STANDARD FOUR: Human Resource Leadership
4a. Professional Development/Learning Communities: The principal ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
During my first year of graduate school, I worked with the staff at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary to realign our PLTs. Professional learning teams are groups of people working interdependently to improve student achievement. This artifact is a presentation I did for each PLT at Lincoln Heights. We worked together to determine the purpose and structure of an effective PLT. We discussed how our PLTs should be aligned to our school improvement plan, focused on results, and characterized by collective responsibility for instructional planning. We examined Richard DuFour's four critical questions of a PLT and how they related to the 21st century learning we wanted for our students. It is essential for a school leader to ensure that the school is a professional learning community. |
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This artifact was a professional development presentation that my group did as part of ELP 552: School-Based Planning, Management, and Evaluation in Professional Learning Communities. My group examined PLCs at the elementary level. The presentation included information about agendas and structures of an effective PLC, Richard DuFour's four critical questions, and the six essential characteristics of a PLC. The professional development asked participants to consider ways they could improve their PLCs and make them more effective. As a school leader, I must ensure that my whole staff has a common understanding of the purpose of a PLC meeting. PLCs should improve teaching and learning for all students. |
Professional learning communities are groups of people working interdependently to improve student achievement. As part of ELP 552: School-Based Planning, Management, and Evaluation in Professional Learning Communities, I observed and analyzed the second grade PLC at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School. I observed the PLC through the lens of a school leader. I looked for dialogue around goals, instructional planning, diverse student needs, and the systematic use of data. As a school leader, I would encourage each team to create dynamic learning experiences for children and challenge the status quo. The PLC must collaborate, align systems, and delegate responsibilities to create a consistent PLC that ensures success for all students. |
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During my first year of graduate school, I worked with administration and other instructional leaders at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School to create a PLC agenda template that included the critical components of a PLC meeting. In ELP 552: School-Based Planning, Management, and Evaluation in Professional Learning Communities, I learned the six essential characteristics of a PLC are 1) shared mission, vision, values, goals; 2) collaborative teams focused on learning; 3) collective inquiry; 4) action orientation and experimentation; 5) commitment to continuous improvement; and 6) results orientation. The agenda template includes each of the six essential characteristics. |
I extended my understanding of establishing professional learning teams by supporting different PLTs at Sanderson High School throughout my principal residency. Each PLT meets on Wednesday afternoons from 2:30 to 3:30. Each team aligns their work with the Wake County Public School System's strategic plan. |
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As a school leader, it is vital to have a strong professional development plan in place. Professional development should be in alignment with the school improvement plan and differentiated based on teacher need. At the end of my first year in graduate school, I created a professional development survey google form for the staff at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School. This survey was sent out to teachers to gain feedback about professional development for the following school year. |
As a principal resident at Ligon Magnet Middle School, I collaborated with one of the assistant principals and a district academic language coach to plan professional development for the year around the topic of academic language. The topic of academic language was based on teacher input and school academic data. This results-oriented professional development focused on curricular, instructional, and assessment needs. I helped lead this professional development with the staff during opening teacher workdays in August 2019. This professional development was the foundation for our work around academic language that would take place throughout the school year. |
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As a school leader, I will make sure equity work is part of the professional development plan for my school. This artifact is a year-long professional development series built around the WCPSS district's vision of equitable practices and includes ways to see, understand, and interrupt inequities in a school. My group created this professional development series as part of ELP 515: Education and Social Diversity. |
As part of ELP 551: Context and Challenges for School Improvement, my group created a professional development presentation about the digital learning competencies. My group focused on the digital learning competency of digital citizenship. The digital learning competencies are often overlooked but are essential standards that must be addressed with teachers and students. My group included connections between WCPSS board policy and the use of technology by staff and students. |
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As part of ELP 551: Contexts and Challenges of School Improvement, I analyzed a professional development project I was part of from the planning, delivery, and follow-up stages. This PD was aligned with 21st century curricular, instructional, and assessment needs. It was differentiated based on staff needs and allowed individual voice and choice for teachers. |
4b. Recruiting, Hiring, Placing and Mentoring of staff: The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high-performing staff.
As part of ELP 553: Organizational Management I - Human Resource Management in K-12 Education, I created a comprehensive human resource management plan. This plan looked at practices regarding recruitment, hiring, selection, orientation, staff development, evaluation, and instructional time. I researched best practices for establishing effective processes for human resource management. I analyzed practices in place at my residency site as well as I what I want the practices to be in the school that I will lead. A key takeaway from this work is that it is vital for a school leader to always be recruiting! The most important thing a school leader can do is put highly qualified teachers in front of his or her students. The selection of highly qualified teachers must include strategic processes and thoughtful considerations. |
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Teacher recruitment is integral to positive student achievement. As part of ELP 553: Organizational Management I - Human Resource Management in K-12 Education, my partner and I created a teacher recruitment video geared towards recruiting high school teachers. Our recruitment video included student voice of why teaching high school students is important work. |
During my first year of graduate school, I participated on various interview teams for a variety of positions. For the interviews for classroom teacher positions, I created a one page interview rubric to use. Each member of the interview team had a copy of the rubric to complete during the interview. After the interview, the principal collected the rubrics to use when making her final decision. This process for hiring allowed the principal to use multiple voices when making her decisions. |
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4c. Teacher and Staff Evaluation: The principal evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and, thus, student achievement.
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With the guidance of my mentor principal I was afforded the opportunity to create a pre-conference question guide that would be used during pre-conferences. I asked other administrators and my executive coach for feedback in addition to doing research on my own about what questions should be asked prior to an observation. This pre-conference question document was a good place to start each of the pre-conferences and allowed for an organic conversation to take place. |
With the guidance of my mentor principal I was afforded the opportunity to create a post-conference question guide that would be used during post-conferences. I asked other administrators and my executive coach for feedback in addition to doing research on my own. An effective post-conference helps facilitate conversation about the results of the evaluation to improve performance. |
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During my principal residency, I had the opportunity to participate in teacher evaluations monthly with my mentor principal. We observed teachers in different departments and with varying levels of experience. I was able to participate in the pre-conferences when observations were announced. I recorded my anecdotal notes and completed the Teacher Evaluation Rubric after each observation. Ms. Dula and I met to compare our notes prior to the post-conferences. When schedules allowed, I participated in the post-conferences with Ms. Dula and the staff member. |
As part of ELP 553: Organizational Management I - Human Resource Management in K-12 Education, I completed a full clinical observation cycle with a teacher. I conducted the pre-conference, observation, and post-conference. Through this assignment, I was able to reflect on the significance and importance of each stage in the observation cycle. This artifact is a reflection of my experience where I learned the importance of ongoing evaluation and feedback to teachers in order to help them grow and improve. As teachers improve their teaching craft, academic achievement for students improves. |
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Our February writing assignment was to write a conference summary memo. This artifact is a true account of something I witnessed during a site visit, however, I did not discuss this incident with the teacher. This is an example of a conference summary memo I would have written after having a discussion with this teacher if I were the school leader. |