Jeff Burgess
Reflection: ISLLC I 
Internship 6062/6072
Dr. Michael Arnold
Spring 2004

ISLLC I Summary and Reflection

Expectations:

1.1 Uses research about best professional practice.
1.2 Recognizes the uniqueness and educability of each learner in a pluralistic society.
1.3 Plans for continuous, comprehensive, systemic school improvement.
1.4 Uses data for vision-driven change.
1.5 Promotes personal reflection (open to continuous review and revision through thoughtful study of one's beliefs and practices).
1.6 Uses fundamental principles of interpersonal communication, consensus building, conflict resolution, and organization change.

	The Educational Administration Philosophy artifact suggests that the vision of a leader must be compared and contrasted with the vision of others in a group or community.  People should be involved in decision making, so that the participants feel as though they own the decision to change.  Participants should engage in reflective inquiry leading to professional growth and renewal. Research has suggested that the feeling of ownership leads to more satisfied and productive learning environment (1.1).   The Educational Administration Philosophy recognizes the uniqueness and educability of each learner in a pluralistic society (1.2) by communicating that an administrator recognizes teacher and student diversity and that individuals need to know that their lives, thoughts, opinions, hopes, and dreams are recognized and considered meaningful.  The compatibility and divergence of the aspirations of each group or individual should be determined. Change must begin with a vision (1.3).  The vision of a leader must be compared and contrasted with the vision of others in a group or community.    The process should involve revisions, negotiations, and extensive participation of those affected by the changes (1.6).    A leader is a servant with a God given capacity and a gift to influence people in a positive way.  The philosophy states that the servant leader is grounded in a belief system that promotes a sense of responsibility (1.5).  The servant leader exemplifies noble qualities respectfully, equally, submissively, humbly, meekly, and gently. An educational leader must be responsive to the needs of groups, individuals, families, and communities while displaying characteristics of a responsible and organized manager (1.6).  An effective leader will seek input, analyze the possibilities, then move to resolution.  The leader must be open to suggestions and opinions, while the manager realizes that standards and procedures must be followed to ensure quality, fairness, and rationality.  
	I was responsible for planning and conducting the elementary faculty meeting on October 9, 2003.  Although I was limited by the administrative expectation that the meeting should be as brief as possible, I  collaborated with staff (1.6) before the meeting for input on issues involving Grandparents Day, Student Council and Red Ribbon Week.  The elementary faculty meeting artifact uses data from the US Census Bureau to encourage the faculty to envision grandparents becoming more involved in the school environment (1.4).  The data show that more than 60% of the people over age 60 vote in elections, while the percentages drop to below 50% for younger adults.  When it involves election issues, Grandparents have the potential to be a deciding factor in school improvement (1.3) and consensus building (1.6).   The involvement of grandparents in schools would also recognize uniqueness and educability of individuals in a pluralistic society by reminding the students of their heritage (1.2).  I passed out a list of activities that  for Grandparents Day that I had gathered and offered to make copies for interested teachers .  Also at the faculty meeting, continuous, comprehensive school improvement (1.3) and consensus building (1.6) is developed by the planning stages of the new elementary student council.  Most teachers expressed positive communication about the start of the student council (discussed under ISLLC V) and about Red Ribbon Week activities (discussed under ISLLC III).  Parent/Teacher conferences discussed at the meeting provided opportunities for parents and teachers to evaluate individual progress (1.2) and plans for improvement (1.3), and coincided with a book fair benefiting the library (1.3) and a Chili Supper benefiting the Parent/Teacher Organization (1.3, 1.6).   The calendar presented at the meeting also shows plans for comprehensive school improvement (1.3) by the scheduling of other activities including inventories, a school play, a Veterans’ Day assembly, Food for America – a Future Farmers of America project that elementary children attend, a health fair, progress reports, bicycle safety, and character education assemblies.
	In October I spent an afternoon with the superintendent secretary entering information for the Core Date reports (1.4).  The data entered includes demographic information that can be used in recognizing the uniqueness and educability of each learner in a pluralistic society (1.2) and the fall enrollment, average daily attendance, eligible pupils projections  (1.3).  The demographic  information entered allows the use of the data for recognition of  the needs of diverse students, which are small in numbers in this district, and therefore likely to need more direct individualistic attention.  The trends of population in the fall enrollment report indicate the need for looking to the future needs of the district (1.3. 1.4, 1.6).  With a declining population, revenues will be declining and the district will need to look  for ways to consolidate and become more efficient.        
	In Elementary Administration EAD 6013, I was in a group that provided a presentation on ISLLC 1.  My duty in the group was to find a theoretical application (1.1) in the form of an article that expressed the vision of a leader.   The article that I chose to contribute was A Framework for Shared Leadership by Linda Lambert in Educational Leadership, (vol. 59, number 8, pp. 37-40), also available online at http://www.ascd.org/author/el/2002/05may/lambert.html .  According to Lambert leadership in an instructional setting must be a shared, community undertaking, and becomes the professional work of everyone in the school (1.6). Her definition of leadership is based on being responsible for the learning of colleagues. The understanding that learning and leading are linked in the community rests on the assumptions that everyone has the right, responsibility, and ability to be a leader, our definitions of leadership affects participation, and educators seek purpose as professionals (1.2, 1.5). Lambert offers a new framework for school improvement that she says will produce sustainable school improvement (1.3) through the development of leadership capacity:
•	Principal and teachers, as well as many parents and students, participate 	together as mutual learners and leaders (1.6). 
•	Shared vision results in program coherence (1.3, 1.6).
•	Inquiry-based use of information guides decisions and practice (1.1).
•	Roles and actions reflect broad involvement, collaboration, and collective 	responsibility (1.3, 1.6).
•	Reflective practice consistently leads to innovation (1.3. 1.5).
•	Student achievement is high or steadily improving (1.2, 1.3. 1.4).

	Lambert lists several schools have undertaken the work of building leadership capacity to bring about sustainable school improvement (1.3). Study groups challenge and integrate thinking, moving to new and collective levels of understanding. Study groups that emerged from a Canadian school inquiry based improvement plan focused on four areas: Building a Learning Community; Teaching for Understanding; Representing, Assessing and Responding; and Access and Management of Resources. An action research team also from a district in Canada published a book that examined the long-range impact of retention, and resulted in alternative interventions to ensure student progress. In vertical learning communities, teacher leaders work closely with students in instruction, curriculum design, discipline, and family relations (1.6). Curriculum is focused on student needs, collaborative planning is intensive, and the looping structure creates long-term relationships. The Vision Team at a Kansas school joins the principal in analyzing data (1.1, 1.4) and planning, monitoring, and implementing the school improvement plan. A volunteer staff in California designs curriculum units, shares ideas and research, and serves as advocates for equitable practices among their colleagues. When a Canadian province issued a mandated standards-based curriculum, an administrator avoided feelings of disempowerment by establishing strong implementation teams supplied with authority, resources, support, and time (1.3, 1.6). The inquiry, innovation, and comparison of curriculum that followed led teachers to identify gaps in their own knowledge (1.5) and resulted in investigation and experimentation.   An effective principal will construct a shared vision (1.6) with the school community, initiate communication, focus on student learning, evoke leadership from others, collaborate, question, and facilitate dialogue concerning the many roles of educational leadership.  
	The final article under this standard is the MAP testing schedule developed through collaboration with the staff, administration, and elementary school counselor (1.6).  One change that I suggested was that the MAP testing schedule be changed from a period of testing of one week to two weeks (1.1, 1.3, 1.6).  In the past testing was done in one week with one test in the morning and another in the afternoon. Several points presented the possible advantages:
•	Avoid test burnout by extending the testing period.
•	Allows for morning only testing.
•	Allows for mostly mid-week testing (DESE recommendation).
  	http://www.moassp.org/massp/MAPbestpractices/MAPbestpractices.html 
•	Allows extra time for progressing students to finish the test.
•	MAP scores have improved at schools that have changed from a 1 week to a 2 week testing period – Clever is one example: http://www.dese.state.mo.us/planning/profile/apr/2003d022092.html (1.4)
•	Would give the 5/6th the option of afternoon only testing for ITBS
	
	Teachers were allowed to have input, and most favored the new schedule or were not concerned either way because their classes did not do MAP testing. All teachers that did MAP tests (grades 3 and 4) favored the two week schedule.  The two week schedule was approved by administration (1.6) in October. In November, at a local districts administrators meeting, a concurrence was reached that the districts represented would not do the social studies and science assessments as a way to protest the fact that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has passed the cost paying for these assessments to the local districts, and therefore they would be considered voluntary.  I disagree with this decision (1.5), as its purpose was a political protest, and the financial aspect of paying for the test would not present a significant burden on the district.  The decision to not administer these tests, which could be used for vision-driven change (1.4), does not reflect an attitude of continuous, comprehensive, systemic school improvement (1.3).