Reflection Piece:  Standard 1.0: Leading School Vision


Describe

To demonstrate competency for Standard 1.0: Leading School Vision, I chose to present both the Vision Project from EDL 701 and a summary of the mission and vision of a proposed new school from EDL 702.   Over the course of the semester, I had been a member of a team with Jennifer Carchietta, Rose Fullam, and Patricia Pena Carty for the School Vision Group Project.  For this project, we collaboratively selected a vision for one of the schools at which we teach for revision, assessed school and other relevant data to guide that revision, (re)wrote the school’s vision, developed a plan for communicating and marketing the revised vision to the constituent school groups, and planned for the implementation of the vision at the school. 

We produced a binder that included a hard copy of documents that addressed each concern above, as well as appendices with the relevant school data and surveys and a list of references.  We also produced a brochure and letter from the school principal introducing the revised vision for the school community, distributed to EDL classmates.  Finally, we produced a slide show presentation to supplement our EDL 701 class presentation. 

Our group functioned almost exclusively online.  After agreeing to a division of the labor via email and in brief, after-class meetings, we exchanged drafts and revisions of the various sections we produced via email and Google Drive.  From my perspective, the group dynamics were subtle: there were no disagreements about the parts of the assignment each of us would take, and each of us worked individually writing and then revising our sections.  The constructive feedback we gave each other was not often discussed; rather, we most often simply edited others’ sections without comment.  The greatest challenge I found was in the collaborative editing of the sections drafted by others.  I have found that I work best during the editing process with hard copy and with face-to-face communication with team members—while I do need time to myself to think when I write/edit, I do find benefit in talking a line or sentence through out loud.  To assemble our final products, Patricia took the lead in putting the written pieces together, and Jennifer assembled the presentation from the slides that each of us produced.

The summary of the mission and vision for a proposed school was part of a larger project completed for EDL 702.  This piece I wrote myself, although it was based on the work I had done as part of a group project with Macari Agapito, Georieann Ramsudh, and Eileen Prunty.  My groupmates approved the summary, but did not edit it.

Analyze

These projects are aligned to ELCC Standard 1.0: Leading School Vision.  Standard 1.1 states that the candidate can “develop a vision.”   The revised vision we developed for the Vision Project responded to the needs of all the students of the school as we identified them in our analysis of the relevant school data and methodological theories, including the school’s demographics, the school’s city and state report cards, and the school’s culture as evidenced by the school learning environment survey and interviews with the principal.    We identified two primary areas in which the school could grow to focus the revised vision: in its student achievement and in improving the school’s culture and climate.  The summary of the mission and vision is based on a school we imagined, so that vision was created from scratch.  This vision, too, was written to address the needs of students in schools whose demographics and academic achievement are similar to the ones in which I teach.

Standard 1.2 sets as its goal that the candidate can “articulate a vision.”  We wrote a revised vision that drew on the relevant information sources and addressed areas of weakness; the vision summary also addressed areas of underachievement.  Our foci on the areas of culture and climate and of student achievement did address the need to have the school as an academic, social, and physical safe haven, the development and evaluation of systems to foster an academic culture, to support staff and faculty, and featured the inclusion of students in school governance.  Our projects also outlined the necessary systems and procedures to communicate the vision to the various constituent groups—faculty meetings; letters, brochures, and meetings with parents and families; and to students, through advisory.  My greatest contribution to this section of the Vision Project was to describe the leadership processes required to communicate, implement, and support the revised vision, the section of Phase III I drafted.

ECLL 1.3 set the standard that candidates can “implement a vision.”  Our projects formulates the initiatives necessary to motivate students, faculty, and families to achieve the school’s vision.  From the various activities to engage the students and teachers in culture-building to create buy-in with the revised vision, to advisory lessons to help the students understand their own graduation requirements and ways in which they can meet those requirements, to Parent Association meetings to explain and update families about the school’s vision and its status in achieving the vision, to ways to empower students through a more active role in school governance, our project outlines ways to engage all groups within the school community.  Our projects develop ways in which various teams at the school —from advisory teams to the Office of College Placement—will collaborate to affect the vision.  Again, for my part I outlined how leadership would organize and coordinate the efforts of the various teams within the school and how the leadership would engage the school’s partner organizations.

Standard 1.4—“Steward a Vision”—is evident in our plans to regularly monitor and share the progress toward achieving the vision and in the systems suggested to elicit feedback regularly for various groups and school leaders, and to use that feedback to inform the continued revision of the vision and its implementation.  We set graduation benchmarks over the four years of the vision implementation, for example, which allows for clear tracking of the improvement in student achievement.  Furthermore, the revised vision sets achievable goals for advancing participation and morale of all members of the school community, such as initiating celebratory events within the first year of the vision implementation.  A schedule of opportunities to share vision progress on a regular basis with parents is established; involving faculty and staff in monitoring vision goals is part of the faculty meeting calendar, established at the beginning of each school year.   In writing the sections for school leadership, I established priorities for having systematic feedback for key faculty leaders at least once a semester focused solely on vision progress.

The last standard set by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration regarding school vision, Standard 1.5, calls for involving and communicating the vision with community members.  Our vision project has the principal coordinating with the in-school director of FEGS, the school’s most important community partner, to ensure funding for the after-school and counseling programs vital to improving student morale and engagement in the school community—two keys to the revised vision.  Furthermore, the vision proposal sees the principal as a liaison with the Parent Association and the School Leadership Team, keeping each group abreast of vision implementation and the school’s progress towards the goals it sets out.

Appraise   

These similar projects, which had us assess a current school’s vision or create a vision for a new school, analyze the school’s or demographic data to identify areas in which the school needed to grow, articulate a new vision, and devise systems for implementing and monitoring that vision, helped me to be more thorough in my consideration of process of vision implementation.  Schools are complex, open systems.  Especially by looking at a school that I know well, I recognize more fully how school leaders must engage all members of the community when making a major move to push the school forward, and how they must develop systems to ensure the changes are clearly articulated, developed, and monitored.  Even with a clear vision, there are many potential pitfalls that could keep the school from realizing the goals of the vision.  Finally, working with a team taught me that a school leader must have open lines of communication with all constituent groups—and use them.

Transform

As a future school leader, I will draw upon these experiences to remind me that all aspects of a school’s operations must be driven by the school’s vision.  All school stakeholders must know and believe in the school vision; if not, the school leader must work to ensure alignment.  As a leader, I will work to ensure that the school’s education philosophy, curriculum, academic program, student social-emotional support systems, teacher and staff supports, and community and family relations are all vision driven.  This is not an easy task, I know, but it is the key to a school that truly supports student achievement.