The Principal as Change Agent

Please complete the entry card and set it aside until the end of

the presentation.

Agenda1. Entry card.

2. Minds On: Finding focus

3. Alignment of board and school goals

4. Context (elementary, secondary, AMDSB)

5. Barriers to professional learning

6. Intentionally interrupting (breaking down) the barriers

We get results where we focus our attention. Think of a time when your attention was focused on achieving something very specific.

Did you succeed? Why/why not?

Minds On

Available Data

• Student Achievement• Program Data• Demographics• Perceptual Data

In Looking at the Data…

• What does the data tell you?

• What strengths and/or areas of improvement do you see?

• Identify an area which you would choose to improve.

K-12 School Effectiveness Framework (2010)

• To achieve equity of outcomes for all students

• To build school and board capacity to identify strengths and areas which require attention and next steps

• To foster reflective analysis and deeper understanding of school improvement needs

12

Key Purposes of the School Effectiveness Framework (K-12)

• A support for school improvement and student success

• A catalyst for improvement planning and implementation

• A process to build collective capacity and facilitate professional learning

Process for Improvement:a) Decide on a school goal based on data.

b) Align your school goal within the Board Improvement Plan.c) Use the Board Improvement Plan and corresponding indicators from the 2013 School Effectiveness Framework as a

resource to support teaching and learning.d) Continuously work through a cycle of school improvement, shifting and refocusing based on student need.

School improvement planning is not effective if the plan is set in the fall and then revisited at the end of the school year. The plans need to be continuously revisited and adjusted based on student need.

TVDSB School Improvement Cycle“The Roadmap”

SIP Resources

What resources could you use to help you to carry out your school goals?

Quickly brainstorm as many ideas as you can, then write one idea on each post it note.

Resources

• School staff members strengths- teaching partners• Collaboration / Networking time• Timetables aligned • Lesson Studies/CLIM-co teaching / co planning• Learning Coordinators• Itinerants and Coaches• Professional Development-monthly staff meeting

focus…

• Specific programs• Technology• School organization / Assignments• Grants---$$/support• Events-’parent day’• Resources---kits, books, stuff• Materials that support goals, i.e.: Questioning

techniques-Q-charts

Resources Con’t…

Resources Con’t…

• Community members• Parent involvement• Communication • Address student needs-breakfast club, homework club

after school

Accountability

Ontario Leadership Framework

Building staff members’ sense of internal accountability-promoting staff to regularly use data and make connections between school goals and their own commitment to improvement effortsMeeting the demands for external accountability-clearly define expectations, measure and monitor-provide a accurate and transparent account of the schools’ performance to all stakeholders

Principal’s Role in School Improvement Planning

OPC Handbook Chapter 23

• Communication• Professional Development• Leadership

How to start a movement

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. ― Maya Angelou

What gets in the way of teachers learning new instructional practices that will impact student learning in areas where students need the most support?

Our job is to intentionally interrupt the barriers that impede professional learning.

• We don’t think through all possibilities

• We focus on confirming our hypotheses, not challenging them

• We pay too much attention to things that are vivid

• We consider ourselves to be exceptions

• We hesitate to take action in a new direction

• We don’t want others to see our vulnerabilities

Barriers to Professional Learning: How Our Minds Get

in the Way

How do we intentionally interrupt?

• Protocols*

• Making Preconceptions Explicit*

• Ensuring That Activities and Interventions are rooted in problems of practice

• Recruiting contradictory evidence

• Viewing mistakes as learning opportunities

• Encouraging a growth rather than a fixed mindset*

• Ensuring that problems of practice are questions that people are curious about

• Giving people autonomy in task and time

Quick Dilemma Protocol

• On the back of your card, write a dilemma (problem of practice) that you face in your current role.

• It should be a problem you don’t know the answer to and it keeps you up at night.

• Share your problems of practice by reading from your card.

• Choose one problem that seems interesting and difficult to solve.

• Group asks clarifying questions. The presenter answers briefly. (2 mins)

• Group asks probing questions. The presenter says NOTHING and records the questions. (4 mins)

• The presenter shares one question that caused cognitive dissonance and explains why.

Learning is the process through which experience causes

permanent change in knowledge and behaviour.

(Woolfolk, Winne, & Perry, 2012)

Exit Card• What did I hear today (a summary)?

• How did this relate to what I thought about the principal’s role as an agent of change before today? What was confirmatory? What was surprising?

• Learning is about a change in the way I think. What did I learn today about the principal’s role as an agent of change?

• What will I do next based on what I learned today?

Entry Card

What do I know about the principal’s role as an agent of change?

Why is the principal’s role as an agent of change important for me to know about?

What do I hope to learn?