EDLD 5399 Capstone
Superintendent Internship
Week Three
Assignment, Part 1 – CARE Model Analysis of District/Campus Improvement
Initiatives or Action Research Plans
Please review
your intern plan. In the first course, students were encouraged to engage in
some action research, or participate in district or campus improvement
initiatives. Each of you has had some experiences with such initiatives or
action plans. Please review those experiences and complete the following
analysis:
Concerns – Review your participation in
improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at
least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern
may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.
1. Omission of training
principals to handle public relations has backfired.
2. Deliberate training
for schools to build partnerships with businesses for support needs
strengthened.
3. The AP program has not been successful for
students.
Affirmations
- Review your
participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action
research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and
supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.
1. In the last year,
there have been incidents where principals have been interviewed by the media
under stressful circumstances when things were said that embarrassed the
district and damage control had to be put into place. This could be avoided to
improve public relations.
2. Partnerships with
businesses have been dependent on individuals with knowledge, strength and
desire to work with outside stakeholders rather than putting a definite plan
into place. The effect has been that some schools have excellent programs while
others are lacking.
3. There have been concerns for years about the
successful outcomes of the AP programs. Grade point incentives were put into
place, but failed to motivate students to do well on the tests. There has been
a lot of talk about what to do, but principals have resisted any changes in
policy.
Recommendations
- Review your
participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action
research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the
District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.
1. A training initiative
for principals to understand public relations when speaking to the media should
be instituted. A number of years ago, short videos showing possible scenarios
were produced by the Communications Department. These were shown and
appropriate responses were discussed. While the official line is for principals
to refer any and all media to the central office, this is not always practical
and there are times when a principal may be caught off guard when he or she has
granted an interview. An hour-long training would benefit administrators who
are unfamiliar with the media’s perspective as well as give direction in
emergency situations where media may show up and some kind of comment needs to
be made.
2. Although an
outstanding Partners in Education program exists, establishing relationships
between schools and businesses is left to individuals that principals have
appointed in this position. Many do not have the time or may lack knowledge of
how to strengthen partnerships or even what to ask for from businesses. Step
one would to indentify successful school liaisons and have them present to
others at monthly meeting to offer suggestions and tips for successful
partnerships. Step two would be to pair successful liaisons with those who
would like to improve their programs to mentor better relationships. Working
with schools in the same feeder patterns would be logical since they could work
as a unit with businesses in their areas. This would simplify the structure for
schools to work with businesses as teams.
3. The last superintendent threatened to reassign
teachers who had been in charge of AP classes for years, often as a reward for
seniority, who had not had success. Principals rejected this; however, looking
at this objectively, after giving a teacher several years to increase passage
rates, if they are still falling short of objectives for the program, they
should be replaced. I understand this sounds cold; however, it doesn’t make
sense to continue with the same people in charge year after year when, for
example, only 1 student in 40 passed the AP exam. Teachers already attend AP
training. An effort needs to be made to find schools that have better results
than this district and find out what they are doing differently, and then those
initiatives need to be put into place. If the teachers who have been teaching
those classes do not have better outcomes, then it is time to let someone else
have the opportunity to try.
Evaluate - Review your participation in
improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at
least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.
1. After training in media
relations, principals will be surveyed to measure the effectiveness of the
training. Monitoring comments made by administrators throughout the year and
how many times the district must intervene to correct information or do damage
control will measure the success of the program.
2. Positive outcomes of
better Partner in Education relationships can be measured by an increase in
partners as well as an increase in volunteerism, contact time, internships,
in-kind, and monetary donations that is calculated at the end of the school
year.
3. Success will be measured by student outcomes
on the AP exam by how many student pass and the level they are rated for the
exam to count as college credit.
EDLD 5399
Capstone Superintendent Internship
Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the
Comprehensive Final Report
Describing
Recommendations and District/Campus Improvement Initiative/Action Research
Lessons Learned
Review the
above analysis, and write at least one page thoroughly describing recommendations
and lessons learned from experiences with the improvement initiatives or action
research plans.
When I was doing my
internship for my principalship program 10 years ago, one of my cohorts most
valuable and pleasant meetings was with the then communications director and
the person in charge of doing video programs. They discussed the mindset of
reporters and what they were looking for in reporting the news. Certainly
situations, especially with schools, are easily sensationalized, but there are
techniques administrators can use to make sure they don’t panic and create a
problem that wasn’t there to begin with. After going over some do’s and don’t’s
with a checklist, they played videoed scenarios showing a situation. They would
stop the tape to discuss with the group what appropriate responses would be,
then play an absolutely wrong response, discuss it, then play a good response.
By preparing administrators for possible situations and making them aware of
the agenda of reporters, for the good or bad,
educators were made more comfortable with the process and knew where to
turn for direction and help. I was taken aback when I was told by the current
Communications Director that training was not necessary anymore because
principals were to direct the media to the central office for any situation.
Unfortunately, that is not always what happens. On one instance, a student who
brought a service dog to school after clearing with the central office, was
sent to the principal’s office and sent home for bringing an animal to school.
The mother complained to the media and the media went to the school to
interview the principal about a wildly inappropriate remard she said to the
mother. Principals can make the decision to speak to the media without central office
approval, but this tense situation really blew out of proportion when the
principal reinterated she had said to the mother, “We don’t let students bring
guns to school just because that makes them feel safer,” when explaining why
the student couldn’t bring a service animal to school. Not only did the
principal violate the law concerning service animals because of a
misunderstanding and a communication breakdown, but the district had to step in
the correct the misunderstanding as well as the gaff concerning bringing guns
to school. With effective media training in place, this situation could have
been avoided.
The Partner in Education program is one of the
best in the state; however, it is based more on individual relationships rather
than relationships between the schools and the businesses. This is not
necessarily a bad thing; however, when a liaison or a business contact changes,
many times the entire relationship fizzles. In an effort to counteract that, a
stronger bond needs to be forged so that liaisons understand what is important
to businesses and how schools and businesses can work together for mutually
success outcomes. A structured mentorship program together with feeder pattern
schools working together might forge better relationship with less effort since
many things would not be duplicated. It would also give businesses a stable
framework to build the relationship with schools.
AP exam results have been incredibly poor for
years. The most successful area has been been with Spanish Language with a 15%
passage rate. It seems strange this rate should be celebrated as successful,
but when looking at passage rates like 1 in 40 at the lowest level of
achievement in English, one can tell this district is in trouble. No student
has ever passed the Economics exam. It is time to get tough with trying other
methods and other personnel in these positions since it is clear the same thing
happens every year and no progress has been made. Better training needs to be
put in place and teachers need to be replaced as well if they cannot show
reasonable progress in helping students pass the exam with scores that can be
applied to college credit.
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