Three Year Professional Development Plan

Year One

Goal 1:  Become proficient in understanding school finance.

TEXES Competency and Domain: Domain III -Administrative Leadership: Competency 008: The superintendent knows how to apply principles of effective leadership and management in relation to district budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial management and technology applications.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  I would like to continue to grow in the area of school finance.  I did learn a lot in this program about finance, but I do not feel proficient in this area.  It is my understanding that school finance question are a part of most superintendent interviews and I want to be able to answer these with knowledge and experience.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  Texas School Finance Guide? and any other appropriate reading materials.  I would also like to attend a workshop for school finance people.

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Cheryl Hernandez, the business manager for PNGISD will continue to assist me in learning about school finance.

Date of Completion: 2014-2015 School Year

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will know that I have improved when I can explain school finance to someone who is not proficient. 

Goal 2:  Grow in my knowledge of the state legislature and how decisions they make effect our schools.

TEXES Competency and Domain:  Domain I - Leadership of the Educational Community: Competency 004: The superintendent knows how to respond to and influence the larger political, social, economic, legal and cultural context, including working with the board of trustees, to achieve the district’s educational vision.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  I want to improve my knowledge of how the legislature works in regards to educational decisions.  I was personally affected by a decision they made 3 summers ago in how I do business at the Alternative Education Center.  I did not see this coming and wish I could have been one that was able to speak out against what they did.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  TexasISD.com and other documents such as the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals publications.

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Dr. Rodney Cavness

Date of Completion: Ongoing

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will know that I have improved when I can anticipate the issues that the legislature is looking at and how I think they will make policies that affect our schools.

Goal 3:  Learn conversational Spanish.

TEXES Competency and Domain:  Domain I — Leadership of the Educational Community Competency 003: The superintendent knows how to communicate and collaborate with families and community members, respond to diverse community interests and needs and mobilize community resources to ensure educational success for all students.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  Finish all 5 levels of Rosetta Stone Spanish.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  Rosetta Stone Network Version at Alternative Education Center

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Dr. Mike Gonzales

Date of Completion: 2015

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will know that I have improved when I am able to assist the district in parent conferences, etc. with my grasp of the Spanish language.

Year Two

Goal 1:  Get a principal job

TEXES Competency and Domain: Domain II − Instructional Leadership: Competency 005: The superintendent knows how to facilitate the planning and implementation of strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment among curriculum, curriculum resources and assessment; use the current accountability system; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  Continue to gain the knowledge and skills of a campus principal.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  I want to grow in the instructional leader role by attending workshops and conferences for principals and reading books written for instructional leaders.

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Kyle Hooper, Principal of Port Neches Middle School; Marc Keith, Principal of Port Neches-Groves High School; Amy Gil, Principal of Port Neches Elementary School

Date of Completion: 2015

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will hopefully obtain the job of a campus principal by 2015.

Goal 2:  Become more familiar with the state and district curriculum.

TEXES Competency and Domain:  Domain II − Instructional Leadership: Competency 005: The superintendent knows how to facilitate the planning and implementation of strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment among curriculum, curriculum resources and assessment; use the current accountability system; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  I want to know the overall scope and sequence of the state curriculum and participate in district curriculum decisions.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  Region 5 curriculum workshops, Texas curriculum guides, and district training.

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Dr. Brenda Duhon, Assistant Superintendent of PNGISD

Date of Completion: 2014-2015

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  When I am able to participate in district curriculum development.

Year Three

Goal 1:  Develop a working relationship with the board of trustees for Port Neches-Groves Independent School District.

TEXES Competency and Domain: Domain III — Administrative Leadership: Competency 010: The superintendent knows how to apply organizational, decision-making and problem-solving skills to comply with federal and state requirements and facilitate positive change in varied contexts.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  Work with the board of trustees to accomplish goals for our district.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  Region 5 Service Center team building workshops with the board.

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Dr. Rodney Cavness, Dr. Mike Gonzales, Dr. Brenda Duhon, Cheryl Hernandez

Date of Completion: 2015-2016

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will know that I have worked toward accomplishing this goal in my knowledge of the board on a personal and professional level.

Goal 2:  Get involved with the community outside of the school.

TEXES Competency and Domain:  Domain I — Leadership of the Educational Community: Competency 003: The superintendent knows how to communicate and collaborate with families and community members, respond to diverse community interests and needs and mobilize community resources to ensure educational success for all students.

Objective (What do you want to improve?):  Learn to look beyond the school district personnel and also involve the community members in organizational decisions.

Course Work/Book/Workshops (How do you want to improve?):  Dr. Sandra Harris, Lessons from the field?

Mentor/Professional Support (Who will help you improve?):  Dr. Rodney Cavness, Dr. Mike Gonzales, Dr. Sandra Harris, Port Neches-Groves Chamber of Commerce

Date of Completion: 2014-2015

Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?):  I will know that I’ve improved by being involved in civic organizations in the community, such as the Rotary Club and have community members on the site-based teams.

 

 

Week 4 Reflection in Action

 

 

According to Martin et al., “the goal of reflection is to learn what to take away from one’s experiences” (2012, p. 107).  Reflection is important for any leader because it allows them to think about an experience after it happens and take time to assess what took place.  A leader is going to make many decisions in their jobs and sometimes they need to reflect later on whether or not they made the right decision.  Throughout this program, I have used reflection to record what I have taken away from the many experiences I have undertaken to prepare me for the superintendency. I will continue to use reflection as I grow as a leader.  In my job I make many decisions and rarely do I take the time to reflect on the decisions I make.  After learning the skill of reflection in this program and how I can apply it to my job setting, I will continue to use it at work.  I think that I will make sure and write down a reflection after major issues at work, and also try to do a 6 weeks reflection, semester reflection, and yearly reflection at the end of the school year. 



Action Research Plan, Week 3

Week Three Assignment, Part 1 – CARE Model Analysis of District/Campus Improvement Initiatives or Action Research Plans

Please review your intern plan. In the first course, students were encouraged to engage in some action research, or participate in district or campus improvement initiatives. Each of you has had some experiences with such initiatives or action plans. Please review those experiences and complete the following analysis:

Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1.  Attendance at High School is 95% compared to the district average of 97%

2.  Block schedule at High School, split on regular schedule versus block

3.  Schools adjusting to new safety requirements, ex. #’s on windows

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1.  Administrative support for High School administrators involved with attendance

2.  Research on block scheduling to see what is best for student learning

3.  Needs assessment per campus on what is needed for new safety initiatives

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1.   Attendance initiatives on the positive side, ex. Semester exam exemptions, is good; set a maximum amount    of parent notes, once they reach that threshold, cut off parent notes, then file if they get 3 more

2.   Adopt a straight schedule with zero hour plus more opportunities for credits in the summer

3.  Approve money in budget to support each school and classrooms

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1.   Evaluate each 6 weeks attendance compared to last 5 years average

2.   Evaluate based on standardized test scores

3.   Evaluate through teacher feedback through drills, etc.

Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the Comprehensive Final Report

Describing Recommendations and District/Campus Improvement Initiative/Action Research Lessons Learned

Review the above analysis, and write at least one page thoroughly describing recommendations and lessons learned from experiences with the improvement initiatives or action research plans.

Blog Follow-Up: Be sure to post your above reflection on your Recommendations and Lessons Learned to your blog, and read and comment on at least two other students’ assessment reflections.

Action research is a type of research that uses quantitative and qualitative methods to solve an immediate problem for an entity such as a school district.  This is probably the most practical and most used form of research.  If a school or district had an issue at hand, the researchers or problem solvers would not be too worried about seminal works or theory, they would want to use current research to develop an action plan to come up with a solution.  The three issues that I choose to address in my action plan were: attendance at the high school, block scheduling versus a straight schedule at the high school, and new district-wide safety requirements.

The first issue that I want to address through action research is the attendance at the high school.  After meeting with the district attendance officer, and looking at the data, we both agreed that attendance throughout the district is overall very good.  The lowest attendance rate in by far is the attendance at the high school at 94.23% where the rest of the district is above 95%.  The first thing I would do in order to help with this issue is to first find out the many factors involved.  On the positive side of attendance, ex. incentives, the high school kids who miss less than 3 days and have an average above 80% are allowed to exempt their final exams in the classes where they qualify.  I do believe that this incentive works for the top students with good attendance.  It makes those think extra hard about missing an extra day or two during the semester.  The side that I think needs attention is the negative side.  Unfortunately, we have a small percentage of students that miss a large number of days.  The problem is when we notify the judge.  The middle schools and elementary have been doing a similar plan for a few years that seems to be working; however, the high school choose not to adopt the same system.  I would research other schools and decide on a maximum number of absences due to parent notes that I would allow.  For instance, Katy allows 5 per student for the year.  Once they’ve reached that threshold, the parent would receive a phone call and written documentation that we will no longer accept parent notes as an excuse, only doctor notes or administrative approval.  From this point forward, any absence without a note would result in an unexcused absence.  After three of these, the judge would be notified.  I believe that this would really bring home the point to the students that attendance is important and we are taking things seriously.  To evaluate the attendance, we would look at each 6 weeks attendance and compare to previous years.  I believe that this would lead to better overall attendance as it has at the alternative school where this past year we achieved the greatest attendance in the history of the school.

            The next issue that I would like to research is block scheduling at the high school.  This was a trend in many schools, dating back to the 90’s, but there seems to be a shift away from it recently.  Some research that I did last summer in looking a entry level college math showed that the block schedule was not good for kids in math.  Going to math every other day caused a drop in the retention of some concepts.  I would like to research this more and see if there are any similar effects in other subjects or the other way, where block is better.  In theory the block schedule allows for more expansion of lessons, so the first step that I would take is to visit classrooms and see if the lessons are truly being expanded or if the teachers are just giving more work time to account for the extra 40 minutes of class time due to the block schedule.  From the research that I have done, along with some observations at the high school, I believe that a straight schedule would be more beneficial for the students.  One of the downfalls of going to a straight schedule is that more than likely we would have to adopt a schedule where the students go to 7 classes instead of 8.  To counteract the students losing a class, I would like to look at 3 possible options: zero hour, night school, and additional credits offered in summer school.  Zero hour was something that PNG high school had when they first went to the block schedule.  These were classes that were offered an hour before school started.  It was voluntary, so students weren’t required, but it allowed them to get that 8^th class.  Also, it either allowed the teachers to pick up some extra money or for some teachers to have a staggered day where they started earlier, but also got out a period earlier.  The next option would be to offer a night school class.  This would typically be a semester class, like government or economics, and would be offered after school where a teacher would get paid extra for these classes.  Also, we need to look at offering more summer options.  Our summer school is just for students who have failed classes, but a few local districts have started offering extra classes so students can get ahead and still be able to take vocational or double block classes like band and not lose out on a recommended or preferred diploma.  Making the switch from the block schedule to a straight schedule would be a major change for the high school.  Many teachers, parents, and students would be upset about the change.  It would take a great deal of support from the administration to make it work.  The end result; hopefully, would be increased scores on the state exams.  This would be the basis for evaluating the switch to a straight schedule.

            The third issue that I wanted to look at through action research was the schools adjusting to the new safety requirements and initiatives.  Many events across the country have changed the ways we think about safety in schools.  The most recent event was the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.  As a result of this tragedy, our district had active shooter training this summer.  We learned a lot of things at this training that I hope we never have to use.  The theme of the training was run, lock, or fight.  In the event of an active shooter, we were first taught to run if you are able.  The next thing would be to lock your room if you were unable to run and barricade yourself and students in.  There are devices that you can make to bar classroom doors that make it almost impossible for someone to get inside.  I would like to do an inventory on each classroom, which way the doors open, and what device each teacher feels the most comfortable using if ever necessary.   Also, district-wide we need to renumber classrooms in our schools, according to law enforcement.  The numbering system needs to be consistent, such as odd numbers to the left and even to the right.  Hallways need to be labeled in a consistent way also.  We had a discussion about whether or not we should number windows on the outside of the buildings or not.  I would like to research this more by talking to law enforcement and seeing what other school districts do.  To carry out these new initiatives, it would take money and since safety is top priority, I would make sure that the proper money is allocated.  Once we had the materials, I would be sure to conduct drills, such as lockdowns, so every teacher would know what their plan would be.  I would receive feedback through the drills and through evaluation instruments filled out by the teachers.

Part 3

I have talked to Dr. Cavness on the phone and we plan on meeting during the 5^th week.  We did not set a date yet, since neither of us knows what that week will hold, but I know that he will be available for me during that time.  Also, I need to finish a few of my internship activities before we meet.

Reflection on Competency Review

 

Reviewing the 10 competencies and reflecting on many of the activities that I've completed through this course was a good activity for me.  It allowed me to take time to look back on the vast amount of areas that we have covered in a short time.  When I first heard about Lamar starting an online masters program, I was alittle against it at first because I did it when you had to show up for class.  Now that I have participated in this program plus the doctoral program, I can see that you can learn alot through online learning and even make connections with people that I did not think were possible.

 

 

 



Reflection on Job Entry Plan

 

This was a good activity to me.  A job, such as a high school principal, seems so far off for me, but with the experience I've gained from this program, the doctoral program, and 8 years as a school administrator, I believe that I will be ready when the time comes.  This assignment stressed the importance of having an entry plan that includes goals.  By having a plan from day 1, it shows that you are there to make any necessary changes from the begining that will benefit the performance of the students.

Job Entry Plan for High School Principal

                                             

Day 1

Goal(s) : Give staff a good first impression of me as a leader.

 

Objective(s) : Show staff that I am going to uphold the high standards set by the school while making research based decisions that benefit the students.

Activities addressing goals and objectives : Set plan in place to evaluate current programs/procedures.  Investigate areas that need updating.

 

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives:  Need to begin working with leadership team at the school.  Especially in regards to curriculum and student learning.

 

Week 1

Goal(s) : Be approachable and visible to staff continue to evaluate.

Objective(s) : Get to know the teachers and staff and their respective duties.  Listen to staff in regards to any areas that need to be addressed. Be seen throughout the building.

Activities addressing goals and objectives : Take notes of issues that need to be addressed with faculty.  Set into place the plan for the first day of school.  Make expectations clear.

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives:  Lead teachers, office staff, research effective high schools.

Month 1

Goal(s) : Have a great first month of school in all aspects of the campus.

 

Objective(s) : Establish myself as the leader of an outstanding campus with high standards for students and a collaborative working environment for faculty.

Activities addressing goals and objectives : Be visible every day.  Establish a thorough discipline plan with the CIC and assistant principals.  Work with curriculum coordinators with focus on the testing classes. 

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives:  Lead teachers, office staff, research effective high schools.

 

Year 1

Goal(s) : Have a great year measured by success on state tests, student participants in extracurricular, student discipline, attendance, etc.

 

Objective(s) : Finish the year with attendance at or above 97%.  Above 85% on all 5 End of Course Exams.  Rate above a 3.5 out of 4 on the Staff Morale Questionnaire (Smith, 1976).

Activities addressing goals and objectives :  Have an ongoing relationship with the local justice of the peace and work together on attendance.  Take part in parent meeting, such as athletic booster club, band boosters, etc. 

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives:  Parent organizations, planning calendar, school vehicle, attendance brochures (hard copy and electronic)