Essay about Strategic Plan for A Chronically Low-Performing School

The importance of effective leadership and its impact on improving student achievement are evident in today’s schools (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). While the school principal is traditionally thought to be the school leader, Glickman (1989) proposes that “the principal of successful schools is not the instructional leader but the educational leader who mobilizes the expertise, talent, and care of others” (p. 8). Lumpkin, Claxton, and Wilson (2014) contend that helping “each school fulfill its mission and energize and expand the professionalism and professional contributions of teachers, the expertise of all teachers, especially teacher leaders, is needed” (p. 59). Teachers directly impact student learning,

At inception, the NCLB Act was thought of as revolutionary, and in some ways it was. The larger use of data helped superintendents, school boards, and teachers identify students that were in need of additional instruction and offered parents a view of the quality of the schools. But, even with these innovations, the NCLB Act had some weaknesses. The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a “one-size-fits-all” standard that hampers states’ and school districts’ ability to appropriately gauge the learning done by the students and to tailor the schools’ curriculums to enable the students to graduate high schools successfully prepared for any postsecondary education or the workforce. The system of mandated

The United States educational system is failing. This topic is in the news repeatedly. Failing schools are a problem that must fixed. However, it cannot be fixed until we figure out its real cause. Many people put the blame on the government, school officials, and teachers. Critics such as Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, say that the problem lies within the public schools. He states, “Public schools are bad, privately managed charter schools are good” (Ravitch 1). This may be a true statement but there must also be an underlying cause for low school performance. Nobody ever thinks the students may have something to do with this problem. The students are the ones who are taking the tests, paying attention in

In the book, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, the author, Michael Fullan explains how school leadership should

Today, schools are engrossed on educational reform as a top priority for educational success. This focus can be contributed to The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which develops responsiveness of the poor performance of schools. Especially those schools that are deemed to be in lower-income neighborhoods that are known to be disadvantaged (Gresham, 2005). With NCLB, federal laws now demand schools to collect information on students’ performance to help recognize the true extent of the problem with struggling learners.

Leadership is a privilege that carries with it many responsibilities to inspire others, and to direct individuals to attain the vision and goals of an organization. As an effective leader it is my job to be flexible, be an excellent communicator, be a person who leads by example, and is an individual who is committed, resourceful, and reflective. Achieving the characteristics above, I have developed a definite purpose in mind; one that is shared and modeled in and outside of my school environment. With such growth mindset, I teach, present workshops and empowers others to make decisions that will develop future leaders. To lead by example, I became a mentor for first-year teachers. Furthermore, I orchestrate educational committees, encouraging

Educational leadership involves implementing changes which can be difficult when those one leads are resistant. Overcoming that resistance to bring about change creates benefits for students and the entire school community; unfortunately, there is no universal way to avoid resistance to change from all involved (Marion & Gonzales, 2014, p. 197). Further research could be done within an individual school

The concept of transformational leadership and contingency theory (Chance, 2009) resonated with me for this tenet because it involves “engagement between leaders and followers bound by common purpose” (Chance, p. 94) and the importance of strong open communication between leader and followers in addition to the interactions with other systems that are internal or external. As a school leader, it is essential that I not only see where the school is now, but likewise develop a shared vision between all stakeholders within the school community on where we would like to see it in the future and on how to get there by setting clear, specific goals through collaboration. It is vital to foster participation in school decisions, which embodies participatory leadership. Encouraging participation in school decisions from staff, parents, students and the community at large will require that I, as an effective school leader, to be a good listener, communicator, motivator and collaborator as well as lead by example. According to DuFour and Marzano (2011), “Through their actions and words, effective leaders convey their conviction in their personal efficacy and the collective efficacy of those the

In today’s society, most people settle for “good enough”. Individuals, groups, schools and organizations are not pushing for the greatness they could achieve. In order to transform a school from good to great, you must have an amazing leader. There are four basic stages to transition from good to great: disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action, and building greatness to last.

It is important to create a plan to guarantee the development of the improvement at school with its respective standards and pertinent goals. In the School Improvement Plan (SIP) it is found information, where the school wants to be or it is asked to be, is encounter information of where the school wants to be or is required to be, it is a resource to develop the process and the goals to achieve. The school leader is the one that sets the goals at school? Where is the goals based on? Bernhard, (2004) mentions that the plan for improvement has to be align with the analyzed data, where administrators, teachers and other school personnel will collaborate for a common goal the learning acquisition of the students. The student’s scores reflect that are some gaps in the skills for the L.A. Gillland Elementary School, for this it is necessary to work in vertical teams and create a schedule to allow teacher to collaborate among different grade levels.

The other three roles of transformational leadership, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation, are heavily researched and meet the primary goal of kindergarten through 12th grade education, but this does not explain the lack of research for individualized consideration. In this paper, I addressed the need for further research on the role of individualized consideration and its use of completing the secondary goal of education. We have seen how it can be used by looking at the Lone Jack school district and how successful it can be when implementing by school leader. The Lone Jack school leaders showed how transformational leadership can be impactful when all four roles are embraced. In order to meet the primary and secondary goals of the kindergarten through 12th grade education system, school leaders need to embrace all four roles of transformational leadership and implement them into their

Whereas within the educational arena, it imperative to know the needs of the teachers in the building to determine when to apply transformational or transactional leadership. By identifying these need a principal can maximize how teachers feel and perform on their job. Sergiovanni, (1990) offers that the moral leadership that exceeds traditional reputation often gets a better outcome of teacher performance. Therefore training programs for new effective leaders should include guidance on balancing transformation and transactional leadership styles in order to facilitate positive, collaborative learning environments for teaching and learning ( Pepper,

Every year since 2002, the goal has been to increase the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). With the plan that was set, by 2014 every student should be able to pass every exam. If schools cannot meet the specified AYP, it becomes identified as a school needing improvement. If no improvement occurs the school will be subject to a complete takeover. There are very specific categories of progress that need to be reported. Every sub group needs to have improvement in its AYP. “‘The result is that the lowest-performing subgroup will ultimately determine the proficiency of a school, district or state,’ says Rich Cardullo, one of the authors of a paper published in the September 26th issue of Science magazine, which analyzes testing data from California's elementary schools” (“All students proficient on state tests by 2014,” 2008).

Public school districts in Illinois are facing ever rising challenges from a lack of funding, a shortage of teachers, an ever increasing danger of traumatic events occurring on school grounds, a decline teacher moral, an increase in at-risk students, and others. During this difficult time it is imperative that the leaders of districts are providing their stakeholders the leadership necessary to move the district forward in educating all of its students. Transformational leaders are best suited to deal with the multiple and diverse challenges that face districts.

The ensuing report will identify the leadership competency, and the areas that I think should be developed to act as an agent of change within an educational organization. It talks about how communication, motivation, goals, and strategy can help in bringing positive changes to the educational institution. This report highlights my perspective regarding change and how it is related to leadership. It illuminates that the curricula being flexible and based on practical skills can help the students in their professional growth.