STANDARD TWO: Instructional Leadership
School executives will set high standards for the professional practice of 21st century instruction and assessment that result in a no-nonsense, accountable environment. The school executive must be knowledgeable of best instructional and school practices and must use this knowledge to cause the creation of collaborative structures within the school for the design of highly engaging schoolwork for students, the on-going peer review of this work and the sharing of this work throughout the professional community.
A. Focus on Learning and Teaching, Curriculum, Instruction and assessment: The school executive leads the discussion about standards for curriculum, instruction and assessment based on research and best practices in order to establish and achieve high expectations for students.
Standard 2A Reflection: As the principal resident, I was charged with looking at our school calendar to identify days in which our new Math Curriculum PD could be given to staff and not conflict with other events. I coordinated with our Eureka coach to select dates and identify school need based on information collected in PLC meetings and staff surveys.
This year our school also started a new reading assessment program/platform know as iStation. I created an informational and parent friendly powerpoint in which teachers would use at their assigned grade level istation nights, as a guide of what information they could share with parents about the program. This was beneficial as all staff, parents, and students would know the same information and language when discussing and comprehending its importance to the support and growth for our students.
B. Focus on Instructional Time: The school executive creates processes and schedules which protect teachers from disruptions of instructional or preparation time.
Standard 2B Reflection: Above is Holt Elementary's Master Schedule. It was revised by the administrative team to include a universal intervention time where teachers recieved the support of another school staff member in order to differentiate instruction and provide research based interventions for students using student data. I was charged to make sure the schedule did not effect the allotted time for instruction while still giving staff their planning time daily.