Searching for "school leaders"
https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2020/08/coronavirus_principal_early_retirement.html
Will the pandemic change the cycle for educational leaders?
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more on EDAD in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=edad
Five Questions About Data Use for School Leaders
Anna Egalite, assistant professor of leadership and policy at NC State. Previously, Anna taught elementary school and did a postdoc at Harvard. She’ll be writing about education-leadership research—what we know, where we have good intuitions, and where we’re still very much in the dark.
It’s back-to-school time and education reporters are highlighting stories about how school leaders are “leaning on data” to promote student learning, making administrative decisions that are “supported by a data-driven process,” and drawing on their experience in “data-driven instruction.”
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more on data use and ed leaders in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+ed+leaders
Interview Questions for 1:1 School Leaders
http://www.edurolearning.com/interview-questions-for-school-leaders/
found in G+ https://plus.google.com/+JeffUtechtEd/posts/Vys7LxSjzuW
help administrators as they start hiring for their 1:1 environment with some questions they can ask during the interview process.
Questions for teachers entering a 1:1 school
What computer platform are you most comfortable with, Mac, PC or tablet?
Why do you want to work in a 1:1 school?
What particular challenges and learning opportunities excite you about working in a 1:1 school like ours?
Being able to look up information and resources on the web is an important skill. Explain how you go about looking up information on the web. How do you verify that the information you find is trustworthy and of use to you and your students?
Knowing we are a 1:1 school and that we expect students to use their laptops for learning, what is something that you would start learning and thinking about today to prepare you for this new learning environment?
At what times do you feel that it would be appropriate to have “lids down”? When do you believe a laptop is not a tool for appropriate use?
How comfortable are you with using online resources in your classroom? What are some resources you’ve used in the past? How have you found these resources?
Tell me how you think the future you are preparing children for will be different?
How often do you/have you taken part in technology Professional Development opportunities?
Do you read any professional magazines or educational blogs as part of your own PD? If so, which ones?
What apps do you use to curate information?
What apps do you use to curate information?
Do you have a Personal Learning Network? If so, can you tell me a story of how you learn from your network.
How often do others come to you for guidance in using technology? Do you offer guidance when not asked? If so, describe how you did this recently?
Guajardo, M., Oliver, J. A., Rodríguez, G., Valadez, M. M., Cantú, Y., & Guajardo, F. (2011). Reframing the Praxis of School Leadership Preparation through Digital Storytelling.
Journal of Research on Leadership Education,
6(5), 145–161.
http://doi.org/10.1177/194277511100600504
p. 149-150. Digital storytelling applies techniques that cross disciplines, fields, and subject matter. Digital storytelling pioneer Dana Atchley used the varied techniques such as case study, personal experience, introspection, life story, interviews, artifacts, cultural texts, observations, historical interaction, visual texts, and others (Lambert, 2002, 2006). Atchley’s techniques are firmly rooted in research methodology and collectively describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Lambert, 2006). Qualitative researchers often refer to this process as a bricolage, or the creation or construction from a variety of things. This bricolage helps Downloaded from jrl.sagepub.com at SAINT CLOUD STATE UNIV on June 8, 2016 Guajardo et. al./REFRAMING THE PRAXIS OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP 150 to clarify our ontologies and inform epistemologies. Ladson-Billings (2000) explained epistemologies as more than the traditional way of knowing. Instead, epistemologies are a system of knowing that has both internal logic and external validity. The assortments of experiences used to inform our way of knowing then become the deliberate choices between hegemony and liberation. This process allows individuals to move beyond a traditional epistemological stance, or what Stanley (2007) has called the master narrative. Shujaa (1997) has called it a worldview epistemology that looks at knowledge as a symbiotic interaction of how we view the world, the knowledge we possess, and the knowledge we are capable of passing on to others.
p. 156 digital storytelling has been found to help organizations understand themselves (Militello & Guajardo, 2011). When organizations delve into introspective practices through the use of digital media, small and large organizations alike invite the opportunity to learn from deep, digital reflection.
7 Qualities That Promote Teacher Leadership in Schools
7 Qualities That Promote Teacher Leadership in Schools
three shifts in policy and leadership culture may help move these efforts forward:
- New types of assessment are gaining ground. Several states are piloting performance-based assessments to replace standardized testing.
- Exemplars in the business community are now promoting flat organizational structures, where employees work in smaller teams and have more voice and power over how they work.
- Teachers are more networked than ever before, providing a unique opportunity to share and spread good teaching practice.
crucial decisions about curriculum, leadership roles and discipline.
While the hybrid roles that teachers play at teacher-powered schoolsmay seem like a lot of work, they give teachers the power to decide what programs, textbooks, software, etc., should or should not be used in order to make space for the community’s vision. And when teachers decide together on the vision and strategy to reach all students, they are often more invested and excited by the change they are creating from within.
Some of the best available examples of how to improve teacher quality and promote teacher leadership lie in models offered by other high-performing places, like Finland and Singapore.
Seven qualities must be in place.
- A vision and strategy for teacher leadership, “with stated goals and clear images of tasks to be done, must be in place.” Teachers must feel part of creating this vision in order to buy in.
- A supportive administration. “Principals must be willing to share power with teachers and must have the skills to cultivate them as leaders,” most educational leadership programs focus on supervising teachers, not supporting them as leaders.
- There need to be appropriate human and fiscal resources.
- Work structures that enable authentic collaboration are crucial. While more resources help on this point, there are creative ways to stretch limited dollars.
- Supportive social norms and working relationships are key to teacher leadership. “All too often, policymakers develop incentives to motivate teachers and administrators,” . “Instead, policies and programs should be in place to value teachers spreading their expertise to one another, allowing teaching to be exercised as a team sport.”
- Organizational politics must allow for blurred lines between roles. Teachers can only take on leadership roles at the expense of principals and district-level administrators. This also requires teacher unions to act more as “professional guilds” and for districts to follow the example of some for-profit businesses that are flattening bureaucracies.
- The school and system must be oriented toward risk-taking and inquiry. Just as students need hands-on applied learning rooted in inquiry, so, too, do teachers need powerful driving questions to push their work forward. “School systems must be able to interrogatethemselves about the extent to which they create opportunities for teachers to learn and lead in ways that spread teaching expertise and improve student outcomes.”
Some families don’t want to go back to in-person school. Here’s how one S.C. district is dealing with this demand
https://hechingerreport.org/some-families-dont-want-to-go-back-to-in-person-school-heres-how-one-s-c-district-is-dealing-with-this-demand/
When the pandemic arrived, the school district struggled to connect its students to remote learning, as nearly half its households didn’t have high-speed internet. Even when the district handed out personal hotspots, they didn’t work for many families due to poor cell service.
Research before the pandemic often showed poorer outcomes for students in virtual schools versus brick-and-mortar ones. Only 3 percent of parents, in another Rand survey conducted this July, said they would send their youngest school-age child to full-time virtual school if the pandemic were over.
Gov. Henry McMaster pushed hard to return all schools to in-person learning this fall, saying remote learning was “not as good.” This year’s state budget allows only 5 percent of a school district’s students to enroll virtually; if a district exceeds that limit, the state will give only about half as much per-pupil funding for any additional online students.
But administrators said they didn’t have much of a choice. If Fairfield County didn’t offer a virtual option, some families would leave the district entirely and instead enroll in an online charter school. Fairfield fits a national trend: 31 percent of leaders in districts that serve primarily students of color said that parents “strongly demanded” a fully remote option this year, compared with 17 percent in majority-white schools, according to Rand.
That last part is one of the biggest barriers to remote learning in rural areas. Almost one in five rural Americans don’t have access to broadband at the speed considered minimum for basic web use, according to a report this year from the FCC.
The National Education Policy Center, for example, found that the high school graduation rate last year was only 53 percent for virtual charters, which enroll the majority of online students, and 62 percent for district-run virtual schools. The overall national average is 85 percent. A Brown University study last year on virtual charter schools in Georgia found that full-time students lost the equivalent of around one to two years of learning and reduced their chances of graduating from high school by 10 percentage points.
Skylar has “thrived” academically since she started learning at home. “I think that was because of less distraction,” she said. “I think it’s a little bit more intimate because it’s just her in her room by herself.”
The flip side is that less unstructured time also means less time spent just hanging out with friends at the playground or in the hallway between classes.
Call for Chapters:
Inspiring Change: Lessons for Leaders about Large-Scale Technology Implementation
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10N-_8rwPnpmtkJu1q2Cs-BuyDs0s6bw3/view
Through storytelling and narrative case studies, this book proposes to provide evidence-based practices, practical strategies, administrative considerations, and management tools for K12 and post-secondary school leaders charged with implementing technology at scale. It intentionally takes a broad view across all education levels to tell stories about how large-scale technology implementations might inspire systemic changes and new collaborations. In order to do so, this book proposes to include diverse voices and perspectives representing K12 and post-secondary institutions with the goal of facilitating equitable, sustainable technology access for learner success.
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More on ED Leadership and Technology in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=edad+technology
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/11/18/why-school-board-diversity-matters.html
Both superintendents and board members have a role to play in elevating different voices, say school board members. District leaders can’t pick candidates, but they can create “leadership academies” to teach interested community members about the workings of their school systems. They can also create committees and other advisory boards that allow parents an entry point into getting more involved in their school district, if they choose.
A 2017 study that examined middle and high schools in Florida found that districts with diverse school boards have lower rates of school suspensions for all students, and that disparities in suspension rates between minority and white students are reduced overall.
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more on school board in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=school+board
July 23-24, 2020 11:00am – 2:00pm Eastern
https://www.techlearningevents.com/summit
The Tech & Learning Virtual Leadership Summit is an exclusive, FREE, invitation-only virtual event for top-level executives from school districts around the country with education technology buying responsibilities. Taking the best of Tech & Learning’s in-person Leadership Summits, the Virtual Summit will provide an environment where district leaders can share their successes and challenges in facilitated small group discussions.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-22-high-tech-surveillance-comes-at-high-cost-to-students-is-it-worth-it
The phrase “school-to-prison pipeline” has long been used to describe how schools respond to disciplinary problems with excessively stringent policies that create prison-like environments and funnel children who don’t fall in line into the criminal justice system. Now, schools are investing in surveillance systems that will likely exacerbate existing disparities.
A number of tech companies are capitalizing on the growing market for student surveillance measures as various districts and school leaders commit themselves to preventing acts of violence. Rekor Systems, for instance, recently announced the launch of OnGuard, a program that claims to “advance student safety” by implementing countless surveillance and “threat assessment” mechanisms in and around schools.
While none of these methods have been proven to be effective in deterring violence, similar systems have resulted in diverting resources away from enrichment opportunities, policing school communities to a point where students feel afraid to express themselves, and placing especially dangerous targets on students of color who are already disproportionately mislabeled and punished.ProPublica
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more on surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance