March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Building Capacity for Student Learning Brad Fox Paula Vincent March, 2010

Clear Creek Amana CSD Background

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Community Involvement Stakeholders expressed a strong desire for an educational experience that is: Personalized Serves the community, not just its children Can change with the times to keep itself current with future needs/challenges

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement –Iowa Core/National Standards –District content maps –Instructional Planner

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Instructional Planner Instructional Planner Reflection-(Adapted from The Handbook for Enhancing Professional Practice, Danielson. 2007) The instructional planner is intended as a tool to guide the development of unit plans that demonstrate the following elements: –Your knowledge of content, including knowledge of prerequisite relations, links to other disciplines, and state and district content standards; –Clear criteria and procedures for assessing student learning that enable students to monitor their own learning and that allow the teacher to plan for future instruction; –Your knowledge of students’ backgrounds, skills and interests; –Clear goals for student learning; –A variety of learning activities that promote student engagement in learning and that develop important concepts from simpler to more complex.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Reflective Questions The questions below may help you as a planning guide in preparing your unit. How did you select the essential questions that your students will be able to understand and answer as a result of this unit? Would another person reading this plan be able to determine how this unit supports the Iowa Core/district content standards? How do you know that this unit is appropriate for the students in your class (es)? How does your plan help students develop understanding of the unit’s important concepts?

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Reflective Questions Questions continued: How does the unit help correct or avoid common student misconceptions about this topic? What strategies have you used to connect this unit to prior learning? What prerequisite knowledge or skill must students have in order to be successful in this unit? What is your evidence that students in your class have this understanding? Is this information reflected in your assessment plan? How will students demonstrate their learning? What will they do to demonstrate engagement with this unit? How have you accommodated the diverse needs of the learners in the assessments you have chosen?

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement –Personal Learning Plans Learning to Learn Learning to Do Learning to Be

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement –Staff Learning Weekly learning time Common prep time Six week instructional planning Classroom implementation protocol

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Selected Design Elements Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement –Professional Learning Teams –Building Leadership Teams –Instructional Services Team –District Leadership Team

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership Professional Learning Teams –Each certified staff member participates in a collegial work group, facilitated by a teacher leader.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership Building Leadership Teams -The teacher leaders not only facilitate the collegial work groups, but also come together with the building administrator to provide building level leadership focused on instruction.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership Instructional Services Team -Model characteristics and responsibilities essential to effective leadership; -Provide progress information, feedback, and support for district goals and instructional initiatives; -Engage in professional learning individually and in learning teams; -Serve as a resource to colleagues through: intellectual stimulation, promotion and support of fundamental change, knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD IST Values We will strive to carry out our work with a/an: assumption of positive intent; belief that our work makes a difference; willingness to commit to high expectations; acceptance of personal responsibility and a future focus. Norms Seek facts prior to judgment Acknowledge each other’s good work and hold each other accountable Take responsibility to prepare for meetings and work assignments in advance Recognize conflict and use it wisely Bring joy and humor to our work

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership District Leadership Team - The purpose of the DLT is to make recommendations to the board regarding district-wide prioritized needs, possible adjustments to school improvement goals, and the programs and services provided to students.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership We have characterized the concept of distributed leadership as a process that collectively merges formal and informal leaders, as well as professional and non-professional staff, into an organization of stakeholders whose primary goal it becomes to improve teaching and learning. Our view of distributed leadership maximizes human capacity within the school and engages multiple sources of guidance, support and direction made coherent through a common set of organizational values around successful learning for all students. The distributed leadership concept relies on inclusive leadership practices and multi- dimensional strategies. Its intent is to create a culture that empowers stakeholders with opportunities to be in a position of leadership that collectively solves a problem, supports a data driven idea, or assists in teaching and learning.

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership Continued The achievement of a high level of implementation of this process requires: teachers to develop leadership expertise by building skills, engaging in non-traditional tasks and working collaboratively; those in formal leadership positions to share leadership opportunities, bring fragmented pieces of the organization together through the use of individual skills and abilities combined to form productive relationships; and a commitment to the baseline principle of decentralized school leadership where all members subscribe to the view that leadership resides 'not solely in the individual at the top, but within every person who in one way or another, acts as a leader' (Goleman, 2002).

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Distributive Leadership Continued This concept does not suggest that ultimate responsibility for the overall performance of the organization is scattered or ambiguous, nor does it render authority of formal leadership roles redundant. It does however; cause the organization to become transparent by allowing all stakeholders to contribute to decisions regarding teaching and learning. School leaders who practice distributed leadership are transformational leaders who build staff self-esteem, enhance professional competence and give staff the confidence and responsibility to lead, develop and innovate. These school leaders take on many important roles, such as: –Facilitating the development of clear goals; –Building alliances; –Designing innovative professional development and peer exchanges; –Inspiring teaching and learning improvement strategies; –Engaging in the values of the school culture; and –Creating structures that empower others to lead. -a definition adapted from pilot schools in New Jersey, 2007; modified CCA, August 2009

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Building Capacity for Student Learning Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Personalized Learning Distributive Leadership Community Engagement From schooling From people blame From maintenance of status quo From person dependent From reacting to mandates To learning To system issues To increasingly effective outcomes To system capacity To informing policy

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD Building Capacity for Student Learning Resources Implementation Science-Heifetz Systems Design-Ackoff, Gharajedaghi Change Literature-Fullan Adaptive Schools – Wellman Learning Organizations-DuFour All of the above applied to schools-Leddick

March, 2010Clear Creek Amana CSD “Students can not benefit from interventions they do not experience.” -Dean Fixsen.