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Building Distributed Leadership in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Building Action Plans

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Building Distributed Leadership in the Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaBuilding Action Plans

With assistance from University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Dr. James O’Toole, Project Co-Director

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Think about it

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Objectives

• Put into action what you learned so that you make a difference.

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Time for Leadership Action

• Need an individual Action Plan to put knowledge to use for Instructional Improvement

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What is this?

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• Who can help each individual with his/her Action Plan?

• What information do I need to construct an Action Plan?WHO CAN

HELP? WHAT INFO DO I NEED?

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• The Team Review (document is in folder).

• Outline of what to look for in an Action Plan with a Performance Score.

• Notes section offers open ended feedback to improve team member’s proposal.• Each Action Plan is shared and the

Team Review is discussed in a team meeting.

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How Are You Doing?

• Monitoring Tool• Completed at least “quarterly” and

shared/discussed with team members (all receive copies)

• Trust/Honesty are Important

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What Do You Need?

•Information & Data•SIP, PLN, PLC, Terra Nova – obtain from schools•Others?

•“Action” to Complete•Targeted Outcome

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The Logic of the Annenberg Distributed Leadership Program

Contextual Factors

Teacher Leadership in Instructional Improvement

School Culture and Instructional Improvement

Student Outcomes

Community Characteristics

Organizational Culture

Planning and selecting curriculum materials and course

content

Instructional Leadership

Instructional strategies for the

subject(s) you teachStudent Engagement Grades

School Characteristics

Collective Responsibility

Instructional strategies to assist low performing

students

Test scores

Collaborative Planning

Classroom management

AttendanceDisciplinary

problems

Family Characteristics

Structured Training Ongoing Coaching

Teacher-teacher and Teacher-

principal Leadership

Teams

Assessing students’ understanding of the subject(s) you teach

Attention in classSchool persistence

and completion (high school)

InnovationHomework completion

Distributed School Leadership Program

Student Characteristics

The Program Logic

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Marshall Memo 180 (April 9, 2007)

Finding the Right Balance Between Literary Classics and Newer Books

“The themes are kind of dead now,” says Evanston Township High School student Chanelle Brown, “and I don’t feel like any of the stories apply to me . . . Maybe we can relate to books more if they’re about real things we’re dealing with, or maybe they will make me stretch my mind so I can understand other people’s problems more.”

Jeffrey Wilhem, Boise State University – In one class in his study that had been assigned Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, none of the students had actually read the play, but had come up with 30 different ways to fool the teacher into thinking they had.

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Center Your Action Plan Around a Topic that interests you while matching success indicators and goals of the

Distributed Leadership Initiative and the

Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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Focus

Key is to focus the Action Plan on:• Student learning by helping teams ensure that

students achieve the intended outcomes of their schooling

• Student learning is the focus when teams know what each student needs to learn

• After agreeing on the “what” of learning, teams question: “How will we know whether students have learned the essential material?”

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Focus

• All need help writing specific and measurable team improvement goals that focus on student learning rather than the teams activities.

• All need encouragement, recognition, and celebration as they progress.

• All need someone to confront those individuals or teams of teachers who failed to fulfill their responsibility.

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Focus

• “By focusing on learning, today's school leaders shift both their own focus and that of the school community from inputs to outcomes and from intentions to results.”

• “Schools need principal (team) leadership as much as ever”

• “But only those who understand that the essence of their job is promoting student and teacher learning will be able to provide their leadership.”

Beyond Distributed Leadership: The Learning-Centered Principal,

Richard DuFour

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Action Plan Feedback

David Baugh, Principal of Duckrey Elementary School, Cohort 1, Principal’s Report, January 2008

“Action Plans have emerged as a really good tool to keep the SIP alive. They have turned out to be a vital tool in supporting our initiatives. Perhaps the best description for this is that SIP is a potluck dinner and the action plans are a way of making sure the dinner occurs and that all needs are met.”

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You are Ready to SOAR!! (like an Eagle)

GO FOR IT!!