This presentation was created to showcase how the Baldrige Framework can be used to collect important data from the entire educational system. The Baldrige Framework is a series of questions related to the following categories: leadership, customers (students, parents, community), strategy, workforce, operations, measurement, and results. I used the Baldrige Framework to gather information about GWAEA to assess areas of strength, areas of need, and possible next steps. This is an example of a tool a leader can use to ensure that all essential information is collected so that decisions made will improve the system instead of inadvertently making new problems. This artifact was a project completed during my Drake program in the spring of 2021.

This entry plan was created in preparation for an interview for a special education director position. My goal as a leader it to transform special education and provide ALL learners with a meaningful and rich education. This entry plan would be used as a special education director to first gain a strong understanding of how the current system is functioning. This entry plan includes quality tools, like the SWOT diagram, and the Baldrige Framework to first collect meaningful data and then to organize this data to improve the current system of special education. As a new leader, this document would guide my actions and outline to the district what my focus would be within the firsts year of my career as a special education director. This document also outlines how, as leader, I would use a consistent continuous improvement process to make decisions and take action towards the mission and vision of the system. This artifact was created for a district interview in the summer of 2021.

The linked artifact is a capacity matrix created to effectively communicate the skills and capabilities of an effective paraprofessional. This document was created as part of a district team planning for paraprofessional professional learning, evaluation, and onboarding. Clear and transparent expectations builds a collective efficacy for staff. Paraprofessionals can easily be overlooked and under-trained. This document was created in the spring of 2022 to be used as a self-reflection tool, a coaching tool, and an evaluation tool during the yearly performance review. Staff can make a copy of this document and continuously monitoring their effectiveness on specific skills and strategies and then professional learning linked to each of these skills is being developed on the right hand column. This tool can be used to efficiently evaluate and support staff in meaningful professional learning which will retain paraprofessionals develop a professional understanding of expectations.

This artifact is a parent letter, written in the spring of 2022. Effective leaders can maintain professional and positive relationships with parents and community members. This is an example of a relationship that I was able to maintain throughout my five years as an Autism Consultant. This artifact shows how my actions, words and demeanor have remained professional throughout my career and the decisions I made were based on student need. The family felt supported and even after my support wasn't required in an ongoing way, the relationship was intact.

The video above is a pecha kucha presentation based on a research paper I wrote titled No Longer Optional: Why Brain-Based Teaching is Essential in an Equitable Education. In the presentation, I argue that culturally responsive teaching and brain-based teaching are one in the same and must be implemented in order to reach historically marginalized students. This artifact shows that depth of passion I have to provide an inclusive and equitable education for all students. If educators do not shift practices towards inclusion and equitable practices, we will fail an ever growing number of young people and our communities cannot thrive. This presentation and research paper were completed in the spring of 2021.

The presentation above was used as the first of many professional learning opportunities at Highland Elementary School, as they implemented Zones of Regulation schoolwide during the 2021-2022 school year. As the GWAEA Autism Consultant, I collaborated with the building leadership team, my GWAEA colleagues and developed high quality professional learning as the staff worked to implement zones for the entire student body. This curriculum focuses on self-regulation, which provides all students the tools they need to feel safe and ready to learn at school. This curriculum also has connections to brain-based learning and culturally responsive teaching as well as supports neurodiverse learners. This artifact shows my commitment to implementing inclusive and equitable strategies that support all learners. What is good for some, many times supports all learners. This work was completed throughout the 2021-2022 school year.

The linked school improvement plan was developed as part of a field based learning assignment created during a Summer 2021 Drake graduate class. This improvement plan was developed to analyze the discrepancy between students with behavior and/or adaptive behavior goals compared to their same age peers and the rate in which they pass core classes. Through this school improvement plan, data allowed the team to look at what the current reality of access and success was for students with behavior and adaptive behavior goals. Based on the discrepancy a strategic plan was developed to ensure access and success for all learners, especially those with behavior and adaptive behavior goals. This artifact outlines an effective process for determining effective instructional strategies and assessment tools schools can use to ensure effective instruction.

The GWAEA Staff Executive Functioning SDI Framework was adapted from Iowa's SDI Framework to support GWAEA Staff in evaluations in the area of adaptive behavior. This document was created to be a one stop shop for all the major assessments, instructional strategies and fidelity checklists to ensure that students receive high quality instruction in the area of executive functioning. To provide learning, the linked Adaptive Behavior: Executive Functioning slidedeck was created provide GWAEA staff with the learning necessary to utilize the framework in a meaningful way. This artifact demonstrates the knowledge and understanding of effective strategies that support all learners in accessing the core. This presentation and SDI Framework was created in the Spring of 2022.

Part of being an effective leader is ensuring the parents have a solid understanding of the quality tools and instructional practices that are being implemented within the classroom. This infographic was created to communicate to families the six instructional practices that teachers use to create a safe and positive environment for all learners. This infographic also indicates the additional support that some students with behavior intervention plans may need to access core instruction. Proactively providing structure and access for parents could decrease the confusion between universal positive behavior supports and BIPs. This infographic was created in the summer of 2021.

The artifact above was a presentation that was created and delivered in conjunction with the Iowa City Community School District to share information with a parent group in the district. This presentation outlined the process and procedures that the GWAEA Autism Team uses to ensure access of services throughout the district. The presentation also included success stories and current projects that the Autism Team was working on. This artifact shows how effective and proactive communication can not only decrease the number of difficult situations that may arise, but also shows how effective communication can actually strengthen relationships between the AEA, LEA, parents and community members. This presentation was developed in the fall of 2021.

The artifact above was created as part of a mock interview project to interview a secondary content teacher in the spring of 2022. This document first outlines the building's vore values to ensure that the candidates hired would be a good fit for the building based on building goals. Each question reflects one of these values. The three parts of the interview included are a question and answer section, writing an email to a upset parent, and a lesson plan reflection. As part of this project, a note-taking guide was developed for the interview committee to reflect on candidate strengths and areas of growth. This process also included writing a high quality job posting to recruit high quality candidates. This artifact demonstrates how a high quality leader uses strong processes, like hiring, to recruit and retain effective staff. If a leader is able to recruit and retain effective staff, less time is spent on hiring and more time can be spent on instructional leadership.

This onboarding PDSA was completed during the spring of 2022 as part of a class at Drake. During this process data was collected to analyzed to improve upon the process for onboarding Autism Consultants when they join the Autism Team. Based on the data, high quality tools were identified (rounding, capacity matrix, stoplight reports) were used to refine the process and increase the consistency within the process of onboarding staff. This artifact shows how an effective leader can develop strong processes to ensure that staff feel supported in starting a new role and retaining effective staff.

As an Autism Consultant at GWAEA, part of our role is to provide meaningful professional learning to our LEA partners. Prior to the pandemic, all of our classes were offered in a face-to-face format. The pandemic changed the format in which our LEA partners were looking for professional development and teachers were having a very difficult time finding substitutes to attend trainings at GWAEA. The PDSA was completed in the Fall of 2021 to collect and analyze data around courses offered at GWAEA and develop a plan for effectively providing professional learning to our LEA partners in a way that meets current needs. The Fifth Discipline (Senge, 2009) archetypes were taken into consideration when developing a new system for providing learning. The result was a online professional development course, which was self-paced and included an individualized coaching component. This artifact demonstrates the importance of using data to guide professional development for staff, as well as individualizing learning for individual learner needs.

Providing effective and meaningful professional development opportunities is an essential component of being an effective leader. This rarely can be done in isolation. As an Autism Consultant, I worked with the building administration, instructional coach, and GWAEA building based staff to develop and deliver individualized learning for the entire building around neurodiversity. This was the first in a series of learning opportunities that allowed teachers to choose a "learning lane" to dive into strategies that are relevant to their classroom. Each learning lane included fidelity implementation checks, sharing and strategies that supported all learners. This learning was developed and provided from the spring of 2021 through the 2022 school year. This artifact shows how effective leaders can work as a team to define and develop effective professional development based on building needs and the mission and vision of the district.

The artifact above is a running list of all of the clinical experiences I participated in during my pre service experience during Clinical 1 and Clinical 2 between the fall of 2020 through the spring of 2022. This documents over 400 hours of clinical experience with elementary, secondary, special education and general education experiences. This document also includes reflections from my first clinical experience. This artifact shows proficiency in completing the clinical internship by participating in a variety of experiences and activities, including professional development, interviewing state representatives, attending IEP meetings, planning for schedules and interviews.

As part of my clinical 2 hours, I conducted a PDSA that looked at how to support building leadership teams in identifying and providing effective professional development to support in the area of inclusion and implementation of the District Developed Service Delivery Plan. Data was collected and the plan included implementation of a specific planning form, which involved quality tools. This process then supported leadership teams in following a specific process and looking at school data to provide quality professional learning. This artifact encompases many of the NELP standards within the clinical experience. I had to work to build professional capacity, while understanding and moving forward with the district's mission and vision of inclusion. I used data-based decision making to inform instruction for teachers and made connections to the districts prior work in equity and inclusion. This project was completed throughout the 2021-2022 school year.