Week 3 Assignment

Week Three Assignment, Part 1 – CARE Model Analysis of District/Campus Improvement Initiatives or Action Research Plans
Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1. District Goal III has been addressed in the DIP since the 2008-2009 school year. It states that the district will recruit, develop and provide continuing education for a diversified and culturally sensitive staff at all levels. There has been little change in the hiring practices or in the professional development plans and criteria for staff members. In addition, the salary scales for administrative positions, especially in the counseling arena, are not competitive with surrounding districts. The salary scale is also not published and the formula used to calculate administrative salaries is not posted anywhere and cannot be easily explained to those who ask about it.
2. District Goal V addresses the participation rate of students in extracurricular activities from 6^th grade through 12^th grade. The goal is to have 100% participation. My concern is that when the district is promoting involvement in extracurricular activities, it turns around and cuts the funding to every activity including deleting stipends for sponsors of non-athletic activities.
3. District Goal I is for all district campuses to be rated Exemplary by the Texas Education Agency. Each campus has developed a plan to help their campus reach this goal, but there is very little interconnection between all the campuses’ plans. Vertical teaming of curriculum, especially on the secondary campuses has not been addressed at all campuses.

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1. Central office has begun looking into the inequitable salary levels for campus professionals as compared to other districts in the area. It is important that the salary comparisons are looking at “apples to apples” and not just job titles and the salaries attached to them.
2. Core subject areas are beginning to vertically align their curriculum with other campuses. Primary focus is the alignment between Lockhart High School, Cisneros Freshman Campus, and Lockhart Junior High.
3. Re-evaluation of allocated funds for extracurricular activities has begun on the high school campus. In-depth meetings with department heads and sponsors of extracurricular activities have begun to analyze funds needed to keep up current level of service to students.

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1. One of the activities to meet the goal of exemplary is to increase the rigor in the classroom. Professional development for cores subjects have been directed at AP and Pre-AP summer institutes for subject matter and teaching strategies. A concerted effort to expand learning across the curriculum should be put in place for all subject areas on campus. Teachers will collaborate on lesson plans to incorporate TEKs from all subject areas in their classrooms.
2. The district should develop salary scales for all levels of district employees. Any position that requires a certain number of years in the classroom before a person can be certified to hold it; the salary level should take into consideration the number of years in the classroom into the experience of the applicant. Formulas for calculating salaries should be provided if requested.
3. The current activities for increasing parent participation are mainly centered on open house programs at individual campuses. District should plan more community based meetings with teachers and administration going out into the community and having meetings in different settings other than the school campuses. (i.e. churches, community centers, etc.)

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1. To monitor the staff development, teachers will submit forms to department heads on conferences and courses they will be taking during the school year and summer for prior approval. All teachers will submit their lesson plans into Eduphoria which will be checked weekly by evaluating administrators.
2. Salary scales will be posted on the district website. All salary schedules will be evaluated and compared to area districts for relativity every three years. Detailed records will be kept of district job postings and the pool of applicants that apply. The district will hold a job fair in the spring of every year to promote job openings on district campuses.
3. Campus improvement teams will plan community based activities to promote parental involvement on campus at least once a semester. Campuses will utilize local media, district webpages, and the district phone dialer to promote the community meetings. Several campuses can have simultaneous meetings in the same place on the same night. Sign-in sheets and volunteer activity on campuses will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the Comprehensive Final Report

Describing Recommendations and District/Campus Improvement Initiative/Action Research Lessons Learned
Review the above analysis, and write at least one page thoroughly describing recommendations and lessons learned from experiences with the improvement initiatives or action research plans.

Any district’s plan is based on the premise of making their district the best that it can be. Time and effort is spent by countless staff to prepare goals and activities to make the district a success. The issue arises when you are putting a plan in place and the players that are required to make the plan work over time may not be there to see that the necessary support systems stay in place to make the plan work. When reviewing previous campus and district improvement plans, the above mentioned pattern has affected planning, development and follow-through in LISD. I have found, in talking with the many different stakeholders in the district, that many of the long-time employees feel that programs stay in place only as long as the administrator who introduced them stay in the district. Focus on continuity of a system or a program is imperative in the success of a district.

Having a highly qualified staff that is well-versed in cultural diversity will only increase the academic success in the classroom. Making sure that the support systems are in place to have said faculty on staff is one that needs to be addressed and improved upon in all areas. Campus administration must support their staffs to make sure they receive the tools that are necessary to have a safe, educational environment in their classrooms. These support systems start with the hiring process and continue through salary compensation, ancillary benefits straight through to the day-to-day activities on campus. A district or campus plan that does not address the needs of its staff will not succeed in improving the district. It is important that campus and district plans have concrete measures in place to meet their goals and needs of their staffs. Many times, abstract measures are put in place that cannot be measured for their effectiveness on campuses.

I have found that an effective educational leader on a campus or in a district needs to make sure that they research the plans and programs that have been in place on a campus or in a district before making changes or plans for the upcoming school years. It is important to know the history of the district to better plan for its future. That being said, it is also important that all campuses in a district have plans that not only support their campus’s goals but also support the district’s. This should also include goals that support the other campuses in the district. Each grade level acts as a building block in a student’s educational path. Secondary campuses should have collaborative meetings to make sure that their plans scaffold off of one another. Vertical alignment of curriculum along with lesson plans that work across the curriculum will allow the instruction in classrooms to be challenging and help students see that all of their subjects can be connected in some manner, just like it will connect to their everyday life.

It is important that district and campus plans be results of a collaborative effort. The activities scheduled to support these plans will require the entire faculty and staff’s participation for them to be successful. All stakeholders need to feel that the plan in place is their plan, not just something handed down to them from on high. Teamwork is important on all levels and is necessary for advancement for a district. It is the instructional leader of a district’s responsibility to make sure that the climate and support systems are in place for their faculty and staff to perform at the levels the community and stakeholders expect for the education of their children.