I Am A Member Of The Better Seeking Team At My Elementary School

An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the

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

The major emphasis in education for the 21st century is on data driven accountability measured by student performance on standardized testing. National and state expectations require students to demonstrate mastery of curriculum objectives. Instructional objectives are the focus of the building principals to show measurable student progress. The improvements are evaluated based on data and monitoring of the curriculum.

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.

As a leader I envision my school as one where students and teachers come to a place they enjoy entering each day. All share the focus of the school, the belief that all students can become high achievers. Staff is centered on student achievement; no matter what academic level that all students face coming into the classroom. All staff will understand that all children are teachable, even those with learning issues.

Build human capital that will drive our school progress toward school goals by improving teacher and leader capacity.

Educating, empowering, and engaging students to be successful in a global, dynamic world is an overarching theme in the 21st century. However, our curricular standards are not keeping pace with the expansion of technology. School improvement is a topic of collegial conversations across the board and yet

Napavine’s goal is to engage and inspire critical thinking skills in every student through instruction that is individually relevant, motivating, aligned and diverse. Our action plan is for both the elementary and junior/senior high schools to utilize the Marzano Instructional Framework as a guide to student learning and professional growth. We have established that building administrators and teachers will utilize the Marzano Frameworks to guide professional growth discussions, goal setting meetings, and to identify future professional development opportunities. We have also established a Teacher/Principal Evaluation Program (TPEP) committee who will plan and guide professional development that includes a teacher leader to provide evaluation and framework training. Our School Improvement Plan (SIP) identifies Marzano instructional practices on a yearly basis as a school-wide focus for implementation and/or improvements. We also hold student growth meetings each fall between school administrators and teachers to revolve around students at risk of falling behind their peers and student sub-groups who may be collectively behind the total student population (closing the achievement gap). We plan to make time for instructional rounds during the school year to facilitate professional growth among teachers.

Leithwood and Jantzi argue the ability to articulate a clear vision is an essential attribute for school leaders (2008, p. 507). Goal setting is a powerful motivator for change and when leaders are able to clearly communicate inspiration vision to those they lead, it is possible to harness this motivation to bring about school improvement in student learning (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008, p.507). Clearly defined goals encourage school community to contribute to common goals and also streamlines decision making as only options that align with the vision need to be considered (Hallinger, 2010, p.129).

What is it that enables a trajectory-changing education? At Building Excellent Schools, the answer is rooted in sound and relentless execution on all the core fundamentals of running a school, i.e. the academic program, school culture, and operations. At Educate78, the answer is rooted in designing a school experience for students that is authentic to a particular community and also allows for deeper learning. As a lead petitioner in the process of founding a school – and a fellow of each of these organizations – I have been fortunate enough to observe and learn from both viewpoints. I have come to an understanding that both are true and not mutually exclusive. My goal is to soundly integrate the best aspects of both models

This helps to create and maintain a culture where appropriate and honest feedback about how “WE” can improve is embedded in everyone's vernacular, mindset and practice. It also provides opportunities for everyone (to give our entire learning community) opportunities to give and receive meaningful feedback (this created opportunities for shared language, vision, and partnership with our entire learning community). This addressed the norms of isolation and autonomy that Saunders discussed (Saunders, 2009). It also shows the role that administrators can take as leaders and participants in an inclusionary vision of their school ( Epstein,

The ISLLC standards provide high-level guidance and insight about the traits, functions of work, and responsibilities expected of school and district leaders (ISLCC, 2008). Their main purpose is to increase understanding of how educational administrators can enhance teaching practices and student learning. As future school leaders it is imperative that we use these standards as tools in assisting us when making a decision regarding our stakeholders. However, applying the ISLLC standards in a school setting does not guarantee success for a school leader, but it does facilitate the process in creating a positive school culture in a learning

I am an excellent candidate to assist school leadership with surpassing its annual goal. As a Turn Around administrator, I developed the skills and systems to review school improvement plans, analyze and disaggregate data, look for trends and gaps and implement scientific researched based intervention. I worked with principals to implement Response to Intervention (RtI) program. At the end of the program was a significant increase in student proficiency rate on formative and summative assessments. I used different strategies to address concerns with achievement gaps on formative and summative assessment, student and staff discipline and attendance and community involvement. I supported and implemented several mentoring programs. Several lives

The entire Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards focus on actions/ skills that leaders should be modeling in their schools, and there is not one standard that is more important than another. Leaders should be concentrating on how to make the learning environment more effective for student learning. In this essay I will give the challenges faced in that standard and the purpose of the standards and how do they impact that educational community.

School improvement is transformation. It is one of the most important actions of a school. It is a process that schools must use with fidelity to ensure that at all students are given the opportunity to perform and achieve at exemplary levels. School improvement is vital to schools and it is a process that cannot be done in isolation. It requires team work, collaboration, and constant analysis of data and setting of goals. School improvement goals focus on how to meet the needs of students. Addressing the educational needs, funding, and achievement gaps between subgroups is collaborative effort involves everyone that has a vested interest in the schools. These basic measures set the foundation for improvement. And so, if it is the