Order 2584122: Shaping School Culture

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• Type of paperEssay (Any Type)
• SubjectEducation
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Case Study: Shaping School Culture

In most cases, school leaders start their tenure focusing on the school’s culture. As you know from your previous assignments, the readings in the program, and from your professional experiences thus far, a school’s culture can be complex and deeply embedded in the beliefs, language, and behaviors of the stakeholders. Remember, culture is a major theme in the ELCC and PSEL standards. Moreover, your position as a new school leader will have an effect on the school’s culture (simply because of the change in leadership). As you get closer to finishing this degree program, consider how you will begin your future tenure as a school leader.

Read the “Shaping School Culture” case study to inform the assignment.

Part 1: Case Analysis

In 375-words, respond to the case study by addressing the following:

1. Brief summary of the case

2. Issues to be resolved

3. Stakeholders involved in the issues

4. One or two existing laws or court rulings that relate to the issues

5. District policies that relate to the issues

6. Possible solutions to the issues

7. Solutions chosen to resolve the issues

8. Action steps (2-5) for implementing each solution, including a timeline for each step

9. Potential moral and legal consequences of each solution

Part 2: Rationale

Support the case analysis with a 450-word rationale explaining the solutions you chose and how each solution:

· Is designed for continual and sustainable school improvement to improve student outcomes.

· Demonstrates cultural competence and responsiveness in decision-making, school planning, and meeting the needs of students.

· Addresses difficult issues related to meeting students’ needs while promoting a culture of collaboration, trust, learning, and high expectations.

· Strives to build and sustain positive relationships between school representatives, students, families, and community partners, when their needs conflict.

Cite the case as well as 3-4 scholarly resources.

APA. RUBRIC:

(10) Case Analysis 1-3: Summary, Issues, Stakeholders: Analysis skillfully and convincingly summarizes the case, identifies the issues to be resolved, and identifies the stakeholders involved in the issues.

(10) Case Analysis 4-5: Laws and Policies: Identifies compelling existing laws or court rulings and district policies related to the issues.

(20) Case Analysis 6-8: Solutions and Action Steps: Identifies exceptional solutions to resolve the issues and insightfully selects ideal solutions for resolving the issues. Action steps and timeline are thoughtful and realistic.

(10) Case Analysis 9: Consequences: Moral and legal consequences of proposed solutions are thorough and proficiently explained.

(30) Rationale: Rationale compellingly explains how the proposed solutions are designed for continual and sustainable school improvement; demonstrate cultural competence and responsiveness in decision making, school planning, and meeting the needs of students; address difficult issues related to meeting students’ needs while promoting collaboration, trust, learning, and high expectations; and strive to build and sustain positive relationships between school representatives, students, families, and community partners.

Case Study: Shaping School Culture

You have served as an assistant principal for one year in a middle school (grades 4-8) that has received a grade of “D” as a school accountability label. Due to recent changes and the retirement of the principal, you apply for the open position and the Superintendent selects you to be the principal for the next school year. Your knowledge of your internal and external community, along with the various school and district systems, plays a critical role in your summer planning for the upcoming school year.

Your school has had a reputation of being a “tough” school. Your student body is made up of mostly lower-income families who live primarily in single-family homes, condominiums, and federally subsidized apartments. Demographically, the school is culturally diverse, with Hispanic students making up the largest ethnic group. You also have the highest African American student population within the district. The school has approximately 700 students, 33 full-time general education teachers, 1 full-time special education teacher and 1 gifted education teacher. Your teaching staff has remained stable in key areas, but you know that you will need to hire seven teachers across the grade levels. A large percentage of your teachers are experienced veterans, many of whom have outlived at least 14 administrators that have come through the campus.

As you sit in your office in July, you become overwhelmed as you begin sifting through numerous piles of information – student achievement data, the School Improvement Plan (SIP), discipline data, teacher observations, the previous principal’s files, etc. You know you have to find ways to positively influence your outcomes, in particular student achievement, as you are considered by the state as being in need of school improvement. You also know that your student achievement outcomes will not change unless the student discipline data improves. Bottom line, it is obvious that students are missing a tremendous amount of instructional time due to behavioral issues and the assigned consequences. Where do you begin?

References

“Holistic School Leadership: Systems Thinking as an Instructional Leadership Enabler,” by Shaked and Schechter, from SAGE (2016).

https://journals-sagepub-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1177/0192636516683446

School Culture and Leadership of Professional Learning Communities,” by Carpenter, from Emerald Insight (2014).

https://www-emerald-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJEM-04-2014-0046/full/html

Kickboard. (12 C.E., Summer 2017). Seven-Year Study Identifies the Most Essential Behaviors for Creating a Positive School Culture; Results Discussed in New Report from Kickboard. Business Wire (English).

(Which student behaviors have the greatest impact in creating a safe, supportive learning environment? An analysis of more than 152 million student behavior instances collected over seven years by educators in 645 schools has enabled researchers to identify the most essential behaviors in creating a positive school culture. The behaviors are categorized in a new compendium called the Positive School Culture Inventory™ (PSCI).)

Paterson, J. (2018). Got Spirit? Involve the entire student body to reap the benefits of school pride and create a positive school culture. Principal Leadership, 7.

Manchester, K., & Sexton, T. (2018). Integrating Formative Assessment Into School Culture: How one school increased teacher collaboration, enhanced trust and transparency, and improved student performance. Principal Leadership, 18(8), 54–57.

(The article discusses the teacher collaboration and ideas needed for a school to increase it, including the development of trust and transparency keeping the focus on the improvement of performance of each student. It also discusses the usability of assessment data for the sake of helping teachers to successfully address the student-need based curriculum targeting and steps schools followed to create a formative assessment culture.)

Mungal, A. S., & Sorenson, R. (2019). A Dozen Daily Do’s: Successful principals delegate, communicate, create, and anticipate. Principal Leadership, 19(5), 50–53.

(The article discusses the personality trait of the successful and productive principals. Topics mentioned include the integration of educational technology to organize the workplace, responsibility of the principals to focus on the daily priorities and tasks in the schools and the interaction between the school community and the business leaders.)