Title: Learner Centered Leadership Program
1Learner Centered Leadership Program
- An Emerging Model of Professional Development for
School Administrators
2What is learner centered leadership?
- Focus on learning.
- Focus on systems thinking
- Focus on community
3Who is involved in the program?
- Three distinct but intertwined groups
- 32 prospective administrators
- 32 novice administrators
- 32 exemplary administrators
4Prospective Administrators
- Gender Ethnicity
- 56 Female 22 African American
- 44 Male 44 Caucasian
- 34 Hispanic
5Novice Administrators
- Gender Ethnicity
- 74 Female 19 African American
- 26 Male 3 Asian American
- 42 Caucasian
- 32 Hispanic
- 3 Native American
6Novice Administrators
- Professional Positions
- 49 Assistant Principals
- 13 Deans of Students
- 6 District Personnel
- 13 Intervention Specialists
- 19 Principals
7Exemplary Administrators
- Gender Ethnicity
- 57 Female 30 African American
- 43 Male 53 Caucasian
- 17 Hispanic
8Exemplary Administrators
- Professional Positions
- 7 Assistant Superintendents
- 9 District Directors
- 84 Principals
9Retention of Participants
- Group of Participants-Start of
Participants-End - Prospective 32 29
- Rising 31 31
- Accomplished 30 30
10Stages of the Grant Project
- Development of Relationships
- Negotiation and Cultivation of Action Plans
- Implementation of Action and Mentor Plans
- Reflection and Celebration
11Assessment of Needs-TELSA
- TELSA Average Results (Rising Administrators,
February 1, 2003) - Category Difficulty Importance Frequency Sum
- Lead analysis 2.84 3.46 4.1 10.4
- design and
- development
- Lead implementation
- of instruction 2.24 4.2 2.93 9.37
- Lead evaluation 2.39 3.69 3.66 9.74
- of instruction
- Lead staff 2.48 4.01 3.46 9.95
- development
- Learner-Related 1.86 4.49 2.2 8.55
- Duties
- Staff-Related 2.42 4.43 3.32 10.17
- Duties
- Budget Other 2.83 4.2 3.9 10.93
- Admin. Duties
- Communication 1.83 4.0 2.58 8.41
- Skills
12Assessment of Needs-LEADNA
- LEADNA Average Results (Rising Administrators,
February 2003) - Number of completed surveys 102 LEADNA Class
Score 4.22 - Area Class Average Norming Group Score
- Strategy 3.82 3.33
- Communication 4.29 3.50
- Knowledge 4.20 4.50
- Learning 4.35 4.00
- Influence 4.12 4.00
- Relationships 4.49 4.00
- Delegation 3.33 3.70
- Priorities 4.42 4.00
- Integrity 4.59 3.11
- Confidence 4.11 3.78
13Brainstorming Session
- What are the most serious issues facing new
building administrators? - Student achievement for all students
- Label/school improvement plan
- Implementation of plan
- Morale issues
- Steeping into established group dynamics
- Management vs. leadership (development of staff)
- Proving self to community
- Hiring of qualified staff/retention of qualified
staff - Balance of personal and professional life
- Transition from teacher to administration
position - Effect on staff relations
- Learning about staff needs, training, learning
styles - Time management
- Identify resources/experts/how to delegate
responsibility - Analyze data/desegregation of data
- How to present and motivate staff
- Articulation needs of k-12
- Establishment of self as leader/not following
past leaders footsteps
14Brainstorming Session
- What type of training/support would you like to
see as part of this program? - Dealing with parents effectively
- Changing faculty attitudes
- Legal issues/discipline
- Special ed/legal issues
- Getting buy-in school community (establishing
shared vision) - Grant writing/how, where, when
- Cross grade opportunity for articulation
- Planning, running, facilitating meetings so that
they are effective and meaningful - Getting resources for parents, students, school
from the community (i.e. Counseling)
15Assessment of Need-Brainstorming Session
- Novice Exemplary
- Leadership vs. Management Communication
- Effecting Change/Dealing w/ Learner-Centered
- Resistance Leadership
- Student Achievement/Success Human Relations
- for All Students Management
16Assessment of Need-Mentor Expertise
- Category Average
- Lead analysis 3.83
- design and
- development
- Lead implementation 3.92
- of instruction
- Lead evaluation 3.79
- of instruction
- Lead staff 4.38
- development
- Learner-Related 4.27
- Duties
- Staff-Related 4.49
- Duties
- Budget Other 4.0
- Admin. Duties
- Communication 3.81
- Skills
- Self-Development 3.64
17Goal-Pose problems
- The scenario provided was
-
- You are the team of administrators in a school
with a teacher who doesn't seem to follow the
school rules concerning dress, for himself and
for his students. He is an 8th grade teacher,
whose students do well on the AIMS test and is
very popular with students and parents. - What, if anything, would you tell the teacher,
concerning his decision to wear ripped jeans to
school, and to allow his students to chew gum in
class, listen to Sony Walkman tapes, and
generally, does his "own thing?" - What might you tell other teachers who complained
about the dress and attitude of this teacher?
18Goal-Use various mediums
- Website
- Co-instruction
- Team decision-making
19BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
- CREATING THE CAPACITY FOR AN INTER-DISTRICT
MENTORING PROGRAM FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
20Introduction
- Professional development opportunity for school
administrators - Mentoring Model
- Need to develop capacity for mentoring by
building relationships - Challenge considering history of no collaboration
or sharing among four districts
21Description of Participating Districts
- High Needs Urban Districts with Culturally and
Language Diverse Populations - 87 of students from ethnic minority.
- 65 of students are English language. learners
- High Percentage of Students Living in Poverty
- 82 of students living at poverty level.
22AIMS Comparison
From the four districts, 33 of 57 schools
participate in grant program. On average,
students from participating schools score 2.5
points lower than the average score of all
schools from the four districts and 26.75 points
lower than the average student score at the state
level.
23SAT 9 Percentile Ranks
Students from participating schools are 2.3
percentile points below the percentile rank
average of all schools from the four districts
and 19.5 percentile points below the state
average percentile rankings.
24Definition and Rationale for Mentoring Model
- Focus on Inter-District Sharing and Collaboration
- Mentoring as an extended process of personal and
professional growth. - According to Johnson (1997), mentoring means to
facilitate, guide, and encourage continuous
innovation, learning, and growth to prepare for
the future (p. 13). - With this as the framework and definition,
effective mentoring relationships require a level
of trust, respect, ethics, and communication.
25Stages of Mentoring (Zachary,2002 Bess, 2000)
- Preparation/Initiation-focus on developing
relationships - Negotiation/Cultivation-focus on defining
experience, expectations, content, and process. - Enabling/Separation-focus on learning as the
result of working through problems/conflict. - Closure/Redefinition-focus on reflection of
learning and celebrating successes.
26Building Relationships-A Three Fold Process
- Formal Workshops (led by district teams to serve
as an introduction) - Informal activities (socials, hikes,
get-togethers that break down personal barriers) - Team Challenge (series of problem-solving
initiatives that require trust, communication,
cooperation, teamwork)
27Formal Workshops
- Topics for these workshops included data-driven
decision-making, effective school correlates,
school reform process, and facilitative
leadership. - Evaluations done in form of feedback form that
collected scores based on a Likert Scale from one
to four (1least satisfied, 4most satisfied) and
personal comments.
28Formal Workshops
- Overall, how satisfying was the learner-centered
leadership activity? - 3.6 out of 4
- I gained new understanding, ideas, and insights
regarding educational leadership. - 3.6 out of 4
- The facilities provided a comfortable place to
conduct the activities. - 3.6 out of 4
- The presentations were well organized, engaging,
and informative. - 3.75 out of 4
- The average return rate of feedback forms for
these five workshops was 75.6 with a low return
rate of 55 for the September workshop and a high
return rate of 90 for the June activity.
29Formal Workshops
- Three Themes from
- Analysis of Comments
- Relationships,
- Leadership, and
- Growth
30Relationships
- Meet people from other districts.
- The activities were seen as worthwhile because
they made it easier to get acquainted and to
have real conversations with other
administrators. - Process of changing groups worked extremely
well, because it forced us to get out of comfort
zones. - The most common comment-having the time and
opportunity to listen to other administrators in
a collaborative and positive environment.
31Informal Grant Activities
- Morning Socials
- Importance of telling stories to break down
barriers. - Hikes and other physical activities to promote
health of administrators
32Team Challenge
- Philosophy of challenge courses
- Persons have more resources and are more capable
than they think they are. - A small heterogeneous group has the resources
within it to successfully cope with significant
challenges. - One learns more when presented with problems
rather than solutions. - Significant, long-lasting learning can be
achieved through intensive, short-term
experiences.
33Team Challenge
- Purposes of the course are to
- Enhance team performance, communication, trust,
leadership, calculated risk-taking, and the
ability to set achievable goals. - Increase a participants sense of personal
confidence and ability to appreciate diverse
ideas and abilities. - Improve problem-solving skills in a unique
educational setting. - Provide an alternative approach for the effective
use of the group process. - Facilitate the inclusion process by providing
opportunities for all participants to participate
regardless of limitations.
34Team Challenge
- Importance of debriefing, or guided reflection
to transfer learning to real-world situations. - The Team Challenge required all of us to depend
on one another to get ideas and figure things
out. After these activities, I am not as afraid
to step out of the box, to take my time, and to
use different strategies, not being afraid to
say, I cant quite do this in order to get the
help I need to take on different challenges.
35Team Challenge
- To align with our purposes, we got to see
ourselves in positions outside our role of
leaders. And we saw ourselves vacillating
between being a leader and being a follower.
Since our role is to be leaders, our goal is to
tie these scenarios into qualities we want as
leaders. - Overall score on feedback form-3.9 out of 4
36Final Thoughts
- Begin to look more seriously at issues facing
urban, diverse districts. - Build this into mentoring program and action
planning. - Negotiate mentoring expectations and cultivate a
mentoring plan.
37Final Thoughts
- Improvement in inter-district relationships.
- Dialogue about tough issues in a critical and
meaningful manner will come with time. - Movement in a direction that encourages positive
relationships and tough discussions. - All members need to embrace the idea of learner
centered leadership.
38Summer Book Series
39Ten Titles
- Category A Praxis and Leadership
- Teacher With A Heart by Vito Perrone
- Think Rather of Zebra by Jay Stailey
- Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher
- Endangered Minds by Jane Healy
- Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani
40Ten Titles, contd.
- Category B Theoretical Knowledge
- Con Respito by Guadalupe Valdes
- Teaching To Transgress by bell hooks
- Other Peoples Children by Lisa Delpit
- I Wont Learn From You by Herbert Kohl
- Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn
41Thematic Strains
- Leadership
- Diversity
- Assessments
- Communication
- Cultural Capital
42On-Line Discussion Strengths
- Flexibility of responses
- Safe to express ideas
- Freedom from time constraints
- Increase technical skill set
- Narrowing the digital divide
43On-Line DiscussionWeaknesses
- Eliminates verbal reinforcement
- Difficulty with technology
- Impersonal process
- Reduces the level of commitment
- Decreases engaged pedagogy
44Conclusions
- Bridging the gap Theory Practice
- Shared Leadership
- Enriching pedagogy
- Tangential Benefits
- Introduction to new texts
- Increased listserv usage
- Gearing up for next year
45Questions?