Standard 2: Instructional Leadership
Principals set high standards for the professional practice of 21st century instruction and assessment that result in a no-nonsense accountable environment. The school executive must be knowledgeable of best instructional and school practices and must use this knowledge to cause the creation of collaborative structures within the school for the design of highly engaging schoolwork for students, the on-going peer review of this work, and the sharing of this work throughout the professional community.
Element 2a. Focus on Learning and Teaching, Curriculum and Assessment: The principal leads the discussion about standards for curriculum, instruction and assessment based on research and best practices in order to establish and achieve high expectations for students.
When I began at Southern Nash High School, there was no official walkthrough form being used at the school. As an administrative team, we discussed walkthroughs and I was tasked with creating a form that would be easy to complete and that we could record information that would provide teachers with timely feedback after each visit. We conducted an average of 7-10 walkthroughs each week. The walkthroughs lasted approximately 10-15 minutes. At the conclusion of each walkthrough, I would email the feedback to teachers and offer suggestions if needed. Most teachers were very receptive to the feedback and invited me back to visit. For those teachers who were not as receptive, I would try to have a conversation with them about their walkthrough as a means of sharing how these were to help and not to be used as an evaluative tool.
When I began at Southern Nash High School, there was no official walkthrough form being used at the school. As an administrative team, we discussed walkthroughs and I was tasked with creating a form that would be easy to complete and that we could record information that would provide teachers with timely feedback after each visit. We conducted an average of 7-10 walkthroughs each week. The walkthroughs lasted approximately 10-15 minutes. At the conclusion of each walkthrough, I would email the feedback to teachers and offer suggestions if needed. Most teachers were very receptive to the feedback and invited me back to visit. For those teachers who were not as receptive, I would try to have a conversation with them about their walkthrough as a means of sharing how these were to help and not to be used as an evaluative tool.
Element 2b. Focus on Instructional Time: The principal creates processes and schedules to protect teachers from disruption from instructional or preparation time.
There is a keen focus at Southern Nash on protecting and maximizing instructional time. Various schedules were created to accommodate the needs of the school. Our school had weekly homeroom lessons, so we created a schedule where students could receive additional homeroom time for these weekly lessons. As the year progressed, the need to adjust the schedules was apparent in order to allow more time for their four class periods. To make this work, we extended lunch by six minutes. With things ever changing, the administration team felt the need to develop an early release schedule, a delay of school schedule, and a first ten days of school schedule to accommodate the changes. During the first ten days of school, we operated on a different schedule to accommodate new students who were figuring out their new school day.