Standard 2:  Educational Leaders have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by promoting a positive school culture, providing and effective instructional program based on Georgia standards, applying research based best practice to student learning, and designing comprehensive professional growth plans for staff.

(2.1)     Promote the development of a positive school culture that is pervasively academic, focused on improvement and that fosters a sense of belonging and cooperation.

(2.2)     Provide an effective instructional program based on a standards-based curriculum and Georgia’s learning standards using research-based instructional strategies to design effective models of instruction that will enhance and accelerate teaching and learning.

(2.3)     Apply best research-based practices to improve instruction for all students.

(2.4)     Design comprehensive professional growth plans that apply proven, systematic processes for improvement through: analyzing human performance; planning for improvements; and designing, developing, and supporting implementation of solutions to close performance gaps.

(2.5)     Promote accountability by strategically planning, measuring, monitoring, organizing and managing systems and processes necessary to improve student achievement and organizational effectiveness.

Questions:  How does the leader develop and support a positive school culture that is focused on academics?  How does the leader ensure students are receiving a standards-based curriculum?  What steps are included in designing professional growth plans for improvement? 

CASE STUDY:

The principal (Mr. B) in this case study leads a school in a suburban school district just outside of a major metropolitan city.  The school population is approximately 800 students with a wide array of backgrounds.  Approximately 30% of the students are English Language Learners, 15% are talented and gifted, and 8% are coded as Special Education.  Similarly, there are approximately 35% African-American, 34% Hispanic, 25% Caucasian, and 4% Asian. 

At the beginning of each school year, Mr. B does many activities for the staff to assist in developing collegiality among the staff and thus helping to foster a positive school culture from the top down.  At the end of pre-planning week, he rents a party boat and asks all faculty members to come to the lake for an afternoon of fun and swimming.  Throughout the week leading up to this event (and during workshops during the year), he incorporates a multitude of learning activities during staff development meetings working to develop relationships between staff members.  When asked why he continues to spend money in these areas, he simply states that “it’s because if teachers are happy then they will want to teach and the students will want to learn.”  In terms of students, each year the homeroom teachers are responsible for implementing a mini-unit on Respect and Cooperation which is said to aid in the development of a positive school culture from the bottom up.

           
However, Mr. B does understand the importance of research and research-based instructional strategies when it comes to improving student achievement.  As part of pre-planning each year, he has someone from the ESOL and Special Education teams deliver a presentation of effective strategies for dealing with these specific population groups within the content areas.  Most often this is all that is mentioned in terms of utilizing instructional strategies to enhance instruction.  However, in this past year, during two other in-service days, he invited the Coordinator for ESOL Services to come and continue the training on effective strategies for teaching English language learners. 

Similarly, Mr. B also attends many conferences throughout the year and is always eager to implement the newest and latest innovative strategy or program into his school.  The area that becomes concerning is that most of these innovative programs do not have time to fully develop for teachers or students before a new one is being implemented.  In the latest program, the focus has been shifted to a more standards-based curriculum model which Mr. B fully intends on implementing and supporting in the coming year.  At the end of this past year, he began noting on classroom observations when he did or did not see a standards-based classroom based on the training he received.

In terms of professional growth plans that challenge teachers and move them to the next level of teacher proficiency, this is an area that seems to be lacking under Mr. B’s leadership.  He tends to find that professional growth plans are only needed for those teachers who are not doing as well as the state minimum on their evaluations.  The understanding that all teachers should be continuous learners and as such should be an active part of their professional development does not seem to fall in line with his personal educational philosophy.

           
In looking at answering the questions of the case study, it seems that Mr. B does show evidence of this standard but with very limited scope of breadth and depth.  He attempts to produce a positive school culture by focusing on collaboration and relationship building at the expense of developing these skills through an academic lens.  Likewise, by continuously changing the focus of professional development or how he will implement standards throughout the school, Mr. B actually becomes counter productive.  Teachers and students alike need time to fully implement and work with any program but specifically standards and effective strategies for implementing this type of curriculum.  It seems that he does not have a clear professional development plan based on a common vision of where he (and his staff) feels the school should be headed.  With the result that teachers are never really able to participate in their personal professional development because they are not sure in what areas they lack knowledge.

Leadership Level:  Developing