STANDARD FOUR: Human Resource Leadership
School executives will ensure that the school is a professional learning community. School executives will ensure that processes and systems are in place that result in the recruitment, induction, support, evaluation, development and retention of a high-performing staff. The school executive must engage and empower accomplished teachers in a distributive leadership manner, including support of teachers in day-to-day decisions such as discipline, communication with parents, and protecting teachers from duties that interfere with teaching. They also must practice fair and consistent evaluation of teachers. The school executive must engage teachers and other professional staff in conversations to plan their career paths and support district succession planning.
A. Professional Development/ Learning Communities: The school executive ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
Standard 4A Reflection: The administrative team faciliated and monitored vertical planning among grade levels and professional learning communities. It was important to have ESL and EC representatives present to help with each group. Grade levels worked together to identify prerequistes needed for students and share strategies in reading and math that have been effective for students among the grade levels. Data was also a key tool used in discussing student performance. Teachers brought their data Notebooks and curriculum maps. I analyzed classroom data from BOY Case 21 Data, to bring to PLCs to help identify what students and standards needed to be targeted in lessons as well as during intervention blocks.
B. Recruiting, hiring, placing and mentoring of Staff: The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high performing staff.
Standard 4B Reflection: As modeled by my Principal Mentor, I went into all classrooms and areas of the building daily to say hello to students as well as their teachers. Being able to complete this task built a sense of community. It also allowed us to take a quick look into the good things and areas of improvement that are needed throughout building. This process allowed me to build a relationship with staff where as my visits did not always seem evaluative but as positive feedback and welcomed suggestions.
C. Teacher and Staff Evaluation: The school executive evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and, thus student achievement
Standard 4C Reflection: The adminstrative team came together with various walk-through observation forms and selected components for each that were important for our school based on our school goals, mission, and vision. I then compiled these items into a Google Document and provided it to teachers so that they knew early on in the year what adminstration would be looking for as well as any district visitors.