Essay on Staffing the Boston Public Schools

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

This is a case study analysis of The New Principal: Managing Human Resources by Jane A. MacDonald (2006). This case study focuses on issues a first year principal may face when entering her school for the first time. Ms. Vera Zola was not only a first year principal; she was also new to the school district. In her previous role as assistant principal, she was in a neighboring school district. In her new district, the Suburban Public School District (SPS), there were approximately 11,000 students enrolled (MacDonald, 2006). Ms. Zola was assigned to Roma Elementary, one of six elementary schools in the district. There were two middle schools and two high schools. Approximately 80% of high school graduates continued on to higher education or a trade school. Community members had diverse cultural backgrounds and lifestyles, and the community was growing.

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”

New York City consists of five boroughs, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. The borough that I reside in is Brooklyn. Brooklyn has approximately 2.592 million people inhabiting this district and approximately 23.4 percent of individuals who reside in Brooklyn, NY come from a low-income household or in other words come from poverty. With catholic and private schools being expensive, people have to rely on the education system to provide their children with a good education. In this paper I will be discussing the public school education system ranging solely up to high school in Brooklyn New York and giving a general idea of the New York education system as well.

Another source that information was gathered for this research was the interview that was conducted with Meghan Siembor who is the Division Director for Community Teamwork’s Division of Child and Family Services located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Siembor has a lot of experience in grant writing, program development, curriculum design, and teaching. The interview went over topics like grant writing, program development, and insufficient funding for education. Siembor expressed that “The reality in the world of education and social services is that there is rarely ever one source of funding that is sufficient.” She claims that one of the biggest challenges in education is providing adequate salaries to attract and keep highly qualified teachers. Another problem that Siembor brought up was the lack of understanding by the government for the problems in education and social programs. This is because those in government may not know the realities and the financial resources that it takes to sufficiently run a program. This requires her too closely watch budget development at the state and federal level because there is often

The meeting continued with board member Jason Hopp presenting Dr. Matthew Flannery, formerly the principal of Shiloh Hills Elementary School, for a roll call vote to approve him as the new Assistant Superintendent of the WIlson School District. Mr. Hopp spoke for approximately two minutes about the credentials, reputation, and record of quality performance that Dr. Flannery has documented during his time with the district. A five-year contract was approved on an 8-1 vote, with Mr. Martin voting “no”. It may be worth observing that Mr. Martin is known as the “no man” of the current board, and often tows one of the more conservative lines of all board members. One can speculate that he may have felt

In a recent article from US News, they ask a question that is stirring much debate nationwide, whether school resource officers (SRO’s) are doing more harm than good. The rate of children becoming involved in the Juvenile Justice system through SRO’s is alarming. “In theory, so called school resource officers are supposed to foster exactly what many civil right groups are campaigning for: better relations between law enforcement and citizens, particularly minorities and lower-income families” (Sneed, 2015). The word resource originated from Old French meaning to rise again and in Latin a resurrection. Today’s meaning of resource can be defined as a source of support or something that enhances the quality of human life (Merriam-Webster, 2015). When considering what the title of SRO stands for, children should be given more options and assistance rather than fear based compliance tactics traditionally used on adult criminals. I feel we are almost telling kids well we can’t put you all in jail, so we will bring the jail to your school. How could a cop in a school be non-threatening? Children see a bullet proof vest, Taser, gun, handcuffs, pepper spray and I really doubt they are thinking this person is there to help them.

At Donna ISD our current Public Relations Professional is Sandra Quintanilla. Mrs. Quintanilla is responsible for school and community relations in my district. Upon analyzing the three different plans of organization, the researcher determines Donna ISD exhibits a coordinated model of school-community relations. Moore, Bagin, and Gallagher (2016) describe, “A coordinated plan is one in which community relations responsibilities of central administrative officers and building principal are fitted together into an articulated unit” (p. 61). The work begins at the top and trickles down to each campus principal and their staff who serve as reinforcements. Donna ISD is currently working on restoring our district’s image which requires Mrs. Quintanilla

Every school district has board meetings throughout the school year. Unfortunately, many parents, community members, & school personnel do not attend such important meetings because they don’t realize or understand the importance of such board meetings or how informative they can be. According to Kankakee School District (2017), the Kankakee School District Board of Education is composed of seven elected members, who were elected by the citizens of Kankakee to serve a four-year term that do not receive no salary for they services, are committed to ensuring a quality of educational excellence that will enhance the opportunities and challenges facing today’s student and additional responsibilities that board members include are selection of the District superintendent, developing general polices according to wishes of the community and requirements of law, hiring school personnel based upon recommendation of the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, adopts salary schedules, approves funds to finance school operations, must adopt and review the annual operating budget for the District, and setting the property tax levy to produce adequate funds to meet the District’s financial needs ranks among the responsibilities of the Board of Education (Retrieved from https://www.ksd111.org/domain/68). For this paper, the Kankakee School District board meeting will be used, information learned from board meeting, use of

The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.

And finally, there is the issue of staff mismanagement. The supervisor, Keith Frazier, is only checking in with this department one to two times per week. Mr. Frazier is aware that Pat is making international phone calls. He is also aware that Pauline found a way for Pat to make these calls from the building’s elevator once he had the phone system modified to only allow internal calls. Mr. Frazier has also been fielding complaints from the accountants about not receiving their tax schedules in a timely fashion. However, he has failed to confront either of these issues. This lack of management can be attributed to the following:

Purpose: To persuade the class to recognize the issue of teacher shortages, consider the proposed ways to correct the issue, and work to rectify the situation.

Administrators and teachers must work together to develop the PLC plan addressing the needs of their students. This means administrators need to trust teachers and allow them to work in a way that is autonomous from leadership. Delegating more responsibilities to staff was a way of creating a more knowledgeable community that could cope with the diversity of demands created by schools moving from being relatively simple organizations to highly complex ones. It was also recognized as in accord with the rhetoric of distributed leadership recommended as a strategy for school improvement and raising pupil attainment (Bolam et al. 2005, Webb, et al.

This reduces the need for in-district transfers or the possible need for a reduction in workforce only to rehire a teacher with the certification and capability to teach one specific subject. Additionally, a stable workforce increases the school’s ability to maintain daily operations, student expectations, and positive educational outcomes.

Effective school leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). The writer of this paper acknowledges that school principals should play the role of instructional leaders, not just a school manager. The reality is that are many demands on a principals time and management skills making it difficult for most of them to spend time in classrooms, when performing teacher evaluation. Principals often make sure that teachers