STANDARD FOUR - Human Resource Leadership
School executives will ensure that the school is a professional learning community. School executives will ensure that processes and systems are in place that results in the recruitment, induction, support, evaluation, development and retention of a high performing staff. The school executive must engage and empower accomplished teachers in a distributive leadership manner, including support of teachers in day-to-day decisions such as discipline, communication with parents, and protecting teachers from duties that interfere with teaching, and must practice fair and consistent evaluation of teachers. The school executive must engage teachers and other professional staff in conversations to plan their career paths and support district succession planning.
Standard Four of the North Carolina Standards for School Executives highlights that the school leader maintain artifacts of progress in meeting standard. The Instructional Leadership Plan represents my objectives for growth in one or more of the North Carolina Standards for School Executives.
4A: Professional Development/Learning Communities
School Visits
I participated in school visits throughout the Wake Principal Leadership Program that provided insight to fellows about instruction taking place in the schools and the culture that the schools created. Throughout the school visits, we learned about the processes and successes that the school leaders made in establishing exceptional communities of learning. Each of these visits produced powerful takeaways such as how the school staffs utilize outcome data to inform their practices. As a result of these visits, we noted the strategies the schools used to add to our repertoires as school leaders.
The Ron Clark Academy
Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School
Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School
Farmington Woods Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School
Weatherstone Elementary School
Sumner Elementary School
Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School
Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School
Farmington Woods Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School
Weatherstone Elementary School
Sumner Elementary School
Reflection on Ron Clark Academy Visit
The Wake Principal Leadership Program visited the Ron Clark Academy in fall 2018, where we learned about effective instructional and cultural practices that help students grow in their learning. I also learned the impact that sharing my personality has with students seeing me more than as a an educator, but also that I am human and here for to ensure they have a safe and positive learning experience each day. Additionally, I learned that cultural currency and curating the capital that students have an affinity for, such as music or social media, can co-exist with students learning the content standards.
Reflection on Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary Visit
The Wake Principal Leadership Program visited Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School, where we learned about strategic, instructional and cultural leadership by Principal Muriel Summers. Upon entering the doors of the building, we were greeted by students who were knowledgeable of the school's history and Stephen Covey's 7 Habits from the book, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits for Highly Effective People. We visited classes that comprised of collegial culture and saw effective instruction in action, where students exhibited their critical thinking, collaborative and communication skills and creativity. I learned about how to develop relationships with the community and engage my staff with a strategic vision aligned with the school improvement goal that will grow interest in the school and spur progress in meeting growth targets on state testing.
Reflection on Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary Visit
I visited Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School with the Wake Principal Leadership Program, where we learned about the impact of significant instructional and cultural leadership from Principal Bob Grant. I learned about the significance in having a strong collaborative administrative team that is aligned together in practice. I also learned about the impact of building an agreed upon school vision wherein instructors exhibit the core beliefs of that vision in their practices. I have grown in instructional and cultural leadership as I learned about using research-based interventions from this visit and having intentional conversations with staff about data.
Reflection on Farmington Woods Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary Visit
The fellows of the Wake Principal Leadership Program visited Farmington Woods Elementary, where we learned about effective strategic and instructional leadership practices from Ms. Pierce. Upon entering the building, students greeted us and served as ambassadors providing tours from classroom to classroom and conveying the school's history to us. I admired the process that Farmington Woods uses in all staff members participating in conversations about student achievement data through professional learning team meetings. I also revered the leadership experiences provided to students in delivering announcements to the school community, which complements the school's positive culture.
Reflection on Weatherstone Elementary Visit
The Wake Principal Leadership Program visited Weatherstone Elementary, where we learned about the impact that instructional and cultural leadership have on the school community. After visiting Weatherstone, I learned about effective instructional practices as teachers scaffolded content for their students and frequently circulated their classrooms to promote an environment where students felt valued. Because of this visit, I am more knowledgeable as an instructional leader on practices that promote positive changes in the classroom setting. I can also leverage these practices in professional learning team meetings.
Reflection on Sumner Elementary Visit
I will use the instructional leadership skill of Sumner Elementary principal, discussing data with each teacher individually as well as conducting professional learning for all staff about disaggregating the content standards as a result of visiting their school. Upon hearing about this process the Sumner Elementary leadership team used, I will apply this method in my school community to ensure that we meet our school improvement goal.
In order to grow further in my educational leadership journey, I visited schools to learn more about their curriculum and the learning opportunities they provide to students, such as in the alternative middle school setting and at the high school level. During these visits, I learned how the school leaders implement distributive leadership throughout their buildings to build capacity for staff members to lead, for example, facilitating data discussions in staff meetings. Additionally, I witnessed the impact that the staff members provided to their students with engagement in the classroom and using culturally responsive strategies. These schools include:
Connections Academy
South Garner High School
Connections Academy
South Garner High School
4B: Recruiting, Hiring, Placing and Mentoring Staff
The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure high-quality, high performing staff.
Teacher Recruitment Video
Fellows were tasked with creating a video to recruit future teachers into the profession. This video has a specific audience intended to view and incorporates creativity with intentionality for the interested audience to consider entry into the profession of teaching. Fellows at Moore Square Magnet Middle School, Apex Friendship Middle School and River Bend Middle School collaborated on a video for potential students to enter the teaching field by obtaining their education at North Carolina State University's College of Education and become high school teachers.
I created a document that detailed my strategies for empowering teachers to be great. Throughout the document, I included examples of ways to engage teachers to develop leadership traits and grow as potential teacher leaders. This task inspired me to proactively think ahead about engaging and retaining teachers who complement a positive, collaborative school culture.
This assignment produced an opportunity for me to explore professional learning teams. I examined a PLT at my previous school and analyzed how they placed emphasis on communication, continuous improvement, having a goal-oriented team acting on an agreed upon vision that aligns to the school improvement goal. This experience introduced me to the efficient process of knowing what to look for in a highly engaging PLT.
I included the detailed background of a crucial conversation I had with a staff member. I recognized there was a need for the conversation based on the following elements: opposing opinions, high stakes and strong emotions. Each of these elements were present. During this conversation, I used the appropriate methods of: share your facts, tell your story, ask others paths, talk tentatively and encourage testing. The conversation concluded with reaching a mutual agreement.
This group video comprises of the aspects of Wake Principal Leadership Program at North Carolina State University. Throughout the video, there are examples of innovative components of the program presented for the audience to see. The video engages audiences to see what current school leaders may expect from staff members who participated in the program in addition to expectations the viewer may have as a prospective student in the program.
I composed a memo to the staff person who does not perform effectively as expected. In the memo, I relay the facts of concern to the staff member, the rules that are in violation because of these actions, the implications of how these actions may deter quality instruction being conducted, the suggestions for how to improve and the knowledge of the event being discussed, suggestions to improve being taken consideration by the staff member and confirmed by the staff member and I, with the follow-through that the staff member receives a copy of the memo from me for their records.
I compiled information about my school on the following topics: facilities, first impressions, student population, financial information (budget), school curriculum, achievement, relationships with neighboring schools/district professionals, culture and awards/celebrations, student discipline, calendar, internal school communications, external communications, and school website for the purpose of a school profile that the public may review. This profile provides information about the school's methods of communication to the public, the calendar in which school opens and concludes for the year and a day-to-day bell schedule. Additionally, the public profile provides deeper information into the school's academic performance, expectations for the first-time visitor entering its doors, a glimpse into the curriculum taught and the accomplishments of the school. The public school profile is available to view here.
4C: Teacher and Staff Evaluation
The school executive evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and, thus student achievement
Clinical Supervision Activities
Fellows were tasked with participating in a supervision cycle (informal observation, pre-conference, observation and post-conference) with a teacher. Fellows were tasked with conducting an observation, pre-conference, and post-conference that includes feedback provided to the teacher about the lesson observed. Fellows were also tasked with documenting their efforts in each step of this cycle as available for reference below.