CRTL 1

The Leadership Identity Assignment allowed me to define my personal vision, mission, and beliefs as an emerging school leader. I identified my values, virtues, and goals, creating a visual that encompassed all of these elements. In addition, I explored my district vision and school mission, analyzing their connections to my personal vision and mission. I designed a plan to evaluate and revise the school mission statement, including committee members dedicated to building positive school culture. The plan included specific outcomes from a focus group as well as individual feedback from all stakeholders. This plan led to a new comprehensive school mission statement, written through collaboration, feedback, and reflection. 

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Standard 1 aligns with this artifact. The standard addresses leaders who are culturally responsive and reflective. Developing my personal vision, mission, beliefs, goals, and values required a great deal of reflection. I began the process with a brainstormed list of values, thoughts, beliefs, and goals for my school, students, staff, families, and community. From there, I reflected on common themes to begin to draft my vision and mission. Two common themes were identified. The first was high academic expectations for students and staff. I incorporated phrases such as lifelong learners, collaboration, rigorous academic growth, critical thinking, and problem-solving. The second theme related to social-emotional learning and positive school culture. I used terms like empathetic, child-centered, nurturing, safe, social-emotional growth, unique, leaders, trust, respect, and honesty. Through this process, I gained a better understanding of what my values are as an emerging leader.  

This artifact reflects my development as a culturally responsive leader. When reflecting on our district vision, it became apparent that the district vision implied diversity, but it lacked specific language. The revisions I recommended added vocabulary such as diverse and inclusive. Additionally, when I initiated a revision to our school's mission statement, I created a diverse focus group. This group represented each grade level and specialty area. The collaboration process brought about a concise and cohesive mission draft, being responsive to all areas, ideas, and cultures in the building. I learned a great deal as I created this artifact. I learned the importance of revisiting the district vision and school mission often. Staff can lose sight of what our goals and mission are if they are not being used regularly as a guide and measurement tool. I also learned that it's important to take the time to dig deeper into the terms used in vision and mission statements. A common understanding is important, so everyone is working toward the same goal. I was also able to experience the implementation of change using Kotter's 8-stage process. Prior to this assignment, I had struggled with initiating changes. When I applied this process to our school mission revision, it was very effective. The staff felt heard, and all stakeholders had input. The creation of this artifact has impacted my development as a culturally responsive school leader in many ways. First, the development of my vision, mission, goals, values, and beliefs allowed me to dig deeper into what I believe and who I am as a leader. My vision and mission incorporate celebrating uniqueness and diversity. Through the process, I also learned how important social-emotional learning is to who I am as an educator and leader. I have a firm belief in Maslow before Bloom and aspire to be a leader that focuses on building a strong school culture where every individual feels welcome, respected, included, and part of a learning community. Identifying and celebrating each person's unique traits is an important element of being culturally responsive. Students and staff achieve academic success when a strong social-emotional foundation has been built. 

This artifact includes my reflection after completing the bias and microaggression module. The module included the completion of the Harvard Bias Assessment. I gained a better understanding of how biases develop and how they are reinforced. Microaggression was defined, and I was able to recognize and explore some of the microaggressions that exist in the school environment. Lastly, I was able to reflect on what this means as an emerging leader.

This artifact supports CRTL 1, culturally responsive teachers and leaders are reflective and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and how they impact others, leading to more cohesive and productive student development as it relates to academic and social-emotional development for all students. It illustrates my personal journey and reflection as I explored biases and microaggression. The Harvard Bias Assessment provided data for me to reflect on, allowing me to develop a deeper understanding of how the results may impact me as a leader. The experience drew my attention to areas of cultural responsiveness that I may not have been able to identify on my own. 

This artifact highlights the impact a leader can have on whether a learning environment is culturally responsive. We all have biases, and when educators take the time to identify and address them, it leads to positive change for students and families. Personal reflection allows for system changes that are visible and equitable. 

This artifact involved the collection of data on measuring my progress as a virtuous leader in the beginning of the program as compared to the end of the program. The virtues measured were fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice. The leadership dispositions measured all facets of leadership, and an additional assessment included the measurement of interpersonal skills, motivation, professionalism, reliability, leadership, communication skills, ethical principles, trust, responsibility, and risk-taking. I used the same measures and asked the same colleagues to complete the assessment for consistency. I developed graphs comparing the pre and post assessment data to reflect on my growth as a leader. 

This artifact demonstrates CRTL 1, culturally responsive teachers and leaders are reflective and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and how they impact others, leading to more cohesive and productive student development as it relates to academic and social-emotional development for all students. It illustrates the development, growth, and reflection of leadership virtues and values. It's imperative that leaders remain self-reflective and focused on growing their moral compass. Asking stakeholders to give their input is an essential part of maintaining a culturally responsive community. 

 The disposition pre and post assessments have shed light on areas of strength and growth and allowed has me to reflect on who I am as a virtuous leader and person. It

also provided an opportunity for me to look at what my colleagues view as strengths and areas for growth. As a result of this assignment, I have been able to visually see my growth and all that I’ve learned throughout the program. Each class contributed to this growth by providing

opportunities for new learning and reflection. There is so much more to leadership than being competent. It involves having character, strong ethics, and morals. Different leadership styles are appropriate for different situations, so it’s important to have a clear understanding of each. To find the potential in people, one must use a strong moral compass to lead the way. Development of one’s moral compass never ends. I will continue to focus on moral and ethical development through observation, experiences, and my aspirations to be a virtuous leader that

my school community deserves.