Haye Elementary School Plan Essay

In Leverage Leadership, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo presents seven principles or levers that great principles and other school leaders take to effectively transform their schools into greatness. These seven principles, or levers, enables continuous, about-face, and duplicable growth for schools and their leaders. More than half of a principle time is spent on things that does not transfer into student achievement and/or success. However, with purposeful emphasis on these seven levers, the exact time investment leverages more learning. School leaders plus the seven levers equal more student achieve, thus setting the school on the path for greatness.

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

I will start with the schools. I had the pleasure of talking to two administration individuals and one former teacher/coach. According to Assistant Superintendent Marsh Worthington, this is an area were the school is the weakest. Mrs. Worthington says, “that the district has a total

The text states that it is essential that superintendents and school board members communicate effectively to find the best solutions to problems. Effective communication requiring everyone to be heard in an honest and forthright exchange of viewpoints has proven to be best for children. Therefore report on Curriculum by Dr. Byron Haynes and reports on start of the year were given by Principal J. Griffin, Principal B. Cleark and Principal M.

For this experience, I chose to visit an elementary school and its feeder middle school. I chose this because students leave this elementary school with a high rate of student achievement, yet in middle school the scores plummet. I wanted to investigate how this gap could be minimized. Comparing philosophies, expectations and leadership styles for schools within the same community was also a goal.

The LAUSD is the second largest in the nation with more than 640,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, covering over 900 schools, and 187 public charter schools. The LAUSD is committed to equity and access to excellent education and schools for all of its 640,000 students. To realize its mission, the LAUSD identified five strategies including the following: (1) Transform teaching and learning so that it can prepare all youth to graduate college and become workforce ready (2) Ensure there is an effective employee at every level of the organization focused on improving student outcomes (3) Provide a portfolio of high quality schools for youth, families, and communities (4) Ensure a safe, caring, and nurturing environment for all youth (5) Operate on an effective, efficient, and transparent organization in order to assure the public trust (‘District Strategies’, 2015). The LAUSD operates based on the following core beliefs: start with students; families are our partners; success is in the classroom; diversity is our strength; and effective teaching, leadership, and accountability are the keys to our success (‘LAUSD Core Beliefs’, 2015).

Aspire must open enough schools in undeserved neighborhoods to provide real choices for families and demonstrate superior academic achievement in these schools. Aspire’s “Theory of Action” describes the activities required to achieve this direct impact in Aspire’s targeted communities.Then, Aspire must leverage its success to improve student achievement for all students in California. This impact would be indirect, but broader. The “Theory of Change” describes how Aspire plans to translate its direct impact into systemic change.

• Closing achievement gaps is a critical issue. The performance of Blacks is systematically different from that of other racial and ethnic groups. Decreasing gaps in student achievement means that we must increase the learning gains of Blacks. This will require the creation of public policies and legislation that support public schools committed to identifying and setting high, worthwhile, and attainable goals for students and ensuring that teachers and students are supported in these efforts. It will also require meaningful collaboration among community organizations and leaders, parents, and the school. The success of the school must become the success of the

Tim Tyson (2010) discusses how educators must ask hard questions in order to move students from the low-level mind-set of making good grades to experiencing the personal gratification and excitement that is the core of learning (p. 119). He details how the teachers and instructional leaders at Mabry Middle School formed a team that met consistently to choose what was and was not working at the school. The team formed the following mission statement to evaluate every action taken by the school: “Maximize student achievement in a culture of caring.” (Tyson, 2010, p. 120). Worksheets, class activities, and administrative actions were all measured against this mission statement. Compare Mabry Middle School’s mission statement to the one at your school (or a school where you would like to

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.

Many established norms of the Cooperstown School District, as well as outside factors, worked against the initiative. First, a culture of “adoption and abandonment” of new educational initiatives had been developed. This revolving door of new programs had left the Cooperstown’s teaching staff jaded and resistant to change. Secondly, over the years CSD had developed a site-based management system. District office personnel, such as the curriculum director, had a hands-off approach at the building level. Building principals were simply not accustomed to district level personnel operating within their buildings. Lastly, a downturn in the state's economy had a negative economic and political impact on the initiative. Declining tax revenue impacted the standardized testing in which the initiative would be assessed. Also, the county data warehouse, who provided benchmarked assessment for the initiative, was hit hard by the economic downturn. Ultimately, these economic and political challenges reinforced the teachers and building principals negative feeling toward the initiative and solidified their mentality of

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,

Analysis of the three identified stages stated on the lesson planner shall take place within this assignment. Links will be shown between the teaching methods that were incorporated in this lesson planner which met particular learning characteristics, traits and needs of the group or an individual(s) and relevant educational and theoretical principles. The lesson planner has been placed in the appendices, as a referral resource, for this assignment.

Schools are places that constantly grow every day based on their environment. They change by implementing new ideas throughout the system or taking away ideas to make things better. All of these changes are being made to insure that students are receiving the appropriate education and the teachers are very aware. Although change can be negative, in the schools they are improvements girded toward the student and the teacher must make adjustments that includes them. These changes may include test score, report cards, lesson plans, professional learning, safety procedures, and discipline reports. With several things to improve questions aroused in regards to, what to, when to, and how to continuously improve. In 2008, School Keys- Unlocking Excellence through the Georgia School Standards was created as a “descriptor of effective, high impact practices for schools throughout Georgia to describe what schools need to know, understand and be able to do, in similar fashion to the Georgia Performance Standards curriculum for students.” Meaning that this document outlines the guidelines teachers should consider in correlations to the standards. According to the article it was formed through research from, What Works in Schools (2003), School Leadership that Works, and Standards of the Southern Association if College in Accreditation and School Improvement (2007), indicating that various information and multiple perspectives went into this new idea.

As we review and synthesize data of a district for planning school improvement, the following information is needed to access and determine the needs of a school. First, a thorough analysis of performance data must be reviewed to see how school districts measure up with state and federal accountability. During this process, it is very important that schools focus the performance indicators that will guarantee growth and success. School teams must refer to the districts mission and vision to guide the planning process. The performance indicators will provide data that will be beneficial in creating improvement strategies. So, after careful evaluation of the data, the next step would be to plan effective methods and strategies that will improve student achievement. Moreover, this plan should include needs, demographics and opportunities for students to be successful. Additionally, the baseline data is important information to include in the improvement plan.