Collaborative Efforts To Establish A Positive Culture

W. Edwars Deming, American engineer and management consultant, wrote “a bad system will beat a good person every time.” This quote demonstrates the necessity for a school administrator to establish a school culture that is inviting and characterized by collaboration. In order to intentionally create a welcoming and collaborative school climate, clear, frequent, and inclusive communication is fundamental. Families, staff, and community members should be afforded the opportunity to become involved in enhancing student learning, the decision making processes of the school, and meaningful school-based activities. Opening the lines of communication about possible involvement at a school promotes a good system, in which good people can thrive.

In this chapter, Fullan begins by maintaining that principals who are effective lead learners are necessarily also good managers, because they understand that having clear routines is essential for school improvement.” (57) He quotes from Viviane Robinson’s Student-Centered Leadership to both underscore the previous point and emphasize that successful principals take an active learning stance: “The principal who makes the biggest impact on learning is the one who attends to other matters as well, but, most important, ‘participates as a learner’ with teachers in helping move the school forward.” (58) Fullan also borrows from Helen Timperley’s work in responding to the question, Who is in a principal’s class? The principal’s class consists of “team leaders who in turn can leverage the learning of other teachers in their group”

As with the importance of selecting a highly qualified principal to help raise test scores and closing achievement gaps, the selection and support of staff is also critical. Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek, and Steven G. Rivkin’s 2013 study “School Leaders Matter” examined the effectiveness of many principles’ leadership and the effect they had on student achievement ratings. “A primary channel through which principals can be expected to improve the quality of education is by raising the quality of teachers, either by improving the instruction provided by existing teachers or through teacher transitions that improve the caliber of the school’s workforce” (Branch, pg.4). A principal must be able to continually seek out professional development, to research best practices and new educational theories to support their staff and students. If principals are to close the achievement gap, they must be willing to inform and instruct their staff on new teaching strategies. Mr. Canada, from his TED talk, “Our failing schools. Enough is enough!”, states: “You go into a place that has failed kids for fifty years and say: ‘so what’s the plan?’ And they say: ‘Well, we are going to do what we did last year, this year’. What kind of business model is that?” (TED, 2013). The principal willing to venture into new, uncharted waters may succeed or fail, but at least they

Creating the opportunity for school culture will captivate that inspires children to dream and support learners to be successful. When students enter the classroom to expand their learning, they deal with positive learning that has an outcome that cultivate in classrooms to the highest level when children are appreciated and respected as teachers will have a rich cultural capital for families that gives an educational environment.

Effective leadership requires purpose and direction. Planning and preparation are vital when evaluating the success of the institution. The course reading states: ?As a new principal, you must assess the capacity of delivery mechanisms, facilities, and equipment before you make recommendations for enhancements? (WGU Student Portal, January 5, 2017). Attention to detail, being flexible and problem solving are at the core of school leadership. This paper will discuss two types of delivery mechanisms as it relates to learning and provide specific examples of how programs are used. Next, examine school facilities, technology and equipment, including use and specifications. Finally, discuss process improvement as it relates to the educational institution.

As instructional leaders, we are responsible for the academic growth of our students. It is my duty to foster a culture of learning. This is best accomplished by being a lifelong learner. Rather than focusing on the instruction of the teacher to the student, an instructional leader within a culture for learning focuses on the students by asking questions such as, “What was learned? What is the evidence that my students learned?” (DuFour, Richard and Robert J. Marzano. “High-Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership.” How Teachers Learn 66.5. (2009): 62-68) Rather than the principal observing a teacher on instructional style, within a culture of learning, that school leader is directing her observations on ascertaining what the students learned, how they learned it and how they know what to do if they have not yet learned it. In looking at the traditional method of teacher observation, if a principal finds the instruction of a teacher is lacking and helps him improve this instruction, this does not guarantee that the learning will also improve. (DuFour, Richard and Robert J. Marzano. “High-Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership.” How Teachers Learn 66.5. (2009): 62-68) Rather, the instructional leader of the school should be asking such questions as, “What are the students doing? Are they engaged in their learning

Change is inevitable and for any school district to be success change is necessary. My school district is constantly going through changes; curriculum changes, assessment changes, teacher evaluation changes, and more, each year it’s something different.

And although I love my career choice and my students, I feel that more educators would enjoy our schools more if we had consistency and uniformity in administration. I say this due to the lack of teachers in my current district with the gap only to spread in the coming school year. This school year began with one hundred seventeen teachers, which quickly went to one hundred by Thanksgiving. If this was not enough, many have been retiring and/or quitting after Christmas which brings our current staffing to around eighty- eight; with many not returning next year. I cannot, entirely, blame our administration for this dilemma our school now faces because selection works both ways. A lot of new teachers come out of college into “another trap that can

This will affect how each campus relates to each other, how the entire district plays a role, and how small changes in context can be leveraged to make large scale changes. He goes on to discuss how there are barriers in school leadership that principals must overcome to be successful. There are four levels of moral purpose to follow the moral imperative; individual, school, regional, and societal. Fullan notes that the driver should always be the moral purpose. Each level builds on each other and will not be successful without the other. The principal must know their moral imperative in relationship to their district and the state. Fullan states that the role of the principal is changing. It is not only what the principal can and should do as well as what changes are needed at the system level. The principal’s role is broader and is not stand alone. It takes a

The staff doesn’t feel appreciated, and the building leaders are on different pages when it comes to the success and direction of the school. According to Standard four, “A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.” In contrast, the article, Building Community-Schools Relationship, states that “School-community partnerships can interconnect together many resources and strategies to enhance communities that support all youth and their families. They could improve schools, strengthen neighborhoods and lead to a noticeable reduction in young people's problems. Building such partnerships requires visioning, strategic planning, creative leadership and new multifaceted roles for professionals who work in schools and communities.” In order to address or anticipate pressure groups, the building leader needs to effectively finds ways to manage conflict and build relationships among the administrative staff first. As a building leader, I would assess the current climate and culture first by meeting individually with assistant principals to ensure that we are all on the same page before addressing staff issues. The current communication

As an educational leader, I must have a vision and mission statement for the school that is known by the staff, students, and parents. The vision will address the needs of the students academically, emotionally, and socially. According to DuFour (1998), “ Those who seek to transform their school into a professional learning community as characterized by an environment fostering mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth, and a synergy of efforts.” The leader must implement a plan that will cultivate the success of all students. The mission will speak to the direction of the school community stating what the desire goals are. The building leader will lead by example. High expectations will be communicated and encourage by staff and students. The educational leader of a school must develop a culture of team work to create a climate that is student friendly. The vision mission and goals of the leader should be transparent. The establishment of common goals is the first step. Without common goals, sustainable progress will be impossible and thus everyone will have lower expectations. The students, parents, and staff should be commented to the goals of every child reaching their full academic potential. The school environment should speak to goal setting and high expectations for all students and staff.

This culture appears to be effective with the some of the norms and practices of the school system. For example, in collaborative classes, it is the norm for the general education teacher to lead instructions instead of utilizing parallel or team teaching instructional

Administrators and teachers have the same goal in their mind; create the best learning environment for students by cooperating and supporting each other. Effective principles understand their responsibility to lead, to support, to encourage and develop teachers to maximize their knowledge and skills to do their job in an excellent way. However, principals need to be diplomatic and gracious when giving help to teachers in the area of instructional nature, for the majority of teachers prefer and appreciate the professional autonomy. Principals do not want to be viewed as intruding teacher’s territory or overstepping their boundary or exerting their positional power, which might create unnecessary tension between teachers and the administrator. The strategies refered as “gentle nudges” instead of direct orders are recommended for principals to implement with instructional supervision.

Creating an understanding and sharing of one’s culture should be facilitated by the educators of the students. Teacher’s set the tone of what is acceptable and unacceptable through classroom management, teacher-student relations, and teacher-parent relationships. We must foster a culture of united we stand divided we fall through practices such Responsive Classroom and enhanced by the concept of Cultural Responsive Classroom Management (CRCM). CRCM is classroom management based on methods to formulate a caring, respectful environment that facilitates learning—and discipline out of a sense of personal responsibility (Weinstein,

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).