MM Benchmark - Reviving the Professional Culture
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Benchmark - Reviving the Professional Culture
Marissa Martinez
College of Education, Grand Canyon University
EAD 513- Shaping School Culture
Dr. Danny Williams
October 25, 2023
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Benchmark - Reviving the Professional Culture
Creating a positive school culture is an ongoing process that requires the commitment of everyone involved in the school community. However, the benefits are worth the effort. A positive school culture can help students succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.
Shaping School Culture states, “School culture is important to successful school performance.
School culture is the underground stream of values, beliefs, traditions, and rituals, built up over time that influence daily behavior and actions of everyone at the school and set the context for student learning” (Deal & Peterson, 2016).
As an administrator, connections with every stakeholder are essential to ensure that the school culture remains positive.
“Culture impacts the way teachers, students, and administrators think, feel and act.
The key characteristics of school culture are a shared sense of purpose, vision, history, people, and relationships” (Deal & Peterson, 2016).
Currently, Maynard High School is a campus that needs work towards increasing the school culture, positive morale, and building a better sense of community. There are many glimmers of hope that it can be done.
To achieve this goal, a plan must be put in place.
Assessment of the Existing Culture
As the future principal of Maynard High School, I have been able to take time to analyze the existing culture of the campus. Maynard High School is now in its second year of existence, with a student body of 1,100 ranging from freshmen to juniors with the addition of seniors starting this upcoming school year. This addition of seniors will bring the campus student population to a rough estimate of 1,450. The campus will start the school year with a budget for 54 teachers with 9 of them being new hires to replace 7 teachers that will not returning next year.
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With the 7 teachers leaving the loss of many core class teachers and elective teachers will need to be replaced. With allocations for next year, the addition of a new counselor will bring our team to 4 instead of the current 3. Our office staff has enough support with a receptionist, an attendance clerk, an administrative assistant for the principal, and two administrative assistants supporting the assistant principals.
There are definite areas of growth and issues that need to be addressed when it comes to the school culture as there have been inconsistencies with teacher formal evaluations, limited use
of provided resources, and lack of collaboration, data analysis, and professional development opportunities to increase student success, and a lack of focus on professional learning communities to meet all student needs. With the lack of many of the areas that provide support to
educators on the campus, there are obvious holes in the positive school culture and morale. I hope that the great foundation of administrative staff to assist our teachers both new and veteran will ease the adjustment to the new changes the new year brings.
Mission, Vision, and Outcomes
One of the first orders of action that I feel would be essential for changing the narrative
of the campus is to reach out to all stakeholders to collaborate and attain sight through their
feedback on what they believe the goals of the campus should be and the type of school culture
they aspire to have to achieve those goals. The end goal would be to gain this insight to develop
a team or committee that consist of stakeholders that represent staff, student, families, and
community members to discuss the information collected and collaborate to develop a plan of
how to address this. Our first step would be to work on updating our school mission and vision to
set up our end goal of overall student success.
It is crucial that at the beginning of the year, staff
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have a chance to voice their opinions and insights on the updated mission and vision and discuss
what it means to them and how they believe they can model the mission and vision in their
classrooms. It is of great importance that our community is aware of the plan for the campus and
the changes that will be put in place to assist in implementing our school mission, vision, and
campus goals. The mission statement will be: “Our mission is to create an inclusive and
empowering environment in which every student can reach their maximum potential through
meaningful learning.”
To implement this plan on our campus there will be short-term and long-term goals to
support our school mission and vision statements. One of the short-term goals will be to revamp
and develop a mission and vision that aligns with our goal school culture and expectations. A
second short-term goal will be to develop committees in the core and elective subject areas in
which teachers can work together towards helping to find staff to fill our 9 vacant teaching spots
with passionate, innovative teachers who will align with our school mission and our school
culture.
With this goal tackled, it will then allow us to transition into our long-term goal of
addressing the use of curriculum resources. I would work with our lead teachers in each grade
level and department to address the needs of our staff and develop a plan for professional
development opportunities that address staff and student needs.
This work on professional
development will then lead to our second long-term goal of establishing PLCs for the teachers on
our campus to encourage collaboration and develop a system of support.
Collaborating for Data
The role of a principal on campus requires working alongside your staff to collaborate in
the best interests of all students. Our long-term goals for professional development and
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professional learning communities would require a great deal of collaboration around data being
collected to ensure that both goals are efficient and utilized in the best interest of our students.
It
is crucial to allow time to show that professional development learning is being applied and
utilized in classrooms and allow us to analyze its true impact on student success. Working with
our leadership team, master teachers, and staff during faculty meetings, we can discuss what is
working, and what needs to change and share ideas on how to do so. Hollibrook believes that
Faculty meetings became hotbeds of professional discussion. (Deal & Peterson, 2016). I want to
strive for our meetings to be the same. By doing this I truly believe that we can embody what the
Community of Collaboration states “Find one approach that fits with your school's vision and
build your own capacity around the idea.” (Cook, H. J., 2017)
The alignment of our professional development with our professional learning
communities will also allow us to collaborate to work towards planning high-quality lessons
based on the professional development opportunities and needs of our students. Our teams will
work together to plan around the needs of students and district expectations while analyzing data
to see the growth and impact our PLCs and PDs are having on our campus. This is a process that
takes time. Productive Family & Community Relationships
Relationships matter, Relationships with families is the foundation for building a positive
school culture. One of the first things I will work towards is to create a campus community
event, we will host a beginning-of-the-year pep rally to invite students, staff, and families to
come together to celebrate the new year, introduce our staff, and sports teams, and highlight the
amazing things our campus is working to do. This will allow for all stakeholders to come
together to build a community of collaboration and buy-in for the goals we have as a community
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and campus. It is essential to take the time to host events that help families feel welcome, valued,
and appreciated for the role they play in the education of their children. Connections with the
community are important. Taking the time to partner with community organizations and agencies
will give Maynard High School more opportunities for students and families alike. In partnering
up with community organizations we can create learning opportunities in various trades that will
allow our students a chance to participate and train in a work area of their interest or all them to
dedicate time helping others in their community. In addition, creating events that allow
community partners to join in on the work you are doing bridges connections between school,
family, and community. It also allows families to see that your community partners believe in the
work your campus is doing as well. Advocacy
Communication with all stakeholders is essential to build positive relationships that are
important for our school to thrive. As Communication, The Unspoken Key to School Culture
states “Communication with parents and the local community must be ongoing and informative
to continuously improve school morale.” (Brown, P., & Vaughn, L. 2015).
I value being able to have open and honest communication with all stakeholders and as a school
leader, this is an imperative step.
As a school leader and campus all that we do within our school
will be focused on advocating for the best interest of all of students and their needs.
We will
work to ensure that we are hiring well-trained, passionate staff that can create high-quality
learning opportunities for our students to succeed and be ready for their life ahead of them.
Through various programs, we will address students with academic challenges as well as social
and emotional needs. Our goal is to create an inclusive, safe, and empowering learning
environment in which all students can be successful.
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Rationale
Being an educator is a work of heart. Being a school leader creates a positive school culture is
attainable if you have the right plan in place that focuses on the insight and feedback of your
stakeholders and staff. There will be several steps that need to be put in place at Maynard High
School to create the positive school culture it once had. It will take time, hard work, and patience
to regain the confidence and faith that our families and staff had on this campus at one time. I
know that I can make the changes through this plan to bring back our positive school culture.
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References:
Peterson, K. D., & Deal, T. E. (2009). The shaping school culture field book
. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Cook, H. J. (2017). A Community of Collaboration. Principal Leadership
, 17
(5), 50–53.
Brown, P., & Vaughn, L. (2015). COMMUNICATION: The Unspoken Key to School Culture. Principal Leadership, 15(7), 32–37.
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