21st Century Teaching and Learning Culture Provides Trust, Collaboration, Respect

She interweaves examples of three principals from her research. These principals are from urban schools with high populations of low-income and minority students. The examples illustrate throughout the book how the actions of these principals developed or worked against developing trust. She analyzes these behaviors as related to each chapter topic.

The principal should seek and then cultivate human capital - quality teachers and teacher leaders. The principal should also foster conditions that allow teachers to learn from each other “in purposeful, specific ways to improve learning in the school”, that is, develop the school’s social capital. Finally, by fostering expertise in teachers, the principal builds decisional capital - teacher capacity for making wise decisions that improve student learning. (89)

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

“Unintended Educational and Social Consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, no. 2, Winter 2009, pp. 311. EBSCOhost. In this peer-reviewed academic journal article, Liz Hollingworth, an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Iowa, explores the history of school reform in the United States, and the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Hollingworth states that the great promise of NCLB is that schools will focus on the education of low-achieving students, reducing the gap in student academic achievement between White students and African-American, Hispanic, and Native American student populations. Hollingworth states that an unintended consequence of NCLB was that teachers and school administrators had to shift curriculum focus in an effort to raise test scores, but in some cases, they had to also abandoned thoughtful, research-based classroom practices in exchange for test preparation. NCLB also affected teachers, highly qualified teachers left high-poverty schools, with low performance rates especially those schools where teacher salaries are tied to student academic performance. Hollingworth concludes her article by stating “we need to be wary of policy innovations that amount to simply rearranging the deck chairs on the

The article discusses how teachers are discovering that the No Child Left Behind idea is flawed, developmentally unfitting, lacking funding, and leaving more students, educators, and schools behind before the bill was passed. Later the article presents a short history about educational testing, investigates the argument of teaching to the test, and focuses on subgroups of school populations that are negatively affected by No Child Left Behind bill, distinctively students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, minorities, second-language learners, and students with special needs.

If there is no hope to enhance their education there is the hope that it can give the students a support system, they were lacking and decrease the chances of students forming unhealthy habits and behaviors. If the system doesn’t work in the academic sense it can still work in the behavioral aspect. Using MTSS can diminish and replace problematic behaviors, thus creating more time on task and teacher involvement to help the whole student body learn. Education continues to work on “Closing the achievement gap using multi-tiered academic supports requires best practices for universal screening and diagnostic assessment to understand youth academic needs (Benner, Kutash and Nelson)”. The key word in that sentence is focusing on student’s needs. Thus, creating more teachers who work to emphasize and understand the lives of their students and creating the “Down Teacher” that Dance describes and implores teachers to strive to be to meet the needs of their students. This is the best system that has been created yet to work with students. Placing this pedagogy in the hands of teachers and psychologists who work in urban education could change urban education for the better. Focusing on the students’ needs is at the fore front of a student-centered approach. To accommodate and adapt has and will always be a student-centered approach. Teachers who do not adapt and ignore the needs of student to teach required material fall under the teacher centered approach which doesn’t

In conclusion, schools need to come up with a way to enhance student to teacher associations, better security measures for students and schools that are financially responsible. If schools can agree on a way to make class life better for students we will see a significant increase in schools production. The system is corrupt and without a plan cannot be fixed. Schools need a base to start in order to make progress to

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

In chapter 8, Becoming a Trustworthy Leader, of the Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership, Megan Tschannen-Moran states, “the principal sets the tone for a school” (100). This statement, in my opinion, accurately sums up the true goal of any administration which is to be the guide and inspiration for the rest of the building. Therefore, I felt Moran and her chapter on trustworthy leadership were the most compelling components of the readings and lectures. Throughout the chapter Moran discusses the vital need for administrators to be trustworthy individuals. This resonated with me because I agree that trust is the glue that can hold a school together. I have been around administrators that make promises that are impossible to keep and almost seem to string along the staff with ideas but never fulfill them. Eventually the staff realizes that the administration is not reliable and cannot be trusted at its word. This immediately puts a barrier between the staff and administrator so that very little is ever accomplished and people feel ostracized. Without trust, as Moran reiterated, relationships are destroyed and the culture of the building suffers. If, however, one is a trustworthy leader then trust can ensure follow through from a leader which is essential when running a school. If students, parents, and staff feel like a leader will follow through on his/her word then this thinking will trickle down and others will do the same. Thus trust allows for things

In terms of becoming a mediator and consensus builder the authors detailed the need for principals to possess relational leadership skills in order to be able to both facilitate groups and coach others on staff in the ability to facilitate their own groups, and stressed that the key to this is the ability to effectively participate in conflict resolution (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009). The authors suggested that conflict is part and parcel of school reform and that in addition to being able to deal effectively with conflict the successful principal needs to develop the ability for bringing about consensus within the group, noting that interpersonal and intrapersonal skills were as much or more important than knowledge (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).

In light of accountability requirements, fear of not meeting AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), and required school improvement plans, often the idea of “school improvement” is considered a negative attribute. Obviously schools do not want to be singled out or identified as in need of improvement. Teachers often take the same view towards the idea of improvement. We as teachers take very personal that concept of improvement; we often parallel the need for improvement to failure. However my belief is that effective schools are always in a school improvement process and effective teachers too also are constantly adapting their practice in a culture of continuous improvement and growth. Therefore it is important as an effective leader to build a community of trust and collaboration. I quote “We are all in this together. Once we know that we are, we’re all stars and we see that we’re all in this together.” (Disney High School Musical, 2006) These lyrics from a popular Disney movie put to light exactly the school culture where the goal is not personal but as a community to use data driven and research based approaches in reflection and growth that assist all stakeholders.

In order for the principal to develop positive relationships within the community the school needs to demonstrate, and promote the contributions provided. The school needs to adopt an “our children” attitude with the community to share in the benefits for students (Epstein, 2009).

The principal’s role in developing positive community relations sets the tone for communication patterns, partnership formation and/or alienation (Fiore, 2013). There are many tasks that the principal has that is important to school and community relations. Some of those are being a good listener, diplomatic and tactful and all situations. They also have to promote the open door policy to be free to communicate with students, parents, and their staff. They also have to inform the superintendent and community about good and bad things that are

Reform has been known to mean a “change”. Now this change can be viewed at in terms of policy, practice, procedure, or organization. However; the term reform is usually misunderstood as being a strategic method to correct or identify a problem. John Dewey was one of the matriarchs in educational reform with his advocacy for public education and social reform. The Encyclopedia of the Social & Cultural Foundations of Education, (2008) states that Educational Reform has three competing concepts: Essentialism, Progressivism, and Holism.

In order to create a positive classroom culture, teacher need to promote positive relationships between students and with students by taking an interest and have respect for each other. It is extremely important for teacher to get to know the students, their families, and their culture. When a student knows their teacher cares about them, then a relationship of trust will exist between a student and teacher. According to Sayeski and Brown (2011), “teachers who had positive relationships with their student had 31 % fewer discipline problems and rule violations over the course of the year than teachers who did not” (p. 12). In order to know more about them, I will send home a poster board where the students can fill it with any information they would like me and their classmates to know. This constructivist approach gives them the opportunity to be creative and choose what they want to share. The essentialist approach of sending home a questionnaire for the family to fill out will help collect information important to understanding the student. This is the only category where I consider myself an essentialist and constructivist due to how information will be gathered about my students, but this will allow me to build the framework for a positive learning environment for everyone. Having students create a poster will allow their peers to get to know them as an individual. Another way to create a positive environment is having students work together to keep