COMPETENCIES FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
1. Communication – Effectively listens to others; clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st century objectives.
- My mentor principal and I crafted a weekly email to staff members informing them about important dates and news for the week to come. Each week, we sat down together and worked our way through the school district's Leadership Weekly newsletter. We used information from this, as well as specific school information, to write the weekly staff newsletter. Some weeks, I wrote the newsletter and my principal edited it, while other weeks, he wrote, and I edited. In this process, I learned how vital it is to communicate clearly and concisely to all school stakeholders.
2. Change Management – Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation.
- The master schedule at the elementary level is crafted with much intentionality. I had the opportunity to work on master schedule revisions this summer to ensure common planning time for all grade levels. This was one of the "big rocks" requested by staff during an end of year survey. The staff felt that they did not have ample time to plan together, as well as to create and grade common assessments and to problem solve academic and behavior concerns with individual students. This year, with a master schedule that includes this common planning time, teachers are able to work together to plan and problem solve.
3. Conflict Management – Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner.
- My residency school uses Educator's Handbook to record all behavior incidents, whether they are minor offenses or office referrals. One of my roles was to edit the instances and assign consequences in the software/database, based on what actual consequence was given (e.g., Restorative Practices Center, contact parents, time out in other classroom). If these instances were not entered correctly, I reached out to staff members to follow up on the specific instances. This role allowed me to contribute to the overall success of students in the building, as this data was used to write Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Below is an example of the instances entered into Educator's Handbook for one particular student.
Throughout my residency, I was also given the responsibility for two students with significantly challenging behaviors. One student was a Kindergartener, and the other student was a first grader. These students spent much time outside the classroom because of the disruptions they caused. I worked one-on-one with these students, their families, and with other school staff to provide the best support I was able. In my work with these two students, I was able to write and implement several Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) and to be a part of a change in placement for one student. The first grader was ultimately placed in a developmental needs class at another Durham elementary school, which better met his needs.
4. Creative Thinking – Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking.
- In March of 2020, the United States was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, causing schools to close indefinitely. We as a school and school system had to act quickly to meet the needs of students and families, both their physical and academic needs. We created a call list to reach out to each of our families, and we also served as a feeding site for Durham Public Schools' feeding program. I served as a site coordinator for this and for the Durham Public Schools Foundation's feeding program. In this role, I recruited a team of volunteers to distribute food to families, as well as to mail instructional packets to each of our students. Below is an email detailing to role of the site coordinator for the DPS Foundation feeding program.
5. Customer Focus – Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly.
- My residency school wrote and conducted a student climate survey around the middle of the school year, specifically for 5th graders. We used this data (linked below) to inform decisions for the second semester of the school year. One of the opportunities for growth according to the survey was "my teachers know my families well." When we saw this, we as the administrative team worked with our family liaison to plan two family nights for the spring - one focused on literacy and the other on math. I worked with the family liaison to contact our Spanish-speaking families to personally invite them to these events, and classroom teachers personally contacted the English-speaking families.
6. Delegation – Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school.
- We worked as an administrative team to develop an organizational chart (linked below) to divide out tasks to each member of the team along with the student services team. In this process (and in many of my courses), I learned the importance of distributive leadership, and this organizational chart reflects that.
7. Dialogue/Inquiry – Is skilled in creating a risk-free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance.
- After each and every professional development session by the administrative team and coaches, we ask staff members to provide feedback. We want to engage in dialogue surrounding how we can make ourselves and our professional development better and more tailored to teachers. One of the pieces of feedback from the literacy professional development session was for the opportunity to co-teach with the literacy coach, Paula. I worked directly with Paula to go into nine different classrooms to model and co-teach a writing lesson for classroom teachers. Seeing it directly and in their own classrooms allowed these teachers to build their confidence in the writing curriculum and how to effectively implement it.
8. Emotional Intelligence – Is able to manage oneself through self awareness and self management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community.
- In order to begin to build effective relationships with teachers and other staff members, I wrote a letter of introduction that was shared with staff before the first workday. This allowed staff members to know a little bit about me, both personally and professionally, before they met me on the first workday. Several staff members reached out directly to me with additional questions and opportunities to support them in the first week of school.
9. Environmental Awareness – Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures and positions.
- The COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina and subsequent school closure made schools and school systems move quickly to implement distance learning opportunities for students. However, before implementing Google Classroom or other opportunities for distance learning, we as a school realized that we must reach out to each family to check in and ask how we can support them in this time. We also asked about whether or not a family had computer and Internet/Wifi access. I worked directly with our community school coordinator to create a spreadsheet to keep track of these calls, as well as to recruit a team of staff members to make the calls. Below is a link to the spreadsheet.
10. Global Perspective – Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy.
- I worked with a school committee to plan and run a Hispanic Heritage Night in the fall. Many of our students (over 40%) are of Hispanic heritage, and this event was planned to celebrate them and their contributions to our community. The performances during this night included Latino parents and families, entire classrooms, and Spanish-speaking staff members. We also served food provided by local restaurants and school families.
11. Judgment – Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information.
- This year, I was tasked with helping serve as one of the testing coordinators for all federal, state, and districts tasks. One of the biggest challenges to that role in compiling and ensuring compliance with all student accommodations, from IEPs and 504 plans. I met with the school counselor/504 coordinator to discuss the accommodations in 504s, and I used PowerSchool and the EC Facilitator to compile a list of testing accommodations for our students identified as EC. Linked below is the accommodations spreadsheet. In completing this role, I learned the importance of double and triple checking my work (and even allowing others to double check my work) in order to comply with federal, state, and district mandates.
12. Organizational Ability – Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are used appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects.
- I was tasked with creating a walkthrough schedule to be used by the administrative team and coaches. Each classroom (K-5) teacher received one walkthrough a week, and other certified staff members (i.e. ESL, AIG, EC, specialists) received one every two weeks. Throughout this process, I have learned the importance of helping teachers have a continuous growth mindset. No matter where a teacher is in their years of experience or ability level, there is always an opportunity for growth. In every piece of feedback given to teachers, whether informally (through in-person conversations or email) or formally (through a post-conference), my goal was to help teachers set small measurable goals.
13. Personal Ethics and Values – Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality.
- In order to develop a stronger community among the staff, the administrative team decided to create "Four for Four" - we gave a treat to all staff members for the four Fridays prior to spring break. These items included: chips and queso and local coffee and doughnuts. Small deposits like this help to build trust and respect among the entire staff.
14. Personal Responsibility for Performance – Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements.
- Each week this year, I completed a reflection of the prior week's learning. These reflections were on many different topics: staff morale, student behaviors, continuous improvement in instruction, and much more. The reflections were shared with my cohort director and executive coach and many weeks, the reflections prompted an ongoing dialogue. These reflections, as well as the conversations and dialogue they prompted, helped me in accepting feedback from other and applying this feedback to my work on a day-to-day basis.
15. Responsiveness – Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/situations in an expedient manner.
- Timely feedback is essential to the growth of teachers and ultimately students. After completing a walkthrough in a classroom, my goal was to send an email to a staff member with feedback before the end of the school day. Throughout this process, I have learned the importance of helping teachers have a continuous growth mindset. No matter where a teacher is in their years of experience or ability level, there is always an opportunity for growth. In every piece of feedback given to teachers, whether informally (through in-person conversations or email) or formally (through a post-conference), my goal was to help teachers set small measurable goals.
16. Results Orientation – Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals.
- The Instructional Leadership Team (focused on academic growth around the building), or which I am a member, discussed the need for a new PLC agenda. We worked together to create this new template which is framed by DuFour's four critical questions for a PLC. The new agenda also includes the goals/intended outcomes for the meeting, a review of the team's social contract, as well as reflections from the team. I was able to contribute heavily to the creation of this new agenda through the knowledge I gained in Dr. Cathy Williams' PLC course.
17. Sensitivity – Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deals tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
- One of my roles was to receive and respond to email, texts and phone calls when staff members were going to be out of school for any reason. In my responses (one is linked below), I made sure to communicate compassion, care, and to help staff members in any way possible. I was reminded over and over of the old adage "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care," and being sensitive to this and the needs of staff members, especially when they are going to be out for emergency family issues or sickness, is essential.
18. Systems Thinking – Understands the interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team.
- At my residency school, we faced a unique challenge of finding substitutes when staff members were out of the building, for sickness, professional development, and other reasons. I developed a system of coverage by instructional assistants, both for absences and for IEP and 504 meetings. This system ensured that teachers were equitably pulled from their regular classrooms and that all classrooms had coverage each day.
19. Technology – Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction.
- When I arrived at my residency school, most of the staff was still using the internal H drive and Microsoft Office tools to communicate with one another. I introduced Google Drive to many of them, which allows for real-time sharing and updates, and many of these staff members have introduced Google Classroom to their students. This has been helpful, especially with the school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Below is an example of a Kid Talk agenda in Google Documents - allowing teachers to edit and collaborate in real-time (as the meeting was occurring).
20. Time Management – Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings.
- My residency school kept a shared calendar on Microsoft Outlook. This allowed for all staff members to see upcoming events. Access to add, edit, and delete was given only to the administrative team, and staff members sent upcoming events/meetings to us to be added. We also sent a two week look-ahead out to staff with the weekly newsletter, in case they were not regularly checking the master calendar. At the beginning of the school year, I sat down with many staff members to help them navigate how to add and use the shared master calendar, which allowed them to be informed of vital school, grade level, and individual meetings.
21. Visionary – Encourages imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholder dreams of what the school could become for all the students.
- When I arrived at my residency school in the fall, I sought to reach out to teachers with "how can I help?" as my mantra. One of the things that teachers and other staff members kept asking me about was staff absences and meeting coverage. At that time, when a classroom teacher was out and no substitute picked up the job, the students in the absent teacher's class were split up among the other three to four classrooms of the same grade level. This ended up causing disruptions to multiple classrooms and dozens of students. I sought to find a solution to this problem. I reached out to my principal mentor and proposed a new staff coverage schedule. I created a coverage schedule (using instructional assistants) for when a teacher was out and no substitute was available. Over and over, I heard positive feedback from teachers and staff about this new schedule.