Context Affecting Schools
The candidates analyze and influence the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
Wisconsin Administrator Standard 7
The administrator understands, responds to, and interacts with the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context that affects schooling.
Revised 5-2016
The following rationale and artifacts demonstrate my development as an emerging leader and provide evidence that the standard has been met.
Self-Reflection/Rationale:
As leaders, school principals must guide their decisions by the national, state, and local educational policies. The policies should reflect the mission and vision of the district and all stakeholders. It is the principal's responsibility to collaborate both vertically and horizontally within the decision making process. If policies do not reflect the mission and vision of the school or district, then the appropriate actions need to be taken to properly change those policies. First and foremost, the principal must ensure safety within the school. Safety could include but is not limited to: building maintenance, handicapped accessibility, bullying, disrespect, drugs, or weapons. When problems arise that reduce students safety, the principal must act appropriately and in accordance to law, policies, and guidelines. Secondly, the principal must create an environment that maximizes learning. Any hindrance or setback to any students’ learning must be addressed. Setbacks could include but are not limited to: spatial environment, behaviors, technology, variety of media, paralegals, lack of resources, or lack of staffing. Any issue needs to resolved and thoroughly investigated before any decisions are made. If necessary, specific people need to be notified of the situation and results of the situation. These parties may include and are not limited to: parents, students, staff, police, superintendent, social services, guidance, and the school board. When decisions and policies are made, created, or changed, all stakeholders should be actively involved in the change or creation process. Including various people in policy making allows them to take ownership of the policies and makes them more likely to agree with them. Some people or schools like to surround themselves by “yes” people when creating policy. However, when this occurs, it might not reflect the total or majority within the organization. This can cause conflict and frustration among the stakeholders and could destroy or disrupt the school and its activities. Deal and Peterson would also argue that understanding school and community culture is equally important. Their "Leadership Paradox" illustrates that leaders must understand, "Cultural norms, values, beliefs and rituals within the organization." This would definitely be important to a principal in a new area or building. They would also argue, "Understand the past, present, and future," of those who were, are, and will be involved. Therefore, the understanding of culture, legal, social, community, and tradition may be the very first step in becoming a successful principal.
In EDL 765. Educational Leadership, I organized and created the "Gresham Open House." I constructed this project during the summer of 2015, and the actual event occurred August 26th, 2015. I received and "A" for the planning of this event. When planning and preparing for this event, I had to consider all of those who would attend and the current policies and form that were in place. Because of this, I had to work directly with administration, secretaries, and staff to modify or change things as needed. This event was not just simply having students and parents show up before school, but a reformation of many forms, policies, and data/information gathering. I explained my plan to the school board to get an approval of what I was trying to accomplish (an event in which parents and students could gather and fill out all required forms, staff could gather required information, students could get prepared, and an event that would allow everyone to meet and collaborate in a cheerful manner). Although many were optimistic, I sensed that others did not feel we could organize such an event in a short period of time. I assured school board and staff that I would work with everyone to cover all areas that were of need. Though this process, I learned that you can not just change things because you think they are right. When discussing ideas with secretaries, many times we would change forms to meet their needs, while we still would consider the needs and ease of those filling them out. What I thought might be best and easiest was not always the best for those who were actually using them. For example, I offered to create a digital Google form to collect new student data, address changes, etc. The secretaries explained to me that that would be more efficient, but would take away some of the sense of community, since people would be just filling out information at home instead of coming in and talking to people. The secretaries knew that it was more work to manually enter information, but they also agreed the extra work was worth the personal connectedness they received from each individual. After the Gresham Open House, those involved met and already began to make changes for improvement for future years. Even though the event was successful, we feel there are always areas for improvement.
Another artifact that I feel better supports Standard 6 are the Technology Use Agreements that I helped create. When creating this, we needed to consider the culture and context of our school. At first, we did research to see what other school districts had done previously. We did use some of their material; however, most of what we created we had to modify to meet our specific needs. Because our district is over 75 percent poverty, many do not have home internet, and most do not have money to support technology, we needed to draft an agreement that would be consistent with our expectations, community expectations, and student/staff expectations, as well as the expectations of current school board policy. Many hours were spend in the initial creation of these documents. They were then distributed to random students, parents, staff and school board members. Collectively, we met and created a final draft which we all understood would continue to be a "living/breathing" document that would need to be continually modified as needed. In every step of the process, very valid and good points were made, and the language was added, changed, or deleted to better reflect our goals, mission, and vision. When we presented these policies to the staff, students, and parents, we were able to explain that the policies were created by staff, students, parents, and administration, and approved by the school board. Therefore, all parties were very receptive. If this was a top-down issued policy without any collaborative efforts, I believe our language and policies would have not have reflected our vision as a school or technology committee. This would have caused not only frustration but conflict amongst individuals. We felt so confident in our process that this was part of our presentation at SLATE, as was mentioned in Standard 2.
Working in a very diverse school of both social economic and culture, I feel that I have a good understanding of contextual decision making and influence. Although diversity seems like a hindrance to many, the amount of knowledge people can gain from each other is much more meaningful if channeled correctly. Even though there has to be a set of legal guidelines and rules to follow, this should not create an atmosphere of dictatorship. Understanding the needs of those around you is an important step of being a successful and influential leader. As principal, I will consider how best to meet the needs of all people and try to create policies, rules, and guidelines that will do the same. Each district, school, and group creates its own personality. It is the leader's job to make sure that everything is always supported by the vision and mission of each. As stated in Standard 4, through collaboration, I will challenge myself to learn and understand the values of each group of people, and create a culture, community, and school that embraces them.
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