The Time is Now: Leadership that Matters

1. The Time is Now: Leadership that Matters Kim St. Martin Kalamazoo RESA Principal’s Institute August 2, 2010

2. Setting the Context for Today • You have been meeting as a group since January to discuss RtI and practices/processes associated with an RtI framework • This week is about leading RtI practices • 21 Leadership Responsibilities will be discussed along with strategies leaders can use to make their lives easier!

3. Setting the Context for Today • Practices/Processes: • Tuesday: Managing Student Behavior • Wednesday: Effective Data Driven Meetings • Thursday: Formative Assessments • Friday: Research Supporting Implementation & focused action planning around one of the practices you have heard between Tuesday-Thursday

4. Agenda • RtI and Kalamazoo County • Common Barriers Regarding RtI Implementation • Leading in the Face of Challenges • The Principalship: A Historical Perspective • Research Supported Leadership Practices • Creating a Purposeful Community and Leading in the Face of Change • Strategic Leadership: Strategies, Tools, and Resources

5. RtI and Kalamazoo County The “Superintendents of school districts in Kalamazoo County endorse and support RtI as a key instructional framework.” “This endorsement recognizes the critical importance of using student performance data at the district, building, and classroom level to inform instructional decisions based on research based interventions. It also acknowledges the need to commit district resources to creating the conditions necessary for student success.” May, 2010

6. Leading Response to Intervention • Intensive support with individual staff who are resistant to what you are trying to lead. More of your time, energy, and resources will be used specific to the reasons why they are resistant and/or sabotaging the practice • Leadership practices that are applicable for all staff regardless of what is being implemented • 21 Leadership Responsibilities • Purposeful community • First order change leadership • Targeted leadership practices for staff who are “on the fence” with the adoption of implementation of practices. • Responsibilities associated with second order change are utilized with groups of staff members who are cautious or unclear about the implementation of RtI practices/programs Continuum of Supports: Leadership Perspective

7. Implementation of RtI • Three stages (broad perspective) • Consensus: continuously working to achieve • Infrastructure: Beginning to develop the infrastructure necessary for implementation • Implementation: Occurs at multiple levels. Data is used to determine the effectiveness of the systems created and adjustments are made as needed

8. Activity • Assess where your building/district is in the stages of implementation for an RtI model for reading and behavior? • What kinds of barriers are you facing when trying to move your staff through the stages of implementation with a particular practice or program related to RtI • Assign a recorder and list the barriers on chart paper and post

9. Let us not forget why we are here….

10. Common Issues Impeding Successful RtI Implementation • Reading wars • Assessments for different purposes (timed vs. untimed; meaningful vs. quick assessments of discrete skills) • Use of intervention “programs” and possible pitfalls for being responsive to students’ needs • Explicit and systematic instructional practices • Inclusion of students with disabilities in core instruction • Belief that ALL kids can learn • Elements of “scientifically based research” • Anger toward state and federal involvement in educational policies • Philosophies around the role schools play in student behavior

11. The leader’s role in eliminating issues that are impeding RtI implementation is magnified

12. Challenges of the Principalship So much to do…so little time!

13. Activity Part I • On your own, describe a “typical” day in your life as a principal. • Create a list of things that occupy your time and attention on a daily basis.

14. Activity Part II • Group Processing: • Roles: • Facilitator • Recorder: use chart paper for posting • Time Keeper • Task: (Group) • Identify common themes that emerged amongst the group • Identify the top three principal tasks/duties that occupy the majority of time • Identify what principals are able to spend the LEAST amount of time

15. Example • Top 3 Things Occupying Majority of Our Time • List • List • List • 3 Things We Spend the Least Amount of Time (but are still important) • List • List • List

16. Principal’s∧ Job Description? Real • Many principals report, much of the administrator’s job is spent engaged in important but fundamentally non-instructional activities

17. Allocation of Time and AttentionResearch Findings: • 17%- managing by walking about the school • 14%- human resource related activities (i.e. teacher evaluation) • 13%- discipline • 20%- office related tasks • 25%- meetings or schedule conferences with parents and/or students • 11% for interruptions and working on the culture of the building Bledinger, Arirata, Jones (2000)

18. The Principalship: A Historical Perspective

19. Changing Role of the Principal:Historical Perspective Then…. Now… Instructional leaders Create a culture of high expectations Establish clearly defined goals Create a safe and orderly environment Engage with staff in frequent professional development Increase parental involvement • Principals were primarily expected to be managers • Maintain the status-quo by “keeping a lid on things” • Buffer teachers from outside distractions (competing district priorities, behavior problems, angry parents)

20. Leader or Manager…or Both? • Principals experience a constant pull between wanting to be an instructional leader (to do what they thought they were hired to do) and finding the time to complete the necessary managerial tasks so the school can function smoothly

21. What does the research say about effective schools and the role of the principal?

22. Key Components of Emerging from Research • Two lines of inquiry emerged from the research: • Key characteristics that constituted “effective schools” • Principal’s involvement with the school’s instructional program

23. Characteristics of “Effective Schools” • Strong administrative leadership • Instructional leadership by the principal • High expectations of students and staff • Safe and orderly environment • Primary focus on learning • Resources focused on achieving key objectives • Regular monitoring of student learning progress (Lezotte, et. al)

24. Missing piece in the Effective Schools research: specific leadership practices that are well defined and provide direction as to how to proceed

25. Principal Practices that Support Student Achievement Synthesis of the Research

26. Cotton’s 25 Leadership Practices • Safe and orderly school • Vision and goals focused on high levels of learning • High expectations • Self-confidence, responsibility, perseverance • Communication/Interaction • Visibility and accessibility • Positive and supportive school climate • Emotional and interpersonal support • Parent/community outreach and involvement

27. Cotton’s 25 Leadership Practices • Rituals, ceremonies and other symbolic actions • Shared leadership, decision making, staff empowerment • Collaboration • Instructional leadership* • Support of teacher autonomy • On-going pursuit of high levels of student learning • Norm of continuous improvement • Discussion of instructional issues • Classroom observations and feedback to teachers

28. Cotton’s 25 Leadership Practices • Support risk taking • Professional development opportunities and resources • Protecting instructional time • Use of student progress data for program improvement • Monitoring student progress data for program improvement • Recognition of student and staff achievement • Role modeling

29. “Instructional Leadership” Considerations • Many of Cotton’s 25 Leadership Practices were encompassed in research that teased out instructional leadership practices (see page 26 for a listing)

30. Activity • At your table, read through Cotton’s 25 leadership practices listed on the activity sheet entitled, “Cotton’s Leadership Categorization Activity” • Categorize the leadership practices

31. What Effective Principals Don’tDo • “Absent from [the effective principals’] responses were such verbs as control, manage, direct, command, and regulate.” (Bartell, 1990, p. 121). • Principals characterized as average “spend nearly all of their time on organizational maintenance and pupil control activities” (Gaziel, 1995, p.179-180)

32. What Effective Principals ‘Do’ • Principals of high performing schools spend much of their time engaged “in instructional leadership activities, student relationships, teachers’ professional development, and parent-principal contact”

33. Extension of Cotton’s Work • Marzano, Waters and McNulty extended the body of research pointing to effective principal practices to support student outcomes • They quantified the leadership practices and wanted to determine: • how much of an impact principal leadership has on student outcomes • if all principal practices were equally important

34. Their findings…

35. What do Principals Need to do? • Focus time and attention on the things that will improve student outcomes • Bottom Line: “the correlation between the leadership behavior of the principal in the school and the average academic achievement is .25 Marzano, Waters, McNulty, 2005

36. Interpreting “.25” Figure 3.2: Marzano, Waters, McNulty, 2005

37. Principal Behaviors…All Equally Important? • No, the responsibilities are NOT all created equal • The rank order of the responsibilities changes depending on what type of innovation (i.e. RtI) principals are trying to lead • Depending on how staff view the change required of them for the innovation (RtI), the principal needs to deploy one set of leadership practices over another

38. Principal Behaviors…All Equally Important? “The extraordinary principals…embody all or nearly all these traits and actions. And as we shall see, the picture that emerges of their effectiveness is much more than a mere collection of behaviors” (Cotton, 2003, p. 7). The 21 responsibilities “are, or at least should be standard operating procedures for effective principals” (Marzano, Waters, McNulty, 2005, p. 62).

39. 21 Leadership Responsibilities • Affirmation • Change Agent • Contingent Rewards • Communication • Culture • Discipline • Flexibility • Focus • Ideals/Beliefs • Input • Intellectual Stimulation • Involvement in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment • Knowledge of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

40. 21 Leadership Responsibilities • Monitoring/Evaluating • Optimizer • Order • Outreach • Relationships • Resources • Situational Awareness • Visibility

41. Activity • Review the document entitled, “School Leadership that Works….” • Read through the principal responsibilities and their definitions • Looking back at your time allocation activity from this morning, were the duties/tasks identified as occupying more of your time the same as the leadership responsibilities having the largest effect sizes? • Identify next to your group’s time allocation chart paper identify the names of the responsibilities for each activity your group listed

42. Creating a Strong Foundation by Building a Purposeful Community

43. Creating a Purposeful Community • There exists a shared belief that ALL kids can learn and the collective group shares ownership in achieving the goals • All assets from staff are developed and fully utilized in order to achieve the desired outcomes • The goals and priorities that are accomplished MATTER to the entire staff (collective community) • The staff have clearly defined and agreed upon processes for doing business (i.e. norms)

44. Fostering a Purposeful Community • Nine of the 21 leadership responsibilities are the sole responsibility of the principal in order to establish the foundation necessary for a purposeful community: • Optimizer -Relationships • Affirmation -Communication • Ideals/Beliefs -Culture • Visibility -Input • Situational Awareness

45. Activity • Looking at your document, “School Leadership that Works…” review the definitions and further explanations for the nine responsibilities associated with creating a “purposeful community” • Identify the top three where you think you demonstrate most frequently • Identify the bottom three where you think you are unable to frequently demonstrate • Discuss what you listed and your reasons why for the responsibilities you are unable to frequently demonstrate

46. Considering “Change”

47. Change is Hard “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.” (John Kenneth Gaibraith)

48. Order of Change • First order change are changes that are perceived to be a continuation and refinement of existing beliefs and practices. They can be implemented with current knowledge • Second order change are changes that are perceived to be a significant break from current practices and will require new knowledge, beliefs, and/or resources McREL, 2006

49. Characteristics of Second Order Change • Departure from the normal way of doing business • Challenges existing paradigms • Conflicts with prevailing values and norms • New knowledge and skills are needed • Resources that do not currently exist will be necessary • Resistance by others who do not have a broad perspective of the district/school

50. Activity • Identify the a practice or program you led the implementation of and staff perceived it as second-order change • Write it down