5399 Week 3: Lessons Learned & Recommendations

The blending of the course embedded and site-based internship opportunities throughout the Superintendent certification program has been a wonderful learning opportunity for me at this point in my career.  Serving in my second year as an administrator, I feel like this program has accelerated my growth, development, capacity for leadership, as well as my desire to lead. The internship opportunities provided to me by my site-supervisor have allowed me to explore my own opinions about district weaknesses and my recommendations, in addition to making connections between my course-based learning with site-based learning.

In identifying district assessment data trends for a two-year period of time (the first two years of my current Superintendent's tenure) the district is moving in a positive direction. Despite this, my district continues to lag behind the state in the 'All Students' group in regards to Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. Increasing accountability standards, paired with the implementation of the more rigorous STAAR test are difficulties that all districts must manage. Economically disadvantaged students' account for 53% of the student population in my district, and at-risk students account for 41% of the student population. In order to sustain the gains and continuously improve the academic achievement in my district, while facing these changes, I recommend a concerted, consistent, and efficient Response to Intervention process (RtI) to be used across the district. The current format in my district is somewhat fragmented, due to a recent reconfiguration of schools. One of the great things about my campus's RtI is that we have a true team of educational experts (administrators, counselor, 504 coordinator, diagnostician, SpEd personnel, Dyslexia coordinator, instructional interventionist, the classroom teacher, and parent when appropriate) that meet often to discuss screening, intervention strategies, progress monitoring, and feedback. My campus has shown progress in state accountability measures, in that we were classified as only Academically Acceptable, but have now achieved Recognized status. Across the district, the RtI team is not as structured as our current model, and I would like to see this implemented for several reasons. I feel it has been an integral component in increasing student achievement for 'fringe' students that might otherwise not get the assistance they need. It has also benefited teachers in that they have a support system, despite having the immediate responsibility of educating the student in the classroom. Identifying and meeting the needs of students earlier through consistent and efficient RtI across the district could only help in strengthening a district weakness.

I would also like to begin a district-wide book study on The Fundamental Five, which is a book about the five critical practices that are at the core of highly effective instruction. In doing this, I believe it would help in promoting the growth and development of teachers, campus administrators, as well as district-level administrators. I believe if facilitated properly, the professional learning communities would help promote meaningful discussion about the teaching and learning process and how to improve it. I would hope the incorporation of a book study would generate buy-in towards implementing The Fundamental Five framework on a district-wide level in the future.

A final recommendation I would make based on an internship activity I participated in is to provide teachers more support in the area of analyzing and utilizing disseminated assessment data, in order to identify student/campus deficiencies, and develop a plan for improving these deficiencies through administrator facilitated post-assessment data-driven decision-making meetings. I would like to see this implemented on a central office level as a model to campus administrators, and then the campus administrators would lead their campus, department, or grade levels in similar meetings. Many times it seems that once a common assessment is given, because of the pace of the curriculum, there is a tendency to overlook what the data is telling us. It is my recommendation that this can be averted with modeling post-assessment meetings at the district level.

In participating in district improvement initiatives during the internship process I learned a great deal that will aid my decision making as a current campus and future district level leader. A key lesson I have learned is that I am more easily able to perceive district happenings from a district level perspective. In the same way a new administrator must learn to have a campus-wide perspective on how decisions impact each grade level, a district level administrator must learn the district-wide impact of decisions made in the central office. Another lesson I have learned is the importance of how each department supports student achievement in my district, as well as being able to recognize effective traits of various district level departments. I have gained respect for certain areas that are not at the forefront of educating students, and have learned how important it is as a Superintendent to rely on the expertise that each individual leading these areas can supply, as well as knowing how important recognizing their efforts can impact the operation positively. I have also learned as Superintendent how important it is to communicate the vision for school improvement to district, campus, and community stakeholders, as well as utilizing multiple mediums through which to accomplish effective communication. A final learning that I would like to share is that of networking. I have learned how valuable networking inside and outside of my current district can be. Through my participation in the internship process I have been able to substantially increase my network of knowledgeable individuals who I can call upon for various purposes. My internship activities have also allowed me to be in contact with other administrators outside of my school district, but within the area, who I have been able to collaborate with on various school improvement issues. Even more so, it has been so beneficial for me to have met and communicated with other educators in this Superintendent program, in an environment that is conducive to risk-taking and development as a future district leader. The people I have met, the activities I’ve completed, and the conversations I have had throughout the internship process have allowed me to grow both as a person and an administrator.