Leadership Dispositions 4 and 10, EDL520

Leadership Disposition 4 and 10 Reflection BLOG

The primary Leadership Dispositions for this ELD520 course are LD #4 and #10 according to the Module Two Internship Assignment. LD4 focuses on supporting intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. LD10 explores a leader’s ability to utilize data to make school improvements to benefit all stakeholders. Through the READ Act initiative planned and implemented during EDL520, competency in these LDs was demonstrated.

These Leadership Dispositions align with the Transforming Professional Practice Domain 2: Professional Learning and Growth Practices (Strike, et al, 2019), such as providing coaching opportunities, while identifying target areas and evaluating strategies for growth. This initiative also aligns with Domain 3: Instructional Practices as the Crestone Charter School (CCS) 'advocates for instruction that supports the needs of all learners'. This initiative further conforms with Domain 3 as CCS advocates for instruction that 'analyzes assessments', using a strong 'data-driven approach to instruction', and 'differentiated instruction', 'recognizing students as active learners', and supporting teachers to provide ‘instruction that is engaging, rigorous, and relevant' (Strike et al., 2019, pg40). According to Strike, et al (2019, p110) the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) Standard 4: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment states that “Effective educational leaders develop and support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.” This initiative demonstrated the transforming Professional Practices Domains two and three, and  PSEL Standard four.

Throughout EDL 520, an initiative focused on Read Act implementation was developed. The goal of the initiative states ‘During Fall of 2024, collect and analyze Dibels 8 Beginning of Year (BOY) Benchmark data on all K-5 students and move all yellow students into green and 2/3rds of red students into yellow, while maintaining or improving green and blue students, by Winter break.’ A detailed review of the data and its analysis further described in the EDL520 M2 Critical Thinking Assignment. It also outlines the steps to meet this goal, and again enumerated here: 

1. Launch professional learning model and student Science of Reading growth plan to K-5 faculty.

2. Collect and analyze Dibels 8 Beginning of Year (BOY) Benchmark data on all K-5 students 

3. Determine the number of red (below 20th percentile) and yellow (between 20th and 50th percentile) students

4. Examine root causes

5. Provide instructional coaching to classroom teachers

6. Support struggling students through intervention

7. Track with project monitoring

While the end goal of moving red and yellow students up one level by the winter break is yet to be completed, and the 2024/25 BOY data window is yet to open, steps 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are already underway based on 2023/24 EOY data. Step two, collection of Dibels BOY data, will take place during the week of Sept. 3rd, 2024, and step three, analysis of the data, will be completed as soon as all data is in. Steps five and six will be adjusted accordingly at that time and throughout the semester. Having the system established during the first three weeks of school, prior to the data window,  is a success and will enable us to target any newly identified students who need support. As far as an area of improvement, CCS needed more involvement from the Reading Interventionist during the pre-service training days and the first weeks of school, however, personal issues limited their time on campus. 

This intervention plan uses the promising evidence-based strategy of universal screeners, differentiated instruction, and progress monitoring (Institute of Education Sciences, 2009) to achieve the READ Act goal of ensuring that all students achieve high levels of reading comprehension by the end of third grade. The intervention uses CDE Science of Reading and Structured Literacy (Orton-Gillingham,  n.d.) approaches to ensure students have phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding skills, leading to reading fluency. This strong evidence-based strategy (Institute of Education Sciences, 2016) will further support the achievement of the READ Act goals. Students who are identified with the universal screener will receive differentiated instruction on phonics and decoding by teachers who are being coached and shown how to provide this instruction. Progress monitoring will track the efficacy of this intervention. This model follows the READ Act expectation that all identified struggling readers will receive a READ Plan, RtI or MTSS programming, and monitoring of outcomes. (Abram, 2019). This initiative will formalize the systems of support, and document the efficacy of the interventions through progress monitoring. It will address the needs of all ten students who were red or yellow at the 2023/24 EOY testing session, and since three of those ten students were the whole of CCS’s English Language Learners (ELLs), it will also address those learners in a targeted way.

My understanding of the LDs has only changed slightly, I now better understand the time investment required to ‘support systems of … assessment’ (LD4) to ‘utilize data to make school improvements [for] … stakeholders’ (LD10), in this case, students and teachers. The Crestone Charter School is a small rural school, and resources are slim, so this has been a conscious investment. These dispositions are a focus for the school and year; in addition to this READ Act initiative, the Curricular,  Instructional, and MTSS staff (CIMS) is ‘supporting intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment’ in the CCS k-12 math content area as well. Because both of these initiatives are tied to the MTSS process, tiers one through three, students will be better served, and staff will be better supported. While these initiatives were formulated last spring, determining the details and roll-out, through the lens of these Leadership Dispositions, has increased the rigor and thoroughness of the implementation. As a fourth-year school director, and coming from 19 years in the classroom, my school leadership has grown exponentially in the last nine months compared to my earlier focus on daily operations and now on visioning and pursuing initiatives such as these. The Spring 2024 CMAS data for CCS, and the district as a whole, are low relative to state scores, which are also only now regaining pre-COVID levels. Proactively targeting the curricular and instructional practices in reading k-5, and math K-12, while building in accountability through the MTSS identification process, will begin to turn those test scores into tangible gains.

References

Abram, J. (2019, Oct). IssueBrief. Colorado General Assembly |. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/r19-861_issue_brief_on_updates_to_the_read_act.pdf

Institute of Education Sciences. (2009, Feb.). WWC | Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/PracticeGuide/3 

Institute of Education Sciences. (2016, July). WWC | Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/PracticeGuide/21 

Orton-Gillingham. (n.d.). What is Structured Literacy. Orton-Gillingham. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://www.orton-gillingham.com/what-is-structured-literacy/ 

Strike, K. T., Sims, P. A., Mann, S. L., & Wilhite, R. K. (2019). Transforming Professional Practice: A Framework for Effective Leadership. Rowman & Littlefield.