Reflections+on+EDLD+5333

EDLD 5333- Leadership for Accountability

 * Although this course did not introduce me to the concept of a vision, it forced me to begin developing my own vision for leadership. Previously, I just focused on following the guidance of the administrators before me and on planning for and teaching my classes. The assignments within this course helped me begin to think about what I thought needed to be done and what I could do to help facilitate those changes. In addition, I began developing a vision for becoming a leader and stepping outside the classroom into a role that focused on what could be done to improve our campus and meet our campus and district goals as opposed to just focusing on my own individual and classroom goals. It also helped me see the impact that vision has on school improvement. As Crochet and Jones (2007, p. 1) assert in //The Importance of Visions for Schools and School Improvement,// “vision becomes critical for school improvement because it also includes the desired functional levels - providing the framework for action steps toward improvement”.

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In this course, participation with colleagues in the course during discussion boards and web conferences helped me broaden my perspective on AYP and the challenges that schools face. It helped me see that although we have challenges on our campus, we are well on our way and have already implemented several plans that have helped us maintain success, particularly for such a large campus. There were some campuses that had great challenges and lacked the parental involvement and access to technology necessary to make some of the changes that I could easily implement on our campus. It gave me a sense of gratitude that things could be much worse. I think a key element to our success is that we “don't look to one response, such as data-driven decision making, as a “silver bullet””( Monson, 2002, p. 25). We focus on capturing the kids’ hearts and developing relationships and engaging assignments which in turn increases test scores. ======

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In the past, I would cringe as all the numbers were displayed in what seemed like an endless stream of PowerPoint slides. However, the process of analyzing data is an important one and is “an important way to increase staff capacity to both understand and carry out school improvement work” (Boudett,City, & Murname, 2006, p. 54). During this course, I learned that I get overwhelmed by reading scores of numbers and that it is easier for me to understand their meaning when I break the data up into smaller chunks that are easier to digest. I believe this is why I gave so little attention to the AYP and other data we were required to sift through in staff meetings or department breakout sessions. The data had to have meaning for it to have relevance for me. This allowed me to use the data effectively to brainstorm ideas to improve the scores. ======

The strategies that I developed based on the course requirement that I identify strengths and weaknesses from the AYP data allowed me to give valuable feedback to campus administrators on potential ideas for the improvement of test scores. It gave me a chance to present my ideas on something that had a more global impact on our campus community oppositely from my past presentations which typically involved strategies for implanting technology. From this course, I gained an intense interest in reaching sub populations and strategies for improving the educational experience for all students. This led to action plan research on using Career and Technology courses to improve student achievement and retention rates.

 **References** Boudett, K., City, E., & Murname, R. (2006). The “data wise” improvement process: Eight steps for using test data to improve teaching and learning. //Principal Leadership //, //7 //(2), 53-56.

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Jones, L. & Crochet, F. (2007). The Importance of Visions for Schools and School Improvement. Connexions. Retrieved from []. ======

 Monson, R. J. (2002). Using data to think differently. //School Administrator.// 59(11), 24-25, 27-28.
||= == Personal Vision of Leadership ==

=== **//A vision is an image of what a school can and school become at its best. A shared vision should be initiated by school leaders, be clear, educationally focused and it should incorporate all members of the community. In addition, an effective vision must be comprehensive and detailed as well as positive and inspiring to those who read it. //** ===

[|EDLD 5333 Reflections]
==[|EDLD 5333 Staff Development Agenda.pdf] == ||