Professional Standards for Educational Leaders
Summary
Over the past five months I have had an opportunity to work with six different administrators within two schools. I feel that I got a very well rounded experience through observations, committee participation and participation in planning meetings for the school.
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I joined the school's IB (International Baccalaureate) Evaluation team who meets once a month in preparation for our school audit in the 2022-2023 school year. With this I was able to start to really understand the foundation of the IB program. The school has to abide by very strict guidelines put out by the the IB program.
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I also attended the SOT meetings for school planning. This year was a very interesting year as far as SOT meetings and community approval because we are looking to implement Yondr Pouches. However, we did not get the support from the community members and some of the other stakeholders. We held a townhall meeting to try to address some of the concerns that they had. We ended up compromising by holding off on implementing them this school year and rolling them out for the 2022-2023 school year.
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I was able to work with our learning strategists and the admin team on the Title I and Title III budgets. My principal worked with me on the general budget at the beginning of the internship. My eyes were opened to the complexity of school budgeting. There are so many different budgets that can only be used in certain ways and must be justified for the need. Understanding how the line items work in the general budget is also complex. All of this is vital to understand in order to keep the school running as well as ensuring we have all of the supplies and supports in place for successful student learning. ​
Connections
Everything, every meeting, every discussion we had always came down to these same things:
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1) How will this support student learning?
2) How will this support our teachers and staff?
3) How does this support our community
4) How will this support the school in general?
5) Is this the BEST solution?
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With these questions as the foundation, all decisions should help student and teach/staff success. The leadership standards are all based these questions. The roll of leaders in education is to support students, teachers, staff, the community and other stakeholders. When done right, leaders work collaboratively with their all of their stakeholders to achieve student success. It is not to dictate solutions to those around them. The school culture and climate starts with the leaders in the school. When the leaders demonstrate collaboration and professionalism, then those in the school will follow. By using these questions as a foundation it also takes away some of the subjectivity of the decision in question.
Reflection
If I take away anything from this experience, it is the importance of building a rapport with everyone you come in contact. When you have that rapport it makes it easier to have those hard discussions whether it be with a student, teacher, staff member or others stakeholders. Discipline is a big part of being in leadership. This includes students and staff members. When you have that rapport with the individual it can end up being a discussion rather that a dictation. I was impressed with how well our admin team works together with every decision made. They typically have a meeting and they all are able to add their thoughts. Even when they did not agree with one another they were able to understand one another. I hope to create an environment like this when I go into administration. Overall this was a great experience. I feel that I have only touched the surface what it takes to be a good administrator.
"The fundamental pillars of school leadership are relationships; nothing substitutes for building and nurturing them."
-Joanne Rooney