Systems Leadership Pre-Post Knowledge Check

The Superintendent has developed a schedule of leadership meetings that include on-site monthly meetings with individual building principals who submit quarterly data and reports to the central office at the end of each quarter. These data and progress reports are then disseminated collectively across the district to be considered in building continuous improvement planning.

An interactive “District Dashboard” was created to foster collaborative conversations regarding implementation effectiveness. This dashboard identifies and collects key measures of the following.

• Student growth and performance
• Classroom-based instructional practice
• Professional collaboration and efficacy

The District Improvement Plan requires individual building leadership teams to review building data for making building-specific action plans based on building-identified needs and goals. These plans were submitted to the district leadership team for review and resource allocation to support building-level implementation.

The district adopted and promoted the following philosophy toward teacher professional learning: Data-based decision making + Developing assessment capable learners = Improved Student Outcomes. All district-wide professional development was guided by this philosophy, and the philosophy was included in district-wide educator handbooks.

Building leadership teams have met with members of their district leadership team to develop a district-aligned building improvement plan to address their individual building’s needs. These plans are submitted to the Superintendent for approval and resource allocations, and plans are monitored through monthly district leadership team meetings.

District leadership team meetings rotate among district buildings. As part of these monthly meetings, members of the DLT break into groups of 2 or 3 and conduct walk-throughs in several classrooms within the building where the meeting is being held. Walk-throughs focus on the implementation of a common set of effective instructional practices for the purpose of feedback to teachers and the building leadership team.

The district has adopted a district-wide, peer-coaching model to support their implementation of assessment capable learner practices. To support active participation in the coaching process, coaching logistics, creating coaching partners, and schedules have been established at the building level.

A district-wide interactive data wall program will be rolled out as part of the district’s continuous improvement process. The roll-out will take place in three phases:

1. Communication and professional development
2. Initial set-up and data collection
3. First round use of practices and data to inform classroom instruction as well as district-wide practices and reflection.

The district leadership team developed a data-team structure that was implemented district-wide. Grade-level teams (lateral) at the elementary level and content-based teams (vertical) at the middle- and high-school levels were formed to focus only on data for students without disabilities. Special educators (pre-k – 12) formed vertical teams to consider the data for students with disabilities separately. Then, these teams use their data to inform decision-making for their specific student populations.

The staff of a small K-8 district developed a standards-based student growth continuum for writing to serve as the foundation for a system of cross-content common formative assessments. Data teams meet weekly, analyze data, and establish goals aligned with the growth continuum. A district/building leadership team also regularly reviews data and implementation progress.