Leadership Cycle 1

Planning for School Improvement and Promoting Equity Template

Step 3: Act
Planning for School Improvement and Promoting
Equity Template
Directions: Respond to the prompts below. Type your responses within the brackets following each prompt. Do
not delete or alter the prompts.

1. Describe the potential strategies you have identified for equitable school improvement and
how they are to be used.
[ Potential strategies which can improve the performance in the 6th grade students are adding
study skills into the curriculum, having each of the 6th grade teachers mentor or serve as a
guidance counselor for a group of students, and all 6th grade teachers should be in constant
contact with each other to act as one teacher.]
2. Explain how the potential strategies address the equity issue described in your problem
statement and the student learning and/or well-being need found in your equity gap
analysis.
[The first strategy is to add study skills into the 6th grade curriculum. Depending on how the
courses/subjects are divided among the teachers one should also take upon study skills. In this
course methods of studying, time management, etc. should be taught.

The second strategy is to have the teachers be in charge of a specific group of students. For
example, if there are 5 different teachers and 50 students, each teacher is in charge of
mentoring 10 students. The teachers should help them with their study calendars, ask them
about which study skills they enjoy, and address social issues they may be dealing with. One
may say this is the job of the school counselor, however, I believe having this additional
guidance will ensure students don’t get forgotten.

The third strategy is to have all the teachers be in contact with each other. There is currently a
testing calendar in the staff office, however, the concept needs to be extended to homework
assignments, overlapping units of study, etc. When the math teacher is discussing graphs, the
geography teacher’s assignment should also involve graphs. There are other ways to intertwine
the curriculums, so the students can view their teachers as parts of a whole instead of separate
teachers.]
3. Explain how your potential strategies for improvement address or take into account the
potential causal factors—including institutional and/or structural factors—contributing to the
equity gap, and align with the school and district vision, mission, and/or goals.
[These strategies should help all students with an equal chance of success, instead of just
focusing on the student who outwardly is showing distress. Additionally, the teachers are taking
rolls which are sometimes covered by parents. However, in today’s world where students come
from broken homes or two working parent homes students are not getting the attention or help
they should be getting from their parents.
The mission statement of the school is to be able to think critically and understand cause and
effect, and be able to be an active community member with the necessary skills to succeed.
With this goal in mind we need to help students problem solve so they can do so in the future.

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 Leadership Cycle 1
Planning for School Improvement and Promoting Equity Template

Hopefully by showing them how all their teachers are working as a whole for their success will
show them how important it is to apply themselves to their education. ]
4. Describe the feedback you received from the school site or district-level supervisor or other
key stakeholder(s), and explain how the feedback impacted your proposed strategies for
equitable school improvement.
[I spoke with a junior high principal to receive feedback on the strategies I proposed. He was
very positive about the small grouping of students with teachers. Although he did warn about the
buy in necessary from the teachers since most teachers already feel overworked. He loved the
idea of overlapping curriculum and would want to introduce it in all grades and not only the 6th
grade. The idea of introducing study skills and trying to help those students who get lost in the
shuffle also received a positive response.

It was nice getting both positive and negative feedback. I learned that maybe when I set forth
my proposal I should have anticipated what negative feedback I would have gotten, and tried to
explain what I would propose to counteract the negative feedback immediately instead of having
to reschedule to discuss the issues at a later date.]
5. Given what you learned from the feedback and your understanding of causal factors,
including institutional and/or structural factors, describe steps you would take to
(1) create stakeholder buy-in for the proposed strategies, (2) communicate the strategies
with the broader stakeholder group, and (3) address challenges you may encounter.
[ I would begin trying to institute these changes at the end of the school year instead of at the
start of the school year. I would want teachers to understand what will be different in the
upcoming school year. I also believe the summer would be a good time for the teachers to
acclimate to the changes, so they can begin the school year with a sense of acceptance.

During this meeting at the end of the school year I would explain why this is necessary. I would
also try and convince them that most of the issues teachers face about classroom management
can be avoided by being proactive. I would also ask them to send any questions or ideas my
way over the summer. I would want them to know that we will be working on this together. I
want to be a partner with them on this change. I will also let them know about my walkthroughs
which should be viewed as a help and not a way of me checking up on them.

Towards the end of the school year I would also collect qualitative data from the current 6th
grade students on what help they wish they had gotten at the start of the school year to have
helped them.

I would begin the school year with scheduling extra staff meetings with the 6th grade staff to
implement ideas other staff member or myself came up with during the summer. I would also
use this meeting to give each teacher the list of students they will be responsible to mentor. I
would want them to have time to research their students. I would continue to schedule monthly
meetings to check up on everyone’s successes, failures, and feelings. I would also meet with
teachers during the year privately to discuss their feelings on working so closely with their
peers.

By midyear I would take a look at the quantitative data and compare it to previous year’s scores
to see if any success is currently seen in the data.

Copyright © 2017 by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing

1900 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95811 Page 2 of 3
All rights reserved. FT_17-18
 Leadership Cycle 1
Planning for School Improvement and Promoting Equity Template

Of course I would expect to get a little pushback from some teachers. I also know that the first
year of this program will not run as smoothly as anticipated. I am also aware that it may take a
year or two for the program to work smoothly and see all possible positive results. ]

Copyright © 2017 by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing

1900 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95811 Page 3 of 3
All rights reserved. FT_17-18