21 COMPETENCIES FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
1. Communication – Effectively listens to others; clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st-century objectives.
- Throughout my Principal Residency, I was tasked with assisting with bus duty. This task required me to determine bus assignments, communicate with parents regarding bus delays and changes, contacting DPS transportation to locate buses, and inform staff of the arrival times of buses in the morning. The mornings that I was responsible for bus duty, I emailed the staff to inform them of the late bus arrivals. The email contained the bus numbers and the arrival time of the students who were given a bus pass. Some mornings I would have to contact the trasportation department to get the location for buses that were not on campus by the time the tardy bell would ring.
2. Change Management – Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation.
- This school year Riverside implemented a new lunch program called SMART lunch, which stands for students maximizing academics relationships and time. Every student in the building (over 1700) attended lunch at the same time each day. Students were permitted to eat in different locations within the building, outside, and seniors and juniors could utilize off-campus lunch passes. Each administrator in partnership with teachers, counselors, and support staff was responsible for monitoring students during lunch. My zone was in the main lobby of the school. During lunch, students had the option of eating lunch with their peers and teachers, attending the open gym, going to the media center, and or attending tutoring. Students had an entire hour to engage in these learning opportunities. This was a great learning experience for me as this was the first year of the new lunch schedule, so I had the opportunity to see how the program was implemented and adjusted to meet the needs of our school community. During lunch duty, I was privileged to connect with a multitude of staff and students to gain a clear understanding of their perception of the change and how it impacts them as a memeber of the schools' community.
3. Conflict Management – Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner.
- Throughout my Principal Residency, I was given the opportunity to practice my conflict management skills. I utilized techniques obtained through various training opportunities throughout the MSA leadership program such as crucial conversations and restorative justice. I made it a priority to build relationships with students especially since I would be one of the administrators handling disciplinary actions. One of the conflict management tools I used was Educators’ Handbook. I used this tool to record and process minor offenses and office referrals for students. Before I was able to use this conflict management tool, I was required to attend one of four training sessions offered by the district. The All Things Discipline training covered the functions of Educators’ Handbook, action steps, reportable acts, and a host of other information as it relates to how to process student discipline.
4. Creative thinking – Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking.
- After completing a number of walkthrough observations at the beginning of the school year, the administrative team determined that some teachers were struggling with unpacking the aligned standard. As a part of our course work, we were tasked with learning the Understanding by Design (UBD) lesson planning format. As an educator, I understand the importance of demonstrating what you expect. During one of our monthly staff meetings, I presented an example of the template using an English I standard as a reference tool to all departments. The use of this planning design for unpacking standards allowed teachers to begin with the end in mind to provide quality instruction to students to increase student performance. Utilizing this tool could provide teachers an adequate amount of time to strategically implement creative, engaging, and collaborative activities within their learning community by identifying the expected outcome prior to planning.
5. Customer focus – Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly.
- Riverside’s SIP plan contains the school’s indicators, mission and vision statements, the comprehensive plan and checkpoints along with deadlines for achieving the goals. The SIP plan is a live document reviewed by the team monthly to see how much progress has been made to meet the goals set by the team. The SIP plan was created over the summer at one of the School Improvement retreats. The team developed a strategic plan to ensure students receive a quality education and were prepared for life after graduation by enforcing the need for 21st-century learning opportunities.
6. Delegation – Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school.
- In an effort to develop an organized scheduling matrix, the school community spend several meetings reviewing and adjusting the available courses for the upcoming school year. To ensure we received input from all departments, the administrative team met with each department chair to discuss the process and procedures for creating the matrix. As a part of the process, each department chair teacher received a timeline to map out due dates before the matrix is finalized. The finalization of the scheduling matrix is an intensive process that requires several steps to ensure all classes offered will meet the needs of our students. Some departments needed to add sections of a course offered and some unfornately had to decrease or collapse the number of sections offered. The amount of sections needed for a particular course or department depends on the number of students enrolled in the course.
7. Dialogue & Inquiry – Is skilled in creating a risk-free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance.
- During my residency, I was tasked with completing formal peer observations for 14 teachers. After conducting each post-conference I asked each teacher to complete a reflection document as a way of evaluating my performance. This artifact provided me direct feedback on my performance and an opportunity for me to reflect on my leadership practices.
8. Emotional Intelligence – Is able to manage oneself through self-awareness and self-management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness, and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community.
- Over the summer of the NC State MSA leadership program, we took the course Strategies in Action with Ms. Anderson and Dr. Bass. During this course, we were tasked with composing three introduction letters to formally introduce ourselves to the staff, students and parents of our new school community. The artifact used for this competency is the letter I composed to introduce myself to the staff.
9. Global Perspective – Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy.
- During my residency, I served as a member of the equity team. The equity team consisted of staff members, parents, students, and school community members. During the year, we participated in trainings presented by the district and outside organizations to support the schools' focus on providing equitable education experiences to all students. During these meetings, we analyzed data, discussed observations, and received feedback from the schools' community.
10. Judgment – Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information.
- One of my roles during my Principal Residency was to process student discipline and referrals. I worked daily discussing discipline concerns with students, parents, and staff memebers and identifying possible solutions to decrease student discipline referrals. These conversations required me to “Seek first to understand, then be understood (Covey)” and use my judgment skills to apply aggravating and meditating circumstances to determine a suitable action for the reported offense.
11. Technology – Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction.
- As the Principal Resident at Riverside High School, I collaborated with members of the administrative team to create a data dive presentation to present during the first teacher workday of the year. The data covered information from the 2018-2019 school year and was first reviewed during out School Improvement Retreat held over the summer. During the staff retreat on the first required workday, we provided breakout sessions that covered imperative information for the new school year. During the data session, I partnered with one of the Assistant Principals to present the schools' data to the staff. Our goal was for staff members to reflect on their instructional practices and develop a plan of action for the upcoming school year. Analyzing our data served as an essential step in determining the comprehensive needs of our school. This was a different retreat experince for me from pass school year openings, but it was one of many experiences that I found to be very valuable and neccessary for reflective and planning purposes.
12. Organizational Ability – Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are used appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects.
- I was tasked with creating and implementing a year-long problem of practice. My problem of practice focused on ACT prep sessions for all juniors. In an effort to prepare all of our students for the ACT test, I organized an ACT preparation schedule for all students to attend at least one session. My goal was to design the schedules in a way that was easy to access and understand where and when to send their students. When I was first tasked with this assignment, I was unsure as to what this would look like. I reached out to various leaders in education to get their thoughts about the initial plan. After consulting with other educators, I put together a plan that I based on the desires of the instructors, but not what could be deemed as best practices for student learning. My mentor principal coached and guided me through this process by reminding me the importance of basing all decisions on the success of the students we serve. This feedback was valuable as I prepare to enter into a leadership role. I was reminded of the ultimate reason why this plan was needed to best serve our students. I then revised and created the daily plan for each students daily preparation session. I created hallpasses for each student outlining the day, time, and location of their prep session. The artifact used for this competency provides a visual of the detailed daily ACT prep schedule I put together to ensure all juniors attended a prep session.
13. Personal Ethics and Values – Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality.
- My vision statement represents my philosophy of leadership, outlines equitable goals, and aspirations for student leaders while ensuring quality instruction is provided in every learning environment.
14. Personal Responsibility for Performance – Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements.
- As a part of my learning experience, I was responsible for submitting a weekly reflection. My reflection includes many topics: discipline concerns, staff meetings, celebrations, the leadership qualities of my mentor principal, interactions with assistant principals, classroom observations and much more. The reflections were shared with my cohort director and executive coach to receive feedback and questions to further my thinking. I have learned over the course of this school year how important self-reflection is as a leader. At the end of each day, I reflect on my performance by asking myself three questions: What went well? What didn’t go well? What will I do differently while being the best version of myself? I also spent time with my mentor principal reflecting on the week and identifying areas of growth and areas of opportunities.
15. Responsiveness – Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/situations in an expedient manner.
- I conducted weekly classroom walkthroughs to provide teachers with feedback regarding teaching strategies, classroom environment, student interactions, and a host of other instructional tools. The walkthrough data is accessible to all administrators as well as the teacher to provide immediate feedback regarding the instructional practices observed. While conducting walkthroughs in a variety of content areas, I included the implementation of the schools’ focus on integrating literacy in all content areas, collaborative opportunities, and the use of technology.
16. Results Orientation – Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals.
- This year was the first year for implementing SMART lunch. As an administrative team, we wanted to keep a record of the number of students who were utilizing their time wisely during lunch. I created a daily tutoring google form to capture the number of students attending tutoring during SMART lunch to compare the results at the end of each semester to the number of students who did not pass receive credit for the course. The data collected from this form provided insight into the activities of our students during lunch and revisions that are needed to maximize student's time.
17. Sensitivity – Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deals tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
- This artifact contains a conversation I had with our bilingual dropout prevention specialist regarding concerns I had about a student’s attendance. Informing the parent of the student current behavior was imperative, but due to the language barrier, it required the help and support of our specialist. The parent was contacted and came in for a parent-teacher conference to gain a deeper understanding of the underlining issues and develop a plan of action in hopes of getting the student back on track. I checked in with the student throughout the week and when possible I provided opportunities for the student to assist me and serve as a student helper. The number of absences and tardies decreased over time and when the student saw me in the hallway, she would smile and say "I am on my way to class now, Ms. Lee".
18. Environmental Awareness – Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures, and positions.
- Riverside is dedicated to serving and supporting a diverse population of students. During a post-conference with a teacher in her first year in the United States, she expressed concerns regarding her ability to connect with her students. The teacher was concerned about some of the behaviors displayed by students and her ability to redirect them with minimum impact on instructional time. To assist the new teacher regarding her concerns, I conducted a check-in weekly to observe the class to see in which ways I could assist. I discussed the importance of establishing routines for students. I also provided the teacher with a learning inquiry document, a document suggested during her first post-conference. This inventory document was suggested for her to use as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the learning styles of her students. While conducting her peer observation and weekly check-in, I noticed how student engagement continued to increase during the math lesson. The teacher and students engaged in content related discourse and periodically laughed and made jokes with one another. Through this experience, I was able to observe the positive learning environment the teacher and students were forming.
19. Systems Thinking – Understands the interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team.
- PLT meetings occurred weekly or bi-weekly depending on the department and subject area. Each PLT used the same agenda document to guide the meeting. The agenda was placed in a shared google folder for the administrator over the department to review and provide feedback on upcoming meetings. As the principal resident, I attended the PLT meetings for the Biology, English II, and Math II departments. During these meetings, we discussed student performance data, common assessments, upcoming units, instructional planning, and a number of other professional learning opportunities. As a team, we identified trends and commonalities within the data to determine the best instructional practices to implement in order to maximize student learning.
20. Time Management – Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings.
- My monthly meeting log shows a variety of learning opportunities I participated in during my time at Riverside High School. I collaborated with teachers, coaches, PTA members, and a host of other stakeholders while still expected to schedule meetings with teachers, support staff, students and their families. I utilized the calendar on Outlook to access my mentor principal’s calendar. This was to ensure I attend all of her scheduled meetings and avoid scheduling personal meetings during those meeting times.
21. Visionary – Encourages imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholder dreams of what the school could become for all the students.
- As part of the leadership preparation program, we were tasked with creating a vision statement that encompasses our core values and beliefs. I have bolded what I have learned as a future leader throughout the program and my connection to previous learning experiences.