S.M.A.R.T. Goals
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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE GOAL:
This cycle's Professional Practice goal is linked with my advanced graduate study, a C.A.G.S. in School Leadership, in which I will broaden my perspective as a teacher by understanding the world of school administration. This goal will have a three-pronged action plan:
The purpose of this goal is to gain perspective and experience in the realms of data collection, leadership, evaluation, curriculum design, and school law, all in the effort of improving my approach, scope, and expertise as a professional educator. |
EVIDENCE of MEETING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE GOAL:
I have completed all elements of this goal, as noted below:
Action Steps:
1. To complete 2 years of graduate instruction (9 courses / 42 credits) at American International College
STATUS: Complete (see transcript below)
2. To complete 75 pre-practicum hours of administration observation (with time log)
STATUS: Complete - Time log attached below
3. To complete 400 practicum hours of administrative apprenticeship (with time log)
STATUS: Complete - Time log attached below
I have completed all elements of this goal, as noted below:
Action Steps:
1. To complete 2 years of graduate instruction (9 courses / 42 credits) at American International College
STATUS: Complete (see transcript below)
2. To complete 75 pre-practicum hours of administration observation (with time log)
STATUS: Complete - Time log attached below
3. To complete 400 practicum hours of administrative apprenticeship (with time log)
STATUS: Complete - Time log attached below
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FINAL REFLECTION and PRODUCT:
Where to begin to reflect on the last two years, ten courses, and 400 hours of coursework and training in school leadership. So many experiences have proved valuable, interesting, and transformative. In the interest of brevity, I’ve decided to focus on three major areas, all of which touch on several of the standards and indicators for Massachusetts educational leadership: the formation of an action plan based on data and honed by stakeholder feedback, the evaluation of a teacher’s performance in the classroom, and the critical engagement of the community in a public forum.
Over the course of this practicum and course work, I gained hands-on, practical experience in serving as an administrative leader, engaging community members in decision making, and forming an action plan based on data, stakeholder feedback, and a careful analysis of existing programs, services, climate, and culture. The tasks provided an invaluable “dress-rehearsal” of sorts for the kinds of analysis, engagement, and decision-making necessary for an effective school leader, made me realize the “ins and outs” of such a process, and perhaps most importantly, allowed me to reflect on my own instincts, tendencies, strengths and challenges as a future leader and administrator.
Perhaps the area of school leadership for which I had the least experience, and frankly the most ignorance, was the importance of data collection in decision-making and action planning. As a teacher for the past 17 years, I have never had the privilege of being privy to this process with any administrator for which I’ve worked, nor has any administrator shared detailed data with the staff or disclosed their rationale for decisions or policies. Therefore, having to spend hours honing my skills in the acquisition, organization, and interpretation of data has been an eye-opening experience. I now find myself, even as a teacher, searching more frequently for data-based rationale for instructional decisions in my own classroom, as well as respectfully questioning colleagues, coordinators, and administrators about the data behind their own decisions on a regular basis.
Specifically, I now find myself knowledgeable and more than capable when it comes to navigating the wealth of data on the MA DESE online database. I can browse the available information efficiently and target the desired numbers without fear of being overwhelmed or confused by the sheer size of the data pool or the interface of the software. Also, I have become adept at perusing school and district improvement plans, NEASC self-studies, and various raw qualitative data from school community surveys and other sources.
Another revelation this program provided was the importance of engaging stakeholders (teachers, students, councilors, parents, and other staff members) in all stages of both target identification and action plan building. Again, my own experience with school administration has not provided me with many examples of this in action, as I’ve mostly been privy to a top-down, authoritative approach that has the potential to be sometimes effective, but mostly frustrating and puzzling to those who don’t have access to the rationale or thought-process behind an initiative. Having been through this program, it is easy to see the value in the engagement process from both sides of the educational team, teacher and administrator.
I’ve learned that, for administrators, sharing and augmenting data with and from your faculty and staff can only increase the relevancy and efficacy of your initiatives. In addition, involving stakeholders in the planning process fosters an increased possibility of staff “buy-in” and cultivates an openness to the communication aspect of school culture, which sadly is often lacking in many districts. During my own experience with this task’s hypothetical initiative, stakeholders I involved became invested and enthusiastic about the possibilities of improvement to the target areas identified. A lesson I will not soon forget when the focus shifts from hypothetical to practical.
The critical process of organizing one’s thoughts and ideas on a targeted issue into a structured, considered, and oft-revised action plan was not a new concept for me. Planning is one of my strengths as a teacher and was an essential skill in my years as a theatre director, both in educational and professional settings. However, gaining practical experience in the process for a school administrator was nonetheless invaluable.
I found, during this process, that my natural tendency is to be too ambitious in my initiatives. Feedback from experts and stakeholders taught me to balance my enthusiasm for systemic change with a sense of practicality and feasibility, paying special heed to the often glacial pace of bureaucratic change in suburban communities. I found, with help from stakeholder feedback, that this balance was very achievable and very valuable.
Additionally, in this program, I gained invaluable experience engaging a teacher in a classroom observation, and conducting an evaluation of that teacher’s performance in a post-observation conference. The task, as well as the teacher’s personal feedback on the process, provided invaluable experience and information, and allowed me to reflect on my own instincts, tendencies, strengths and challenges as a future administrator and evaluator.
Second, the pre-observation is important for the teacher as well. It transparently communicates my objectives and process, and provides the teacher with a clear illustration of what they can expect during a sometimes awkward and certainly fraught event in their school year. In short, when people know what to expect and why things are happening the way they are, they tend to relax and feel less defensive about the evaluation process. This is key to not only getting the most authentic look at the teacher’s performance, but at achieving a receptive attitude from the teacher when it comes to suggestions and criticism.
This atmosphere of respect continues into the post-observation meeting, where I learned the value of starting not with my thoughts, but with the teacher’s. How did they feel it went? Did they think their objectives were accomplished? This shows that I value their professional process and opinion and seek it out before providing mine. When giving my own feedback, it seems prudent to begin with positive notes, validating their good work, then move on to constructive suggestions or questions. Also, explicitly recognizing the limitations of the situation shows the teacher you know that this one observation is just a tiny piece of what they can and do accomplish every day.
Finally, in addition to other valuable areas of concern and experience (school law, ethics, finances, and personnel management), the community connection standard rings prominently in my memories and experiences throughout this process. This is an area that teachers deal far less with, and one in which I gained eye-opening and reflective field experience. Presenting a major data analysis of the year’s successes and struggles with remote learning in a public school committee meeting, in front of community members and the press, was a small but potent taste of the world administrators work in regularly - in the critical spotlight, answering difficult questions, under constant scrutiny and the fickle eye of public opinion. Strangely, though it was difficult and tense at times, this arena is one I found myself competent and comfortable in. Upon reflection, I can say humbly but honestly, that I am a good communicator and can “read the room” accurately, constantly adjusting and improvising in tone and approach to serve the needs of the audience and the moment. This is, of course, a skill teachers use in the classroom every day - one that seems to translate well to school leadership when channelled properly.
Where to begin to reflect on the last two years, ten courses, and 400 hours of coursework and training in school leadership. So many experiences have proved valuable, interesting, and transformative. In the interest of brevity, I’ve decided to focus on three major areas, all of which touch on several of the standards and indicators for Massachusetts educational leadership: the formation of an action plan based on data and honed by stakeholder feedback, the evaluation of a teacher’s performance in the classroom, and the critical engagement of the community in a public forum.
Over the course of this practicum and course work, I gained hands-on, practical experience in serving as an administrative leader, engaging community members in decision making, and forming an action plan based on data, stakeholder feedback, and a careful analysis of existing programs, services, climate, and culture. The tasks provided an invaluable “dress-rehearsal” of sorts for the kinds of analysis, engagement, and decision-making necessary for an effective school leader, made me realize the “ins and outs” of such a process, and perhaps most importantly, allowed me to reflect on my own instincts, tendencies, strengths and challenges as a future leader and administrator.
Perhaps the area of school leadership for which I had the least experience, and frankly the most ignorance, was the importance of data collection in decision-making and action planning. As a teacher for the past 17 years, I have never had the privilege of being privy to this process with any administrator for which I’ve worked, nor has any administrator shared detailed data with the staff or disclosed their rationale for decisions or policies. Therefore, having to spend hours honing my skills in the acquisition, organization, and interpretation of data has been an eye-opening experience. I now find myself, even as a teacher, searching more frequently for data-based rationale for instructional decisions in my own classroom, as well as respectfully questioning colleagues, coordinators, and administrators about the data behind their own decisions on a regular basis.
Specifically, I now find myself knowledgeable and more than capable when it comes to navigating the wealth of data on the MA DESE online database. I can browse the available information efficiently and target the desired numbers without fear of being overwhelmed or confused by the sheer size of the data pool or the interface of the software. Also, I have become adept at perusing school and district improvement plans, NEASC self-studies, and various raw qualitative data from school community surveys and other sources.
Another revelation this program provided was the importance of engaging stakeholders (teachers, students, councilors, parents, and other staff members) in all stages of both target identification and action plan building. Again, my own experience with school administration has not provided me with many examples of this in action, as I’ve mostly been privy to a top-down, authoritative approach that has the potential to be sometimes effective, but mostly frustrating and puzzling to those who don’t have access to the rationale or thought-process behind an initiative. Having been through this program, it is easy to see the value in the engagement process from both sides of the educational team, teacher and administrator.
I’ve learned that, for administrators, sharing and augmenting data with and from your faculty and staff can only increase the relevancy and efficacy of your initiatives. In addition, involving stakeholders in the planning process fosters an increased possibility of staff “buy-in” and cultivates an openness to the communication aspect of school culture, which sadly is often lacking in many districts. During my own experience with this task’s hypothetical initiative, stakeholders I involved became invested and enthusiastic about the possibilities of improvement to the target areas identified. A lesson I will not soon forget when the focus shifts from hypothetical to practical.
The critical process of organizing one’s thoughts and ideas on a targeted issue into a structured, considered, and oft-revised action plan was not a new concept for me. Planning is one of my strengths as a teacher and was an essential skill in my years as a theatre director, both in educational and professional settings. However, gaining practical experience in the process for a school administrator was nonetheless invaluable.
I found, during this process, that my natural tendency is to be too ambitious in my initiatives. Feedback from experts and stakeholders taught me to balance my enthusiasm for systemic change with a sense of practicality and feasibility, paying special heed to the often glacial pace of bureaucratic change in suburban communities. I found, with help from stakeholder feedback, that this balance was very achievable and very valuable.
Additionally, in this program, I gained invaluable experience engaging a teacher in a classroom observation, and conducting an evaluation of that teacher’s performance in a post-observation conference. The task, as well as the teacher’s personal feedback on the process, provided invaluable experience and information, and allowed me to reflect on my own instincts, tendencies, strengths and challenges as a future administrator and evaluator.
Second, the pre-observation is important for the teacher as well. It transparently communicates my objectives and process, and provides the teacher with a clear illustration of what they can expect during a sometimes awkward and certainly fraught event in their school year. In short, when people know what to expect and why things are happening the way they are, they tend to relax and feel less defensive about the evaluation process. This is key to not only getting the most authentic look at the teacher’s performance, but at achieving a receptive attitude from the teacher when it comes to suggestions and criticism.
This atmosphere of respect continues into the post-observation meeting, where I learned the value of starting not with my thoughts, but with the teacher’s. How did they feel it went? Did they think their objectives were accomplished? This shows that I value their professional process and opinion and seek it out before providing mine. When giving my own feedback, it seems prudent to begin with positive notes, validating their good work, then move on to constructive suggestions or questions. Also, explicitly recognizing the limitations of the situation shows the teacher you know that this one observation is just a tiny piece of what they can and do accomplish every day.
Finally, in addition to other valuable areas of concern and experience (school law, ethics, finances, and personnel management), the community connection standard rings prominently in my memories and experiences throughout this process. This is an area that teachers deal far less with, and one in which I gained eye-opening and reflective field experience. Presenting a major data analysis of the year’s successes and struggles with remote learning in a public school committee meeting, in front of community members and the press, was a small but potent taste of the world administrators work in regularly - in the critical spotlight, answering difficult questions, under constant scrutiny and the fickle eye of public opinion. Strangely, though it was difficult and tense at times, this arena is one I found myself competent and comfortable in. Upon reflection, I can say humbly but honestly, that I am a good communicator and can “read the room” accurately, constantly adjusting and improvising in tone and approach to serve the needs of the audience and the moment. This is, of course, a skill teachers use in the classroom every day - one that seems to translate well to school leadership when channelled properly.
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STUDENT LEARNING GOAL:
This cycle's Student Learning Goal comes in response to the College Board's launch of AP Classroom, an online platform which offers AP teachers access to a database of skill-specific assessments for practice with the AP curriculum. This includes unit-based "Personal Progress Checks" designed to generate and track student performance data on essential skills for the AP Literature curriculum. Students in my AP Literature classes (2 sections) will improve measurably in their knowledge and performance of essential skills, determined by the College Board's AP Literature & Composition curriculum. The students' skills should show an improvement of approximately 20%. AP Literature & Composition Skills:
STRATEGIES FOR ACHIEVING STUDENT LEARNING GOAL:
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EVIDENCE of MEETING STUDENT LEARNING GOAL:
1. Administer a benchmark pre-test in the first weeks of the 2021-2022 school year, which will serve as a baseline for comparison.
STATUS: Completed - assessment administered, data gathered (see below)
PRE-TEST
2. Students will complete 9 unit-specific, standardized Personal Progress Checks (assessments created by the College Board and used with all AP Literature classes internationally), in the course of the 2020-2021 school year.
STATUS: Completed - 9 Personal Progress Checks administered, data gathered (see below)
1. Administer a benchmark pre-test in the first weeks of the 2021-2022 school year, which will serve as a baseline for comparison.
STATUS: Completed - assessment administered, data gathered (see below)
PRE-TEST
- MCQ Average - 54% correct
- FRQ Average Score - 2.5 (out of 6)
2. Students will complete 9 unit-specific, standardized Personal Progress Checks (assessments created by the College Board and used with all AP Literature classes internationally), in the course of the 2020-2021 school year.
STATUS: Completed - 9 Personal Progress Checks administered, data gathered (see below)
3. After each of these formative assessments, strengths and weaknesses will be determined. Instruction will then be adjusted to address weaknesses and build on strengths.
STATUS: Completed (9/9 Progress Checks completed and used to build and focus
subsequent instruction each time)
4. In April of 2022, a final benchmark will be administered, just before the AP exam, to gather summative data and compare to previous benchmarks, determining growth.
STATUS: Completed - assessment administered in April 2022 (see results below)
FINAL BENCHMARK:
STATUS: Completed (9/9 Progress Checks completed and used to build and focus
subsequent instruction each time)
4. In April of 2022, a final benchmark will be administered, just before the AP exam, to gather summative data and compare to previous benchmarks, determining growth.
STATUS: Completed - assessment administered in April 2022 (see results below)
FINAL BENCHMARK:
- MCQ Average - 65% correct - 20.4% increase
- FRQ Average Score - 4 (out of 6) - 60% increase
FINAL REFLECTION and PRODUCT:
As expected, tailoring instruction to EXACTLY what the data indicates (both quantitative and qualitative) made a significant difference in performance. The new Personal Progress Check system by College Board is a very convenient way to both administer formative assessments and organize and analyze the resulting data. That, paired with my own benchmark and formative assessments, creates a useful and fruitful feedback loop to cater instruction and practice.
As expected, tailoring instruction to EXACTLY what the data indicates (both quantitative and qualitative) made a significant difference in performance. The new Personal Progress Check system by College Board is a very convenient way to both administer formative assessments and organize and analyze the resulting data. That, paired with my own benchmark and formative assessments, creates a useful and fruitful feedback loop to cater instruction and practice.
