A Discussion on the Establishment of an Effective School Leadership Team

Selecting and Building an Effective School Leadership Team

The selected leadership team is in a high school setting. My dream school leadership team would have the following members; one school principal, deputy principal, school dean, two heads of department for the foundation and enrichment curriculum subjects, two senior teachers, teacher representatives for each grade, and two non-teaching staff supervisors. The goal is to fulfill the 15: 1 ratio of tutors v instructional leaders. The school principal is the highest authority who oversees administration matters concerning all tutors. The deputy principal acts second in command, mainly dealing with discipline in the school community, and works closely with the guidance and counseling teachers. The school dean is the head of academics who ensures the implementation of instructional improvement and data-driven instruction, for instance, scheduling assessments and implementing new teaching plans. The academic department leaders deal with each subject in their area and ensure proper lesson planning, learning feedback, and curriculum development. The senior teachers are more experienced tutors who mentor student teachers and other teachers with less experience to motivate professional development. Teacher representatives in each grade ensure the instillation and evaluation of positive student culture among all students, such as responsibility. The non-teaching staff supervisors are in charge of the school’s supporting staff to cultivate a healthy staff culture for such members (Santoyo, 2012).

The leadership team convenes weekly meetings to evaluate academic performance, give instructional feedback and establish group norms. Such meetings are meant to ensure accountability in the school community. The team members will also attend leadership seminars and benchmarking to train and enhance their leadership skills. Additionally, giving rewards to achieve leadership goals motivates the team members. The school leadership team’s vision is to facilitate continuous instructional development, which enhances student achievement.

Implementation of Instructional Planning Process

Each lesson plan should have student expectations and instructional objectives. The student expectations estimate the potential students’ achievement for each lesson by identification of the specific skills and knowledge that the learner must demonstrate. Such expectations enable tutors to have instructional plans that positively impact student outcomes. For instructional objectives, they are the focal point of a lesson plan. They lay down the expected outcome to be gained from a lesson.

The instructional planning process should also align with national, state and district standards. In Texas, all state public schools have to adopt the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills guidelines (TEKS), which provide state curriculum standards. In Mathematics, TEKS focuses on probability, finance, and statistics, while Language Arts embodies eight concepts to consolidate listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Thus, the leadership team will discuss the best way to implement and achieve such standards.

To evaluate student progress and understanding, the school leadership team will ensure that there are assessment methods such as performance tasks, student self-assessment, standardized tests, and topic reflections (Santoyo, 2012). The assessment ensures that students have college readiness. Implementing evaluation and support systems such as the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System will ensure that tutors get formative, continuous, and timely feedback from the school leadership team. Such feedback will ensure that teachers improve their instructional techniques by convening weekly meetings with both the leadership team and the teachers to provide coaching, analyze, and review the expected outcomes of the lesson plans. (Kearney et al., 2012)

Coaching for Instructional Improvement

To ensure effective feedback and observation, the leadership team will make weekly observations in the classrooms and give feedback to the teachers by coaching them on various ways to improve the learning process. After such coaching, the leadership team members will also follow up on the implementation of such feedback to ensure that the coaching lessons given to the tutors are put into practice for instructional growth and development (Kemethofer et al., 2022).

The central leadership style in my dream leadership team will be coaching leadership. The objective is the recognition of the motivations, weaknesses, and strengths of each individual and finding ways to improve. For an effective and positive feedback mechanism, the leadership will follow the following steps; the team will establish areas of concern by communicating with the tutors on their instructional techniques. Then the team will motivate the tutors by recognizing and rewarding their success based on instructional performance (Kearney et al., 2012).

The team leaders will then move on to constructive criticisms, which will be done through one-on-one sessions such as a post-observation conference. In such a meeting, the team leaders will give feedback to teachers about their instructional performance during the observation. The team will also improve their leadership skills through self-assessment, reflection, and a survey by the mentored tutors. Follow-up meetings will be scheduled to hold the tutors accountable and ensure they implement (Kemethofer et al., 2022)

In conclusion, my dream leadership team will have the vision to ensure the growth of Data-based instruction, the strengthening of instructional leadership skills, the establishment of a positive feedback mechanism, and the promotion of continuous instructional improvement and growth. The goal will be facilitating students’ achievement growth, enhancing teachers’ capacities, and fostering positive student and staff cultures.

References

Bambrick-Santoyo, Paul, 1972-. (2012). Leverage leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools. San Francisco :Jossey-Bass,

Kemethofer, D., Helm, C., & Warwas, J. (2022). Does educational leadership enhance instructional quality and student achievement? The case of Austrian primary school leaders. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.2021294

Kearney, W., Sean, Valadez, A., & Garcia, L. (2012). Leadership for the Long-haul: The Impact of Administrator Longevity on Student Achievement. School Leadership Review, 7(2). https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=slr