LVSN+September 2014

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Welcome Back!

Name, current leadership role, district.

Something you would like to share about your summer or the start of the school year.

What learning goals do you have for yourself as a result of participating in the network (professional learning community)?

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Operational Norms

Working and learning together as a network of instructional leaders:

• What will your professional learning community look like?

• What will your professional learning community sound like?

• What will your professional learning community feel like?

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Our MissionThe Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) is a nonprofit service

arm of the University of Washington College of Education dedicated to

eliminating the achievement gap that continues to divide our nation’s

children along the lines of race, class, language and disability.

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About CEL

• Non-profit center within the University of Washington College of Education.

• 13 years of work with over 200 school districts regionally and across the country in 16 states.

• Working to support excellence and equity in the classroom.

LVSN+

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Foundational Ideas

1. If students are not learning they are not being afforded powerful learning opportunities.

2. Teaching is a highly complex and sophisticated endeavor.

3. Practice of sophisticated endeavors only improves when it is open for public scrutiny.

4. Improving practice in a culture of public scrutiny requires reciprocal accountability.

5. Reciprocal accountability implies a particular kind of leadership to improve teaching and learning.

6. Leaders cannot lead what they don’t know.

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Getting Alignment Around Instructional Effectiveness

DISTRICT LEADERSHIP

Helping district leaders to develop policies, practices and structure that support principals and teachers in

delivering high-quality instruction.

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Helping district leaders and principals observe, analyze

and lead for high-quality instruction.

TEACHING EFFECTIVENESSDeveloping the teaching expertise necessary to ensure that all students

learn at high levels.

STUDENTLEARNING

All students, regardless of race,

class, language and disability, achieve at

high levels.

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Essential Questions

• How does a system’s shared and common vision of effective instruction improve student achievement?

• How do we create a system to lead for instructional improvement?

• What behaviors and practices will we need to put into place to support the growth of instructional leadership?

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Learning Targets

• To deepen our understanding of central office leadership actions to support Instructional Leadership teaching and learning.

• To deepen our understanding of how to use our theory of action to guide the goal-setting phase of the principal evaluation cycle/roadmap.

• To deepen our understanding of the attributes of quality goal setting.

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Outcomes

• Identify “promising practices” in the goal setting stage of the principal evaluation cycle/roadmap that focus on teaching and learning.

• Identify existing and needed evidence and measures within the district to set goals for instructional leadership focused on improving teaching and learning.

• Use the collective intelligence, experience and expertise of the network to help each superintendent grapple with identified roadblocks in the goal setting stage of the principal evaluation cycle/roadmap.

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What Calls You To The Work?

“If you want to leverage improvement in a school system, the most critical role is the principal.”

–Noel Tichy

What do you believe about principal leadership and how will this belief influence

or shape your work?

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Modeling: How Do You Communicate with Principals

Reflect on these questions to help draft your communication:

1. How will my work with principals focus on their instructional leadership?

2. What aspects of my current vision of my relationship with my principals, our working theory of action can I use to frame my relationship and work with principals this year?

3. How can I use what I’ve learned today to help with this vision? To model my own learning?

4. In concrete terms, what can principals expect from our one-on-one work and principal network meetings over the course of the year?

For example, how many times will you be in their school? How will you set up those meetings? Will you ever just drop in? What will you do while you are there? How do these meetings compare with visits in the past?

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Communicating for Learning

“True learning takes place only when the leader invest the time and emotional energy to engage those around him or her in a dialogue that produces mutual understanding.”

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Elevator Speech

• Who I am…

• Who we are..

• Where we are going and how we will get there…

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Goal Setting

• In pairs read articles and take notes.

• Each article takes a different stance on goal setting.

• Summarize your article and share the stance on goal setting with your partner. Give evidence from the article in support.

• How do the articles compliment each other? Contradict each other?

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A Road Map for the Work

Road MapAnalyze Evidence- Baseline Data Collection

- Student Learning

-Teacher Practice

Determine an Area of Focus- Principal Practice

First Inquiry Cycle - Implement and Support

Student Growth- Check-in

Second Inquiry Cycle- Implement and Support

Student Growth - Check-in

Third Inquiry Cycle- Implement and Support

Summative -Student Learning

-Teacher Practice

-Principal Practice

August/September

October

DecemberMarch

May/June

Making the Roadmap Actionable

• Each conversation between principal and supervisor becomes an opportunity to revisit professional goals, identify needed supports, provide valuable feedback, and engage with principals as colleagues in their ongoing response to problems of practice. In short, each conversation becomes an opportunity for professional growth.

- AWSP Planning Guide, 2014

Identifying Needs

Setting the Goals

Identifying the Evidence

Choosing Key Strategies

Establishing a Timeline

Identifying Necessary Supports

Implementing

- AWSP Planning Guide, 2014

The Evaluation Process and Professional Growth Planning (PGP)

Instructional Leadership Inquiry Cycle

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Tools to Support Continuous Principal Growth: Principal Inquiry Cycle

• Read the phases of the cycle (graphic and description) individually (pages 1-4).

• Share understanding with a partner and discuss the following questions:

–How are these processes similar to how you work with principals? How is it different?

–To what extent could this tool support growth in principals as instructional leaders?

The principal supervisor and principal together:

• Anchor the conversation of principal performance in evidence (principal leadership, teaching practice, and student learning).

• Focus on leadership competencies needing improvement and within the principal’s zone of proximal development (AWSP, District High-Leverage Leadership Strategies).

• Present a clear theory of action as to why and how the principal’s goal(s) will lead to improved teacher practice and student achievement.

• Establish metrics to measure goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound).

• Clarify the shared work and accountability between the principal and principal supervisor that will lead to the goal.

Attributes of Effective Goal Setting Conferences

Phase 1: Analyze Evidence to Develop Problems of Practice

Principal and principal supervisor gather and analyze evidence to identify student learning problems and problems of teaching practice.

• What are the learning strengths and challenges of students learning?

• What are the related instructional strengths and challenges of teaching practice?

District Provided Tools and Information: • Data gathering tools and processes (e.g., assessment

scores, teacher evaluations ratings, walkthrough data)

• School Improvement Plan

• What else?

Phase 2: Determine an Area of Focus

Principal and principal supervisor analyze evidence to identify a principal instructional leadership area of focus.

• What type of evidence will be collected to determine the area of focus?

• What is the principal area of focus for this cycle of inquiry (How does this fit with the AWSP Principal Framework, District TOA, District High Leverage Principal Strategies)?

District Provided Tools and Information: • School Improvement Plan

• Principal self-assessment (AWSP)

• Principal evaluation and goal setting (prior year)

• Principal performance data(e.g., climate surveys, 360 evaluations)

• What else?

Generate a Theory of Action

If the principal…

Then teachers will be able

to…

So that students will be able to…

Determine Evidence of Success

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Time with Colleagues

• Small Groups

• Protocol

• Whole Group Sharing

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Coaching Conversations

Leadership Practices

Supervising Zone

Give Advise, the

Answers

Ask “Loaded

Questions”

Mentoring Zone

Teaching

Offering Options

Coaching Zone

Creating

AwarenessDesigning

Actions

Planning and Goal Setting

Monitoring Progress

Celebrating Success

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Mentoring or Coaching

• Mentoring is primarily based on the wisdom gained from experience (deductive).

• Mentors are people with invaluable experience. They have a wealth of tips and suggestions to share and should be given enormous respect. However you (and your mentor) need to remember that you are a different person, in a different situation, going forward into what might turn out to be a different future.

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Mentoring or Coaching

• Coaching is primarily future focused (generative).

• Coaches ideally have a depth of experience as well – but their job is primarily to challenge you to think in new ways about the future. The most powerful way to do this is to ask ‘generative questions’ which surface new possibilities and insights, and to help you to choose your own, unique strategies going forward.

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Questions that Create Learning OpportunitiesIt is essential for leaders to strengthen their skills in the use of dialogue and engagement approaches that deepen mutual inquiry and foster collective intelligence.

• Creating a climate of discovery

• Suspending premature judgment

• Listening for connections between ideas

• Articulating shared understanding

• Harvesting and sharing collective discoveries

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What Makes a Question Powerful?

“A paradigm shift occurs when a question

is asked inside the current paradigm

that can only be answered from outside it.”

-Marilee Goldberg

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Powerful Questions

• Stimulate creativity

• Motivate fresh thinking

• Surface underlying assumptions

• Focus intention, attention, and energy

• Open the door to change

• Lead us into the future

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The Construction of a Question

More Powerful

Who, What, When, Where, Which, Why,

How, Yes or No?

Less PowerfulThe Art of Powerful Questions

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The Construction of a QuestionMore Powerful

Why,

How,

What,

Who, When, Where,

Which, Yes or No?

Less Powerful The Art of Powerful Questions

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Powerful Questions

“A question not asked is a door not opened.”

-Marilee Goldberg

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Case Study - Principal WebPhase 1 & 2

• Calibration

• Creating a protocol for future problems of practice

• Using your tools

• System checks and balances

Exit

Feedback

What worked?

What do I need?