NELA Assignments At-A-Glance

2015-2016
Assignment

Due Date

Est. Time
Commitment

Details and resources (Link inc.)

Personal Vision
Statement

August
10th

1-2 hours

Fellows will write their personal vision statement and share

with their intern school community. Your vision statement will
later be expanded in a visioning for your school exercise.

Letter of
Introduction to
School Staff

August
10th

1-2 hours

Fellows will write a letter of introduction to their internship

school staff. Your personal vision statement should be
apparent in the letter. Your coach and mentor principal must
review and approve the letter.

Individual
August 10 15-25 Hours
Leadership Plan &
(A.K.A. PGP,)
Ongoing

The Individual Leadership Plan will provide baseline data for

your leadership profile (later documented on your electronic
portfolio). This tool should be used to direct experiences you,
your coach and mentor agree are needed to address areas
for growth. Its a place to set goals and state what must
happen to achieve them. These experiences can be had at
internship sites, school visits, specialized trainings, school
rotations, etc. The process is as follows:
1) Self evaluation. Individually, fellows complete a selfevaluation for each element. This is primarily a reflective
exercise, though fellows should be prepared to support all
ratings with artifacts. Moreover, fellows should brainstorm the
activities and experiences they need in order justify a
proficient or higher rating in each standard. Must be
completed by August 10th.
2) Schedule a meeting to review your ILP. Send self
evaluation to your mentor and coach. Schedule a meeting
with mentor principal and coach to review your self
evaluation. Send a copy of your self evaluation at least 3
days prior to the meeting. At the meeting, co-create a plan
for you to get the experiences you need to be proficient in
every Standard.
Have meeting ASAP after August 10 but no later than
September 11.
3) Finalize Individual Leadership Plan by September 16.
Meet with mentor to finalized your initial growth plan (the
plan will be updated regularly). Fellows should be actively
documenting their experiences throughout internship using a
variety of technology-based resources (web, video,
multimedia). These artifacts will be logged on individual
digital portfolios.

Developmental
Project: Middle
School (Fall) and
High School
(Spring)

15-30 hours

The developmental projects will be designed to

familiarize fellows with the developmentally appropriate
practice necessary to lead schools at each grade level.
Fellows will create an electronic portfolio - more
information will be given on the specific assignment.

Once the developmental project is completed, please link the

website to your digital portfolio.
Budget Info
Session

1-2 hours

Individually: Interview mentor principal and school-based

financial officer to discuss the budget for the school and
systems for purposeful allocation.
All Fellows in a District: Interview central office personnel
about budgeting processes for the school.
Product: Fellows will create a one-page, executive summary
(logic models and/or graphics should be included) that
demonstrates how budgets are manifest in schools. Where
does the money go? Should include discussion of budget
allocation, creative budgeting, lessons they will apply as
school leaders.

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 1: School
Profile from
Public Data

3-5 hours

Assemble a profile of the school by collecting information

that is readily available to the public (e.g. school report card,
teacher working conditions survey, etc).

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 2:
Detailed
Examination of
the School
Community and
Human
Resources

3-5 hours

Conduct a comprehensive school profile in the form of a

historical narrative based on stakeholder experiences and
stories. Fellows are to interview at least 10 stakeholders from
the suggested list.
Principal
Assistant Principal
Physical Education Teacher
Parent/guardian
Support Staff (Teacher Assistant, counselor, cafeteria etc.)
Student from each grade level
1 Teacher from each grade level
School Resource Officer
Create or obtain a Human Capital Table

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 3: Holistic
Needs

5-8 hours

Fellows will use the information compiled from Phases I and

II of the School Entry Profile to conduct a comprehensive
review of the schools current educational program regarding
student performance trends and achievement indicators.
Include information from NCDPI, School Report Cards,
Progress Reports, School Improvement Plans, self-

Assessment

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 4:
Identification of
Problem of
Practice

assessment documents, action research, surveys,

interviews, teacher or school-based assessments. Answer
the following questions using data/evidence to support your
responses.
What are the most pressing challenges or needs of this
school? How do you know?
What student performance trends can you identify?
What teacher working conditions trends can you identify?
3 hours

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 5:
Identify
strategies, create
logic model

The Principal Residency Problem of Practice Project will

begin in the fall and span the entire internship year. Fellows
will use collected information from previous phases as well
as input from their mentor principal, NELA coach, and other
school leaders. Feedback and input will be given by mentor
principal, NELA coach, and NELA faculty throughout the
process. You must have a written agreement with your
mentor principal approving your Problem of Practice project.
During this stage, will develop a full plan of action, including
a logic model that describes the project. Assistance will be
provided by experts in the field, including Dr. Corn. Logic
models will vary from school-to-school, although they will all
emphasize clarity. In other words, inputs should be directly
connected to strategies, which should also directly connect
to the data used measure project effectiveness.

DLP 1
Strategic
Leadership in
High
Performing
Schools

3 hours

Class: Standard 1
Implement: School-based project, working with school staff
and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

DLP 2
Maximizing
Human
Resources for
Goal
Accomplishment

3 hours

Class: Standard 2 & 3

Implement: School-based project, working with school staff
and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

DLP 3
Building a
Collaborative
Culture through
Distributive
Leadership

Digital Portfolio

3 hours

Ongoing
with periodic
checks.

20-40 hours

Class: Standard 4
Implement: School-based project, working with school staff
and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

Continually update your digital portfolio to reflect the

experiences you have acquired over your NELA
experience. This should include hard artifacts (e.g.
agendas, sign-in sheets, e-mails) as well as reflections.

Final Due
Date: May 3
Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 6:

Implement the
Internship
Project

Fellows will present logic models to stakeholders

(mentors and teacher leaders, as well as students and
community members as appropriate). Stakeholders will
implement the project., documenting artifacts. The
project will most likely include meetings, professional
development, PLCs, etc. Fellows should keep track of
artifacts and post important documentation to their
Digital Portfolio Problem of Practice Project page.
Mentors, coaches and professors should be consulted
during this process. Dr. Corn is also available for
comments and should be leveraged as an expert
opinion to troubleshoot and refine the project and its
evaluation.

Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 7: Data

collection,
analysis and
evaluation
Principal
Residency
Problem of
Practice Project
Phase 8: Poster

presentation

Using formative and summative data collected from your

Problem of Practice project you will analyze the outcome
of your project. The following questions will be
answered:
What was the outcome?
What was successful and what was not?
What would you do differently?

Fellows will compile and present data using a research

poster format based on their Problem of Practice.

Social Justice:
A Day in the Life
of a Student

20 hours

Explanation: This assignment will be a detailed

examination of a child/children in your school. What
does a day in their life look like? One goal of this activity
is to allow you to understand the children you are
working with. Students should always be at the heart of
every leadership decision and our first goal is to
understand who our students truly are. This project will
be a start to building that understanding.
Plan: Identify a student that is close to your heart.
Experience: Shadow this student from the beginning to
the end of the school day. This begins with the morning
wait for the bus and ends with the ride home or beyond.
Shadowing experience should include interaction with
students family and/or influencers
Reflect
Product: Create a product (digital story, written
reflection, creative piece, etc) that captures your
experience.
*Any video footage that contains images or audio of
students must follow school district guidelines on
obtaining appropriate permissions.

DLP 4
Improving
Teaching and
Learning in High
Performing
Schools

3 hours

Class: Standard 5
Implement: School-based project, working with school
staff and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

DLP 5
Creating a
Strong
Internal/External
Stakeholder
Focus

3 hours

Class: Standard 6
Implement: School-based project, working with school
staff and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

DLP 6
Leading Change
to Drive
Continuous
Improvement

3 hours

Class: Standard 7
Implement: School-based project, working with school
staff and mentor principal.
Reflect: Brief written assignment.
Presentation: Give 5 minute presentation about lessons
learned.

Onging
Assignment

Due Date

Est. Time
Commitment

Details and resources (Link inc.)

Weekly

Weekly:
Sent to
Coach and
Dianne

2-4 hours

Establish an agreed upon structure to share

written communication with coach and professors.
See example by Katie Row

Monthly Logs

By 3rd day
of each
month:
Online

5-10 hours

Complete Qualtrics survey detailing monthly fellow

activity.

Teacher Evaluations

At least 810 a
semester

20 hours per
semester.

Conduct full cycle evaluations, including preobservation, observation and post-observation

debrief.
Suggested schedule:
September: Complete 2 cycles
October: Complete 4 cycles
November: Complete 2 cycles
December: Complete 1 cycle
January: Complete 2 cycles
February: Complete 2 cycles
March: Complete 2 cycles
April: Complete 2 cycles
May: Complete 1 cycle

Teacher Observations
(May be part of teacher
evaluations)

Less than 25
minutes per
observation

Work with mentor principal to determine template.

Walk Throughs/Learning
Walks

5-10 minutes
per classroom

Visibility is a major focus as the instructional

leader of a school. Be prepared to provide
feedback immediately upon each classroom visit.

Recruiting, Interviewing
& Retaining High Quality
Teachers

Be an integral part of the recruitment and hiring

team for new teachers at the school.