Standard 7: Professional Community for Teachers and Staff

Effective educational leaders foster a professional community of teachers and other professional staff to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

Performance Indicators:

• A) Develop workplace conditions for teachers and other professional staff that promote effective professional development, practice, and student learning.

• B) Empower and entrust teachers and staff with collective responsibility for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student, pursuant to the mission, vision, and core values of the school.

• C) Establish and sustain a professional culture of engagement and commitment to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining to the education of the whole child; high expectations for professional work; ethical and equitable practice; trust and open communication; collaboration, collective efficacy, and continuous individual and organizational learning and improvement.

• D) Promote mutual accountability among teachers and other professional staff for each student’s success and the effectiveness of the school as a whole

• E) Develop and support open, productive, caring, and trusting working relationships among leaders, faculty, and staff to promote professional capacity and the improvement of practice

• F) Design and implement job-embedded and other opportunities for professional learning collaboratively with faculty and staff

• G) Provide opportunities for collaborative examination of practice, collegial feedback, and collective learning

• H) Encourage faculty-initiated improvement of programs and practices.

PSEL 7 Summary:

This standard parallels Standard 6, but the emphasis here in Standard 7 is on leaders creating a safe space for their teachers, staff, and students to feel a sense of community. A community is a "unified body of individuals" (Merriam-Webster.com) sharing similar interests or characteristics. Effective leaders are intentional in creating opportunities for different members of the school community to work together. The artifacts listed below highlight my experiences in fostering professional communities. The Textbook Distribution Event (2020) relied on the support of the brick and mortar teachers and the virtual teachers to ensure a smooth delivery process. (7D). The Team 7A Meeting Minutes demonstrate the team's willingness to trust each other and share responsibility for their students under our care (7A). The FRMS Leadership Team minutes illustrate how school leaders develop open, productive, and trusting relationships with each other (7E), and the Final Action Research Plan is a great example of how leaders can use action research as a tool for job-embedded professional learning (7F).

PSEL 7 Artifacts