroom environments must reflect the affective and cognitive tone of the school and facilitate group and independent activities. Learning centers become an integral part of instruction. To complement this rich classroom environment, your library and media center should reinforce the literacy initiative. 5. Assessment as a daily, continuing process relates directly to instruction. Modification in instruction and is the result of ongoing assessment and moves beyond standardized tools and instruments. Assessments through instructional activities involve student portfolios, student teacher conferences, interviews, projects, logs, journals, reports, writing samples, as well as tests. The school should encourage teachers to engage students and parents as part of their assessment team in evaluating student progress. Results will be reported to all constituencies and results will continue to drive instruction. 6. Academic Intervention Services must be available for those students who score below the designated performance levels on State Assessments and should include those students with disabilities and limited English proficiency. In addition, all students who score in the lower half of assessments are eligible to receive academic intervention services. These students must be recognized and incorporated into a specific program in keeping with his/her interests and needs. AIS services for LEP students are supplementary and do not replace the bilingual and freestanding ESL instructional programs. Students are identified and placed in mini-schools that provide AIS by diagnostic assessment, assessment portfolios, classroom performance and report cards. Teachers, administrators, counselors, other school staff, and parents make recommendations. Extra academic time during the school day is created in the mini- schools that service these students. Through each mini-school, individual guidance services are provided to utilize the strengths of the teachers and the smallness of the programs in order to meet the varied needs of the students. Academic Intervention Services include: • Inclusion Program, Guided Reading, Speech and Language Remediation, Morning Reading and Morning Reading Enrichment, Extra Help Math and Morning Math, Enrichment, ESL Services, Resource Room Services, Tutoring, Peer Coaching, Social Worker Counseling, Hearing Impaired Services, Summer programs, Extended Day, Extended Year, Crisis Intervention, Group and Individual Counseling (Guidance), Co- teaching and Team Teaching within class staffing that reduces student-teacher ratios, Saturday Programs, Instructional Blocks (90 minutes), Computer Lab, Research Periods in School Library, Support Services (guidance and attendance) 7. Peer Coaching is a professional development plan that is beneficial to new teachers as well as veterans. It creates a learning culture where teachers collaboratively share their classroom experiences. Through intervisitation, informal/formal evaluations, veteran teachers, staff developers, and administrators will provide the staff with a support system to foster effective teaching. 8. Common Prep Periods/ Morning and After School Meetings must be scheduled for each grade or cluster, including meetings for subject teachers. In addition, monthly meetings will be scheduled for peer coaches and departmental leaders. Professional Development Plans utilize resources within schools combined with activities sponsored by the District, Central Board, and the State Education Department. Funds through Title I, District initiatives, and school grants will allow all schools to participate in training activities that will support our teachers and meet the needs of all students. Examples of initiatives are: • Peer coaching where experienced teachers work with assigned teachers who are new to education or show that they need assistance • Provide school-wide training and ongoing support through classroom demonstrations, intervisitations, meetings, conferencing and ongoing dialogues around teaching methodology and curriculum • Help teachers to develop curriculum units with appropriate resource materials • Support new teachers in the use of Performance Assessment and the use of Standards • Create a Teacher Resource Center • Provide teachers with instructional materials in order to ensure continuity of instruction • Schedule Teacher Study Groups • After school, professional development for teachers • Assign district staff developers working with teachers • Link our school to exemplary models • Expand the 90-minute literacy block • Expand the mathematics block • Hire guided reading teachers • Involve instructional support team • Involve child study teams • Extend after school program • Use DRA reading assessment as an indicator of student reading progress • Create early morning reading and math programs • Expand the inclusion program • Include push in services using Title I funds • Increase ESL services • Increase guidance services • Commit to school wide Literacy training • Expand classroom libraries to support student reading across genres and curricula • Engage parents to support student reading at home • Establish and provide Academic Intervention Services • Encourage a Parent Involvement Program • Establish a School Leadership Team 9. Creating a Team Approach to Education to foster supportive relationships between teachers and students. Creating these teams allow teachers and students to interact on a formal and informal basis. Teams stabilize the environment making it safe for all students. There are no rules for establishing teams but they must meet certain criteria in order to succeed. First, they must allow students to fit into their peer group successfully allowing them to feel that they are accepted by a group that they themselves value. The teams must have teachers who will become the school experts who will act as advocates for a group of students on the team. This teacher would become the contact to various other school staff members and the contact between the team and the students’ parents. In order for the above programs to work, the district, principals and all school administrators must be connected to each school professional development process and be committed to a comprehensive school change process focused on improving student learning. This change process includes time and opportunities for new practices, adequate funding, technical assistance, and sustained district office follow-through. Thus, unless professional development is designed as part of a larger change process, it is not likely to be effective. 10. Staff development Today teachers are not ready to meet the challenge of how to educate all students to achieve their full potential. Just like we set high standards for our students we need to also provide continuous opportunities for teachers to learn. Teachers must learn how to meet the learning challenges their students face with ongoing in house support though competent administrative leaders and staff developers in the school. Schools must hire staff specifically trained to meet the needs of their students and they should engage these teachers in ongoing professional development. A facilitator either full time or part time should coordinate professional development by embedding it in the teacher’s daily work. This professional development is a necessity for the staff to develop the skill necessary to create success for all students within the confines of a mini-school. By creating this climate of intellectual development for the staff, we will create a caring community with a common goal to see teams of teachers who work together to ensure high standards for teaching and learning. Educators must also provide a reach out program to the parents to help support student learning. This is achieved by collaboration and communication between the home and the school to support student schoolwork and provide opportunities where parents can learn how to become part of their children’s education process. These connections between the parents and the school will increase opportunities for expanding learning inside the home and beyond the walls of the school. The success of all students should include curriculum relevant to how students learn yet connected to rigorous standards. Teachers will become experts in teaching young adults through professional development centered on learning through an interdisciplinary curriculum. And finally, to ensure the success of all students these mini-schools must involve the parents and communities in supporting student learning and help provide a safe and healthy mini-school school environment. I cannot emphasize enough that it is the culture of change that is so important in making a school work. Many schools have made enhancements in their educational structure. These schools have created teams of teachers and students. They have created school based decision making and created flexible scheduling where teaching teams can vary the length of classes to accommodate a range of teaching strategies. But if change is only created to accomplish goals such as vary the length of a classroom to allow for remediation then where is the school wide culture behind this change? On the other hand, if the change is made to support more than just a teaching strategy but to change a culture then the shift goes from the teacher to the student. The change to flexible scheduling is to allow more time for integrated curriculum, shared planning and professional development. Notice when we create a culture of change, the scheduling now becomes a tool that the staff can use to address the learning needs of all students and provide for a richer educational environment. |
| Educational Issues Facing Our Schools…………………… Anyone who looks at our schools can see many issues that need to be clarified as to their importance in improving our schools. By focusing on these issues or the deeper things that make a successful school we will have a greater understanding of how these elements work together to create a school culture that provides positive outcomes for all children. |
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