Ashley Lovett Rosenberg

Reflections Demonstrating Personal and Professional Growth

Throughout the past semester, I have had so many valuable experiences and have learned

innumerable lessons about what it means to be an administrator. In reflecting on these practices,

I feel that I now have a better understanding of the Professional Standards for Educational

Leadership.

I feel that I grew as an educational leader in many capacities; one of these surrounds

Standard 4: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. As an ENL teacher, I had written and

revised the district’s K-2 ENL curriculum. As I entered the leadership internship, I didn’t truly

consider what it meant to “develop and support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of

curriculum, instruction, and assessment” in an administrative capacity; I was much more

concerned with other areas of administrative work. However, after seeing how curriculum ran on

a districtwide level, I decided to work on how curriculum was developed, implemented, and

assessed from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

After observing numerous ENL classes throughout the district, I noticed that in both

Stand Alone and Integrated ENL classes, each of the curricula stood on its own. For a program

which claims to teach content through language, the content within the curriculum wasn’t

aligned to any other departments’. As a teacher, I had just been concerned about what was

happening inside of my classroom. On the administrative level, I began to see how

interdisciplinary discrepancies affected students as they went throughout their days; it was

impractical to expect students to learn material when it was taught differently in different

settings. Therefore, I reached out to administration in other departments in order to close the

gaps within our curriculum. Together with the District Administrator for Special Education, I
arranged ongoing professional development for ENL and Special Education teachers on how to

modify elementary curriculum for special learners; this way, teachers were held accountable for

teaching districtwide curriculum, but in an appropriate way for their students. I also held a joint

department meeting with the Curriculum Associate for ELA at the secondary level, so that we

could better sync what is taught in ELA and ENL classrooms. The experience was eye-opening

and taught me to collaborate when it comes to curriculum, instruction, and assessment, so

students may have clearer objectives to meet and content to learn.

I also feel I grew in terms of Standard 7: Professional Community for Teachers and Staff.

As I began my internship, my focus was on the two departments for which I was responsible:

ENL and World Languages. However, as the year progressed, many teachers from other

departments would come to me to voice concern over the ENL students in their classrooms. I

spoke to the administrators responsible for each department but realized something more had to

be done.

I decided to reach out beyond my departments and offer professional development for

content area teachers in ENL pedagogy. I made the curriculum for my professional development

course to be 15 hours, which is the state requirement for all teachers to have in ENL. Many

teachers signed up; some wished to fulfil their hours and others had students with whom they

didn’t know what to do. I reviewed basic strategies for ENL students in content area classes,

asked ENL teachers to come in and speak, and allowed teachers access to the district’s ENL data

management website in order to get more information on the students in their classes.

At the end of the class, I got such an overwhelmingly positive response from those who

took it. They were able to apply what they learned in their classes, thus helping their ENL

students succeed. I was so happy to reach out beyond my departments and still help the students
for whom I’m responsible. Again, I learned the power of collaboration among departments and

disciplines in order to benefit students’ academic success and well-being.

Another standard in which I made progress as an administrator was Standard 8:

Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community. This was another area of administrative

work in which I thought I knew a lot based on my teaching experiences. However, my internship

work taught me that a lot has to be done “behind the scenes” in order to allow teachers to

properly and meaningfully connect with families.

After seeing the poor turnout of ENL parents at Meet the Teacher nights, I sent out a

survey to parents in multiple languages, to obtain information as to why they did not or could not

attend. The results were varied, but many of them expressed that they were uncomfortable

coming to an English-speaking school in a large group of parents; many of them are unable to

fluently communicate in English. After obtaining the need, I deduced the problem and got to

work on a plan of action; I decided that we needed an event specific to ENL parents, in order to

make them feel more comfortable.

In the fall, I set up the district’s K-5 ENL Parent Fair. ENL teachers volunteered to set up

booths based on different aspects of elementary curriculum, assessment, and school procedures.

They brought resources in many languages and were prepared to discuss individual issues with

any parents that came. We had a wonderful turnout. Parents expressed how happy they were that

they were able to come to school and speak to a teacher one-on-one. Many families had what

they considered to be “silly” questions regarding buying lunch, attendance policies, or

transportation. Many of the notices that go home are often too difficult for non-English speaking

families to understand.
 After the success of this event, I partnered with BOCES translation services and got

many of the district’s fundamental “welcome” paperwork translated into the district’s top

languages; Spanish, Bengali, Urdu, Mandarin, Haitian Creole, and Turkish. Prior to working in

the internship, I just accepted that many ENL parents did not attend school events. However,

after doing the legwork, I was happy to have solved a small problem and will continue to work

hard to see that all parents feel comfortable in the school setting.

Lastly, I feel that many of my experiences helped me with Standard 10: School

Improvement. Specifically, my work with the Internship Project helped me appreciate how

implementing change can affect teachers, students, and staff within a school or district.

I took the needs of my district into account when determining my internship project;

students who registered at District Office would have to wait to be screened for ENL services.

Often this led to students not beginning school until many days after their initial registration.

This violating the state’s mandate that students must be placed into an appropriate ENL program

no later than ten school days after they register.

I created and established a new registration system specifically for ENL students. The

“ENL folder,” which followed students from District Office to their school buildings, allowed

students to register at District Office and immediately start school; any language screenings

would be done at the building level by an ENL professional. I was so proud of my work, as it

looked like a great addition to the registration process. ENL teachers and principals were happy

as well, as students were no longer held from starting school.

I didn’t truly appreciate the weight of my actions, however, until I looked at data from

after a few months of utilizing my new registration system. In 2016-17, 27.59% of all registered

ENL students were not placed in a program until after the mandated ten school days. In the 2017-
18 school year, with the help of the new system, this percentage decreased to 0%. I was amazed

by how one project could so positively affect the district as a whole. Now, when taking on new

projects, I aim high with my objectives and goals, as I know the consequences of my own

actions.

Overall, the internship has opened my eyes to so many idiosyncrasies of the educational

system that many teachers take for granted. I feel that I have grown as a professional and, with

my new knowledge of the inner workings of the school system, I feel I will be able to effectively

lead in the future.