Standard 1: Strategic Leadership
School executives will create conditions that result in strategically re-imaging the school’s vision, mission, and goals in the 21st century. Understanding that schools ideally prepare students for an unseen but not altogether unpredictable future, the leader creates a climate of inquiry that challenges the school community to continually re-purpose itself by building on its core values and beliefs about its preferred future and then developing a pathway to reach it.
Element 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.
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.
Staff Handbook Website: One of my first expectations as principal resident was to review and revise the staff handbook. During the previous school year, my school utilized a hard copy of their staff handbook to communicate policies and procedures. Through observation, it was noted that staff members were not utilizing nor knowledgeable of the content in the staff handbook. As such, I created the Staff Handbook website in order to ensure teachers knew and understood the mission, vision and values of North Edgecombe High School (NEHS), which states that as a school, we are preparing students for a thriving life. This website also included policies and procedures as necessary for the upcoming school year in a user friendly format and information about instruction, discipline, and student supports. Creating the staff handbook website has been more effective with staff members in accessing important information for NEHS. Below are two items, the original copy of the staff handbook which was used prior to the my creation of the staff handbook website. The link below will give you access to the staff handbook website.
School Improvement Team: This year, North Edgecombe High School is in its second year of being monitored by the state of North Carolina due to its previous status as a low performing school. As a result, administration and members of the school's improvement team developed the school's goals based on our school's mission, vision, and strategic goals from the state. My role as principal resident was to serve as an active member of the school improvement team as a liaison between the administration and the school improvement team, and to ensure the school improvement team meets regularly. I communicated monthly with the school improvement team chair to ensure that she scheduled and lead meetings twice a month. The image below is a photo of our strategic goals for the 2017-2018 school year. These goals were created to drive the initiatives that were put in place during the school year.
Element 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 school executive articulates a vision and implementation strategies for improvements and changes which result in improved achievement for all students.
Priority Plans: As a school leader, I set goals for my school and department based on the school’s mission and vision. The school’s instructional leadership team chose to focus on two areas: culture of care for all and instructional excellence. Below are the priority plans I created to hold me accountable to fulfill the goals I, along with the administrative team, set at the beginning of the year. These plans were monitored weekly with the school’s instructional leadership team as a measure of accountability.
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Element 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.
The school improvement plan provides the structure for the vision, values, goals, and changes necessary for improved achievement for all students.
Parent Contact Log: Per the NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2016, 65% of staff members stated parents/guardians support teachers, contributing to their success with students. To increase this rate, I oversaw element E1.06 of the School Improvement Plan, which ensures that the school regularly communicates with parents/guardians about its expectations of them and academic progress of their students. During the school year, I worked with the administrative team to ensure that teachers contacted parents at least six times a week. We aligned this goal with our overall school goal to ensure that parents were informed about their child's progress weekly and that teachers felt supported by parents/guardians with their students. To ensure the effectiveness of this goal, I created the Parent Contact Log that each department was responsible for updating each time any form of contact was made. Teachers were also required to include this goal into their personal development plans for the school year, and I monitored this goal for each department by partnering with my Assistant Principal mentor to dis-aggregate and provide data from each six weeks to teachers. Below are the following artifacts: the indicator in its entirety, the Parent Contact Log teachers were responsible for filling out, and the First Six Weeks Parent Contact Log data.
NEHS School Improvement Plan: During the 2015-2015 school year, the state of North Carolina created a Comprehensive Needs Assessment at NEHS. As a result, the school must accomplish several goals set by NCDPI in order to show the needs of the school are being met. During the school year, I served as a member of the school improvement team and I oversaw two of the indicators in the School Improvement Plan. Through my leadership, I ensured that the team met regularly to discuss improvement measures around the school. Our team met twice a month and hosted smaller meetings as necessary. Additionally, I ensured that all staff members were actively engaging parents/guardians and community stakeholders in the support of the students we serve. Below is the indicator I oversaw and ensured was met during the 2017-2018 academic school year.
Element 1D: Distributive Leadership
The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
The school executive creates and utilizes processes to distribute leadership and decision making throughout the school.
NEHS Classroom Discipline Pyramid: As a member of the administrative team, I participated in reviewing the previous year's discipline data and found that numerous discipline referrals were being submitted to the front office because teachers were not fully aware of and did not utilize appropriate disciplinary classroom interventions. Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, I was tasked with organizing the student discipline pyramid for teachers. This pyramid assisted teachers in knowing the appropriate interventions to use to redirect student behavior prior to calling the administrative team or other support staff for reinforcement. This process was created and shared with support staff via support staff meetings to ensure they knew their role in the discipline pyramid and procedures they must follow when supporting students and their behavior choices. The monthly discipline data was also shared with the Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) Team to share strategies with and provide support to teachers that would assist in promoting positive student behavior. Additionally, this information has served as a base for parent meetings when concerns about student discipline and strategies used are raised. Below is the Classroom Discipline Pyramid of Intervention utilized by staff and students. This information can also be found on the Staff Handbook website.
Divisions of Responsibility: During the previous school year, administration and other school leaders served as members of the Opportunity Culture (OC) team that drafted and created the instructional roles that would be used to support teachers and student success. With the addition of the new roles, it was imperative to ensure that all instructional leaders knew their responsibilities as it related to the school's goals. As a result, the Instructional Leadership Team was initiated to ensure alignment with best instructional practices to support student learning and increased achievement. which The team consists of the administrative team, Multi-Classroom Leaders (MCLs), Reading Specialist, Exceptional Children's (EC) chair, and the Media Specialist. I organized the responsibilities which is represented below with my principal mentor to share with the team members. Together, we detailed which responsibilities belong to each member of the instructional leadership team. This ensures that all instructional leaders are held responsible for student success and learning as well as teacher support. The artifact below is a screenshot of the first page of the document we created at the beginning of the school year. This full document is also located below and was used and reviewed weekly.