CASE STUDY 1
ISSLC Standard 1: An educational leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stake holders.
Name of Case Study: School Improvements efforts guide School Vision
Questions:
1. How does the educational leader cast the vision of the school to all stake holders to ensure the success of every student?
2. How does the educational leader ensure that all stake holders support and implement a shared vision?
Case Study:
The educational leader/administrator invites stake holders to be apart of school improvement team. After ensuring that the school improvement team had a representative group the first meeting was held. The team looked at data to show areas of success and areas that need improvement. The administrator then broke down the areas that need improvement into categories: math, reading, writing, discipline, and attendance. Small committees were formed to make plans and prioritize what needed to take place. After the committees were formed and began prioritizing, the administrator went to each committee to express what he felt was most important and needed to be addressed.
The educational leader took the work of the school improvement committee to the school and began to cast his vision for what the school could be. He met with grade level meetings to discuss and provide suggestions for educational and discipline concerns. He encouraged various leaderships through the school to further their training and expertise, but provided no direction in what he wanted them to participate in. He consistently told teachers that he would support teachers participating in training to further their understanding of standards based instruction, but gave no information on where teachers could get this training.
There are efforts to improve the school. The latest school improvement plan was drafted in 2007-2008, but with the educational leader directing most of the decisions the team brought forth. A school wide implementation is not evident and many stake holders do not have a clear understanding of what the school improvement plan is.
Answers to the Questions:
1. How does the educational leader cast the vision of the school to all stake holders to ensure the success of every student?
The principal casts the vision by sharing with the school improvement team his vision and mission for the school. His desires for improvement and how those efforts should be made are supported by data. He shares this information with the school improvement team and uses them to gather additional support from the other teachers. However, because he is making most of the decisions himself, there is still some confusion over what is expected of them.
2. How does the educational leader ensure that all stake holders support and implement a shared vision?
The principal ensures that all stake holders are apart of the shared vision by providing the professional development and training to help all teachers be successful. Although the principal was vague on the training, his plan seemed to include it to ensure a clear understanding by all.
Evaluation:
I would evaluate this principal as developing (gaining competence with some limited evidence). The educational leadership is making some gains, but often prevents those he had empowered from remaining empowered. As the school continues to move forward, educational leadership must begin to allow stake holders to participate in the decision making process to ensure that the shared vision is implemented in all areas.
CASE STUDY 2
ISSLC Standard 2: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Name of Case Study: Recognize what is Valuable
Questions:
1. How does the school administrator nurture and sustain a school culture that supports teachers and professional growth when so much focus is placed on student achievement?
2. What are the effects on student learning when the school administrator focuses on students’ achievement?
Case Study:
The principal of the school is very focused on student achievement. He works really hard to increase test scores and improve student attendance. He has created programs that are designed around the CRCT to provide additional support to students who are struggling in the areas of mathematics and reading. This has created additional work for the math and reading teachers as they have an additional prep for their content specific ELT class. The ELT class is a remediation course that provides support for those students struggling in those areas. Most ELT classes have 10-12 students in them, but the math and reading classes have been maxed out at the request of the principal so that they have 18 students in them. In addition, the schedule in the school day has been changed so that teachers have students for an additional 30 minutes every morning to provide extra support in math and reading. Teachers were not consulted on this decision and there is a lot of resentment in having to provide additional tutoring during what used to be their planning time. Although students are supposed to be using a computer program during this time, the computer program did not get purchased by the county as originally thought, so now the students are just with their individual teachers.
Over the past the past two years, test scores have gone up dramatically in the areas of math and reading, but the principal has taken al the credit for this accomplishment. In addition to this he has received several rewards for the student achievement in the school and he continually takes credit for himself. He has never recognized his teachers. Teachers are continually getting more and more frustrated with his behavior and feel engaged in the school or its success. Many teachers are getting to the point that they are ready to leave the school and move to a school where they will be valued and appreciated. Many feel their talents are being wasted and ignored because the principal only implements ideas that are his ideas. He ignores input from others and refuses to listen to any modifications to his plans.
Answers to Questions:
1. How does the school administrator nurture and sustain a school culture that supports teachers and professional growth when so much focus is placed on student achievement?
The principal is not nurturing or sustaining a school culture that supports teachers and professional growth. Because all of the focus on student achievement, the principal has forgotten to acknowledge the achievement of teachers. The school culture is deteriorating rapidly because teachers do not feel valued or supported. Many feel the principal is forcing them to do more work than he is willing to do, while taking all the credit for their hard work. The teachers’ professionalism and work ethic is clearly strong, but as they continued to be ignored and dismissed, the culture of the school will suffer and many will move to other schools.
2. What are the effects on student learning when the school administrator focuses on students’ achievement?
Student learning appears to be quite high. CRCT scores have improved in math and reading. Teachers have lost planning time to provide additional support to students in the areas of math and reading. Although achievement is up, there is concern that it will not be able to be maintained because so many teachers are feeling burned out because of the lack or recognition from the principal.
Evaluation:
I would evaluate this principal as developing. He is providing some leadership based on data, but his implementation is not successful. He is promoting the success of all students, but in the process he is ignoring the teacher component of their success. The lack of recognition of teacher achievement is detrimental to the morale at the school. The school culture is clearly not what it needs to be as the principal and could impact student achievement. The principal needs to facilitate activities that promote the successes of teachers.
CASE STUDY 3
ISLLC Standard 3:
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient and effective learning environment.
Name of Case Study: Response to Crisis
Questions:
Case Study:
The school year started off as normally as it always did. Dr. Evans (not real name) was delighted at the success and progress of the school. Things seemed to be running in an orderly fashion. Then, with 4 months of school left, the unthinkable happened. An intruder managed to sneak into the building and grab several students in the bathroom. Fortunately, a teacher came looking for her student when they had been gone for too long and found them bound and gagged in the bathroom with a man holding knife. Her response was swift and quickly brought other teachers running to the bathroom where a chase ensued that eventually led to the capture of this intruder. The swift response of teachers and staff was to be commended. The intruder was seized and no one was hurt.
Although the situation was handled quickly and the school was locked down in less than a minute, Dr. Evans is not pleased with the occurrence. He was upset that an intruder was able to get in the building. He knew something needed to be done immediately to make the school a safe an orderly place. He made quick decisions to make the school safe. He had fences put up around the building that were as high as the roof line. He ordered all doors be locked at all times (in the building and outside the building. He had a vestibule built at the front of the building so that even parents could not get into the building unless allowed by the person sitting at the front desk. He required that anyone coming to visit or to check out a child have their identification scanned before allowing them further. He then required that in addition to teachers wearing their identification badge at all times, that students would now have to wear their ID badge. This would ensure we would always know who belonged in the building and who did not. In Dr. Evans haste to make the school safe as quickly as possible, he neglected to inform the teachers, staff, or parents about his decisions. As everything was completed during Spring Break, parents did not understand what these new policies were. There was confusion to why they were no longer allowed in the building and many parents did not feel comfortable with the ID scan. Soon there were many phone calls to the school board and the principal was forced to retract some of the things he had implemented. He was frustrated that he was blamed for the security breach with the intruder, and even more frustrated that the things he put in place to make the school safe were rejected.
Answers to the Questions:
Dr. Evans put several good protocols in place to keep the school safe. The first one was the ID badges that students and staff had to wear at all times. These badges were clearly helped create an orderly environment. In addition the security at the entrances helped the school be safe. The incident of the intruder reminded the principal that safety effective the learning environment. Students and teachers, who do not feel safe, have difficulty learning and teaching. Clearly, there were effective policies in place for the school to be locked down in less than a minute at the sign of an intruder. In addition, there were clear protocols in place for teachers to go look for students after a certain number of minutes which lead to the discovery of the intruder.
2.
To what extend does involving stakeholders help ensure
management of the organization, operations, and resources?
The stakeholders in this case were not involved in the decision making process after the intruder. Although Dr. Evans had good intentions and wanted to make the school a safer place, he made decisions on his own that affected everyone involved in the school. The parents wanted their children to be safe, but were not prepared or involved in the decision making process to make the school more secure. Had all stakeholders been involved in this decision making, the reaction of parents might have been more supportive.
Evaluation:
This principal is developing. Although there are some things that are clearly strong in keeping the school safe and orderly to facilitate learning, the decision making process is clearly not a strength yet. Dr. Evans has not yet recognized that all stake holders need to be involved in the decision making process. His failure to include the stake holders in his decisions secure the school caused resistance that he might not have experienced if they had been involved from the beginning.
CASE STUDY 4
ISLLC Standard 4:
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
Name of Case Study: The one man show
Questions:
Case Study:
Mr. Jones is a new principal to
Upon his arrival at
Answers
to the Questions:
Mr. Jones had many good ideas coming into
The resources the community had to
offer were completely ignored. Mr. Jones
seemed to think the school had more resources to offer than the community
did. He seemed to look down on the
community rather than see them as part of the school and a valuable piece of
the education puzzle. He often ignored
the interests and needs of the community and made decisions based on his
perceptions.
Evaluation:
I would say that Mr. Jones leadership is developing. Although he clearly has some good ideas on
family and community engagement based on his experience, he clearly lacks the
skills needed to implement them. In
addition, he clearly needs more training in utilizing his resources and working
with others effectively. Mr. Jones needs
to learn to understand the culture of the school and the community so that he
can effectively meet the needs of his students.
CASE STUDY 5
ISLLC Standard 5:
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.
Name of Case Study: What’s good for the gander!
Questions:
1. How does the administrator promote the success of all students by acting in a fair manner?
2. How does the administrator promote the success of all students by acting in an ethical manner?
Case Study:
Ms. Watson is the administrator in charge of discipline. She often deals with the same students on a daily basis. She has been very unclear on her expectations of write ups, so often there are wide discrepancies in what teachers write up. When students get written up, Ms. Watson calls them to the office, where sometimes they wait for 30 minutes to even see her. Teachers are often frustrated because students are missing class and they are not sure where the child is. The punishments are often inconsistent as well. Ms. Watson gives some children hard and fast punishments, while others will consistently get parent conferences and warnings. Teachers do not understand this inconsistency and often times they go to the principal instead. In addition, students joke that they are not afraid of going to the office since they will just play checkers and come back to class. There are students who have had received enough write ups to go to alternative school who are still in the classroom because Ms. Watson has a personal relationship with them. When teachers try to talk with Ms. Watson about their concerns, she often states they the teachers do not understand the background of the students so they can’t understand her responses to the students. She admits that sometimes it appears that some students get away with certain behaviors, but indicates that she is really trying to work with these students to help improve their behavior before suspending them. Teachers complain that they feel unsupported and undermined by Ms. Watson, but she dismisses their concerns as being ignorant. She claims that teachers just don’t understand what it is that she is trying to accomplish. When teachers complain that they aren’t even sure when students have been assigned to ISS, Ms. Watson states that’s she is very busy and sometimes does not have time for mundane tasks such as sending out a list. She wants to make sure she deals with the more immediate and important aspects of her job, and that sometimes is not a priority. She indicated that sometimes she is overwhelmed by write ups that she feels are frivolous, so she will throw those away. In addition she admitted that sometimes her personal feelings about the teacher has gotten in the way of her discipline.
Answers
to the Questions:
1. How does the administrator promote the success of all students by acting in a fair manner?
Ms. Watson is clearly attempting to do what is best for the students. She wants to act fairly by doing what is best for the individual students and not just enforcing a blanket rule. She meets with the students and considers their life circumstances before making any final decisions. Unfortunately, many teachers feel that this behavior is unfair. They do not understand why their concerns about student behavior aren’t recognized. In addition, they feel the behavior is tolerated in some cases, and not in others. Teachers feel like they are not supported. Because of this apparent unfair behavior, students are not being held accountable in the classroom and thus, are not learning how to behave in a successful manner. They are learning that there are possible exceptions to the rules and that they can get away with certain behaviors. She is trying to promote success in all students by looking at the students as individuals and treating them accordingly.
2. How does the administrator promote the success of all students by acting in an ethical manner?
In most cases, it
appears that Ms. Watson is trying to do what she feels is ethical. By
addressing behavioral issues with the students, she is demonstrating her
ethics. Consistency here helps
demonstrate to students the important of ethics. Acting ethically will clearly promote the
success of the students. There
is some concern that some write ups have been thrown away and that write-ups
are treated differently because of the teacher. This behavior is clearly unethical and needs
to be addressed. By admitting to some of
these behaviors, some things can be addressed and dealt with immediately so it
will not be an issue in the future.
Evaluation:
I would evaluate Ms. Watson as developing. Ms. Watson is certainly trying to lead by example. She wants to do what is best for students and defines fair as doing what is best for each student individually. However, her reasoning and rationale behind her decisions are not clear or supported by the staff and there is a lack of communication about what is occurring at the teacher level. Although she has reasons (that are valid) behind her decisions, there is some cause for concern that some write ups have been destroyed and that some teachers concerns are ignored. Ms. Watson needs to work on her communication skills so that she is working with her staff to promote the success of all her students with fairness and ethics.
CASE STUDY 6
ISSLC Standard 6:
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal and cultural context.
Name of Case Study: Cultural Advocator
Questions:
1.
How does
the school administrator promote the success of students by responding to and
influencing the economic context of the students?
2. How does the school administrator promote the
success of students by responding to and influencing the cultural context?
Case Study:
Dr. Huff is the principal of
Dr. Huff was immediately aware of
the diverse group of students that attend
Answers
to the Questions:
1.
How does
the school administrator promote the success of students by responding to and
influencing the economic context of the students?
Dr. Huff promotes the success of students by responding to the economic
context of the students by providing resources for the students. She worked to understand the community her students
were in and then worked with the staff to provide what was needed by the
students. Dr. Huff spent time in the
community to develop a deep understanding of it and the needs her students
would face.
2.
How does
the school administrator promote the success of students by responding to and
influencing the cultural context?
The cultural backgrounds that
students bring with them to the classroom are critical in administrators’
response to them. Dr. Huff worked with
the staff of the school to understand the students and what was needed by the
students. She ensured that the staff was
trained and that everyone had a clear understand of the cultural backgrounds of
the students and what needed to be done to help make them successful.
Evaluation:
I would evaluate Dr. Huff as proficient. She clearly has a deep understanding of the cultural and socio-economic backgrounds of the students. She is working to ensure that the staff in her school share in this knowledge and are working to utilize their knowledge to further the education of the students in the classroom. She has set up programs that meet the needs that she has seen in the community and it constantly working to gather more information.