Chapter 8: The Principal as Decision Maker Dr. Rob Anderson Spring 2011

Agenda Leadership Book Presentations – Laura, Kirsten, Marissa, Ayesha Tallahassee update Chapter 8: Principal as Decision Maker Using school data to make decisions

Major Themes: Chapter 8 The decision making process Rational decision making Shared decision making Leadership style continuum and decision making

Florida Principal Leadership Standards Standard 6: Decision Making. Effective school leaders employ and monitor a decision-making process that is based on vision, mission and improvement priorities using facts and data. The leader: Gives priority attention to decisions that impact the quality of student learning and teacher proficiency; Uses critical thinking and problem solving techniques to define problems and identify solutions; Evaluates decisions for effectiveness, equity, intended and actual outcome; implements follow-up actions; and revises as needed; Empowers others and distributes leadership when appropriate; and Uses effective technology integration to enhance decision making and efficiency throughout the school.

The Decision Making Process Identifying the ProblemGenerating AlternativesEvaluating AlternativesChoosing an alternativeImplementing the Decision Evaluating decision Effectiveness

Defining the Problem Key piece to effective decision making Get specific when defining any problem and make sure it is actually a problem

Common Methodologies used to Solve Problems Problem Solving Decision Making Analysis – Utilized forced ranking to prioritize solutions amongst chosen variables for consideration SWOT Analysis Decision Tree – Developing a flow chart of decisions

Leadership-Style Continuum p. 216

Using Data to Make Decisions Extremely valuable to new school leaders – Experienced leaders can lean on experience to make decisions, new leaders cannot You have to be able to properly analyze data first

Case Study: Lake Nona HS Step One: Look at the data and analyze each area to determine next steps.

What are your options? A.Data is on target. Strategy is working and personnel is performing B.Data is not on target A.Strategy is not working B.Personnel is not performing

Case Study: Lake Nona HS Step Two: In areas where data is not on target, dig a little deeper within each area to develop a clearer picture a) Is there anything that could have skewed the data? b) Is the data you are investigating an anomaly? Consistent with prior years?

Digging Deeper School to school comparison – Compare overall results with those of other schools within the district to understand how much above/below the mean each data point falls – Look at schools with similar demographics to compare apples to apples?

Developing a Strategy Once you have identified which data point you are trying to move, you have to begin to implement a decision making strategy. Do you: – Make changes by yourself? – Enlist your leadership team to come up with ideas? – Develop a committee of teachers/professionals to weigh in? – Students, parents….?

Evaluating Personnel How do you determine whether or not your issue is the strategy or the people implementing the strategy? How do you ensure that your strategy has been implemented with fidelity? – Leading indicators vs. lagging indicators

Case Study: Lake Nona HS In our case, after bringing together a team of administrators, we realized that it was both a strategy and personnel issue. Our strategy did not provide enough support, so we developed additional interventions including Pull out programs targeting our lowest students Integrating complex text with reading strategies in Physical Science, Biology, Geography and World History

Case Study: Lake Nona HS After compiling data from our reading program, we moved our lowest performing teacher into another subject and hired a high performing reading teacher. – This resulted in a Win-Win. The teacher (who was admittedly struggling, is much more successful.

Case Study: Lake Nona High School Results – Use of leading indicators to measure progress real time

For Next Week Osceola County Spring Break!!!