Reflection Piece:  Standard 4.0: Collaborative Leadership

Describe

The first document here is a letter from a school principal inviting parents to participate in the re-visioning of the school after its first decade of existence.  I wrote this for EDL 701 as part of the vision project assignment.  While the entire project was a group assignment, I wrote this letter myself.  The second document is a plan to develop community partnerships for a new school.  This document, too, I produced myself.  Many of the proposals described in the community partnership proposal paper are based in my experiences at three different high schools in the Bronx.

Analyze

ELCC Standard 4.0: Collaborative Leadership reflects the imperative for school leaders to build relationships with families and community partners.  The letter to parents addresses Standard 4.1.  As schools develop, refine, and recreate the mission and vision statements, the school leader must make sure input from all school stakeholder groups is reflected in the final documents.  This letter is an invitation to families to be part of the process of re-visioning an existing school.  The letter also addresses Standard 4.2, in that the interests and needs of the community are reflected in the vision of the community’s public school.  The partnership plan also draws on the interests and needs of community groups.  The plan recognizes implicitly the organizational needs of community service agencies, many of which have missions that make them ideal partners with public schools.  By forging partnerships between school and community-based social and education service agencies, such as those described in the partnership plan, schools can mobilize external resources that are important for school improvement (Standard 4.3).  

Appraise

In producing these artifacts, I was reminded of the varied community resources that I am already aware of, and drove home the fact that many of the services students at my schools benefit from come from outside the DOE.  By leveraging these resources, we are able to provide additional counseling services, extra-curricular activities, tutoring, and field experiences for our students.

Transform

While identifying and courting outside partnerships and parent involvement may seem to be secondary to the day-to-day leadership necessary for a school, it is imperative that I, as a school leader, nurture these community collaborations.  I have yet to initiate such a partnership at my schools, so I know that this is an area that I must work on to strengthen my leadership skills.