STANDARD ONE: Strategic Leadership
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.
Throughout my time in graduate school, I was continuously refining my "why" and using it to help me create my personal vision statement. My personal vision statement describes who I am at my core and guides my work personally and professionally. Through self-reflection and my ELP 551: Contexts and Challenges of School Improvement course, I learned the significance of developing a shared vision. The vision must be derived from all stakeholder's voices and be integral to the life and core values of the school community. |
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During several of my learning walks, I noticed a poster in many classrooms that had outdated mission and vision statements. I created a one-page document to share the current mission, vision, and strategic goals for Sanderson High School. The mission, vision, and strategic goals were created collaboratively by the school improvement team and align to our district's goals. These values embody "The Sanderson Way" and are at the core of everything that happens at Sanderson High School. Each week, the admin team met to discuss our work and we used the mission, vision, and goals of our school to guide our processes and procedures to ensure academic success for ALL students. |
1b. Leading Change: The school executive articulates a vision, and implementation strategies, for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
The vision of Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School is for students to build relationships and engage with their environment to become empowered citizens. All students are uniquely capable of learning through rigorous instruction and high expectations. All students are provided an inclusive collaborative environment to learn and grow. When my previous principal, Kim Grant, and I got to LHMES, the master calendar included too many transitions that resulted in significant loss of instructional time for all students. Using our school vision and values at LHMES, I created a master schedule that maximized core instruction and minimized transitions. This master schedule was a change that resulted in improved achievement for all students. |
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During my residency at Sanderson High School, with input from the administrative team and my executive coach, I created a google form learning walk observation tool. This tool is aligned with indicators, key processes, and action steps outlined in our school improvement plan. All administrators have access to the form and the data generated. The administration at Sanderson did not previously have a common observation tool to use. I used this tool regularly during my learning walks, which allowed me to give specific feedback to teachers that was directly related to our SIP goals and their PDP goals. My feedback also included a "glow" and a "grow" from my learning walk. |
During my residency, I was given a Joy for All robotic dog to use with students. This reflection artifact demonstrates how a new initiative can be implemented that will positively impact students and student achievement. While I was not able to implement the Joy for All robotic dog schoolwide, I was able to see a deescalation in one student's behavior through her interaction with the dog. As a school leader, I will implement new strategies, such as therapy pets, to help improve student's mental well-being while increasing their academic achievement. |
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1c. School Improvement Plan: The school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision, values, goals and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.
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During ELP 551: Contexts and Challenges of School Improvement, I learned the importance of continuously refining improvement goals and action steps to improve achievement outcomes for all students. The school leader must establish a shared vision among all stakeholders that will drive the school improvement work. This class assignment gave me the opportunity to analyze school data and use a backwards design model to create a school improvement goal and the appropriate action steps to achieve the goal. A school leader must always promote a growth mindset that empowers the staff to refine goals and action steps. |
During my principal residency, I was an active member on the School Improvement Team. Our school improvement plan is based on five indicators (A1.07, A2.04, A4.01, A4.06, and E1.06) and each administrator sits on a subcommittee devoted to one particular indicator. I actively participated on the A4.01 subcommittee and we focused on "implementing a tiered instructional system that allows teachers to deliver evidence-based instruction aligned with the individual needs of students across all tiers." Our subcommittee analyzed academic, attendance, and behavioral data to determine our progress and update our action steps. We also shared Tier I and II intervention ideas at schoolwide staff meetings. The school improvement team meets as a whole team one time a month to discuss our progress towards meeting our goals. The team is broken into smaller teams that focus on each of the indicators. Our SIP is housed in Indistar. |
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1d. Distributive Leadership: The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision-making throughout the school.
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During my first year of graduate school, I examined and defined my philosophy of leadership statement. Through reflection and ELP 550: Principles of Educational Leadership and Empowerment, I was able to determine and define my core values and my fundamental belief about education. This leadership statement will help me lead my staff in creating our shared vision statement. With this leadership statement in mind, I examined the current teacher-leader pipeline and the strategic development of the teacher-leader pipeline that I would establish as a school leader. As a school leader, it will be important for me to create and use processes to distribute leadership among my staff that aligns to our shared vision and moves all students towards academic success. |
As part of my ELP 595: Culture and Collaboration course in the spring of 2019, I created a "Leadership Opportunity" google form as part of my "Establishing School Culture" project. This form was created to find out what leadership positions staff members were interested in assuming during the 2019-2020 school year. This form was used at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School to distribute leadership among the staff members. The staff appreciated being asked where they saw their strengths and in what capacity of leadership they were interested in serving. Through the dissemination of this form, I learned the importance of creating conditions that result in re-imaging the school community based on our core values and beliefs. |
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