Instructional Leadership, Part 2

Question 1: Discuss ways in which the Superintendent can create conditions allowing school stakeholders to strive to achieve the campus vision.

Answer 1: The Superintendent is the ethical leader (001), cultural leader (002), the communications leader (003), the vision leader (004), the curriculum leader (005) and the instructional leader (006) of the school. In all of those roles, he is the figure that all school stakeholders look to for the ethos, the environment, the character of the school. He sets the tone for working relationships and working conditions on campus. If he works to create an atmosphere of collegial trust and cooperation, of intellectual exploration and risk taking, of open communications among and between staff and students, of ethical and legal conduct, of high expectations of staff and students, and of a genuine love of and commitment to education, the campus vision will be achieved.

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Question 2: In a certain sense, no project in the school is ever really “over,” and that includes evaluation and modification. Explain.

Answer 2: The school is a dynamic, ever growing, ever changing organism. The students change, the teachers change, the administration changes – new people come and go and the people who stay change as well, as they grow intellectually and enhance their skills and expand their experience. It is for this reason that staff evaluation and staff professional enrichment is never over; it is never a one-off. A teacher is hired; trained; evaluated; trained some more; evaluated again; trained some more, and so on. Constant evaluation and constant professional growth should be the norm because the alternative is stagnation. No matter how well you have done it, you can do better. No matter how much you have accomplished, you can do more.

Question 3: Discuss the four-step system of design, implement, evaluate, revise.

Answer 3: “Design, implement, evaluate, revise” can also be explained: propose, prepare, appraise, perfect. In this context, we are talking about designing a professional development, a recruiting plan, or an evaluation plan. All plans relate to staffing issues – hiring, training, retaining, educating, evaluating and sometimes terminating staff. Once a plan for one of these staffing tasks has been proposed, it must prepared and put into effect. Once the plan has been used for a predetermined amount of time, it needs to be evaluated – has it done what it was designed to do, and how well? Have new teachers been adequately trained? Are staff members taking advantage of relevant professional development opportunities? Have staff members been evaluated using the chosen assessment tool and do all agree that the evaluations were fair and accurate? Once the plans have been used and evaluated, they will need to be modified, tinkered with and tuned up, in order to make them better. The design/implement/evaluate/revise paradigm is present in almost everything the Superintendent and the school do.

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