Reflection on Leadership Standard 2 As the mathematics department chair and instructional coach I promoted the success of all students

by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), researching and implementing viable curriculum, professional release time, and professional development were used as vehicles to this end. As a PLC facilitator, I tried to keep the Learning in Professional Learning Communities rather than allowing PLC time to merely become a department meeting. We were able to bring in guest speakers besides me like Cathy Williams and Chris Shore to shape a culture in which high expectations are the norm for each student as evident in rigorous academic work. We regularly promoted equity, fairness, and respect among all members of the school community by soliciting the opinions of as many stakeholders as possible through articulation meetings, student and parent panels, and formal/informal meeting with staff and teachers. Recently, I have continued this work at Mary Fay Pendleton through PLC meetings, informal staff interactions, and formal staff questionnaires. Next steps include meeting with my new principal to determine the goals and direction for the upcoming school year and beyond and determining how PLC time can be best utilized to meet those goals. I was able to facilitate the use of a variety of appropriate content-based learning materials and learning strategies that recognize students as active learners, value reflection and inquiry, emphasize the quality versus the amount of student application and performance, and utilize appropriate and effective technology. In addition to PLC work in these areas, we were able to

bring in new curricular materials from the Center for Math and Teaching that recognized students as active learners, valued reflection and inquiry, emphasized the quality versus the amount of student application and performance. This included coordinating a site visit to two different sites where the materials being used, putting together an order to purchase pilot materials along with subsequent orders for the entire school year, and coordinating professional development around the materials. I also arranged for a pilot of Common Core Geometry materials and helped roll out online Geometry programs for the base schools where a dedicated classroom teacher for the subject was unavailable utilizing the appropriate and effective technology of APEX Learning Systems. I continue to help students be involved in recognizing students as active learners, valuing reflection and inquiry, emphasizing the quality versus the amount of student application and performance, and utilizing appropriate and effective technology by working on acquiring enough science materials, supplies, and technology to start the first dedicated science lab at my site through a recent field study. As an instructional coach, I assisted teachers in learning and utilizing Direct Interactive Instruction (DII) with their students, which led to more explicit teaching and greater student engagement. In other words, I guided and supported the long-term professional development of all staff consistent with the ongoing effort to improve the learning of all students relative to the content standards through job embedded professional development. I also became familiar with other instructional models like Understanding by Design and the Essential Elements of Instruction; both of which I was able to use to in PLC time to augment teacher understanding of DII. While instructional models may vary, it necessary to have an instructional model in

order to create a common language where discussions around instruction itself are possible and encouraged. Besides job-embedded professional development, I was able to provide opportunities for all members of the school community to develop and use skills in collaboration, distributed leadership, and shared responsibility during PLC time and professional release time. During PLC time, I was able to distribute leadership to others by creating three PLCs focused on content algebra, pre-algebra, and algebra readiness within our single mathematics PLC and each member shared responsibility by fulfilling meaningful roles. We also used release time to create an accountability system grounded in standards-based teaching and learning. Districtwide only 14% of pre-algebra students improved a band or more on the California Standards Test (CSTs) while in eighth grade algebra readiness with similar content moved 70% of students a band or more. After just two release days focusing on scope, sequence, assessment and professional development centered on content, all participating teachers improved in the number of students moving a band or more on the CSTs with one teacher improving to 51% of her students improving a band or more; the project itself is documented in field work. Besides taking a step back to reorganize the curriculum in a more sensible manner and learning more about their curriculum, the use of cumulative assessments allowing students to demonstrate their learning over time and ensuring teacher review of critical standards throughout the year was most instrumental in student success. These assessments along with formative assessments and small summative assessments demonstrated the power of utilizing multiple assessments to evaluate student learning in an ongoing process focused on improving the academic performance of each student.

Next steps in these areas include working on the District Adoption Committee to work on identifying a guaranteed and viable Common Core Curriculum for students and teachers as well as continuing to work as a Common Core Course Planner to identify scope and sequence along with teaching strategies and content knowledge necessary to move forward with Common Core mathematics instruction.