Leave Your Principal Thumbprint on Students’ Lives: Influence Key Components of School Improvement

1. Leave Your Principal Thumbprinton Students’ Lives:Influence Key Components of School Improvement West Virginia 21st Century Leadership for 21st Century Schools July, 2007 Jerry Valentine Professor of School Leadership Director, Middle Level Leadership Center University of Missouri

2. What is your Thumbprint? • Merriam-Webster: An impression made by the thumb (noun) • Google: “thumbprint”….1,190,000 results • WikipediA: An impression of the friction ridges of all or any part of the thumb. A friction ridge is a raised portion of the epidermis sometimes called dermal ridges or dermal papillae

3. Jerry’s Definition… • The influence we have as leaders on others, on programs, on practices, and thus on the overall quality of education of our students. It’s our “reality,” our legacy, our current and future impact on schooling. (action verb)

4. Our purpose for a few minutes… To consider several key components of school improvement and the thumbprints we leave on those components Studies document that principals of highly successful schools directly influence these components and many others…thus making a difference for students.

5. Caring, Collaborative School Culture • Establish a caring, collaborative school culture that fosters reflection, commitment to student success, and continuous growth and renewal. • Culture represents the school’s values, beliefs, norms, and assumptions…it’s the way we do business. • Culture directly influences the work of the teachers, students, and all others in the school. • Principals directly influence the school’s culture.

6. Trusting, Respectful Climate • Promote a trusting, respectful school climate of open interaction and support among administrators, teachers, students, parents, and support staff. • Climate is about relationships • Climate is more fluid than culture • Climate is affected by the ups and downs of the day and week • Principals directly influence the school’s climate

7. Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment • Ensure that all teachers use best practices in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. • The written curriculum must be aligned with standards • The taught curriculum must be the written curriculum • Instruction must be aligned with the curriculum • Instruction must be authentic, engaging, and thoughtful • Formative and summative assessments both provide valuable data • Instruction must be adapted based upon data from formative assessments • Principals who know C-I-A and work closely with teachers to ensure best practices directly influence student learning

8. School Improvement Team • Develop and maintain a school improvement team that leads the faculty and champions continuous improvement • Enlist respected, quality, teacher-leaders who care • Participate in each session—make this your priority • Help the Team become the school’s ”think tank” • Help the team build the capacity to analyze, problem solve, and design for change • Work as a member of the team to lead the faculty in visioning, problem-solving, and designing change • Principals directly influence the success of the SI Team, and thus the engagement of the whole faculty

9. Support and Resources • Garner political support and the fiscal, personnel, and knowledge resources by engaging and educating district and community leaders • Most schools need outside expertise/support to identify sources of knowledge and facilitate school improvement activities • Most meaningful school improvement requires • personnel changes • curricular and program changes • professional development • time and patience • Principals directly influence the amount of support and resources a school receives for constructive change

10. Step Up and Show You Care • Demonstrate commitment to what is right and just for students…be their champion because if you don’t no one else can • Look in the mirror and check out your personal drive, grit, determination…do you really want your school to improve and improve and improve? • Lead with both your mind and your heart …everyone needs to know you know best practice and you care! • Set and maintain high performance expectations…personnel will rise to the bar • Principals, obviously, directly influence their own level of commitment to what is right and just

11. School Improvement Components that Principals Directly Influence • Caring, Collaborative Culture • Trusting, Respectful Climate • Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment • School Improvement Team • Support and Resources • Step Up and Show You Care

12. Step Up Show You Care Culture Support Resources Climate School Improvement Team C - I - A

13. Your Thumbprint… • Affirm the responsibility you have to directly influence school improvement and thus the lives of your students… • Make your thumbprint in the center of the worksheet • Sign your name somewhere on the sheet • Clean the ink from your thumb with the wipes • After this session, post your sheet on the assigned board

14. Washable Ink • Clean your thumb with the wipes…but understand that you will have a slight reminder of your responsibility to influence school improvement for the remainder of the day…until the “washable” ink completely wears off!

15. Principal are servant leaders… A principal is to a school…what a minister is to a church. Thomas Sergiovanni, 2006 Look at your thumbprint…who is affected by your touch? We have to obligation step up and leave a positive thumbprint on the lives of our students!

16. Recommended Readings • Blankstein, Alan (2004). Failure is Not an Option: Six Principles that Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, Corwin Press. • Cawelti, Gordon, Ed. (2004). Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement, Educational Research Service. • Cotton, Kathleen (2003). Principals and Student Achievement: What the Research Says, ASCD. • Danielson, Charlotte (2003). Enhancing Student Achievement: A Framework for School Improvement, ASCD. • Deal, Terrence & Peterson, Kent (1999). Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership, Jossey-Bass. • DuFour, Richard, et al. (2004). Whatever It Takes, National Education Service. • DuFour, Richard, et al., Eds. (2005). On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities, National Education Service. • Fullan, Michael (2003). The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, Ontario Principals Council/Corwin Press. • Fullan, Michael, et al. (2006). Breakthrough, Corwin Press. • Glickman, Carl (2002). Leadership for Learning: How to Help Teachers Succeed, ASCD. • Hawley, Willis (2002). The Keys to Effective Schools, Corwin Press.

17. Recommended Readings • Hopkins, David, et al. (1994). School Improvement in an Era of Change, Teachers College Press. • Knapp, Michael, et al. (2003). Leading for Learning: Reflective Tools for School and District Leaders, University of Washington Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. • Lambert, Linda (2003). Leadership Capacity for School Improvement, ASCD. • Leithwood, Kenneth et al. Eds. (2000). Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishing. • Leithwood, Kenneth, et al. (2001). Making Schools Smarter: A System for Monitoring School and District Progress, Corwin Press. • Leithwood, Kenneth, et al., Eds. (2006). Teaching for Deep Understanding: What Every Educator Should Know, Corwin Press. • Marzano, Robert, et al. (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, ASCD. • Marzano, Robert (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action, ASCD. • Marzano, Robert (2005). School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results ASCD/McREL.

18. Recommended Readings • Newmann, Fred, et al. (1996). Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality, Jossey-Bass. • Sergiovanni, Thomas. (2005). Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools, Jossey-Bass. • Painter, Bryan, et al. (1999). Engaging Teachers in the School Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Painter, Bryan, et al. (2000). The Use of Teams in the School Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Quinn, David, et al. (1999). Using Data for School Improvement, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Reeves, Douglas (2006). The Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Schools, ASCD. • Schlecty, Philip (2005). Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation, Jossy-Bass. • Schmoker, Mike (2006). Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning, ASCD. • Tschannen-Moran, Megan (2004). Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools, Jossey-Bass.

19. Recommended Readings • Valentine, Jerry (2001) Frameworks for School Improvement: A Synthesis of Essential Concepts, International Confederation of Principals Recommended Web Reading or Queensland Elementary Journal 2002, or Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2004). Leadership for Highly Successful Middle Level Schools, NASSP. • Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2006). Project ASSIST: A Comprehensive, Systemic Change Initiative for Middle Level Schools, Paper presented at American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, April. (Available from author or at Middle Level Leadership Center web site). • York-Barr, Jennifer, et al. (2006). Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action guide for Educators, Corwin Press. Jerry Valentine, Middle Level Leadership Center, 211 Hill Hall, University of Missouri (573) 882-0944 ValentineJ@missouri.edu www.MLLC.org