EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability- Week 1 Discussion Board

Week 1 discussion board

What critical attributes of a positive school culture does your campus exhibit? How does your principal contribute to that positive culture?

My school principal always promotes awareness of diversity, particularly religious beliefs, gender sensitivity and ethnicity, among students, staff, parents and community members. It is important for school principals to manage, and shape, the campus culture by analyzing and responding appropriately to diverse needs. This can be accomplished by using data, such as campus climate, demographics and emerging issues, to develop a campus vision and create a plan for implementation. When culture changes occur, school leaders should provide an effective monitoring system to ensure the appropriate campus culture and make sure that change happens in the right place. Such changes should promote student achievements by “[providing] feedback on the effectiveness of the school’s curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices and their effect on the student achievement” (figure 5.1, p. 71).

The culture change process also requires “developing effective means for teachers to communicate with one another, being easily accessible to teachers and maintaining open and effective lines of communication with staff” (p. 47). Input is required from staff and teachers to design and implement decisions and policies, and the leader has the duty in “providing opportunities for staffs to be involved in developing school policies, providing opportunities for staff input on all important decision, and using leadership teams in decision making” (p. 52). Communication and working with diverse groups to make certain all students have equal opportunities for educational success must take place. Additionally, school leaders must advocate for outreach throughout culture change processes by “maintaining responsibility of ensuring that the school complies with all district and state mandates” (p. 58).

Reference

Marzano, R. J., Waters, T, & McNulty, B.A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Publications.

Review the article, “Ten Big Effect of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools”, in this week’s readings. Choose 2 of the 10 effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), give your positive or negative impression of each, and briefly explain your reasoning. It influences how students are taught, new standard exams, school budgets and teachers participating professional development trainings.

President George Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act into federal law in 2002. This act has had both positive and negative impacts on public schools. It requires a quantity of programs focused on improving U.S. education in early to postsecondary schools by increasing accountability standards. Ten Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools explains how NCLB has shaped schools and lists the NCLB act’s ten major effects on public schools.

There are positive and negative aspects of the two effects: 1. “State and districts officials report that student achievement on state tests is rising, which is a cause for optimism, it’s not clear, however, that students are really gaining as much as rising percentages of proficient scores would suggest” (p.110), and “…students are taking a lot more tests” (p.111).

The first effect on public schools focuses on increased test scores since the NCLB law was implemented. The authors explain factors contributing to this increase:, “…under NCLB, student achievement is equated with the proportion of students who are scoring at the proficient level on state tests, and states have adopted various approaches in their testing programs, such as the use of confidence intervals, that result in more test scores being counted as proficient” (p.110). This is a significant positive effect.

However, NCLB requires students to take more tests to closely monitor their overall performances. Students are often unmotivated to take tests that do not count for a grade or satisfy graduation requirements. Test-taking can be very discouraging for students, and their scores do not always reflect their actual day-to-day academic performances. Additionally, tests can be very exhausting for educators when they have to attempt to achieve standards. This often forces them to focus on state standardized testing materials with the goal of passing, instead of actually teaching contents.

Jennings, J., & Renter, D., (2006). Ten big effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on public schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 88(2), 95.