As I read the first few pages of the book, I am in full agreement with authors’ opinions and statements. We are expecting the American educational system to ensure that all students succeed and at the same time to endure drastic cuts to school budgets, it is an ironic conundrum. The authors’ viewpoint that the socio-economic standing of students plays a significant factor in students being able to graduate from high school and the ability to be successful the years after graduation I believe is very accurate.
Dufour and Marzano (2012) provide a refreshing viewpoint on strategies that will improve schools and dismiss the notions that recruiting the best teachers, providing merit pay or more money will make a difference. School
…show more content…
Chapter Two describes the school district’s role in implementing PLCs. As previously mentioned, it is my belief that school leadership needs to execute and provide the appropriate conditions for a successful implementation of a program. I concur with Dufour & Marzano (2012) as they cite the following “Much harm has been done to public education and to the ideas of equity and excellence” by poor implementation of site-based management. Schlechty (2015). One way to destroy an implementation of PLCs is to also have many additional initiatives at the same time. The authors, cite Reeves (2011) in that educators will get “initiative fatigue” when educators are involved in too many short term and long-term projects. It is common sense that if educators are engaged in too many projects at one time, each individual project will become convoluted and less meaningful. If PLCs are to be successful, the superintendent and the central office need to have a clear focus and communication so that the PLC process can become embedded into the culture of their school districts.
Chapter Three focuses on the Principal being an indirect link to student’s achievement through their collaboration with the teaching staff. This is a notion that I am not in total agreement. A school principal’s role can vary from district to district, from
As with the importance of selecting a highly qualified principal to help raise test scores and closing achievement gaps, the selection and support of staff is also critical. Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek, and Steven G. Rivkin’s 2013 study “School Leaders Matter” examined the effectiveness of many principles’ leadership and the effect they had on student achievement ratings. “A primary channel through which principals can be expected to improve the quality of education is by raising the quality of teachers, either by improving the instruction provided by existing teachers or through teacher transitions that improve the caliber of the school’s workforce” (Branch, pg.4). A principal must be able to continually seek out professional development, to research best practices and new educational theories to support their staff and students. If principals are to close the achievement gap, they must be willing to inform and instruct their staff on new teaching strategies. Mr. Canada, from his TED talk, “Our failing schools. Enough is enough!”, states: “You go into a place that has failed kids for fifty years and say: ‘so what’s the plan?’ And they say: ‘Well, we are going to do what we did last year, this year’. What kind of business model is that?” (TED, 2013). The principal willing to venture into new, uncharted waters may succeed or fail, but at least they
While the most important purpose and goal of high school has ultimately remained the same, its factors have changed over the years. In the Articles, “Missing in Interaction,” written by Myra and David Sadker and “Savage Inequalities,” written by Jonathan Kozol, the authors introduce and include examples of the way education itself has changed other the years, as well as the goal that was set for it. Our system of education’s main purpose has been to educate children and help them with their future, but certain issues in regards to our system have not been given the attention that should be required.
“Who Gets to Graduate’ by Paul Tough, publish May, 2015 in the New York Times discusses. The story of a young girl’s mindset on college. It begins with her starting in college and first failure on a test. It highlighted the doubts she had in her abilities. This opening introduces the article’s man discussion, which involves low income students who want to earn a four year degree but experience “troubles” along the way. It then discusses statistics that show dropout rates are highest with low-income students. The author included ability versus economics status.
The second key role for principals is stated in the title of Chapter 4 –“ Being a System Player”. Fullan qualifies this role by emphasizing that a principal shouldn’t pay less attention to school matters “but rather to engage outside in order to increase learning within your school (while at the same time contributing to the betterment of the system).”
Schools have changed remarkably since they were first introduced centuries ago. Continue reading in order to find out how the past has shaped education, as we know it. There are six main eras or time periods in which important things occurred for the American School System, The colonial era, The growth of public schooling, The progressive era, the segregation and Integration era, the 1960s-1970s, and the 1980- present era.
How far a student can go in life is already pre-determined by the generation before him. Success is no longer made up of solely intellectual ability, but rather if the streets the student walks through is gang-ridden or not, if their parents are absentees, and other conditions in which the child grows up in. Valerie Strauss expresses these concerns in her article, “What the Numbers Really Tell Us About America’s Public Schools” in which she discusses how income levels correlate with students’ success rate which is further accentuated through Kamiak and Mariner High School’s Standardized Test Results. “Motivation, a Major Factor in U.S. Student Test Performance” by Dian Schaffhauser continues this idea of external problems affecting low scores
Everybody loves a good success story. When the underdog, usually a lower class high school age student, defies the odds and comes out on top, beating his circumstances to get where nobody thinks he should go, everyone goes crazy for it. So crazy that Hollywood gets in on the act, with movie productions such as The Blind Side, Life of A King, and Slum Dog Millionaire. Sadly, these stories are not commonplace, in fact, they are very few and far between. More often than not, students from lower class families struggle to get by, as a result putting school to the back burner. Less than 75% of students in lower income households graduate high school, and even fewer go onto college (http://nces.ed.gov). From this group, excuses began to come out, the main reason underlies them all; they have become a product of their circumstance. The position they were in restrained them, forcing only one path, a
The principal should be the keeper of the schools good will and represent the school vision, so that the staff believes they are all in this together. The
Administrators and teachers must work together to develop the PLC plan addressing the needs of their students. This means administrators need to trust teachers and allow them to work in a way that is autonomous from leadership. Delegating more responsibilities to staff was a way of creating a more knowledgeable community that could cope with the diversity of demands created by schools moving from being relatively simple organizations to highly complex ones. It was also recognized as in accord with the rhetoric of distributed leadership recommended as a strategy for school improvement and raising pupil attainment (Bolam et al. 2005, Webb, et al.
According to the authors of this article (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009), principals need to concentrate on the development of skills and behaviors in order to be successful in motivating, leading, and changing the direction of a school. The successful principal understands that there exists a fine balance of caring for others and the need to accomplish specific tasks (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).
The principal’s role in developing positive community relations sets the tone for communication patterns, partnership formation and/or alienation (Fiore, 2013). There are many tasks that the principal has that is important to school and community relations. Some of those are being a good listener, diplomatic and tactful and all situations. They also have to promote the open door policy to be free to communicate with students, parents, and their staff. They also have to inform the superintendent and community about good and bad things that are
I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I learned everything I needed to know there. Everything that has to do with life that is. I started my education there and I will continue it where ever I go. My educational background was just as normal and fun like any other kids. But I was the unique child that made my education different and more enjoyable. My learning process has five processes: elementary, middle, high school, college, and the future.
Effective school leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). The writer of this paper acknowledges that school principals should play the role of instructional leaders, not just a school manager. The reality is that are many demands on a principals time and management skills making it difficult for most of them to spend time in classrooms, when performing teacher evaluation. Principals often make sure that teachers
“The period between 1965 and the end of the 1980s witnessed significant developments, not only in the provision of post-primary schooling in Ireland, but also in the way in which schooling was understood.”
“The period between 1965 and the end of the 1980s witnessed significant developments, not only in the provision of post-primary schooling in Ireland, but also in the way in which schooling was understood.”