Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Leadership
in
Practice
Assignment
3
ASSESSING
CULTURAL
LEADERSHIP
IN
PRACTICE
By
GONZALO
M.
PITPIT
NELA
Fellow
Assignment
3.1:
Collaboratively
Assess
Cultural
Leadership
in
Your
School
Part
One
CLAT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 TOTAL Q1 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 4 3 5 2 4 4 4 2 4 3 3.765 Q2 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 5 2 4 3 5 4 4 2 4 1 3.706 Q3 3 5 2 4 4 5 4 3 2 4 4 4 4 4 2 4 1 3.471 Q4 4 5 4 4 3 4 4 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 2 4 3 3.647 Q5 4 4 4 5 4 4 3 3 3 5 3 4 4 5 1 4 1 3.588 Q6 4 4 4 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 1 4 1 3.412 Q7 4 5 4 4 4 3 4 3 2 4 3 4 3 3 1 5 1 3.353 Q8 4 5 4 4 3 4 4 4 3 5 4 4 2 4 2 4 3 3.706 Q9 4 5 4 5 4 3 4 3 3 5 4 5 3 4 1 4 1 3.647 Q10 4 5 4 5 4 3 3 3 4 5 2 4 2 4 1 4 1 3.412 TOTAL 39 47 38 43 37 38 38 36 27 45 31 42 34 40 15 41 16 35.7
*
CLAT:
Cultural
Leadership
Assessment
Team
LEGEND:
1- Strongly
Disagree
2- Disagree
3- Neither
Agree
nor
Disagree
4- Agree
5- Strongly
Agree
1
LEGEND:
40-50
Culture-of-Distinction
26-39
Culture-Under-Construction
10-25
Culture-in-Peril
Part Two Culture-Under-Construction. This is the existing overall culture at Bertie Middle School. However, it would be good to look into some practices that made it to the distinction level: Most of the members of the CLAT believe that our school has effectively and strongly communicated its ideals and beliefs about schooling, teaching, and learning with teachers, staff, and parents, and then drives instructions based on those beliefs (Q1: 3.765). At Bertie Middle, staff holds high expectations among their students. They believe that students should not only develop deep understanding of knowledge and skills but also develop the can do attitude to produce quality work and solve problems. CLAT believes that these beliefs are not only manifested in the teachers lesson plans but also in their day-to-day interactions with their students. The CLAT also believes that members of the staff work collaborately with others. They utilize the concept of team not only during instructions but also in making decisions within the school (Q2:3.706). Another area of school culture that the CLAT believes Bertie Middle School is of distinction is having positive, culturally-responsive traditions (Q8:3.706). For several years now, the school celebrates academic achievements by recognizing students who made it to the AB Honor Roll and made great scores on district benchmark tests. The school also recognizes those who met their Accelerated Readers (AR) goals and points on a quarterly basis. Once or twice a quarter, the school also holds dance and dress-down days for students who made perfect attendance.
Teachers and administrators who participated in the collaborative process of assessing the school culture feel that for the school to move to the distinction level, all staff should work on the following areas: Building a sense of efficacy at Bertie Middle School has always been a struggle with most of the English Language Arts teachers. Teachers have the potentials to be better and great; unfortunately, they refuse to listen to suggestions for improvement and implement agreed plans for instructions. For example, teachers would collaborate and agree to implement a teaching vocabulary plan, but when an administration would come and visit them in classes, he/she would not notice evidence of collaboration; the teaching of vocabulary plan would be nowhere in existence. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Hold individual coaching: mentor-mentee; administrator-teacher; peer- peer; and/or group-group cognitive coaching; 2. Conduct professional developments on areas that needed improvement, or attend workshops in or out of the school or district levels; 3. Require peer observations and hold pre-observation and post-observation conferences; 4. Regularly check lesson plans and make constructive suggestions/criticisms; and (Q10:3.353) Builds a sense of efficiency and empowerment among staff that results in a can do attitude when faced with challenges.
5. Consistently celebrate accomplishments or recognize individual/group improvements. Bertie Middle School strives to ensure that its values, beliefs, and vision are shared with all stakeholders. Though the CLAT believes that the schools beliefs are shared effectively with others (Q1), it also believes that the school still needs to more especially in sharing its vision and values. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Revisit the vision of the school. Ensure that this is manifested in their day- to-day instruction by creating lessons and activities that address this concern; 2. Create a list of what the school values. Communicate this to all stakeholders; 3. Revisit the list of beliefs of the school. Ensure that it is updated and it reflects the view of the present times; and 4. Commend those who explicitly include the schools vision, values, and beliefs in their day-to-day activities and interactions in the school. (Q6:3.412) Systematically develops and uses shared values, beliefs, and shared vision to establish cooperation to guide the disciplined thought and action of all staff:
accomplishments of the school and staff: Bertie Middle School is strong at celebrating successes, but the CLAT believes
that
more
should
be
done
particularly
on
acknowledging
failures.
For
example,
everybody
knows
that
something
should
be
done
when
students
struggle
in
Reading.
Teachers
create
some
corrective
plans.
They
introduce
intervention
strategies.
But
the
question
is,
How
much
effort
is
given
to
implement
these
plans
and
the
intervention
strategies?
So
far,
this
is
still
a
great
concern
at
the
middle
school.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Include
in
day-to-day
lessons
small
group
activities
that
address
the
needs
of
struggling
students;
2. Send
students
to
the
STARS
program
at
the
end
of
the
day;
and
3. Stricter
implementation
of
CARE
time.
5
11. Consistent Student Monitoring; and 12. Use of Technology Highly Negative or Toxic 1. Low expectations of students; 2. Mindset about the incapability of all students to learn; 3. Pessimistic Storytellers; 4. Rumor Mongers, Gossip; 5. Naysayers; and 6. Saboteurs
Part Two: Bertie Middle School is open to new ideas. It is open to changes as well. To move from Culture-Under-Construction to Culture-of-Distinction, the school recognizes that - items that are up for sale, not highly valued and might be sold or bartered, and highly negative and toxic - need to be revisited. The school also feels the need to look into the practices or forms of celebrations, enhance and reinforce these to make more effective results. Assignment 3.3: Personal Reflection on Cultural Leadership I have done a digital storytelling video for our formative assessments at the end of Fall 2011. I would like to use it as my personal reflection on cultural leadership. Below is the link to the video: Positive School Culture http://cedvideo.ncsu.edu/video/2532/Positive-School-Culture