Oakland University EA 754

Memo Artifact 5
To: Dr. Wells
From: Carol Sethi and Lynn Walter
CC:
Date: October 16, 2013
Re: Webster Case
How do you guide the principal to assess the staff? What are our conclusions about this school?
The principal needs to get an immediate read of the culture at the school. It would be wise for her to start to develop relationships
with her staff and to start making connections so that she knows first hand the strengths and weaknesses of each person. This could
take place as individual meetings over two or three days. During these meetings the principal should find out what the teachers like
to do personally in their free time, what their hobbies are, and something about their family. The principal should find out when the
teacher first started at Webster, why they wanted to be a teacher, what is different about Webster now, what they would like to
change about Webster and how they would change it. The principal needs to be sure to talk less and listen more. It would be very
important for the principal to take notes at these meetings.
Additionally, it would be recommended that she use a process for identifying the culture of the building. It could be the 4-step
process using the expectations diagnosis, a self-assessment school culture triage, or something more formal like a professional
consulting firm. The present culture of the school is toxic. The new principal has to understand the nuances of the present culture
of the school and begin to reform it. The principal should look for the following:
The way things are done here.
What does she see, hear and experience?
What doesnt she see and hear?
What behaviors get rewards and status?
What behaviors get reprimands?
Are teachers modeling what they want from students?
Who are the decision makers?
Do parents experience welcome, suspicion, or rejections when they come to school?






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Conclusions about this school:
There needs to be development of a shared mission, vision, and goals.
There are definite concerns about the school including: parent and community perceptions (mangy mutt); the schools
persona as a hostile and unfriendly place for children and parents; the three-year decline in test scores; the ill-performing
veteran staff; parents that feel alienated, frightened or angry; children who appear to be out of control (fighting, pushing,
name-calling and back-talking); and the growing perception that the school isnt working.
There are some new challenges: the diversity of the new student population (a group of ESL learners); many new families
are immigrants; changing economic conditions; loss of financial resources; and rejections of the past three mileages.
There are many positives that must be embraced. The children new to the community seem eager to learn and their
parents are supportive. Other new, youthful community members are former students who feel strongly committed to
Webster and want to be involved with school activities and the PTA. There are also a few new teachers whom the principal
may be able to tap as teacher leaders.
The toxic environment impedes learning and undermines the learning environment. The principal should be encouraged to
clean up the hallways by filling the walls with color, posting positive/motivational words, and displaying student artwork.
Webster Elementary will be a place where each student is celebrated by showcasing creative bulletin boards that
demonstrate student achievement and showing that this is an inviting place to learn.
Community events at the school need to include activities like: an ice cream social, student art night with refreshments,
monthly story time with the principal, and a fun fair celebration at the end of the year.
What are the questions you would ask the principal to get her to think about improving the effectiveness of the
staff? What evidence would you use to help this principal realistically and fairly look for teacher improvement?
I am wondering how you might be able to use the leadership of some of the teachers who seem to have some vision, talent
and enthusiasm?
What might you do to help some of the underperforming teachers to improve their practice, consider new employment or
perhaps transfer?
What types of professional development might you use to help teachers become more comfortable sharing and working as
professional learning communities to improve their instructional practices?
How will you set up PLTs?
What will your agenda be for monthly staff meetings? Specifically, will you continue the practice of simply sharing
announcements or will you incorporate staff development such as a book study?
When will you meet with teachers to set goals?
How will you mentor new teachers?
How will you celebrate contributions of veteran staff?
How will you use data to improve student achievement?
What teaching strategies will you incorporate to achieve best practices and address the diversity of learning styles?
How will you know the students are on task and motivated to learn?
How will you know teachers are engaging students?
Based on formative assessment results are students improving?
What kinds of staff development would you suggest she initiate for this school year?
Teaching how to use and expecting the use of data to drive decision-making and informed instruction.
JEPD that is motivating and informs instruction that will increase academic achievement and school improvement.
Building relationships with staff and students; improving school culture and climate.
Using RTI strategies to differentiate instruction and address the needs of the ESL population.



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How will you help this principal understand the parents and community? What importance will you place on
working with the parents?
HR should provide demographic information on parent population and community including: ethnicity, economic status, availability
of Title 1 funding, percentages of ESL population with languages spoken at home, age of parents, and number of renters vs. home
owners.
Importance:
High importance is placed on community involvement, which includes community events already stated.
The principal will need to engage in some type of social media (Facebook/twitter) or information sharing network (listserv/
classroom newsletters) that provide for opportunities to sign up for school/classroom events.
Parents will be invited to participate in classroom activities such as reading groups, party support, copy-parent, and Friday
folder paper organization. Additionally, parents should be encouraged to participate in school activities: conferences, open
house, back to school nights, fundraising opportunities, school fun run, science fairs, musical events, and monthly coffee
with the principal. It would also be beneficial to include senior citizens as classroom/school helpers.
The principal should encourage and support the PTA and involve them in school events.
The principal will need to include the stakeholders and bring them along in the decision-making processes. In doing so she
will begin to develop relational trust with both the parents and the community.
The principal has to be an active partner in student learning and be visible!!
What are the landmine issues for which you will warn the principal? What are the cautions?
There appears to be several landmine issues. They include:
The leadership of the past principal contaminated the learning environment and the school culture; many staff members
have become negative and uninviting promoting a hostile learning environment.
The school is not being successful and there are several teachers who will be unwilling to embrace the new school culture.
Several (30%) of the teaching staff is underperforming. There is a fine balance between pleasing the parent community and
working with the staff to improve.
The caution would be:
Proceed slowly. Dont overwhelm staff with numerous initiatives. Instead, utilize what the principal has learned from the
initial individual staff meetings to gain relational trust. Encourage teacher leadership and empower teachers to find the
answer in the room.










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Create a success rubric along with this principal. What indicators would you look for and with what timeline?
Each month HR and principal will meet to discuss the following rubric and determine progress:
Ineffective Minimally Effective Effective Highly Effective



Culture



No Change
2 of the following occur:
Staff collaboration
Decrease in office
referrals
Celebrations/rituals
Welcoming, positive
environment
3 of the following occur:
Staff collaboration
Decrease in office
referrals
Celebrations/rituals
Welcoming, positive
environment

All 4 criteria met and
the culture reflects a
true sense of
community.


Student
Achievement


No Change

SMART goals have been
established for both reading and
math and 50% of students have
demonstrated proficiency

SMART goals have been
established for both reading and
math and 80% of students have
demonstrated proficiency
SMART goals have
been established for
both reading and
math and 100% of
students have
demonstrated
proficiency


Staff Development


No Change


Staff attend PLT/meetings

Staff are actively engaged in
PLT/meeting and share
information
Staff lead
PLT/meetings,
implement new ideas
and strategies with
documented lessons
and results


Parent
Involvement


No Change

Parents feel welcome in the
building and are beginning to
attended classroom/school
activities

80% of parents have been
contacted by staff and have
attended at least 1
classroom/school activity
100% of parents
have been contacted
by staff and have
attended at least 1
classroom/school
activity

What do you feel are the most serious challenges to moving forward and how would you help the principal?
In an effort to support the principal, weekly meetings will transpire.
The school needs to have a mission, vision, goals and purpose for being there. The purpose must be centered on the
academic success of all students. The principal needs to work with the staff to draft these new guiding principles. The
benefit of this process is that the school will have a new united direction and the staff will begin to connect and come
together as a team it will aid in changing the culture.
Once the shift in cultural change has taken place an emphasis on teacher growth and life-long learning will be expected.
Teachers that demonstrate minimal/no progress will be placed on an individual plan of assistance and will be rated as
minimally effective or ineffective. It should be understood that if layoffs were to occur these teachers would be
recommended for layoff.
In order for a principal to balance the roles of manager and leader it could be suggested that the Principal use the
management strategy of leading and learning by scanning the school environment.
As stated in Growing Into Leadership (Alvy & Robbins, May 2005), The school faculty will quickly notice if the new principal
focuses on student success by engaging teachers in discussing student achievement data, celebrating exemplary student
presentations, and displaying high-quality student work in the school office.