Principal as agent of change

Please complete the entry
card and set it aside until
the end of the presentation.

Agenda
1. Entry card.
2. Minds On: Finding focus
3. Alignment of board and school
goals
4. Context (elementary, secondary,
AMDSB)
5. Barriers to professional learning
6. Intentionally interrupting (breaking
down) the barriers

We get results where we focus our attention. Think of
a time when your attention was focused on achieving
something very specific.
Minds On

Available Data
• Student Achievement
• Program Data
• Demographics
• Perceptual Data

In Looking at the Data…
• What does the data tell you?
• What strengths and/or areas of improvement do you
see?
• Identify an area which you would choose to improve.

K-12 School Effectiveness
Framework (2010)
• To achieve equity of outcomes
for all students
• To build school and board
capacity to identify strengths
and areas which require
attention and next steps
• To foster reflective analysis
and deeper understanding of
school improvement needs

12
Key Purposes of the School
Effectiveness Framework (K-12)
• A support for school improvement and student
success
• A catalyst for improvement planning and
implementation
• A process to build collective capacity and facilitate
professional learning

Process for Improvement:
a) Decide on a school goal based on data.
b) Align your school goal within the Board Improvement Plan.
c) Use the Board Improvement Plan and corresponding indicators from the 2013 School Effectiveness Framework as a
resource to support teaching and learning.
d) Continuously work through a cycle of school improvement, shifting and refocusing based on student need.
School improvement planning is not effective if the plan is set in the fall and then revisited at the end of the school year. The
plans need to be continuously revisited and adjusted based on student need.
TVDSB School Improvement Cycle
“The Roadmap”

SIP Resources
What resources could you use to help you to carry out
your school goals?
Quickly brainstorm as many ideas as you can, then
write one idea on each post it note.

Resources
• School staff members strengths- teaching partners
• Collaboration / Networking time
• Timetables aligned
• Lesson Studies/CLIM-co teaching / co planning
• Learning Coordinators
• Itinerants and Coaches
• Professional Development-monthly staff meeting
focus…

• Specific programs
• Technology
• School organization / Assignments
• Grants---$$/support
• Events-’parent day’
• Resources---kits, books, stuff
• Materials that support goals, i.e.: Questioning
techniques-Q-charts
Resources Con’t…

Resources Con’t…
• Community members
• Parent involvement
• Communication
• Address student needs-breakfast club, homework club
after school

Accountability
Ontario Leadership Framework
Building staff members’ sense of internal accountability
-promoting staff to regularly use data and make connections
between school goals and their own commitment to improvement
efforts
Meeting the demands for external accountability
-clearly define expectations, measure and monitor
-provide a accurate and transparent account of the schools’
performance to all stakeholders

Principal’s Role in School
Improvement Planning
OPC Handbook
Chapter 23
• Communication
• Professional Development
• Leadership

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know
better, I do better. ― Maya Angelou
What gets in the way of teachers learning new
instructional practices that will impact student learning
in areas where students need the most support?

Our job is to intentionally interrupt the barriers that impede
professional learning.
• We don’t think through all possibilities
• We focus on confirming our hypotheses, not challenging them
• We pay too much attention to things that are vivid
• We consider ourselves to be exceptions
• We hesitate to take action in a new direction
• We don’t want others to see our vulnerabilities
Barriers to Professional Learning:
How Our Minds Get in the Way

How do we intentionally
interrupt?
• Protocols*
• Making Preconceptions Explicit*
• Ensuring That Activities and Interventions are rooted in problems of practice
• Recruiting contradictory evidence
• Viewing mistakes as learning opportunities
• Encouraging a growth rather than a fixed mindset*
• Ensuring that problems of practice are questions that people are curious about
• Giving people autonomy in task and time

Quick Dilemma Protocol
• On the back of your card, write a dilemma (problem
of practice) that you face in your current role.
• It should be a problem you don’t know the answer to
and it keeps you up at night.
• Share your problems of practice by reading from
your card.

• Choose one problem that seems interesting and
difficult to solve.
• Group asks clarifying questions. The presenter
answers briefly. (2 mins)
• Group asks probing questions. The presenter says
NOTHING and records the questions. (4 mins)
• The presenter shares one question that caused
cognitive dissonance and explains why.

Learning is the process through which
experience causes permanent
change in knowledge and behaviour.
(Woolfolk, Winne, & Perry, 2012)

Exit Card
• What did I hear today (a summary)?
• How did this relate to what I thought about the
principal’s role as an agent of change before today?
What was confirmatory? What was surprising?
• Learning is about a change in the way I think. What
did I learn today about the principal’s role as an
agent of change?
• What will I do next based on what I learned today?

Entry Card
What do I know about the principal’s role as an agent of
change?
Why is the principal’s role as an agent of change important
for me to know about?
What do I hope to learn?

Principal as agent of change

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Principal as agent of change

Similar to Principal as agent of change (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Principal as agent of change