O&A Individual Reflection #2

Entering a school as a first-year principal, there will be many pitfalls working with an established school community, including staff, parents, students, and community stakeholders. Within the community, there will be expectations of how I should do my job, usually through comparison (either positive or negative) with the previous principal. While some members of the community will be afraid of change, others will point eagerly to issues that are important to them. There may be a morale issue among staff; teachers may have the desire to continue doing “business as usual” without my interference. I am confident that there will be many times when I am told how “we” do things in the school.

Before my tenure begins, I will review the school data, familiarize myself with the demographics of the school, investigate the school and teacher websites, look at student performance on state and county assessments, review the School Improvement Plan, examine technology use and recognize the impact of school climate data. I will create my own vision for school improvement, putting student achievement and safety in the forefront while supporting the growth of all members of the school community. Though this will be my own personal vision, I will open a dialog with the stakeholders, introducing myself to faculty, parents, and students and demonstrating their individual and collective importance. I will meet with the Leadership Team as a group, and invite each of them to meet with me individually to share with me their background and their personal visions. During these conversations, I will begin to share my own vision. As the school year progresses, I will get to know my staff, visit classrooms and interact with students, and work to ensure that parents and community members are active partners within the school. While I am becoming acquainted with everyone, I will be an active listener, maintain an open dialog, and demonstrate my true desire to enlist everyone in school improvement and student growth. By living my own vision, gradually enlisting others to work with me, and really listening to the concerns and interests of stakeholders, I feel that I will overcome or avoid the pitfalls that could be in my path. Letting staff and parents know that they are valued partners, that I will not make changes for the sake of change alone, and that my central focus is always on students, I feel that I will develop meaningful relationships and form partnerships that support the school. Though I must be strong enough to make changes, I have to enlist others in these change actions by demonstrating their importance and their positive impact on the school community.

This course has prepared me to become a twenty-first century instructional leader through our use of real data. The issues and concerns that we discussed as a collaborative team – academic performance of students, school climate, diversity, integration of technology, use of resources, and involving the community – were especially relevant because the data was from my school! Looking at school data through the eyes of my team-mates and then performing a root-cause analysis, I saw a picture that I recognized, but with a new spin. Using the collaborative approach to work with a team of professionals gave fresh perspective and allowed me to consider alternate viewpoints to address school-based needs. Supporting an action plan with research ensures that, while fresh approaches are put into place, best practices for student learning, professional development, and use of technology are enacted. The continual reference to and evaluation of the vision and instructional goal requires the leadership team to have an important and relevant focus for their decisions.

A variety of school community members are specified within my administrative action plan. Alongside the administrative team, the school leadership team is essential to the development and implementation of the plan. The plan recognizes the importance of many leaders, including curriculum and instructional specialists, teachers (special education, general education, ELL, math intervention teacher, media specialist), peer mentors, technology specialists, parents, community members, and the technology team. Each of these leaders plays a vital role in meeting the instructional goal of the school, which focuses on improved math performance of students. Ongoing professional development will encourage all teachers to accept varied leadership roles. Additionally, parents, community members, and high school interns have active roles within the plan.

Ultimately, the strength of an administrative action plan will be the ability of the leadership team and school staff to make it a reality. Its effectiveness will be clearly measured through student performance data. It will be crucial that the school leadership team continuously reviews student data and revises the plan to respond to the evolving school community.