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Visionary Leadership Analysis Leadership in Education EDAD 6580Eden Loes Fall Quarter 2019Briefly describe the vision at your school.Preparing Students For…Lifelong Learning, Rewarding Careers & Productive CitizenshipBy Embracing…Accountability, Adaptability & Academic ExcellenceRochester Primary School is located on the I-5 corridor just 20 minutes south of Olympia and less than 10 minutes north of Centralia. We have approximately 525 students enrolled in grades K-2 with an average class size of 24. Over 60 dedicated staff members work here to help our students be successful. Rochester Primary School strongly appreciates and encourages participation by parents and other community members. We look forward to working with you and your children. RPS has a talented staff that provides the best possible education to our students. The hard work and dedication of the staff at RPS is admirable. RPS staff goes above and beyond to assure that each and every student has their needs met. We have solid reading, writing, listening, speaking, math, science, social studies, arts and physical education programs. At RPS, we have fully implemented an intervention program in reading, and we are revamping our intervention in math. Teachers meet regularly in professional learning communities during ACT time each Friday to focus on using the most effective instructional strategies to support our students in their learning. Our staff holds high expectations for learning for all of our students at RPS, and we maintain the belief that all of our students are fully capable learners.How is your school vision consistent or aligned with the district-wide vision?Rochester School District is committed to the education of the community’s youth. We have an enrollment of approximately 2300 students in five schools. Our school district takes great pride in developing educational programs that prepare students for a successful adult life. As a result of this pride and commitment, each member of Rochester’s educational family sets high self-performance expectations. When the occasion necessitates, the district searches for committed, quality professionals to add to its staff. Our mission is to provide a quality education that will empower our individual students to become caring, competent, responsible citizens who value education as a lifelong process.The vision for Rochester Primary School is the same vision throughout the entire Rochester School District. Because Rochester School District is relatively small, and a one-track school district (one preschool, one primary school, one elementary, one middle and one high school) it is easier to maintain consistency across schools with using the same language for school and district vision. Because I work at building level, not district level, I’m not able to see how well other schools within the district do at implementing goals to support the vision and maintain it over time and throughout changes in building staff and leadership roles. I do know that the leadership staff at the Primary School is very dedicated, although there has been an influx of new teachers in the 3 years I have been here. Whether they are new to the district or new to the teaching profession entirely, there have been 8 new teachers to Rochester Primary School, including myself, since I began working there 3 years ago. Who is involved in developing the vision at your school?The vision at Rochester Primary School and for Rochester School District has been the same since I began working there 3 years ago. It is my understanding that the vision for the entire district was developed by a team of district program administrators, building principals, overseen by the district superintendent and brought to the school board for input during the brainstorming, proposal and initiation processes of creating the vision statement. At the school-wide level, those in charge of disseminating the vision are the building principal, vice-principal and I believe the receive support from the building Leadership Team as well. Because the vision has not changed in several years and I am a newer faculty member, I am unsure of if it is reviewed annually at the building or district levels to discuss if the vision is still accurate and meaningful or if it needs to be workshopped and reworked. What processes and activities are employed in developing your school’s vision?There is not any information on the district’s main or individual school webpages regarding how the vision was developed. On a smaller scale, the Rochester School District Special Education Department meets three times each school year to review our systems, procedures and practices, and, during this time, we also review and evaluate our department’s vision. This year, at our first meeting, it was determined that not everyone was happy with the wording of our department’s vision and that it could do with some reworking. We began on an individual basis, writing down our thoughts/a vision tagline, then shared those with small groups. Within small groups, we agreed on 3 main points or words to include in our department’s vision. After each small group came to consensus, the groups presented their 3 main points or words to the entire department. During this process we were able to combine same or like words/sentiments, and also vote to condense and reach consensus on the overall points/language we wanted to include in our vision statement. The team again divided into small groups to take our main points and use them in creating a 1-2 sentence vision statement for our department. After doing this, each group presented its draft of the vision to the large group, and through discussion, collaboration and voting, the drafts were edited, withdrawn or combined to form a vision statement agreed upon by all members. The thought process behind using a system like this is that in each step, all members have voice and opportunity to contribute, either by supplying ideas, or in voting on points/wording that resonated most with them and their ideas of what the department’s vision should be. The final vision statement, after being workshopped and edited by small groups and the entire department team was submitted to the department head, who then posted the vision statement on the district’s Special Education Department web page. Our department head also sent out a memo to all department members to share the new vision statement and remind everyone of the process we went through to develop it and come to consensus.What information, data, and input are used to shape the vision?Surveys, questionnaires, information gathered from attendance and achievement data, SIP team meetings and discussion all provide input to shape the vision of the school. Below is the current School Improvement Plan for Rochester Primary School. Its foci for SIP goals are in the areas of improving scores in ELA & Math (as measured by data gathered from iReady Diagnostic assessment) as well as domain growth from EL students in the areas of listening, speaking, reading or writing as measured by the ELPA 21.Rochester Primary School 2019-2020 School Improvement PlanGoal: During the 2019-2020 school year the percentage of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile in ELA will increase by 10% from Fall to Spring as measured by the iReady Diagnostic assessmentGoal: During the 2019-2020 school year the percentage of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile in Mathematics will increase by 10% from Fall to Spring as measured by the iReady Diagnostic assessment.???Goal: During the 2019-2020 school year 85% of EL students will show domain growth in the area of Listening, Speaking, Reading, or Writing as measured by ELPA 21.School Reform Strategy: Increasing School Wide Behavior SupportsSchool Reform Strategy:? Students speak in sentences?School Reform Strategy:? Increase student attendancePLAN: School Improvement Strategy?Based on needs assessment/data what is your school going to implement or continue to refine during the 19-20 SY?DO: Action?What activities (PD, incentives, initiatives) is your school going to do to implement your school improvement strategy?STUDY/EvidenceWhat evidence are you going to use that your strategy is being implemented effectively?? Review will happen in February (mid-year)ADJUST: Results and Next StepsWhat were the results of your mid-year review?? What next steps were decided on?Increase school wide behavior supportsDevelop an RPS Behavior Teacher Leader team. This is a part of the larger P-12 effort, working with the District WSLA team.? PD with P-12 four times a year and four meetings a year at the building level.??PD:? SEL training for all staff five? times this year and an additional two times for teachers.? Topics to include introduction to and practice of STOIC elements, classroom community building activities, teaching self-regulation and setting up buddy classroom work stations.?PD calendarPD Content & Process documentsMinutes from building level meetings?Sign in sheetsStudents speak in sentencesUse sentence stems to help students develop an understanding of how to answer in sentences.Continue to implement SST.Students will be redirected to answer in sentences when they do not initially.??Increase? student attendanceDaily:? Teachers take attendance in Skyward daily and greet all students with positive verbal and/or physical contact.?Weekly:? Attendance door posters presented to the classrooms in the grade with the highest weekly attendance rate based on Thursday to Thursday. These are presented and transferred at assemblies. Grade level teachers from previous week will present to the new grade level in an effort to model sportsmanship, group celebration, and overall celebration.Attendance bulletin board in the main hallway that students pass by multiple times a day. The content will include attendance rates by grade level for the previous week.?PD:? August 21 “Warriors Show Up” attendance training with Assistant Principal18-19 Chronic absent attendance rate was 15%.? The 19-20 goal set by OSPI is 10% or less.??Check grade level attendance weekly?Check grade level attendance monthly How is the vision communicated to stakeholders?The vision is accessible to all stakeholders through the Rochester School District’s website. Outside of the website, the vision and mission are shared during annual open house, parent teacher conferences and classroom newsletters. The vision and mission of Rochester Primary School and the larger district are also reiterated and shared during family engagement events such as Fall Fest, Kindergarten Family Dinner, Math & Literacy Curriculum Night and Field Day.How does the principal engage with constituencies—staff, parents, students— regarding the school vision?The school vision is shared with staff through trainings, TRI time, professional development opportunities and other in-school meeting opportunities. The vision is shared with parents more directly by the teachers than by the principal from what I can tell. The principal communicates with families on a large scale through weekly Warrior Assemblies where family members are invited to attend to honor the achievements of their child when they are chosen as the Warrior of the Week in their classroom. The principal also engages with families during school curriculum nights, open house, conferences, newsletters and phone calls. One new engagement activity that the principal began last year, is hosting four Kindergarten Dinners for the classes and families of 2-3 kindergarten classes throughout the year. During these dinners, families meet in the school cafeteria and share meals, family style at the cafeteria tables and engage in conversation/getting to know you activities. The principal provides an initial greeting and introduction, during which the school & district vision are shared, along with the goal for the Kindergarten Dinners. The idea behind these dinners is that these children will be in the same grade, and some of the same classes from kindergarten through high school, and getting to know each other early on will foster a greater sense of community and involvement from families over time.What is the level of buy-in regarding the school vision?I would say that for those who are duly familiar with the creation, implementation and maintenance of our school/district vision have a higher level of buy-in than those who are not directly involved. Because Rochester School District is small, with less than 2300 students across five schools, it would seem feasible to share and reinforce the district’s vision annually, and in small focus groups. In August when all certificated staff members come together, they are divided into focus groups and participate in sessions led by administrators that focus on whatever the yearly goals are- this year the topics were on trauma and mental health in students, Dr. Sprick’s STOIC Behavior Model and culturally responsive teaching. I think this would be an ideal opportunity to review the district’s vision and tie it in with the yearly goals.If you were the principal, what would you do to enhance the vision for learning at your school?If I were the principal, I would take the following actions to enhance the vision for learning at Rochester Primary School;Send out questionnaire to all staff, asking them what they think our vision is- based on results, develop a plan with building Leadership Team on how to more effectively disseminate the vision to staff and build consistency in understanding and common language around it. If there is significant discrepancy, bring findings to Leadership Team and School District Administrators.Meet with building Leadership Team to review the Rochester School District’s vision and discuss if the wider district vision is relevant and appropriate as the vision for the Primary School, or if the Primary School is needing its own, more personalized vision within the larger district. Work with building and district TOSAs and Leadership Team on planning trainings to take place during building TRI time to review (or work on formulating a new) the vision, and how we apply that vision to our daily practices with students. Work with classroom teachers or PTO to design and create visuals for the school/district mission that can be displayed in common areas around the school for both staff and students to be reminded of.Attach a list of the documents collected in your VLA Portfolio.Rochester School District Webpage- School District Webpage, link to OSPI Report Card for student achievement and demographics- Primary School Improvement Plan 2019-2020 ................
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