Educational Viewpoints - NJPSAnjpsa.org/documents/pdf/EdViewptsSpring2012.pdf · Educational...

Educational ViewpointsThe Journal of NJPSA

New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Associationwww.njpsa.org

Spring 2012

School Reform or School Refocus

Evaluating What Good Teachers Do

Reculturing the Assistant Principalship

Breaking Through Poverty and Achievement Gaps

NJPSA—Celebrating 30 Years!

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Educational Viewpoints -1- Spring 2012

NJPSA StaffPatricia Wright, Executive Director Bette Jensen-Roberts, Executive Secretary

Membership ServicesCharles N. Stein, Assistant Executive DirectorDenise L. Hecht, Assistant Executive DirectorStacy Barksdale-Jones, Administrative SecretaryKaren LaFata, Membership SecretaryCarmen DePresco, Receptionist/SecretaryGerry Cefalu, ReceptionistJohn Emerson, Custodian

Government RelationsDebra Bradley, Esq., DirectorJennifer Keyes-Maloney, Esq., Assistant DirectorCindy Levanduski, Legislative Secretary

Field and Legal ServicesRobert Schwartz, Esq., Chief Legal CounselWayne J. Oppito, Esq., Legal CounselWilliam Nossen, Esq., Legal CounselLinda McGann, Field & Legal Services Secretary

Retirement Services Richard J. Klockner, Director

CommunicationsMary M. Reece, Ed.D., Director of Media and Innovative ProgramsNancy Michell, Director of Marketing and Web ContentGina DeVito-Birnie, Communications Specialist/Graphic DesignerRobert Burek, Web Application Designer/Technical Support

AccountingDee Discavage, Accountant/Office ManagerLiz Dilks, Bookkeeper

FEA StaffPatricia Wright, President

Anthony Scannella, Ed.D., Chief Executive Officer

Denise L. Hecht, MBA, Chief Financial Officer

Jay Doolan, Ed.D., Director of Professional Services

Frank Palatucci, Director of School Leadership Programs

Jeff Graber, Ed.D, Associate Director, School Leadership Programs

Gerard A. Schaller, Ed.D., NJ-L2L Program Coordinator

Nancy Richmond, Ed.D., NJ L2L Mentor Trainer

Joseph Poedubicky, Ed.D., NJ EXCEL Program Coordinator

Linda Walko, Administrative Assistant to CEO

Karin Marchione, Administrative Assistant to CEO

Ilze Abbott, Administrative Assistant for School Leadership Programs

Wanda L. Grant, Administrative Assistant for School Leadership Programs

LEGAL ONEDavid Nash, Esq., Director of Legal Education

Rita Carter, Administrative Assistant for Legal Education

Educational Viewpoints is published byNew Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association 12 Centre Drive Monroe Township, NJ 08831Tel: 609-860-1200 Fax: 609-860-2999 Web: www.njpsa.org Email: [email protected]

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From the Executive Director

Dear Members,

The major goals of NJPSA and FEA for 2011-2015 are to address the critical and emerging issues that impact our members and to support school leaders in their essential role in promoting student achievement and continuous school improvement. The most critical and emerging issue in school reform for our members is the new focus on the impact of school-level leadership on student achievement.

The role of the principal is shifting from principal as manager in a compliance-driven environment, to principal as learning leader in an achievement-driven climate. It is our job to ensure that NJPSA members are prepared for the changes ahead.

To this end, the Board of Directors and the senior staff of NJPSA and FEA have developed, with your input, a set of Guiding Beliefs that help define the role of the principal. These beliefs will enable us to be pro-active in our response to new regulations, laws, and policies; drive conversations and decisions about how both NPSA and FEA can support our members; and assist us in communicating with the public about the mission of NJPSA/FEA.

We are also in the process of developing guiding belief documents related to the role of assistant principals, supervisors, and directors.

The principles set forth below will serve as our guide as we make decisions that affect our future as an organization and your future as a professional.

Sincerely,

Patricia Wright, Executive DirectorNew Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association

The Essential Role of the School Principal 1. The school principal fosters the creation of a common vision of clearly defined and measurable outcomes that is reflective of

the core standards that all students should achieve. The vision must set high standards for the academic, social, emotional, and physical development of all students while acknowledging the unique talents and abilities of each individual learner.

2. The school principal makes the improvement of teaching and learning the school’s top priority, while ensuring that essential operational and administrative tasks are effectively addressed. The school principal ensures that all teachers are provided with the necessary tools as well as the time to work collaboratively in a professional learning community in order to deliver quality instruction and to develop, administer, analyze, and use quality formative and summative assessments of student learning.

3. The school principal models a commitment to shared leadership and shared accountability by actively seeking out and channeling the unique talents and abilities of each staff member in order to support a common vision of educational excellence and continuous improvement.

4. The school principal creates an environment that is conducive to learning by fostering a culture of trust, mutual respect, and ethical behavior among all stakeholders in the school community and by ensuring that all stakeholders are able to function in a safe and supportive setting.

5. The school principal promotes continuous school improvement by engaging all stakeholders in the identification of areas of strength and areas representing growth opportunities, ensuring the appropriate use of data in decision making and encouraging collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking.

6. The school principal fosters the highest levels of performance from all staff members by providing meaningful and ongoing feedback regarding staff performance, supporting targeted and sustained professional growth for the principal and all other staff members, and regularly recognizing and celebrating key achievements.

7. The school principal ensures that all initiatives are part of a coherent effort to achieve a clearly defined vision, that all initiatives are given the appropriate priority and allocation of resources, and that all stakeholders understand the relationship between each initiative and the visions of the school and district.

8. The school principal recognizes and embraces the need to continuously engage the broader school community, including parents and community leaders, as critical partners in achieving the school’s vision.


Contents 4 School Reform or School Refocus: The

Urgent Need for Coherence By Patricia Wright

Initiative fatigue, compliance overload, over-reliance on outside providers are just some of roadblocks to crafting a coherent school improvement plan. Education associations in New Jersey have proposed a solution that connects standards, professional learning and educator evaluation in a way that ensures higher levels of student learning.

6 Evaluating What Good Teachers Do: Applying the Stronge Teacher Evaluation System By James H. Stronge

The article helps the reader think about how to identify good teaching, explains the foundation of the Stronge Evaluation Model, and discusses, among other topics, how evaluation can promote collaboration and why it is so important.

12 Breaking Through: Poverty, Achievement Gap, and Changing Demographics By Christopher Jennings

Bloomfield, New Jersey has experienced big changes in demographics over the last ten years. Taking the bull by the horn, Principal Christopher Jennings instituted a number of programs that have raised test scores, narrowed the achievement gap, and brought the school recognition as a Met Life Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School.

18 NJPSA Turns 30!Take a look back through the years with some interesting photos from NJPSA events of days gone by.

20 The Need for Technology Partnerships in a Time of Diminishing Resources By Maribeth Edmunds

The value of technology is not in merely having it, but in using the right technology for the task. Getting there requires a solid vision and plan. Monmouth Junction Elementary School has undergone a technology redesign after careful vision crafting and implementation planning.

24 Disruptive Professional Development By Mackey Pendergrast

Some problems seem insurmountable. Yet occasionally, simple solutions have a great impact on even intractable problems. It’s all a matter of thinking outside the box and promoting an environment in which great ideas can emerge organically.

30 Enhancing School Effectiveness by Maximizing the Use of Professional Learning Communities By Robin L. Moore

Collaborative cultures are essential to improving student learning. When groups are seen as the main unit for implementing curriculum, assessment, and instruction, everyone benefits. Roland Rogers Elementary School of Galloway, NJ has moved to PLCs and reaped the rewards.

36 Expanding the Learning Day to Meet the Changing Needs of Kids and Families By Paul G. Young

There are many advantages to a longer school day. After-school care becomes less of an issue, students spend more time learning, and they are exposed to a wider range of experiences. This article makes the case for an expanded day.

38 From Flipping the Classroom to BYOD, Technology Moves Jefferson Township Schools Forward By Douglas Walker

The Jefferson Township School District is using Google Voice, flipping the classroom, allowing students to use their devices at the discretion of teachers, teaching digital story-telling; in other words it’s well into the 21st Century and realizing the benefits.

44 Inform, Inspire, and Improve: A Project to Increase Advanced Proficiency By Chris Halloran

Five years after implementing an action research project for the NJ EXCEL program, this NJ EXCEL graduate is pleased to learn of all the improvements that were the result of the project.

48 Reculturing the Assistant Principalship By Beverly J. Hutton

The assistant principal’s role is often not well defined. It most certainly is broad and varied and not well understood in general. Beyond helping to run a building, there is much an assistant principal can contribute, and here Beverly Hutton proposes a new approach to defining this role.


Initiative fatigue has led to two other debilitating conditions. The first is what Doug Reeves calls, “the dance of the vendors.” Nothing illustrates this better than when the new anti-bully-ing legislation was passed. Adminis-trators received thousands of emails touting claims that if they only purchased certain programs, they would ensure a bully-free learning environment. Today, the dance is fast and furious, with companies vying for school dollars by guaranteeing that their textbooks and instructional materials are aligned to the common core standards.

Why do vendors dance? The answer is simple. Educators have demonstrated that when faced with a new initiative or problem, they look outside them-selves for answers or for simple meth-ods of implementation. If a school is experiencing low reading scores, it must be time for a new reading series. If Algebra I scores are low, we must need a textbook that guarantees alignment to the standards. Of course, with the textbook we will get a day of professional development to ensure we are “trained” to utilize it correctly.

In short, educators have outsourced their profession. Instead of using their own skills, knowledge, experience and

expertise to solve problems, they look outside themselves for a quick fix.

As if initiative fatigue complicated by dancing vendors is not enough, educators in a heavily compliance- driven climate suffer from yet anoth-er syndrome: compliance overload. The major symptom of this disorder is that educators find themselves do-ing asinine things, just to check them off a list.

The best example of this phenomenon is the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs). Research certainly supports the effectiveness of job-embedded professional learning, but when this best practice was added

School Reform or School Refocus: The Urgent Need for CoherenceBy Patricia Wright, NJPSA Executive Director

Ask any educator to name the hot topics in education today and you might get a list like this: common core standards, teacher evaluation, PARCC assessments, differentiation, data-driven instruction, RTI. The list goes on. What impact does this growing litany of buzz words

have on educators? Better yet, what impact does it have on student learning? One thing is for sure, it is responsible for the greatest plague to hit education: initiative fatigue.


About the AuthorPatricia Wright, NJPSA Executive Director, is the codeveloper of the Connected Action Roadmap (CAR), a comprehensive model of school improvement. The CAR Model has been endorsed by the Partnership on Collaborative Professional Learning. She is also the coauthor of the New Jersey Bar Foundation’s school-wide anti-bullying curriculum.

to the zillion-item QSAC monitor-ing checklist, many educators found themselves assigned to teams so that administrators could check PLCs off the list. Were these teams engaged in meaningful job-embedded collabora-tion that directly impacted student learning?

The Connected Action Roadmap (CAR) was developed to help stop the insanity! There was a need for coherence, as well as a need to stop doing asinine things just to check them off a list. It was clear that educators needed to focus, not on outside programs, but on our own professional practice.

The CAR framework was developed to help schools refocus on the key elements of effective schools: school culture, curriculum, assessment, professional learning and teacher and principal effectiveness.

Let’s use the analogy of a journey. Every school is starting from a differ-ent location; however, every school is focused on the same destination: stu-dent learning. The CAR Model uses a set of guiding questions to establish a school-wide focus on student learning:

1. What do we want students to know?

2. What strategies do students need in order to master the student learning objectives?

3. What instructional activities will help teach students the content, skills, and strategies they need to master the student learning objectives?

4. How do we know when they know it?

5. What do we do if they don’t or already do?

6. How can we best address these questions in order to build knowl-edge, skills, and strategies ef-fectively and consistently across grade levels and content areas?

If we are to reach our destination, we need a vehicle to get us there. That ve-hicle is the professional learning com-munity. It is the job of collaborative teams to answer the guiding ques-tions. The CAR Model also outlines 10 specific conversations that PLC teams must have in order to provide the most effective answers to the guid-ing questions. For example to truly understand what we want students to know, teachers must fully engage in unpacking the standards. It is absurd to think that teachers can ensure that students meet the standards if they are not crystal clear about what those standards are asking students to know, understand, or be able to do.

The next tool required for the journey is a map or GPS. The answers to the guiding questions make up the curric-ulum map. This map must include the standards, the agreed-upon specific student learning objectives unpacked from those standards, and the effec-tive instructional plan that will ensure that all students reach the destination by mastering those objectives.

We need to ensure that we have a viable map, a curriculum that we actually follow, in order to get to our destination. It doesn’t help to have a GPS if you never turn it on. Oh, the senseless things we do in education! We spend a lot of time and energy creating curriculum only to have it sit on shelves collecting dust. Curricu-lum must be directly related to daily lessons in order to truly drive instruc-tional decisions. This must mean more than just simply putting the standard number on lesson plans and calling it alignment. True alignment comes through PLC discussions regarding the connection between standards, SLOs, instruction, and assessment.

Even if we have a viable map, we also need some guideposts along the way like the gas station on the right or the shopping mall on the left. For-mative and summative assessments

are educators’ guideposts. They allow us to determine on a daily basis if students are getting closer to the destination or if they have veered off in the wrong direction.

The elements represented by the circles inside the framework represent the practice of education–PLC teams col-laboratively use guiding questions to develop, implement, reflect on, and re-vise curriculum based on student data.

Notice the perimeter of the frame-work—the culture. A school’s cul-ture can be the greatest barrier to the collaborative process of enhancing teacher practice and student learn-ing. The culture is made up of three components: the climate, the degree of shared leadership and the effective communication of connections.

Finally, the knowledge, skills, and abil-ities of teachers and principals are the drivers on this journey. The more edu-cators engage in conversations related to curriculum, instruction, and assess-ment, the more effective they become. The more effective the drivers become, the more effective the collaborative process becomes, creating a true cycle of continuous school improvement. Teacher evaluation systems will only be effective in improving learning if both teachers and administrators are engaged in meaningful, ongoing conversations about their practice and student learning.

Last year, the Partnership for Col-laborative Professional Learning en-dorsed the CAR model as the frame-work for guiding the development of communities of practice in all New Jersey schools. This group of representatives from several of the state’s educational organizations, recognized the need for a coherent plan that effectively connected the common core standards, student learning, professional learning and teacher and principal evaluation (see Partnership Beliefs). If all of the “re-forms” coming our way are to make

(Continued on page 16)


Evaluating What Good Teachers Do: Applying the Stronge Teacher Evaluation SystemBy James H. Stronge

The focus of this article is to describe the key features of my teacher evaluation system and to provide a research base for applying the system. Specifically, the article addresses the following inter-related questions for using my model to build a teacher evaluation system from the ground up:

What is your definition of good teaching?•

What are the key features of the Stronge teacher evaluation model?•

Where has the model been used, and what data support its efficacy?•

How does the model promote a collaborative environment among educators?•

How does the model differ from other models that are part of the New Jersey pilot?•

How does the model assure quality training of administrators and teachers?•

How does the model incorporate the use of student standardized tests scores? •


Figure 1: Stronge Qualities of Effective Teachers

What is Your Definition of Good Teaching?As Jere Brophy stated many years ago, a good teacher is harder to define than find (1977). There is no short-age of highly capable, competent, and committed teachers. However, until we can define an effective teacher’s skills, practices, and dispositions, and then be able to understand how those beliefs and behaviors impact student success, we can’t possibly evalu-ate their effectiveness. Another way to frame this idea is, simply: What do effective teachers do? Thus, the framework for my teacher evaluation system begins with an understand-ing of what is effective teaching. And the framework that I build upon for designing and implementing my

teacher evaluation system is drawn from the empirical research on teach-er effectiveness that is synthesized in my ASCD book, Qualities of Effective Teachers (Stronge, 2007) (Figure 1).

What Are the Key Features of the Stronge Teacher Evaluation Model?Due to the brevity of this article, let me offer a succinct review of my evaluation model framed around three guiding questions.

Question 1: What are the Stronge Teacher Performance Standards? Performance standards are the job responsibilities or duties performed by a teacher; consequently, the perfor-mance standards represent the major job responsibilities that a teacher ful-

fills. A number of years ago I advo-cated a set of 20 or so standards for use in teacher evaluation. However, after field-testing this system with many organizations over numerous years, I became convinced that this design simply isn’t practical. While these many standards may offer a detailed description of teacher job responsibilities, it simply isn’t feasible to collect sufficient data to objectively and distinctively judge performance across this full range of standards. Thus, I moved to a more simplified set of standards that retains the diag-nostic profile of teacher performance. There are seven teacher performance standards included in the version of my system that is being piloted in New Jersey (Figure 2).

Performance Standard 1: Professional KnowledgeThe teacher demonstrates an understanding of the curriculum, subject content, pedagogical knowledge, and the developmental needs of students by providing relevant learning experiences.

Performance Standard 2: Instructional PlanningThe teacher plans using the Virginia Standards of Learning, the school division’s curriculum, effective strategies, resources, and data to meet the differentiated learning needs of all students.

Performance Standard 3: Instructional DeliveryThe teacher effectively engages students in learning by using a variety of effective instructional strategies in order to meet individual learning needs.

Performance Standard 4: Assessment of/for LearningThe teacher uses a variety of formative and summative assessment strategies and data to measure student progress, to inform instructional content and delivery

methods, and to provide timely and constructive feedback to both students and parents.

Performance Standard 5: Learning EnvironmentThe teacher provides a well-managed, safe, student-centered, academic environment that is conducive to learning.

Performance Standard 6: Professionalism and CommunicationThe teacher maintains a commitment to professional ethics and the school’s mission, participates in professional growth, and maintains effective communication with students, families, colleagues, and community.

Performance Standard 7: Student ProgressThe instructional efforts of the teacher result in acceptable, measurable student progress based on established standards and goals.

Figure 2: Stronge Teacher Performance Standards


The assumption upon which my sys-tem of teacher performance standards is built is that teachers—regardless of what their particular assignments might be—are far more alike than they are different. Nonetheless, while the use of a common set of perfor-mance standards tends to work very well for most teachers, preK-12, the actual work of a high school teacher (for example, a chemistry teacher) differs markedly from that of a fourth grade teacher. Practically speaking, however, it would be virtually im-possible to create and implement a teacher evaluation system with sep-arate sets of performance standards for every grade level, subject matter, or other job distinctions that exist in a school or school system. Yet, if we

don’t account for important differ-ences in teacher roles and responsibili-ties, the evaluation process becomes far too generic and, thus, completely irrelevant. So how do we adjust for these important differences in teacher work? It is through the customization of the quality indicators—the second level used in defining and describing the work of the teacher. An illustra-tion of quality indicators for the Stu-dent Progress performance standard is provided in Figure 3.

Question 2: How will we know if the teacher is fulfilling the perfor-mance standards? The role of a teacher requires a per-formance assessment system that acknowledges the complexities of the job. Given the complexity of a

teacher’s work, attempting to docu-ment the work with one method or data source simply isn’t sensible. Instead, using multiple data sources can provide for a comprehensive and authentic “performance portrait” of the teacher ’s work. The multiple sources of information described in Figure 4 are integrated into my evaluation system to provide com-prehensive and accurate feedback on teacher performance.

Question 3: How well is the teacher fulfilling the performance standard?Rating scales provide a description of how well the teacher perfor-mance standards are performed on a continuum from, say, “ex-emplary” to “unacceptable.” The

Figure 4: Recommended Data Sources in the Stronge Teacher Evaluation System

Data Source Definition

Observations Observations, including formal and informal observations, are intended to provide direct, naturalistic information on the work of a teacher, student behaviors, and the dynamic interaction between teacher and learners. In addition to classroom observations, observations can be conducted in a variety of job-relevant settings (for example, a conference with a parent, a committee meeting, a presentation to the school staff). Observations are an important source of teacher performance information, but should never be used as a sole source for documenting evaluation performance.

Portfolio/Data Log

A portfolio or data log includes artifacts that provide documentation for the teacher performance standards. The portfolio/data log should emphasize naturally occurring artifacts from teachers’ work (i.e., lesson plans, instructional units, student assessments). The portfolio/data log gives the teacher a strong voice in documenting her/his own evaluation, creates a professionalizing atmosphere for teacher evaluation, and encourages the ongoing use of reflection for teacher improvement.

Student Surveys Student surveys provide information to the teacher about students’ perceptions of how the teacher is performing. Surveys—a key aspect of 360 degree approach to evaluation—has been used extensively in business and government settings and to a lesser extent in education. However, there is ample evidence to support the use of surveys in teacher evaluation. I advocate the use of surveys for formative assessment by the teacher—often applied in a low stakes manner in which the results of the surveys are for “the teacher’s eyes only.”

Student Achievement/Performance Goal Setting

Teachers have a definite impact on student learning and academic performance. Depending on grade level, content area, and ability level, appropriate measures of student performance should be identified to provide information on the learning gains of students. Value-added methods (VAM) or student growth performance measures include available standardized test results as well as other pertinent data. With proper use, teachers can set rigorous goals for improving student performance based on appropriate performance measures. Thus, measures of student progress can be an important component for teacher evaluation. However, student achievement growth, alone, should never be used as a sole source for evaluating teacher performance.

Performance Standard 3: Instructional DeliveryThe teacher effectively engages students in learning by using a variety of effective instructional strategies in order to meet individual learning needs.

Sample Performance IndicatorsExamples of teacher work conducted in the performance of the standard may include, but are not limited to:

The Teacher:

3.1 Engages and maintains students in active learning.

3.2 Builds upon students’ existing knowledge and skills.

3.3 Differentiates instruction to meet students’ needs.

3.4 Reinforces learning goals consistently throughout the lesson.

3.5 Uses a variety of effective instructional strategies and resources.

3.6 Uses instructional technology to enhance student learning.

3.7 Communicates and presents material clearly and checks for understanding.

Figure 3: Sample Performance Standard and Quality Indicators


Figure 5. Rating Scale Terms Used in the Stronge Teacher Evaluation System

Category Description Definition

Exemplary The teacher performing at this level maintains performance, accomplishments, and behaviors that consistently and considerably surpass the established standard. This rating is reserved for performance that is truly exemplary and done in a manner that exemplifies the school’s mission and goals.

Exceptional performance:Consistently exhibits behaviors that have a strong positive • impact on learners and the school climateServes as a role model to others• Sustains high performance over a period of time•

Proficient The teacher meets the standard in a manner that is consistent with the school’s mission and goals.

Effective performance:Meets the requirements contained in the job description as • expressed in the evaluation criteriaDemonstrates willingness to learn and apply new skills• Exhibits behaviors that have a positive impact on learners • and the school climate

Developing/Needs Improvement

The teacher often performs below the established standard or in a manner that is inconsistent with the school’s mission and goals.

Below acceptable performance:Requires support in meeting the standards• Results in less than quality work performance• Leads to areas for teacher improvement being jointly • identified and planned between the teacher and evaluator

Unacceptable The teacher consistently performs below the established standard or in a manner that is inconsistent with the school’s mission and goals.

Ineffective performance:Does not meet the requirements contained in the job • description as expressed in the evaluation criteriaMay result in the employee not being recommended for • continued employment

Please Note: Ratings are applied to performance standards, but not quality indicators.

rating is applied in most instances only in a summative (cumulative, end-of-evaluation cycle) evaluation. The use of a rating scale enables evaluators to acknowledge effective performance (i.e., “exemplary” and “proficient”) and provides one or more levels of feedback for teach-ers not meeting expectations (i.e., “developing/needs improvement” and “unacceptable”). However, an inherent problem in their use exists: Rating scales can be too subjective. To illustrate, if Evaluator A views a given aspect of a teacher’s perfor-mance and rates it as “Exemplary,” and Evaluator B views the same

performance and rates it “Needs Im-provement,” then there is no trust-worthiness in the ratings. Rating scales should not perpetuate highly subjective reviews of a teachers’ performance; this speculative pro-cess is simply unjust. Rather, rating scales should improve trustworthi-ness of evaluators’ ratings through inter-rater agreement (reliability) based on documented evidence for established performance standards. Despite the problems inherent in rat-ing scales, the absence of them can be even more problematic. Figure 5 provides the terms and definitions used in my evaluation system.

To increase the objectivity and fair-ness in rating teacher performance, my evaluation system uses a second tool—a performance appraisal rubric —for each of the seven identified teacher standards. The performance appraisal rubrics guide evaluators in assessing how well a standard is performed, and they are applied to increase reliability among evalua-tors. By using performance appraisal rubrics, there is the opportunity to generate defensibility for ratings, greater reliability among evaluators, and enhanced fairness to teachers as evaluatees. Figure 6 provides an ex-ample of my four-point performance appraisal rubric.

Figure 6. Example of a Performance Appraisal Rubric

ExemplaryIn addition to meeting the standard…

ProficientProficient is the expected level of performance.

Developing/ Needs Improvement

Unacceptable

The teacher creates a dynamic environment where learning is maximized, disruptions are minimized, and students are regularly self-directed in their learning.

The teacher provides a well-managed, safe, student-centered, academic environment that is conducive to learning.

The teacher is inconsistent in providing a well-managed, safe, student-centered, aca-demic environment that is conducive to learning.

The teacher inadequately addresses student behavior, displays a detrimen-tal attitude with students, ignores safety standards, or does not other-wise provide an environment condu-cive to learning.


Where Has the Model Been Used, and What Data Support its Efficacy?My teacher (as well as principal and educational specialist) evaluation model has been extensively field tested over the past 20+ years across many settings in the US and abroad. Some of the places where the system has been applied, is currently being adapted, or where I have provided substantial technical assistance include:

School districts throughout the United States—large and small to urban, suburban, and rural—e.g., Miami-Dade County, FL; Greenville County, SC; Superior, WI; Alexandria, VA; Lenawee ISD, MI; Muncie, IN; San Antonio, TX (planning phase).

State or regional organizations— e.g., Virginia Department of Educa-tion (teachers and principals), Geor-gia Department of Education (Race-to-the-Top state-wide initiative for teachers and principals), Louisiana Department of Education (teachers and principals), Kentucky Depart-ment of Education (consultant for technical design and facilitation is-sues), Wisconsin CESA 6 (state-wide aimed initiative).

Other educational organizations— e.g., Appalachia Regional Compre-hensive Center at Edvantia (five-state federally-funded initiative support-ing teacher and leader effectiveness and evaluation), Association of American Schools in South America (teacher evaluation designed for world-wide use with international American schools funded by the Overseas Schools Advisory Committee and supported by the US Department of State).

As noted earlier, the research base for my teacher evaluation model be-gins with the meta-research review reflected in my ASCD book, Quali-ties of Effective Teachers (along with the research reflected in a number of my other books on the topics of teacher effectiveness and evaluation). Additionally, numerous studies have applied my teacher effectiveness and evaluation framework in a variety of settings, with a few recent studies summarized below:

Analysis of Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement Applying the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Stronge, Ward, and Grant, 2011)

US-China Study of Great Teachers Investigating Qualities of Effective Teachers Using the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Xu, 2011)

Study of Principals and Teachers Perceptions of Effective Teachers Ap-plying the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Williams, 2011)

Study of Effective Teachers of at-Risk Students in the United States Applying the Stronge QET Evalua-tion Framework (Popp, Grant, and Stronge, accepted for 2011)

International Study of National Award-Winning Teachers in Aus-tralia, China, New Zealand, and the United States Applying the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Little. Grant, and Stronge, 2010)

Study of Effective Teacher Qualities Applying the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Stronge, et al., 2008a)

Study of National Board Certified Teachers Applying the Stronge QET Evaluation Framework (Stronge, et al., 2008b)

How Does the Teacher Evaluation Model Promote a Collaborative Environment Among Educators?Let me respond to this question in two ways. Firstly, for too long evaluation of teachers has been an innocuous event in which an evalu-ator visited a classroom and made notes on an observation checklist. This type of evaluation protocol typically is non-productive and even de-professionalizing for the teacher. In my evaluation system, there is an emphasis on designing the evalu-ation system features locally (or state-wide) through a collaborative process in which teachers play a fundamental role. Additionally, the actual implementation of the evalu-ation system calls on both teachers and their evaluators to collaborate in the collection and review of evi-dence around teacher work (e.g., the teacher selects and shares data on

her/his performance via naturally-occurring teacher artifacts; the teacher applies student surveys for formative purposes).

Secondly, creating an environment in which teachers are rewarded for collaborative practices is an essen-tial factor in effective schools. In my evaluation system, teachers are encouraged to collaborate with one another via practices such as instruc-tional planning, student achievement goal setting, and building profes-sional expertise.

How Does the Model Differ from the Other Models That are Part of the New Jersey Pilot?I am much more interested in pro-moting my evaluation system on its own merits than offering a compar-ative analysis with others. After all, I firmly believe there are many qual-ity features in the evaluation models and work designed by some of my colleagues who also work in the realm of teacher evaluation. There are overlapping features among the various teacher evaluation models, but if I had to highlight features that best characterize my evaluation sys-tem, I would identify:

A collaborative design and pro-• cess for teacher evaluation that balances professional growth with professional accountability,

A simplified set of seven well-• defined and solidly research-based teacher performance standards,

The integration of multiple data • sources, including teacher-collected and evaluator-collected data,

A paradigm for teacher evalua-• tion that balances teaching pro-cesses (i.e., how teachers teach) with teaching results (i.e., inclu-sion of fair measures of student growth), and

Ultimately, a focus on student • success. In the final analysis, im-proving and supporting teacher effectiveness is paramount for improving the quality of learn-ing for our students.


How does the model assure quality training?There is a comprehensive support system for both administrator-evaluators and teachers, including:

Pre-implementation in-person ori-• entation training for both teacher leaders and administrators,

On-site professional development • support for both teachers and administrators,

Follow-up training on building • inter-rater reliability with evalu-ation decisions,

An extensive library of training • and support materials focused on all aspects of the Stronge evaluation system,

Availability of series of books • on my teacher evaluation and effectiveness system,

A partnership with selected • integrated software systems for electronic data collection, report-ing, and management, and

Support through the pilot imple-• mentation and beyond, as needed.

How Does Your Model Incorporate Test Scores?The fact is that less than 30 percent of teachers in New Jersey will have state-generated student achievement growth data available for them. And even for those teachers, it is essen-tial—and fair—to have other mea-sures for documenting their contribu-tions to student success. To measure the outcomes of teaching—that is, Standard 7: Student Progress in my set of teacher evaluation standards—I have built a system for documenting student growth measures in which there are two prominent ways of assessing student growth:

Setting student achievement • goals and monitoring progress based on those goals, and

Applying student growth scores, • where applicable, to document student achievement growth in a particular teacher’s class (i.e., Student Growth Percentiles - SGP).

In featuring both measures in my teacher evaluation system, it is impor-tant to look at student performance across time, preferably using multiple assessment points.

Final Thoughts: Why Is a Quality Teacher Evaluation System Important?

So why does it matter that we have quality teacher evaluation systems and practices? Because regardless of how well a program is designed, it is only as effective as the people who implement it. Thus, teacher evaluation is important because teachers are important.

School reform doesn’t happen in the State House or the White House. It doesn’t occur at the school board level or even at the school, for the most part. The foundation upon which teacher evaluation system is built is that the classroom—not the school—is the place where we must focus for improved student perfor-mance. When one teacher improves her or his capacity to help students learn, then—and only then—does school improvement occur. And the reason is quite simple: teacher success = student success.

About the AuthorJames H. Stronge is the Heritage Professor in the Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership Area at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. His research interests include policy and practice related to teacher quality, and teacher and administrator evaluation. He has worked with numerous school districts and other educational organizations to design and implement evaluation systems.

ReferencesBrody, J. A. (1977). “A Good Teacher is Harder to Define than Find.” American School Board Journal, 164 (7), 25-28.

Little, C.A., Grant, L.W., and Stronge, J.H.. (2010, May 3). Great Teachers: Reflections of Award-Winning Teachers on their Professional Practice. Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.

Popp, P.A., Grant, L.W., and Stronge, J.H. (accepted for 2011). Effective Teachers for at-Risk/Highly Mobile Students: What Are the Dispositions and Behaviors of Award-Winning Teachers? Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk.

Stronge, J.H. (2007). Qualities of Effective Teachers (2nd Ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Stronge, J.H., Ward, T.J., Tucker, P.D., and Hindman, J.L. (2008a). “What Is the Relationship Between Teacher Quality and Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 20, 165-184.

Stronge, J.H., Ward, T.J., Tucker, P.D., Hindman, J.L., McColsky, W., and Howard, B. (2008b). “National Board Certified Teachers and Non-National Board Certified Teachers: Is There a Difference in Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement?” Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 20, 185-210.

Stronge, J.H., Ward, T.J., and Grant, L.W. (2011). “What Makes Good Teachers Good? A Cross-Case Analysis of the Connection Between Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement.” Journal of Teacher Education, 62(4), 339-355.

Xu, X. (2011). “A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Teacher Effectiveness: Analyses of Award-Winning Teachers in the United States and China” (Dissertation). Ann Arbor, MI: Dissertation Abstracts International.

Williams, R. (2011). “Administrator and Teacher Perceptions of the Qualities of Effective Teachers.” (Dissertation). Ann Arbor, MI: Dissertation Abstracts International.


Breaking Through: Poverty, Achievement Gap, and Changing DemographicsBy Christopher Jennings

Over the last decade, Bloomfield High School has undergone a cultural transformation. Historically a very traditional town of middle class European population, Bloomfield has evolved into a veritable melting pot of ethnicities and economic backgrounds. Our student population, nearly

2000, is equally divided between white, black and Hispanic students where 45% are economically disadvantaged. Because of this change, we have rededicated ourselves to providing an equal opportunity to a rigorous education for all students.

The following article comes from Bloomfield High School Principal Christopher Jennings who explains the process of improvement that led his school to achieve improvements in the achievement gap and recognition as one of ten schools nationwide named a MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School for academic achievement. Bloomfield High School is the first school in New Jersey to receive the honor.


Increasing Test ScoresWe are proud to be a school that has demonstrated documented growth on standardized tests. Our total pop-ulation scores in Math and Language Arts have increased due to the im-provement of our subgroups. Over a four year period (2007-2010), our largest improvements occurred in our Special Education and Economi-cally Disadvantaged subgroups. In Mathematics, our Special Education scores have improved 25% and our Economically Disadvantaged scores jumped 15%. In Language Arts, our Special Education scores improved 11% and our Economically Disad-vantaged scores grew 15%. These gains have allowed Bloomfield High School to attain Safe Harbor status in these subgroups which helped us attain Adequate Yearly Progress in 2009 and 2010 after being in SINI (School In Need of Improvement) status for the previous six years. However, as our subgroup scores improved, it became more difficult to continue to make Safe Harbor and in 2011 we once again found ourselves in Year 1 Early Warning Status in the areas of Special Education Language Arts and Mathematics. There is an argument here about the inequities of NCLB, but that is for another day.

Expectations and Beliefs Make the DifferenceThere are many programs and activi-ties that have contributed to our aca-demic growth, but it all can be boiled down to a common belief among staff that each student is an individual who can succeed. This belief has earned Bloomfield High School the honor of being named a “National Title I Distinguished School” in 2010 and a MetLife NASSP “Breakthrough School” in 2012 for closing the achievement gap between student groups.

The process of reducing the achieve-ment gap between student groups has been a multi-layered process, with each layer connected to the other by a belief that if students are challenged in an academic atmo-sphere with a rigorous, relevant, and supportive experience, they will rise to the occasion every time.

Upon my arrival at Bloomfield High School in January 2007, it was clear that the first issue to be addressed was the need to create a culture and climate that supported a professional academic setting. The public percep-tion of BHS was that it was a building out of control with a rough student population. As is often the case, the perception was not entirely the real-ity, but there were issues that had to be corrected. It was important to me that everyone as-sociated with BHS understood that our building was a sacred place that demanded profes-sional behavior from our students. The key to getting this message out was having open and honest conver-sations with students and staff so that everyone was aware of the expecta-tions. I often spoke of the “3 P’s” that would lead to student success: Profes-sionalism, Punctuality, and Prepared-ness. To build a culture and climate that supported academic achieve-ment, it was vital that our students approached school as if it were their job. It was important to the staff that there was consistency when dealing with student discipline, and it was important to me that we had more of an emphasis on curriculum and test-ing. By reorganizing the roles of the Assistant Principals and more clearly defining their responsibilities, we were able to accomplish these goals.

Making Learning Job OneIt’s a student’s job to learn. In ad-dressing the issues at Bloomfield High, the first layer was building and maintaining an academic atmosphere that supported the idea that school re-quires professional behavior from stu-dents so that each student can learn in a safe and distraction-free building. Hats, cell phones, iPods, and saggy pants are distractions that could not be tolerated because they serve as deterrents to learning. Although a constant struggle, all teachers and administrators are committed to hold-ing firm on this principle. Stringent policies, tempered by gentle remind-ers, are enforced. Our staff believes

that parental communication is the key to dealing with tardiness, cutting, and inappropriate behavior. Praise for positive behavior is a core belief of the faculty in our quest to build a culture of academics.

By addressing student behavior first, we were then able to shift the focus to academics. Bloomfield High School has

an extremely loyal and dedicated faculty; many of them are alumni of the school. Effort and dedication were clearly not the cause of poor student performance, but it was clear that many people were working

in isolation. A multi-year effort that relied on teachers working with one another on curriculum and assess-ment was initiated. Although “teach-ing to the test” is never the goal, the reality is we have to be aware of what our students will be expected to know on standardized tests to ensure they have every opportunity to succeed. The implementation of “Understand-ing by Design” encouraged teachers to plan and teach with the end goal in mind. Focusing on students mak-ing connections to enduring under-standing and essential questions, rather than learning facts and stats, legitimized what many teachers knew was good teaching. The creation of PLCs by motivated teachers who were interested in self examination and peer review was a shot in the arm for those who wanted to take the ball and run. Differentiated Instruction and stu-dent-centered lessons became the new norm. To support teachers in these efforts, a partnership with Montclair State University was formed to bring in professors to lead professional de-velopment groups.

Creating a rigorous and relevant aca-demic experience in an effort to close the achievement gap required a major paradigm shift on two levels: full in-clusion for special education students and the elimination of all non-college prep courses in the core academic ar-eas. To accomplish full inclusion in the core academic areas, it was necessary to departmentalize the special educa-tion teachers into the content area for

... school requires pro-fessional behavior from students so that each student can learn in a safe and distraction-free building.


which they were highly qualified. This reorganization allowed special educa-tion teachers to focus on one academic area and reduced the number of co-teaching pairs who worked together. It also allowed the special education teachers to share their knowledge of learning styles, differentiation of instruction, and the modification of assignments with the content teachers in their department. With professional development, experimentation, and hard work, co-teaching has created an atmosphere where every student is expected to succeed. Having co-taught classes has become the norm at Bloomfield High School; so much so that students are often unaware who the “regular” teacher is.

Allowing regular education students the option of taking English or math classes on a “basic” level is equiva-lent to allowing special education students to take resource classes. Working in isolation from a rigorous curriculum will not prepare them for the HSPA or college. Creating hetero-geneous classes on the College Prep level as a part of the inclusion move-ment has allowed all students the op-portunity to succeed and perform to the best of their ability on the HSPA. Both of these shifts require teachers to drastically change how they have traditionally taught. They need to use techniques that require students to be active learners who are responsible for their learning. Therefore many teachers are utilizing technology to deliver lessons, rather than just for research, which has dramati-cally increased the level of student engagement. To say this change was a challenge is an understatement, but it was fully supported by teach-ers once they witnessed first hand how lower-level students worked harder, discipline issues occurred less frequently and that differentia-tion worked for all students. The biggest validation came when the Special Education scores increased three years in a row.

Immediate InterventionAnother layer arose as a major obsta-cle that cut across race, gender, and economic lines: freshman year. Year after year, the freshman class had the

largest number of multiple failures, absenteeism, and discipline referrals. Something had to be done to better support the freshman students in their pivotal transition year. To this end, a team of teachers and adminis-trators collaborated to develop a plan that centers on immediate interven-tions when a student fails a test. R.A.F.T (Re-Assessment for Transfer) is meant to be the raft that helps keep students afloat academically until they develop the necessary skills to succeed in high school. If a freshman fails a test, the teacher notifies the family and the guidance counselor immediately. The counselor meets with the student to do an inventory of what caused the failure and shares this information with the teacher. During a specified remediation period a student receives targeted academic support and is given an opportunity to be retested. The new grade, up to 69%, replaces the failing grade. The key to this program is that the stu-dent be given the time to demonstrate that he/she has learned the concept, even if it is a few days after the rest of the class.

Another program aimed at the fresh-man is the development of a PSLP (Personalized Student Learning Plan) that helps them become cognizant of how they learn best and which careers they may be interested in. In 2009, Bloomfield High School was chosen as one of sixteen schools in New Jersey to participate in a pilot program that incorporated PSLP’s into the school and was awarded $15,000 to use in our plan. Through our Personal Finance course, stu-dents take learning style inventories and personality inventories through Naviance, a software that helps track student information. A concerted effort is made to help students use this information to take ownership of their high school experience, fol-lowing the belief that once students become aware of how they learn and why they are learning, school will become relevant for them. An effort is made to involve every freshman in an extracurricular activity to help them make positive connections to their peers and staff.

Reducing Reliance on AHSAAn important area that needed to be addressed was the AHSA (Al-ternate High School Assessment) process. In New Jersey, first time juniors take the HSPA in March and twice in senior year if they have not yet proven proficiency. To gradu-ate, they must prove proficiency on both the Language Arts and Math sections either by passing the test or through specific tasks submitted to the state Department of Educa-tion during their senior year. It had become acceptable at Bloomfield High School for students to graduate through the alternate process, and passing the test during the senior retake opportunities had become an afterthought. Although students receive a fully accredited diploma if they graduate through the AHSA process, the overall passing rate reflected poorly on our school. We changed the culture by stressing the importance of passing the test to the students and their families and we assigned the AHSA classes to our best teachers. Administration visits AHSA classes regularly to check in with the students and calls are made home if a student is absent or not giving his/her best effort. Everyone associated with the AHSA students has a stake in their success and this emphasis has us headed to our goal of less than 10% of students gradu-ating through AHSA in 2012.

Personal ChangeAnd lastly, another major change that occurred was me. Over the past five years I have grown into the position of high school prin-cipal and have become more com-fortable relying on staff for their input into how our school runs. While my door was always open, sometimes I wondered why no one came through it. I realized that I had to make the effort to reach out and solicit input and to validate the hard work that I witnessed every day. The formation of a teacher ’s advisory committee and the imple-mentation of monthly “Best Prac-tice” awards (complete with a free sandwich from the local deli) are an effort on my part to let every-


one know that I am aware that it is the teachers who make the school successful.

One of my favorite quotes is that “Culture eats strategies for break-fast.” The newest technology and backward planning are nothing with-out a culture that supports teach-ers. My recommendation to other principals starting a journey towards academic improvement would be to create a strong foundation built on respect and communication. It is this foundation that will support the changes that will be necessary.

Innovative Programs and PracticesThe following changes were imple-mented at Bloomfield High School leading to better outcomes for students

• Change of bell schedule; it increased instructional time, shortened lunch periods and eliminated study halls.

• Reorganization of administrative re-sponsibilities for assistant principals and creation of Dean of Students.

• Integration of special education teachers into individual departments to allow them to be content specific.

• Elimination of pull-out resource classes to allow full inclusion in all content areas.

• Elimination of basic skills classes to allow for the creation of heteroge-neous college prep classes in math and language arts.

• Elimination of all non-college prep math courses in grades 9-11.

• Emphasis on smaller class size in Algebra I as a gatekeeper course for higher-level mathematics.

• Full inclusion in all content areas.

• Creation of Applied math classes that allow select special education students extended time to cover the district-approved curriculum.

• On-going professional development opportunities for co-teaching and differentiation through district initiatives and a partnership with Montclair State University, paid for with Title I funds.

• Promotion of professional develop-ment opportunities for using data-driven assessments in Math and English, paid for with Title I funds.

• Creation of staff professional de-velopment forum to define needs of 21st Century learners.

• Use of formative assessments in Math and English to monitor student progress.

• Use of Title I funds to purchase technology for Math, English, and Social Studies, which includes Smart Boards, teacher laptops, LCD projectors, graphing calcula-tors for all Algebra I students.

• Use of Title I funds to provide multiple tutoring opportunities for students: ELL Café, Algebra I tutorial, basic skills instruction, SAT development, content area.

• Implemented standardized mid-term and final exams in all content areas.

• Change in 9th and 10th grade test of record from Terra Nova to NJ-PASS, which is more appropriately aligned with NJCCCS.


About the AuthorChris Jennings has been the principal at Bloomfield High School since January 2007. Bloomfield HS has been named a 2010 Title I Distinguished School and a 2012 MetLife NASSP Foundation Breakthrough School for showing academic improvement which closed the achievement gap between student groups.

Prior to his tenure at BHS, Jennings taught high school social studies in Jersey City and was assistant principal at North Arlington High School.

• Providing appropriate testing accommodations for all students on standardized tests.

• Increased student accountability for those students in Student Review Assessment (SRA) classes which changed the goal from passing SRA to passing HSPA.

• Rewriting curriculum in an Under-standing by Design (UbD) format and applying the basic UbD con-cepts to classroom instruction.

• Emphasis on creating an academic environment that encourages pur-suit of post-secondary opportuni-ties, inclusive of two and four year schools.

• Awarding of grant from state of NJ to implement Personalized Student Learning Plans (PSLPs) for all students.

• Use of PSLP grant money to pur-chase NAVIANCE, an electronic portfolio which allows students and parents to collaboratively cre-

ate goals to pursue career and col-lege exploration and application.

• Creation of a bridge for parents, stu-dents, and teachers to share assign-ments and information on a daily basis through Homeworknow.com.

• Awarding of School-Based Youth Service Program grant from state of NJ to provide academic, social and emotional counseling and cultural enrichment activities.

• Creation of yearly school goals and mottos in order to inspire a unified purpose.

• Creation of a positive student culture which recognizes student attributes through faculty praise referrals, principal’s “Characters with Character” monthly award, and increased positive parental contact by every faculty member.

• Ubiquity of administrators in halls and classrooms to reinforce and commend best practices.

• Establishment of partnership with Bloomfield College and Essex Com-munity College to extend opportu-nities for college-level experiences for students.

• Establishment as a “Google Apps” school, which allows increased interaction between and among students and teachers for shared assignments.

• Partnership with Bloomfield Educa-tional Foundation, which supports staff by awarding “mini grants” and “extraordinary grants” for specialized projects.

• Staff generated “Peer Professional Development” group to encourage a collaborative exchange of ideas and methodology.

• Creation of a Teacher Advisory Council to solicit staff input on new initiatives.

a difference in student learning, we must embrace a movement that focuses not on compliance, but on educational practice. The CAR model is a way to for schools to embrace a process that refocuses educators on practice in a way that truly makes a difference for our students.

Partnership Beliefs• Professional learning should be

guided by a common language and a common framework.

• Professional learning should make connections to district and school priorities, to curriculum develop-ment—a shift in focus from pro-gram to practice.

• Professional learning is a partner-ship—marrying standards, cur-riculum, instruction, assessment with learning.

• Professional learning embraces a set of behaviors and culture, the transformation of practice. Profes-sional learning makes connections to maintain a focus on student learning—always keeping our eye on the prize.

• Professional learning goes to depth—past fragmentation and isolation, past poor student perfor-mance into professional dialogue; creating and honoring new struc-tures of leadership, developing structures for working effectively with data, and structures for creat-ing and analyzing common forma-tive and summative assessments, based on a viable curriculum.

The CAR Model has been developed by The Partnership for Collaborative Professional Learning:New Jersey Principals and Supervi-sors AssociationFoundation for Educational Admin-istrationNew Jersey Education AssociationNew Jersey Association for Supervi-sion and Curriculum DevelopmentNew Jersey Association of School AdministratorsEducational Information and Resource CenterNew Jersey School Boards AssociationLearning Forward New JerseyNew Jersey Association of Colleges of Teacher EducationNew Jersey Department of Education

(Continued from page 5)


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30 Years of NJPSA in PicturesThis year marks the NJPSA’s thirtieth anniversary. It was in 1981 that the NJPSA was created through the merger of the NJ Secondary School Principals and Supervisors Association and the NJ Elementary and Middle School Administrators Association.

It has been quite a ride from the two room office we had on State Street, to the office we had on Greenwood Avenue, to our headquarters on Pennington Road and to our present facility in Monroe. The accomplishments of the last thirty years have been a collective effort of the many officers, presidents, and board members who have moved through the chairs, and to the dedicated staff of both the NJPSA and the FEA.

Herewith is a brief glance back through the decades.


The Need for Technology Partnerships in a Time of Diminishing ResourcesBy Maribeth Edmunds

When I joined Monmouth Junction Elementary School as principal six years ago, the 60-year old structure had just witnessed a major renovation. Walls were freshly painted; lighting was upgraded; carpeting was installed.

In the rear of the building, a new addition featured an art room, music room and cafeteria. These rooms rivaled the best structures in the district, and eating lunch in the gymnasium became a thing of the past. The most dramatic change, however, was the renovation of the open space classrooms that once represented the hallmark of best practice in the 70s. Gone were continuous learning areas that dissolved slowly into other undefined learning spaces. Walls were erected to define and separate classrooms. Open space disappeared.


It seemed to all that this renovation had prepared Monmouth Junction for teaching and learning in the 21st Century. There was a palpable sense that change was about to occur. We were ready for the future—or so I thought.

As I conducted my daily walk-throughs, however, I noticed a per-sistent trend. Although each class-room had two desktop computers, these machines were rarely turned on. Instead of seeing computers in operation, I often saw teachers using transparencies made in the photo-copier that projected lessons on the wall. Photocopied worksheets sat on students’ desks—daily. It became clear to me that the existing com-puter equipment would only accom-modate outdated programs. These resources, as a result, were becom-ing obsolete before my eyes.

A Technology VisionI soon came to realize that although we had an updated structure, we lacked a clear vision regarding tech-nology instruction. Now we needed to craft an updated technology vision for the school that would help to move instruction forward. Unfor-tunately, funding equipment would be challenging at a time when the district was undergoing deep and painful budget cuts. This was a major obstacle.

To work towards a solution, I sought to form partnerships with our Parent Teacher Organization, with the district technology staff developers and with interested and forward-thinking staff members in order to make a much-needed difference. As our conversa-tions evolved, so did our vision; i.e., to install technology equipment in every classroom in the school so that each teacher and each child would have access to the most up-to-date instruc-tional practices available.

A Partnership with the Parent Teacher OrganizationThe first step in the process was to enlist the help of interested and sav-vy classroom teachers who helped me pitch the new technology vision to parents. One of our teachers, Peter

Rattien, is currently a student in the NJ EXCEL program as well as the school’s technology coordinator. To-gether, we asked the PTO parents to help raise funds for technology pur-chases by offering DVD productions of their children’s performances at concerts, musicals, talent shows and other events. All proceeds being collected would support equipment purchases and installation costs for the school. The PTO hired Mr. Rat-tien to record and produce the DVDs at a modest cost with the expressed purpose of purchasing technology for the school being advertised to parents in flyers.

The DVDs were an instant success! Parents enjoyed the fact that they no longer needed to film performances themselves. And, students enjoyed watching their performances over and over again. In essence, we had created a steady funding stream with our PTO that served our initial purpose and subsequently delighted our school community as well.

Because of the success of the DVD initiative, the PTO parents became even more invested in our vision and decided to donate more technology in order to help us set up a Tech Lab in one of the empty spaces at the school. Over two years’ time, they donated eleven laptops that allowed us to set up the lab with an additional set of laptops already purchased by the district. Our DVD funding stream allowed us to add an interactive whiteboard and a mounted projector to complete this shared space. Teachers signed up for the Tech Lab making this room a popular place for teachers to work with their students using the technology.

Once the PTO parents saw the success of the Tech Lab, they initiated the idea of hosting a Tech Night at the school at which time students present their technology projects to parents who attend the event. Nearly 200 parents attended our most recent Tech Night, strengthening our partnership with parents and showcasing our vision for technology instruction.

A Partnership with Colleagues: Cohort Design of Professional DevelopmentOnce I saw the popularity of the Tech Lab and the desire among teachers to use the interactive whiteboard, I looked to my budget to add interactive whiteboards in teachers’ classrooms. With this in mind, I used the school budget line item for small equipment along with proceeds from the DVDs to purchase three interactive white-boards that would be connected to projectors purchased by the district. When I approached three teachers on the fourth grade team with this plan, they were ecstatic.

The vision for professional devel-opment would allow this cohort of three teachers to work together and train with Mr. Rattien, receiv-ing professional development hours and a small stipend for 15 hours of study. Their excitement for this proj-

ect became conta-gious at our school with other teachers expressing interest in the same proce-dures. As a result of our funding stream, we have been able to set up interactive whiteboards in all

classrooms over a four-year period. In addition, we were able to add low-price but effective document cameras to teachers’ classrooms as well.

A Partnership with the District Staff Developers for TechnologyThe cohort model of professional development has served us well and now teachers support one another with lessons and tips that are shared at our technology faculty meetings. Professional development in the sum-mer continues with the district’s FLEX hour program where teachers are able to swap hours in the summer for a released day in February that was intended for district-wide profes-sional development sessions. Through this work, we developed a strong and ongoing partnership with two of the district’s staff developers for technology. By virtue of their work in the summer workshops as well as

I soon came to realize that although we had an updated structure, we lacked a clear vision regarding technology instruction.


their in-residence support in teachers’ classrooms, we have witnessed a high degree of comfort using the interactive whiteboards as well as an increase in teacher-developed lessons and ongo-ing use of downloadable lessons from the Web. These lessons are then saved in the teachers’ gallery for reference and use at a later time. Therefore, the teacher cohort model of professional development was highly successful.

A Partnership with Faculty MembersThe most rewarding partnership has been with the teachers who have embraced the new technology in

their classrooms and have shared their work collaboratively with col-leagues. Now, when I walk through classrooms, I see the whiteboards and document cameras in use. In a sec-ond grade classroom, for example, a teacher used her document camera to display a live caterpillar to the class as they labeled the various parts of the caterpillar for a science lesson. In another third grade class, the teacher used the interactive board to demon-strate how the planets rotate around the sun. In a fourth grade classroom, students study and review ecosystems using the Brain Pop website.

ConclusionToday, it is a joy to walk through the building and find students and teachers engaged in lessons that use technology in purposeful ways. Students are enthusiastic and inter-ested in their activities as a result. I no longer see the equipment turned off. Instead, our building has become a place for teaching and learning in the 21st Century.

About the AuthorMaribeth Edmunds has been a student-centered educator for over 30 years, committed to promoting high levels of student academic achievement. She is a proven leader and collaborator, focused on curriculum, instruction, performance assessment, and professional development. She strives to meet the unique needs and interests of students and families. Most recently, Dr. Edmunds has worked with staff members and families to develop a technology rich learning environment for students at Monmouth Junction Elementary School.

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Disruptive Professional DevelopmentBy Mackey Pendergrast

“It’s too complex.” I imagine that was the prevailing sentiment towards the overwhelming health problems in Pakistan where ten percent of the children die before they reach the age of five. Lack of medical resources, civil war, political conflict—the list of problems can go on endlessly. Yet, a nine month

study showed that some of the greatest causes of death in children—pneumonia, skin infections, and diarrhea—were all reduced by over thirty-five percent with the simple introduction of antibacterial soap to local populations (Gawande, 93-98).

To borrow an economic term from Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, the soap was a “disruptive innovation.”


The term “disruptive innovation” is usually used in reference to mar-kets and services. The Internet is an obvious example of how an idea can have unexpected results because it fundamentally changed behavior. But it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as the Internet to be a disruptive innovation.

If we ask what the disruptive in-novation in education will be, we are asking the wrong question. A better question would be, “How do we create the right conditions so that disruptive innovations will take place in our schools?”

Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen, authors of The Innova-tor’s DNA, conducted an eight-year study of thousands of entrepreneurs in search of the key ingredients to revolutionary business strategies. Through this process they identified a set of competencies that are critical to the formation of innovative ideas. The five “discovery skills” include questioning, observing, experimenta-tion, networking and, most impor-tantly, association. The West Morris Regional High School District is com-mitted to mastering the five skills of disruptive innovators.

Association SkillsIs it possible to understand Shake-speare, to apply Newton’s Laws to a novel situation, or to evalu-ate the growth of democracy under Theodore Roosevelt without making meaningful connections? Isn’t getting to the “ah ha” moment the whole point of a lesson? As an administra-tor I would be critical of any lesson design that didn’t include a compo-nent for the students to make sense of new learning and to attach mean-ing to it.

Yet, how often do we set up learning experiences for our teachers so that the same “ah ha” moment is likely to take place? And to go one step further, how often do we set up a process so that these novel associations turn into actionable ideas?

According to Steve Jobs, “Creativity is connecting things” and in The Innova-tor’s DNA the authors place consider-able emphasis on the importance of

making surprising connections (Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen 101-106). Lateral thinking and divergent ideas are necessary ingredients for innova-tion and this will only happen if we place our teachers at the nexus of multiple and varied learning experi-ences. Like any properly executed lesson, these learning experiences will assist teachers in combining disparate ideas into new forms. Such surpris-ing connections are at the heart of innovation and should be one of the goals of professional development.

John Dewey famously wrote that in education “All waste is due to isolation” (Dewey 77). I would like to add a corollary to Dewey’s statement: the isolation of ideas is due to the feverish pace of modern educators. Can meaningful asso-ciations take place if teachers are exhausted and merely running from the copier room to the skill lab, to planning lessons, to emailing par-ents, to grading essays? Teachers in the United States have far less time for lesson preparation or collabora-tive problem-solving compared to European and Asian teachers (Dar-ling-Hammond 201). This leaves little room for meaningful associa-tions to be made, and without these connections innovation is unlikely. School districts must take respon-sibility to embed focused learning experiences into the school calendar that go beyond a list of workshops. Professional development needs to be a comprehensive and sustained learning experience just like a lesson fitting into a curriculum.

Innovation comes in moments but sustainability comes through prac-tice. Therefore innovation requires time not only to allow ideas to in-cubate but also to move them from the original impulse to an actionable plan. The other discovery skills are only effective if teachers are provided with the process to move innovative ideas into the experimental stage. The authors of The Innovator’s DNA found that “the best predictor of excellent associating skills was how often people engaged in the other discovery skills” (Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen 49).

Questioning Skills Cicero famously stated that he con-ducted his life with “resolute un-certainty.” In other words, he was determined to be uncertain about everything, whether it was a novel idea or a traditional practice. But there is a distinct difference between creating a culture that is passionate about looking for new directions and a contrarian culture that merely looks to tear down the barn. Furthermore, what could be worse for a school than having the right answer to the wrong question?

Innovation lies in involving the entire staff in searching for the right ques-tion and in searching for the answers. At one of our professional develop-ment days in 2010, Professor James Gates from the University of Mary-land made the observation that genius often starts with a person seeing dissonance in something and then formulating a question based on that incongruity. The final step to genius involves relentlessly and imaginatively pursuing the answer to the question. Dr. Gates’ concluded that this formula assisted Einstein in his revolutionary discoveries.

That formula, Identifying Dissonance + Relentless Focus + Imagination = Remarkable Achievement, made sense to us so we decided to experiment. The West Morris Regional High School District is an International Baccalaure-ate® (IB) World School. Using the IB Learner Profile as our standard, our entire staff identified the attributes that represented the greatest disso-nance with actual student behavior. We used a two hour delayed-opening to hold department discussions and nearly 260 teachers unanimously identified the attributes of “balance” and “principle” as the ones that needed the greatest attention.

But we needed to dig deeper and stay persistent with our question-ing. As a result, almost a quarter of our teachers conducted student focus groups that explored these attributes further. Students were eager to discuss the challenges associated with living a balanced life as well as how it is difficult for them to find meaning and principle


in the total school experience. A theme of students merely “doing school” emerged.

The more we questioned the more ob-vious it became that we had to act on this data. Consequently, for the next school year we framed this issue with a simple over-arching question: “How do you live a good and useful life?” We involved our whole community by showing the documentary Race To Nowhere (www.racetonowhere.com) to our parents and we also brought in Dr. Robert Brooks to work with our teachers and parents with respect to fostering resilience in our children. Additionally, we conceptually explored the topic by inviting distinguished professors to discuss the question in greater depth at our October pro-fessional development day. They discussed such questions as:

• How did Helen Keller live a good and useful life?

• What habits of mind led Darwin to a useful life?

• How do you live a good and useful life in the 21st century digital revolution?

• What did the ancient Greek philos-ophers say about living a good and useful life?

Through these diverse presentations, we encouraged the discovery skill of association. In other words, we cre-ated a platform and the time for our teachers to make surprising connec-tions, and thus, gain insight into our purpose and mission. Our teachers subsequently met in departments to share their insights and begin to develop an actionable plan through a department focus.

Certainly, the conversations were more cerebral than immediately prac-tical but we feel there is inherent value in an elevated discussion. If everything we do in professional development must have a one-to-one direct rela-tionship with raising a test score, then schools really have strayed from any practical understanding of how orga-nizations change and improve.

Observing SkillsDisruptive innovation usually begins at the point when an association is

made through focused observation. To provide structure for this goal, our district has created a platform for peer, self, and participatory observation.

Our second-year teachers visit their peers’ classrooms once a month, during which they focus on observ-ing specific instructional techniques: framing lessons for understanding, questioning, and formative assess-ment. Additionally, in the final quar-ter of the school year, our second-year teachers observe themselves through a video-taped lesson. This final step usually results in the most insightful and powerful associations.

“My kids are not engaged as much as I thought” is a common “surpris-ing connection” made by our teachers after watching their video. Conse-quently, their introspection for new methods and a search for change in instructional practices become almost immediate because we simply changed the angle of their observation.

Deep observation often involves par-ticipation. To this end our third-year teachers participate in a Student-for-a-Day learning experience. We encourage our teachers to do every-thing that a student would do in each lesson—answer questions, take assessments, work in groups, debate, etc. If the teacher cannot participate because of the nature of the class activity (i.e. they don’t know French, etc.) we ask them to watch the stu-dents (not the teacher) and keep an engagement chart. I ask our teachers to look for and to take note of any surprising connections.

Participating in the Student-for-a-Day activity offers a total observa-tion experience. We ask teachers to observe with all of their senses. How did the capacity of the room, the light level, the noise level, the temperature, or even the smell of the room impact your learning? What kept you en-gaged? How much homework would you have to do? After each experience our teachers write a reflection of their observation and then we meet as a group to share insights and make associations.

“I don’t know how they (students) do it,” is the most typical comment.

The majority of the teachers remark on how difficult it is to sit for the entire day. Once again, change in teacher lesson design is immediate after the Student-for-a-Day observa-tion experience. For us, peer obser-vation, self-observations, and the Student-for-a-Day exercise result in disruptive professional development because they produce an immediate change in behavior.

A school system has to commit the time, resources, and structures so that observation will be impactful. By “changing the angle” of our observations we create associations whereby disruptive innovations are not only likely but probable. After five years of implementing our focus on peer, self and participatory obser-vation, it is the single most effective professional development in terms of creating change in instructional strategies.

Experimenting SkillsIntroducing anti-bacterial soap to the poorest populations in Pakistan was an experiment. However, the CDC didn’t just hand out bars of soap. They collected baseline data on local diseases and they had a pro-cess to teach the population how to wash with the soap. In the end, they measured health statistics in order to understand the impact of their ac-tions (Gawande 93-97). Experiment-ing isn’t merely trying new things. It is about fostering a scientific cul-ture whereby ideas are tested and measured. In the words of Andreas Schleicher, Director of the interna-tional PISA assessment for the OECD, “Without data, you are just another person with an opinion” (Ripley).

In the same sense how often do educa-tors introduce a pedagogical practice and the only measure of its success is the initial impression of how it seemed to go? Educators need to embrace a scientific approach to professional development in the same way Stephen Luby approached the introduction of soap in Pakistan. Our district has made specific attempts in our profes-sional growth plans to establish base-line data if possible or a clear targeted goal that is measurable. Our profes-sional development process focuses


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on collecting multiple measures of the impact of our pedagogical experi-mentation so that we can adjust our practices and continue to improve.

One good example is Mendham High School history teacher Russ Raffay who responded to our inquiry (How do you live a good and useful life?) by trying to foster in his students a love of reading historical literature. He decided to experiment by teaching the second half of the year almost entirely through the book Team of Rivals. Each lesson included drawing connections from the literature to curricular themes. In the end, one of the ways his students were assessed was through using the Library of Congress’ electronic database on the Abraham Lincoln Papers. Mr. Raffay required his students to search the databases for specific time periods during Lincoln’s life and reply to those correspondences as if they were Lincoln.

Did Mr. Raffay’s experiment work? Certainly formative and summative assessments demonstrated that stu-dents’ understanding of core content

was deeper and more nuanced. But Mr. Raffay measured his experiment through multiple data points: he invited administrator observation and input, and conducted anony-mous student surveys and student focus group discussions. The synthe-sis of the data showed that students were more engaged, had developed greater curiosity for the time period and were more likely to read a his-torical biography on their own in the future. Identifying dissonance, maintaining a relentless focus on a question, and Mr. Raffay’s imagina-tion and experimentation proved to be a successful antidote to merely “doing school.”

Networking SkillsJohn Dewey concluded that the key to school organization is to get “things into connection with one another” (Dewey 77-78). Each of the discovery skills discussed above—association, observing, questioning, and experimenting—included a com-ponent that involved teams of teach-ers connecting with each other in the

innovative process. For example, our emphasis on observation with our non-tenured teachers results in over four hundred peer observations a year, which means that four hun-dred conversations on instruction are embedded into our culture.

Even though networking will hap-pen organically in most organiza-tions, it is important to note that there must be a coherent plan if it is going to lead to a specific out-come. Just hiring great teachers is not enough anymore. Atul Gawande wrote the following about health care in an article titled Cowboys and Pit Crews in The New Yorker,

“The public’s experience is that we have amazing clinicians and tech-nologies but little consistent sense that they come together to provide an actual system of care, from start to finish, for people. We train, hire, and pay doctors to be cowboys. But it’s pit crews people need.”

Schools can easily fall into the same trap unless there is specific process that puts together teams of teachers to solve problems as well as to work

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towards common goals. In short, professional development needs to create “pit crews” otherwise teachers are merely cowboys and cowgirls.”

Creating problem solving teams is fairly easy, but it is complex to man-age the data effectively. Therefore, school districts today must leverage technology to support the innova-tion process. In the past five years we have used MyLearningPlan.com to improve organizational commu-nication, to refine the collection of multiple data points, to align re-sources, and to measure the impact of professional development. If any district is interested in fostering innovation, the very first step is to start looking at the system of col-lecting data beyond standardized test scores and to continually refine the process of collecting data so that it can be used in an actionable manner.

Evaluate InnovationThere is a great deal of discussion today concerning teacher evaluations based on student achievement. This has its merits but an unfortunate consequence is the narrow concept of a singular measurement of success

for schools and teachers. What are the test scores? What is our ranking? This perspective can be dangerous because it may inhibit innovation in an era that demands creativity from both our students and teachers.

However, innovation and student achievement do not have to be mutu-ally exclusive goals. The West Morris Regional School District is dedicated to evaluating teachers’ commitment to professional growth and this includes innovation. But how can anyone evaluate creativity? Actually, The In-novator’s DNA gives districts a formula for evaluating the process of innova-tion through the five discovery skills. Collecting artifacts of a teacher ’s actions in relation to the five discovery skills schools can empower teachers in the evaluation process and promote creative thinking – a worthy goal that will deepen the commitment of every-one to a school’s core mission. Some innovations will fail. However, schools need to applaud calculated risks and continue to encourage experimenta-tion with an emphasis on measuring impact. Ultimately, some innovations will be disruptive, and this will result in effective change.

Simplify ComplexityOne of the most exciting conclu-sions of Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen’s study is that inno-vation is a direct product of our actions. The authors are insistent that “if we change our behaviors, we can change our creative impact” (Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen, 3). Accordingly, a thoughtful pro-fessional development plan is criti-cal for a school to be progressive. Disruptive innovations will emerge if teachers are presented with the appropriate learning experiences, a technological infrastructure that can collect meaningful data, and a supportive administration that ar-ticulates and models the innovative process. The answers to education-al dilemmas today will be provided by schools that are committed to mastering the five discovery skills and creating an environment that fosters disruptive innovations.

About the AuthorMackey Pendergrast is the superintendent of the West Morris Regional High School District located in Morris County, New Jersey. He was the Director of Staff Development for six years and he taught history for fifteen years. He is a graduate of Drew University.

ReferencesDarling-Hammond, Linda. The Flat World of Education: How America’s Commitment To Equity Will Determine Our Future. 1st. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010. 201-202. Print.

Dewey, John. The School and Society: Waste in Education. Chapter 3. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907. 77-78. eBook.

Dyer, Jeff, Gregersen, Hal and Clayton Christensen. The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering The Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. 1st. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011. 3, 41-49, 101-106. Print.

Gawande, Atul. “Cowboys and Pit Crews.” New Yorker. May 26, 2011: n. page. Web. 24 Sep. 2011. <http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/atul-gawande-harvard-medical-school-commencement-address.html>.

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. 1st . New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. 93-98.

Ripley, Amanda. “The World’s Schoolmaster: How a German Scientist is Using Test Data to Revolutionize Global Learning.” Atlantic. July/August 2011: n. page. Web. 24 Sep. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-world-8217-s-schoolmaster/8532/>.


Enhancing School Effectiveness by Maximizing the Use of Professional Learning Communities in SchoolsBy Robin L. Moore

If schools want to enhance their capacity to boost student learning, they should work on building a collaborative culture. When groups rather than individuals are seen as the main units for implementing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, they facilitate development of shared purposes for student learning

and collective responsibility to achieve it (Newmann, 1995).


That was stated in 1995; it’s now 2012 and the education community is buzzing over Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)—educational communities composed of a collab-orative team whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all (Eaker, Dufour, Dufour, Many, 2006). The definition of Professional Learning Communities is exactly what Newmann referred to regarding build-ing a collaborative culture within schools. My school is also buzzing about professional learning communi-ties and the collaboration they foster.

It wasn’t until the Spring of 2009, when my school, Roland Rogers Elementary School of Galloway, NJ, was selected out of a pool of seventy-three schools to become a Professional Learning Community Lab School, (a joint project between the New Jersey Department of Ed-ucation and (ERIC) Educational In-formation Resource Center of New Jersey), when I realized we were getting involved an area of profes-sional development that was far more collaborative than anything we had done in the past. Prior to the beginning of the school year, our PLC-Lab school facilitator obtained a supervisory position in another district, so by default, I became the facilitator of our PLC-Lab School Team. Although I was familiar with the concepts of professional learning communities through my doctoral studies in leadership and enhancing school/organizational culture, I was not familiar with every aspect of professional learning communities.

The challenge was not trying to un-derstand how to make PLCs work in my school, but rather how to gain buy-in from the faculty and staff and convince them that they too were familiar with various aspects of professional learning communi-ties due to two years of building initiated professional development, shared leadership and collaborative planning.

To my surprise, in June, 2011, our school was regarded by Dr. Gerald Woehr, PLC-Lab School Project

Director, as “One of the top PLC-Lab schools in the State of New Jersey.”

One might ask how were we able to establish productive PLCs and adopt the concepts so quickly. Having prior knowledge and experience in four key areas enabled us to establish productive PLCs.

1. School culture and climate

2. Professional development

3. Student Achievement

4. Leadership

Our journey began during the 2006-2007 school year, (my first year as Roland’s building principal). The administration and teaching facili-tator took a hard look at our dismal ASK data and realized that imme-diate change was warranted and it needed to be made by a team of administrators and teachers. For-tunately for me, I was permitted to use supplemental funds to establish a true School Level Planning Team, a team that represented the teach-ing staff, support staff, administra-tion and parents – all of the stake-holders of the school organization.

School Culture and ClimateA school’s culture is an important factor in understanding how the school functions. Culture provides parameters for daily living. The purpose is to assist people who are members of a group in knowing what rules for acceptable behavior are, to provide consistency and predictability in everyday actions (Lindsey, Robins, and Terrell, 2003).

Lindsey, Robins, and Terrell, 2003, defined the various types of culture groups within an organization including the organizational culture.

• Organizational culture groups are people who work for the same organization and share common organizational beliefs and goals.

• Ethnic culture groups (commonly called racial groups) are related to ancestral heritage and geography and to some degree, physical appearance.

• Occupational culture groups are people involved in the same vocation (teachers, support staff, student services, administration, etc.).

• Social culture groups are people who share a common interest such as, sports, music, art, etc.

Culture consists of the individually and socially constructed values, norms and beliefs about an organiza-tion and how it should behave. While culture is commonly thought of as ‘the way things are done around here,’ climate is the way people feel about the way things are done (Hord, Sommers, 2008).

In 2007, Roland’s faculty, staff and administration adopted a team con-cept for collaboration, communica-tions and teacher leadership. With the development of a true school-level planning team, we were able to exercise effective collaborative planning, engage in teacher-led pro-fessional development, disseminate information throughout the build-ing and communicate the academic needs of our students with parents. Establishing a culture of inclusive-ness where all stakeholders have a voice and input into planning and programming has been one of the success stories of our school. Reas-suring a positive, safe climate where students can succeed academically, feel safe, accepted and enjoy coming to school contributes to the overall feel of the building.

There are the attributes shared by school culture and PLC culture. To know one is to understand how the other works. Both have a shared mission, goals, values and the levels of culture such as visible artifacts, espoused values, rules and behav-ioral norms and underlying basic assumptions (Schein, 1992).

Roland’s faculty has always worked together within grade level units and/or specialty departments. Recognizing each unit’s artifacts, espoused values, rules, behavioral norms, and underly-ing basic assumptions prepared them for the development of PLC norms, roles, goals and focus.


Effective Professional DevelopmentIn 2007, one of the first faculty pre-sentations I made to my staff was on teacher leadership. I have always been a firm believer that teachers are leaders within their domain. They also become experts in their area of academia because of the years of expe-rience, research and continued educa-tion. Many teachers possess multiple academic degrees and professional certifications as a result of their con-tinued studies. I reminded them of this and the fact that most of them have been in school since kindergarten and are far more capable of teaching and training their colleagues than they give themselves credit for. With that philosophy in mind, I encouraged my teachers to share their instructional strategies with their colleagues from other units, take part in school-wide workshops and make presentations during faculty meetings and profes-sional development training sessions to demonstrate how professional development can come from within the organization as opposed to it always coming from outside resourc-es. This philosophy created a more cohesive collaborative culture within the school. I found that when teach-ers teach teachers, the rate of teacher buy-in was higher than usual.

As an educational leader, I view professional development as an essential aspect of teaching and learning, as do my faculty. So it is important to develop and maintain effective professional development programs for the entire school. Pro-fessional development as noted by Frase & Hetzel, 1990, means help-ing teachers further enhance their understanding of students and their teaching skills. Professional develop-ment is critical to every school or-ganization and every staff member. Therefore, it’s important for leaders (principals, supervisors, superinten-dents) to maintain quality profes-sional development programs that are meaningful and applicable to the instructional goals of the school and professional learning community. When planning effective professional development, I found the following key factors to be useful.

1. Avoid ‘drive-by’ professional development training. These are professional development trainings that are given in the beginning of the year and never revisited until June!

2. Maintain consistent follow-up throughout the year during team meetings, faculty professional development sessions and in-services.

3. Stress the importance and purpose of each professional development training session.

4. Make professional development connect directly to the expected teaching and learning of students.

5. Ensure that professional develop-ment training is sustainable in that teachers can widely utilize it throughout the entire school year and beyond.

6. Train teacher leaders/facilitators to lead professional development training sessions.

7. Always connect professional development to ways student achievement can be increased and measured.

8. Professional development should focus on what teachers need to do and accomplish in the school and with their students (Schalock, Schalock, & Myton, 1998).

In a 2007 Roland Rogers School Ef-fectiveness survey, the majority of the respondents believed that pro-fessional development was always effective (see Figure 1).

School Effectiveness was rated very high. The majority of the respon-dents, 62.1%, believe that profes-sional development was always effective while 29.3% stated that it was mostly always effective.

Having the knowledge and experience of two of the four areas I believe are critical to maintaining school effec-tiveness and establishing successful PLCs, my staff was ready to take a closer look at the next very important area; increasing student achievement.

Examining Ways to Increase Student AchievementBy 2009, the faculty was ready to take a closer look at how to analyze various forms of data and assess-ments to increase student achieve-ment. As the instructional leader, it was my duty to seek out professional development training geared towards improving the quality of instruction by training teachers to analyze data and understand how to use formative assessments effectively. Hallinger & Heck, 1996; and Smylie & Hart, 1999 found that advances in research on the principalship indicate that school leaders affect student achievement indirectly through their influence on school organizational conditions and instructional quality.

Prior to 2009 and our work with professional learning communities, we spent two years understanding how to analyze data and differentiate between formative and summative assessments. I teamed up with Rowan University’s Continuing Education Department and NJPSA’s Professional Development Department to present summer leadership conferences for my school level planning team (and district administrators) during the summer of 2007 and 2008. The 2007 leadership conference was entitled, “Empowerment to Lead” and focused on building data leadership capacity, teacher leadership, and goal setting. The 2008 leadership conference was entitled, “Great Expectations” and focused on data-driven instruction,

reflective practice, and team building.

Roland’s team leaders were trained on how to compare, analyze and interpret ASK data from two years, and then write action plans. This group of teachers became team facilitators during

Figure 1: Professional Collegiality and DevelopmentFrequency Percent

Always effective 36 62.1

Mostly sometimes 17 29.3

Sometimes 3 5.2

Total 56 96.6

Missing System 2 3.4

Total 58 100.0


the faculty professional development sessions. They effectively turn-keyed the training they learned by training their colleagues.

Throughout those two years, Roland’s teaching and learning facilitator and I continued the data analysis training and also trained our teachers on how to understand and use formative and summative assessment effectively.

These efforts created a good founda-tion for examining ways to increase student achievement; however, it wasn’t until we began the PLC pro-cess that our knowledge and experi-ence began to mesh and make sense. I agree with the notion of defining student achievement, especially when you begin to examine ways to increase student achievement. I found this to be a very effective PLC strategy. In order for teachers to understand what they are work-ing toward, they need to know how students achieve and what student achievement looks like.

In 2010, Roland’s faculty and staff defined student achievement as, “Students demonstrating individual success in academic, social, emotional and physical growth through the acquisition of knowledge with every student working to his/her ability to become an independent learner.”

We used a collaborative approach to create the definition. Each team (grades 1-6, and special area

teachers) were asked to write their definition of student achievement.

Using all seven definitions, Roland’s School Professional Development Committee combined the definitions to create one definition. The definition was put in WORDLE form, pressed on t-shirts and worn by every facul-ty and staff member during Teacher Appreciation Week in 2010 and again on the opening day of school (for faculty and staff), to celebrate the accomplishment and ensure that the definition was embedded in the cul-ture of the school and the minds of every stakeholder (faculty, staff, stu-dents, parents and administration).

Professional Learning Communities helped us to focus on specific student achievement needs within every team. By working collaboratively and inter-dependently, each team was able to use instructional techniques, strate-gies, progress monitoring, and tech-nology more effectively.

By the end of the 2010-2011 school year, our teams did notice an increase in student achievement through measureable progress monitoring results and/or 2010 ASK results.

PLCs to the Rescue!Dufour, (1998) noted that principals should strive to create the collabora-tive culture of a professional learn-ing community. He also stated that principals who function as staff

development leaders embed collabo-ration in the structure and culture of their schools. After reading these statements, I knew our school was well prepared for professional learning communities due to the collaborative culture that had been established.

The development of professional learning communities strengthens the notion of teamwork and school-wide collaboration. It forced us to look at the school’s academic chal-lenges holistically as well as individ-ually within grade-level teams.

The development of professional learning communities reinforces teacher leadership, the concept of teachers teaching teachers, and team facilitators. It reassured our teachers that their input mattered and everyone must be an active team participant for true team col-laboration to be effective.

The development of professional learning communities offers profes-sional development training in goal setting, teamwork, peer observation, data analysis and leadership, all of which have been very beneficial to the Roland Rogers faculty and staff.

By November of 2010, Roland’s Professional Learning Communities were fully operational with eight school-level PLCs, all of which had established norms, roles, a focus and goals (see Figure 2).

PLC Meeting


It Comes Down to Effective Leadership!School effectiveness, increasing stu-dent achievement, and developing effective professional learning com-munities all boil down to effective leadership.

Leadership has been defined as the process whereby an individual directs, guides, influences or controls thoughts or behavior; motivating people to create desirable change made as an interactive process in which lead-ers and followers engage in mutual interaction in a complex environment to achieve mutual goals (Evans, 2002; Haiman, 1952; Wren, 1995).

A leader should take an assessment of his or her leadership style (s) to determine if their leadership style(s) can navigate him or her through the terrains of the organization effectively. There are many aspects of leadership required to effectively lead a school organization. There’s instructional leadership, operational leadership, and strategic leadership, just to name of

few. Today’s leader must possess skills in all areas of leadership. Therefore, being aware of the leadership that is most conducive to leading your organization is important.

I have found that democratic, shared, and transformational leadership styles are most successful in developing a collaborative culture. Democratic leadership builds teamwork and col-laboration. To some degree, stakehold-ers must have input in the decision-making process of the school. Shared leadership is empowering stakeholders and giving them leadership opportu-nities within their domain or area of expertise. Transformation leadership is characterized by a greater trust devel-oped between leaders and followers. It’s an approach that causes people and organizations to change.

Leaders must also establish a level of trust between them and their fac-ulty and staff. To understand how to develop an effective school organiza-tion and build trusting relationships within the organization, principals

need to understand the culture of the organization (Moore, 2008). When teachers know that their principal is supportive, can ‘walk the walk’ and stand by her word, they are more inclined to trust her to lead the school in a direction of effectiveness. Baier, 1995 concluded that trust in school serves as a confirmation that the school organization functions better when people trust one another.

Principals must not only be viewed as the instructional leader in the school, but they must be viewed as a team member in the PLC process—someone who encourages and sup-ports the work of teacher PLCs.

I was able to gage my teacher’s per-spective of my leadership involvement of the PLC process through the Profes-sional Learning Community Stan-dards Assessment Inventories (SAI) which was taken by my faculty in October, 2009, May, 2010 and June, 2011 (see Figure 3).

The results show a combined response rate of “Always and Frequently” as

Figure 3

Figure 22010-2011 PLC Teams PLC General Focus Area

Kindergarten Team (with Basic Skills Teachers) Improving beginning LAL & Math Skills

First Grade Team (with Basic Skills Teachers) Using a supplemental software phonics program (Lexia) to improve phonemic awareness

Second Grade Team (with Music Teacher) Improve Basic Math Skills through math and music instruction

Third Grade Team (with ELL Teacher) Improve Inferences Skills

Fourth Grade Team Improve targeted LAL skills such as making inferences

Fifth Grade Team (with Librarian) Improve reading comprehension by use of LAL and Science curriculum

Sixth Grade Team (with Gifted & Talented Teacher) Improve Short Constructive Response Writing


About the Author

Having administrative experience on both the secondary and elementary levels of education, Dr. Moore currently serves as an elementary school principal, professional instructor for FEA’s NJ EXCEL program. She is a member of the NJPSA Board of Directors and an adjunct professor for Rowan University’s Masters of Educational Leadership Program

References

Dufour, R., Dufour, R., Eaker, R. and Thomas, M. (2006). Learn by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (p3). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Dufour, Rick (1998). “Collaboration is the Key to Unlocking Potential.” (p. 25-27). National Staff Development Council.

Evans, K.G. (2002). “Leadership Workshop.” Education, 123, 18

Frase, L., and Hetzel, R. (1990) School Management by Wandering Around. (pp.56-57). Lanham, MA and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Hallinger, P. and Heck, R.H. (1996/2002). “Reassessing the Principal’s Contribution to School Effectiveness: School Effectiveness and School Improvement.” 5(3) 239-253. Abstract obtained from Educational Administration Quarterly (2002) 38, 643.

Haiman, F. S. (1951) Group Leadership and Democratic Action. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Hord, S. M., and Sommers, W.A.(2008). Leading Professional Learning Communities: Voices from Research and Practice. (pp. 47-48). Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press.

Newmann, F.H., and Wehlage, G.G. (1995). “Successful School Restructuring: A Report to the Public and Educators.” Madison, WI: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools.

Moore, R. L. (2008). Trusting Leadership: Developing Effective Schools. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest. p 28.

Schalock, D., Shaclock , M., and Myton, D. (1998/2004). “Effectiveness—Along with Quality—Should be Focus.” Phi Delta Kappan, 79(6) 468-470. Abstract obtained from Handbook for Qualities of Effective Teachers, 2004. p13.

Schein, E. (1992) Organizational Culture and Leadership (2nd ed). (pp. 17, 47). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Smylie, M. A., and Hart, A.W.(1999/2002). “School Leadership for Teacher Learning and Change: A Human and Social Capital Perspective.” (2nd ed.). (pp. 421-440). Abstract obtained from Educational Administration Quarterly, 2002, 38, 643.

it pertains to my leadership with professional learning communities. The following are the questions:

Q.1: Our principal believes teacher learning is essential for achiev-ing our schools goals.

Q.18: Our principal is committed to providing teachers will opportunities to improve instruction.

Q.45: Our principal fosters a school culture that is focused on instructional improvement

Q.48: I would use the word, empow-ering to describe my principal.

It’s important for leaders to support professional learning communities by empowering teachers, providing time, training and resources. Teach-ers need to know that they are not alone in this process.

Essential QuestionHow can leaders contribute to the enhancement or development of an effective school by maximizing the use of professional learning communities?

Establish a collaborative culture•

Engage in shared leadership•

Build trusting relationships•

Empower the faculty and staff • to take a leadership role in professional development

Survey all stakeholders and use • their input appropriately

Involve stakeholders in the deci-• sion making process

Develop Professional Learning • Communities


Opinion:Expanding the Learning Day to Meet the Changing Needs of Kids and FamiliesBy Paul G. Young

Today, there simply aren’t enough hours in the regular school day for kids to learn everything they must know and be able to do. The concepts of when and where kids learn must be envisioned in bold, new ways. A new day for learning must capitalize upon and incorporate all of the experi-

ences that children have from the time they wake up each day until they go to sleep. Across the nation, after school and expanded learning opportunities (ELOs) have become synonymous terms. Still, they are new concepts to be embraced by many professionals. They must be included within any conversation that changes the definition of a learning day.


Over the last several decades, the words after school have often held dis-similar meanings for different people. For high school kids, that typically meant the time when extracurricular activities occur. For middle school-ers, they have been used, somewhat negatively perhaps, to define when detentions take place. For elementary children, they have referred to the time from 3-6 p.m. spent either at the babysitter, a neighbor’s house, daycare, or sometimes home alone. During the hours after the school day, expanded learning opportunities have become words used to describe an array of remedial, intervention, or enrichment activities. For many kids, they are places to learn languages, experience the arts, perfect skills in a club sport, or complete homework. ELOs are safe havens from gangs and crime-ridden streets. Field trips, nutrition, recreation, specialized instruction, and mentoring are typi-cal benefits in most. All kids need opportunities to continue learning after the school bell sounds.

Over the past decade, federal support for 21st Century Community Learn-ing Centers (21st Century CLCs) has dramatically expanded afterschool programs throughout the nation. Afterschool has become a valued partner with schools and a comple-mentary field of work and educa-tional programming for thousands of professionals. The success of these

diverse learning programs is well documented and continuously gen-erates interest from educators, poli-cymakers, and community leaders. The impact of the quality indicators embedded within 21st Century CLCs has caused all school-age childcare, daycare, latchkey, clubs, and youth programs to grow, evolve, and better meet family’s needs. Working closely with principals, afterschool program leaders have learned to seamlessly connect academics to their program activities while maintaining the safe haven atmosphere that all children need and deserve. Veterans in the field have much to be proud of.

Now, the words afterschool and ex-panded learning opportunities broadly define the time and experiences im-mediately following the school day when children are enrolled in a struc-tured learning program. But they also include learning programs and experiences that occur before school, on weekends, and during the sum-mer. ELOs generally take place when school is not in session, but they are collaboratively planned and structured with school personnel to intentionally connect what is learned during the school day to afterschool. And the key to creating high-quality ELOs and ef-fectively making this concept a reality everywhere is collaboration, especially between principals and after school personnel.

Leaders from the National Associa-tion of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), the National AfterSchool Association (NAA), and their state affiliate organizations have convened train-the-trainer workshops for the purpose of moving the important conversation around ELOs and their expansion to local levels. Principals and after school program leaders from all regions of the nation have been trained and equipped to lead this change process, clarify the concepts, and share the “how-to” strategies related to ELO development. Officials from state and national professional associations remain committed to supporting changes in the learning day and helping association members fully understand and embrace the complexities and challenges associ-ated with collaboration between schools and afterschool programs.

Most importantly, a new day of learn-ing in which after school is conceptual-ized as a valued partner with schools will create opportunities that trans-form and improve the lives of children and communities across the nation. Success addressing the learning needs of children —wherever and whenever it might be most appropriate—will squarely place principals and after school leaders in a position to advance this agenda.

About the AuthorDr. Paul Young recently retired as the President and CEO of the Washington DC-based National AfterSchool Association. While a principal, he served as President of both the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators (OAESA) and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). He was also a member of Ohio’s 21st CCLC Advisory Team. He is the author of Principal Matters - 101 Tips for Creating Collaborative Relationships between After-School Programs and School Leaders.

Editor’s NoteIn August 2009, the Foundation for Educational Administration was awarded a five-year, $2,675,000, 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant to operate quality afterschool programs in two Jersey City middle schools. This grant, in partnership with the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation, focuses on sev-eral initiatives: aligning the school day with the afterschool program; emphasis on intensive mathematics instruction; incorporation of the Chamber’s LearnDoEarn program; and an introduction to FEA’s Youth Lead-ership and Parent University programs. Mary Reece, FEA’s project director, invited a former NAESP board colleague, Paul Young, to address the alignment issue.


From Flipping the Classroom to BYOD, Technology Moves Jefferson Township Schools ForwardBy Douglas Walker

The Jefferson Township School district is a K-12 district located in North West Morris County. It consists of 7 schools and has a population of approximately 3600 students. Technology in the schools is embedded into all curriculum areas. In April of 2009, I joined the district as their

Supervisor of Instructional Technology K-12. It was at that point that the infusion of technology and the development of 21st century skills became a focus for the district.


Jefferson Township Schools has a technology infrastructure that is supportive of the instructional goals. Decisions regarding planning and purchasing are guided by our instruc-tional purpose. Our school board and parent teacher associations are sup-portive of our goals. They are a key component of our success.

In 2010-2011 we implemented a managed wireless network in six of our seven schools. This network provides blanket wireless coverage to all classrooms. Our network provides wireless “N” network speeds to each of our classrooms. By deploying this new network we are reaching our goal of providing access to technol-ogy at the student’s desk. We also provide wireless access to teachers, students and guests through the use of a captive portal. The captive portal provides these users with access to filtered internet. By segmenting the traffic on this network we can pro-vide access to teachers and students on all of their personal electronic devices without compromising the integrity of the internal network.

Bring Your Own TechnologyThis initiative has led to the establish-ment of a “bring your own technol-ogy” policy. In the 2011-2012 school year the board of education approved a revision to our personal electronic device policy. Students are now al-lowed to bring their own electronic devices to school and use them only in classrooms at the discretion of the teacher. This is a privilege and not a right. Teachers maintain full discre-tion as to when and how the devices may be used. The implementation of this new initiative has been success-ful to date.

Assessments with PhonesStudents in our Middle School and High School have benefited from this access. Many of our teachers have started to utilize a free web service called Poll Everywhere. Poll Every-where allows teachers to post mul-tiple choice or short answer questions in the classroom. Students to respond with their answers to these questions through cell phone text messaging or by using a web-enabled device

such as an iPod, laptop, or iPad. The results are immediately displayed for the teachers on their computer screens. When students respond with short answers the site provides the opportunity for the responses to be compiled and displayed as a word cloud. A word cloud aggregates all of the written responses and displays words in various sizes based on how many times the word was used.

Access to this tool has given our teachers an opportunity to provide real-time formative assessments. Whereas in a typical classroom the most common way for a teacher to check for understanding is to ask a question and call on students who raise their hand, this method provides students with a level of anonymity. They no longer have to be embarrassed to announce to the class that they do not understand something. Poll Everywhere will identify the areas that the students are not grasping immediately. This allows the teacher to adjust instruc-tion at that point in time to meet the needs of all students.

In world language classes students are learning to use their telephones as part of their assessment process. Our goal in world language courses is to increase students’ oral proficiency in their language of study. In the past, the most common method of assess-ing this proficiency was to call upon individual students during class time while the other students in the room are engaged in activities. This was not only a distraction but extremely time consuming for teachers who teach 125 students a day. Computer and in-ternet tools like Audacity, Voicethread and Voki are great tools for recording student narration and have proven to be engaging for students. However, not every student has the type of access to computers in their home to utilize these tools on a frequent basis.

In order to address this need our teachers have started to utilize Google Voice. Google Voice is a free phone service offered by Google. With Google Voice our teachers are provided with their own Google phone number. This phone number has its own voice mail with an online voice mailbox. Your voice mails

are available online in the form of emails. Google uses its voice recog-nition technology to transcribe the message into text. From the online screen you can view the transcript of the message or listen to the message by clicking play. Google Voice also provides a mobile phone application that can access your account from your iPhone or Android device.

Students use this Google Voice number from any type of phone. They call the number and leave their oral responses on the voice mail. The teacher then has access to each student’s recording from the online mailbox. This process has simplified the oral assessment pro-cess. It has truly been a valued addi-tion to our world language program.

While we have found creative and innovative was to use technology for assessment, what has really stood out is the content that our students are creating. In our schools we have focused our efforts on supporting the universal design for learning framework in everything that we do. The framework calls for multiple representation of content, engage-ment and assessment. An example of this can be found by reviewing the multimedia presentations that our students are creating.

Digital Storytelling – Academy Awards Ceremony – Digital Children’s BooksDigital storytelling has been intro-duced in our district in grades K-12. Students in our early elementary grades produce digital stories that contain narration and their own il-lustrations. We use Microsoft Photo-story 3 to develop these stories. All our digital stories are published on our digital project showcase blogs. Mr. Walker introduced a Wordpress MU blog server in our district. This allows all faculty and students to create and publish an unlimited number of blogs. We use this to showcase student work and to facili-tate collaboration and feedback. In our grade 3-12 classrooms students are creating digital stories on a va-riety of topics. These include: public service announcements, instruc-tional or tutorial videos, historical,


personal narrative, science/environ-mental and foreign films. During the creation process our teachers focus on the planning, drafting, revising and editing stages of writing. Stu-dent writing is then organized into a script which is recorded as narra-tion. The use of digital storytelling in all subject areas has had a positive impact on student achievement. We have found that our students are more engaged in the writing process. Students have been better writers and editors when they know that their work is going to be published for an audience.

To complement our digital storytell-ing projects we have also introduced web tools such as Storyjumper and Story Bird. These sites allow our students to produce online, page turning children’s books. Students create their own books which can then be ordered as hard cover chil-dren’s books.

In order to showcase the work of our students in this area we have established an annual academy awards ceremony in our district. The first awards night was hosted last school year and was focused on the work of our middle school students. This year we will be host-ing a district-wide event. Student projects are submitted for judging in a variety of pre-defined catego-ries. The event, which mimics the actual academy awards, includes a red carpet, speeches and actual mini Oscars.

Flipping the ClassroomIn our high school we have been con-ducting research into the effectiveness of the “flipped classroom” model of instruction. Our high school chemis-try students have been experiencing a new instructional methodology that flips what is done for homework and classwork. Ms. Johnston and Mrs. Kula, our chemistry teachers, have produced a series of screencast tutorials that are published on their class Moodle pages. The screencasts are audio and video tutorials that demonstrate a concept that would normally be taught in the classroom

through teacher lecture or demon-stration. The students are asked to view this recording for homework. When they return to class they then work on problems or small group as-signments that apply what they have learned from the video. This is what is typically assigned for homework.

This model of instruction has many benefits. When a student is assigned homework to work on problems, he or she may face obstacles when working on those problems. If they get stuck or confused on a problem, they have a tendency to stop or give up. The flipped model of instruction allows the student to apply what was learned in class. This allows the teacher to circulate the room and as-sess understanding. Students who are struggling can receive individualized assistance from the teacher or their peers. The teacher is provided with valuable insight into how well their students understand the content.

By providing access to lectures and tutorials online we allow students the ability to pause, stop and rewind. Students can review the material 24/7. The material is available to them as a review or study guide. In some instances we have our students creating their own instructional vid-eos. Research has proven that students who are able to re-teach what they have learned have a better mastery of content than those that take part in traditional class activities. We are cur-rently conducting data collection to measure the success of this initiative.

Digital Posters Develop Higher-order ThinkingIn Jefferson we provide students with multiple opportunities to express their understanding of content. Students are provided with options when the opportunity arises for them to cre-ate something that showcases their knowledge of a topic. One example is a digital poster using Glogster Edu. A Glog is a digital poster. The poster may contain text, images, audio, video, drawings and clip art. Students use their creative talents to organize content on the Glog.

Glogster can change the way you and your students deliver presentations. A Glog is a one page digital poster. All of the content for your presentation must be contained in one page. It is designed to be populated by primar-ily images and short text labels. By limiting the space allocated for content the presenter must provide meaning and depth to his or her presentation by offering explanations and descrip-tions for the content they have added to their Glog. The presenter must have a clear understanding of the topic and be able to offer explanations in his or her own words to explain content selections.

Digital posters have transformed the process of student presentations in our district. We no longer have slide after slide of text and images that are read back to the audience. Students who present Glogs must work within a limited palette and provide an ex-planation for their selections. A recent example was in Mrs. King’s 7th grade social studies course. Student’s were asked to create a Glog about a presi-dent that they believe should have a monument created for him. The students in Mrs. King’s classes orga-nized posters that contained images, segments of speeches, text and video clips. Each student defended his or her position by explaining the significance of the events depicted in the Glog. It was a very engaging and inspiring project for our students.

Video Conferencing and Global Collaborative ProjectsIn Jefferson we take advantage of the communication value that the inter-net provides us. In our classrooms we frequently utilize web-based video conferencing and authoring software to connect our classes with other classrooms around the world, subject area experts, authors, politicians and other persons of interest. We primar-ily use Skype for such exchanges. We also use Wikispaces or our in house blog server to collaborate with other classrooms.

We currently have three of our grade 5 classes paired with 3 grade 5 classes in Buckingham County,


Virginia. In an effort to provide an engaging and collaborative oppor-tunity to improve writing skills of our students we have provided each student with their own page on a shared Wikispace wiki. Students are writing five-paragraph personal nar-ratives on their pages. Each student is going to read their partners essay and provide a peer review of the work. Wikispaces provides a discus-sion page on each page to host such exchanges. The students are each fol-lowing the same peer review guide. This opportunity has provided our students an audience for their writ-ing and an engaging opportunity to collaborate with students outside of their current environment. These are key 21st-century skills.

In order to provide an authentic con-nection to our writing instruction, many of our teachers have orga-nized Skype sessions with authors. Over the past year we have Skyped with authors of many of the books our students have been reading. This

provides an opportunity for students to make a connection to what they are learning about writing and what successful authors actually do. These exchanges also provide insight into the characters of a story, the signifi-cance of events and the process that is followed to develop them. Most re-cently our grade 5 students in White Rock School held a Skype session with Jeanne DuPrau. Mrs. DuPrau is the author of a well-known novel se-ries called The Books of Ember. The first in this series, The City of Ember, was developed as a major motion picture.

Our video conference sessions follow a framework developed by Mr. Walker which is published on his wiki (http://edunology.wikispaces.com). Each student in the class has a role in the event. The roles may include: ques-tion asking, note taking, videographer, photographer, time keeper, greeter, closing, blogger, and researcher. The culminating activity for these sessions typically involves the students writing a reflection piece.

Professional Development and Online CoursesTechnology in our schools is not lim-ited to the education of our students. We use technology as a part of our teacher professional development as well. Our district uses the course management software Moodle. Moo-dle allows us to create an online ex-tension for our classes. The courses we create on Moodle allow for the posting of content, online discus-sions, quizzes, surveys, and wikis. In Jefferson, we are using Moodle to provide professional development for our faculty and staff as well. We have created a number of online, self-paced courses for our teachers. Topics include differentiating in-struction, co-teaching, and various technology topics. Teachers can reg-ister for the courses and take part in the lessons at their own pace. Work is submitted through the course and at the completion of the course a certificate and 15 professional devel-opment hours are awarded.

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A recent addition to our professional development on Moodle has been the introduction of a faculty book club. The book club consists of online discussions for each chapter of the selected book. At the completion of each book we award 10 professional development hours to our members.

Professional development is an area that is typically the most difficult to arrange and finance. Time and budget constraints are the most common barriers to quality professional development. Many times we are only able to provide professional development as single events that have limited follow-up.

By providing online professional development we can circumvent the time constraints by providing 24/7 access. The courses are in-depth and interactive. They allow teachers the opportunity to learn, apply and reflect over a period of time.

About the AuthorDouglas Walker is the K-12 Supervisor of Instructional Technology for Jefferson Township Public Schools. In his current position, Doug is responsible for all aspects of the instructional technology program including curriculum development, professional development, program assessment and planning. Doug specializes in using technology to support the writing process, universal design for learning with technology, as well as the use of mobile technologies in the classroom.


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Inform, Inspire, and Improve— A Project to Increase Advanced ProficiencyBy Chris Halloran

As I was recently preparing materials for a job interview, I went back to review my research projects from the NJ-Excel program I completed in the Spring of 2007. I was surprised to see the dramatic improvements our high school made in HSPA testing through the changes that were

inspired by my action research project.


The project was inspired by “The Sky’s the Limit: Addressing Critical Issues for School Administrators” we-binar series presented by The Business Coalition for Educational Excellence at the NJ Chamber of Commerce. The specific webinar that influenced the design of this project was Using Data and Best Practice to Improve Perfor-mance by Jean Rutherford, Ed.D. Director of Educational Initiatives at NCEA. Hackettstown School District sponsored the webinar series as part of their commitment of continuous improvement through professional development.

In the webinar, Dr. Rutherford de-scribed how to use testing data, com-parative analysis and best practices from the Just4Kids website to devel-op and implement an effective plan for improving student performance. This Action Research Project was designed to use the Just4Kids three step process to develop a plan for im-proving the performance of students at Hackettstown High School on the HSPA test. The simple yet effective Just4Kids strategy uses standardized test information from all schools to generate a series of graphs. These graphs illustrate the differences in performance between your school and the best performing schools in your demographic group, as well as in the entire State of New Jersey. The difference between your school and the top performing schools is called an opportunity gap. The identifica-tion of opportunity gaps inspires an investigation and review of your current practices to identify areas in need of improvement. It also provides a listing of Best Practice schools and their strategies for success. The final step is to develop your own plan for improvement using their Best Prac-tice Framework.

In the years since this project was completed the Just4Kids website has been reduced to only providing testing data from schools in Arizona, Arkansas and Texas. However, the New Jersey Department of Educa-tion makes historical report card data available online at http://edu-cation.state.nj.us/rc/. This informa-tion can be downloaded as an excel spreadsheet and easily turned in to

graphs which will illustrate your schools opportunity gaps. In this project the Just4Kids website provid-ed the data used to identify opportu-nity gaps and the data from the NJ Department of Education was used to monitor progress.

This study found that in order to de-velop an effective plan for improving student performance you must first have a very good understanding of your current reality and the opportu-nity gaps which separate your school from the top performing schools. Fig-ure 1 illustrates the opportunity gaps used to inspire this project’s plan for improvement.

Step 1 - To InformMathematics

Figure 1 illustrates the differences in mathematics performance between Hackettstown High School and the top comparable schools in our de-mographic group, as well as the top schools in the State. Differences or opportunity gaps occur between the percentage of students who are pro-ficient and the percentage of students who are advanced proficient. The top comparable schools have nearly 94% of students scoring proficient com-pared to Hackettstown where only about 84% of students score profi-cient. The top comparable schools

also have almost 50% of students scoring advanced proficient and Hackettstown has only about 28% scoring proficient. This provides two opportunity gaps to investigate as part of our school improvement plan.

Language Arts

Figure 2 illustrates the differences in Language Arts performance between Hackettstown High School and the top comparable schools in our de-mographic group, as well as the top schools in the State. Opportunity gaps occur between the percentage of students who are proficient, but not between the percentage of students scoring advanced proficient. The top comparable schools have nearly 98% of students scoring proficient com-pared to Hackettstown where only about 90% of students score profi-cient. The top comparable schools also have about 31% of students scor-ing advanced proficient and Hack-ettstown has 29% scoring proficient. This provides a single opportunity gap to investigate as part of our school improvement plan.

Step 2 - To InspireThe identification of opportunity gaps inspired a number of questions which I used to frame my investigation of our current reality. The answers to one question often led to the next.

Step 1 - To Inform

Hackettstown High School Mathematics Data (NCEA www.just4kids.org)

Mathematics

The graph above illustrates the differences in mathematics performance between Hackettstown High School and the top comparable schools in our demographic group, as well as the top schools in the State. Differences or “opportunity gaps” occur between the percentage of students who are proficient and the percentage of students who are advanced proficient. The top comparable schools have nearly 94% of students scoring proficient compared to Hackettstown where only about 84% of students score proficient. The top comparable schools also have almost 50% of students scoring advanced proficient and Hackettstown has only about 28% scoring proficient. This provides two “opportunity gaps” to investigate as part of our school improvement plan.

Figure 1


1. Where are the significant oppor-tunity gaps in mathematics when compared to the top comparable schools in NJ?

Mathematics Opportunity Gaps in-cluded a need to increase the number of advanced proficient students and decrease the number of students who only scored partially proficient. This demonstrates a need to improve achievement across the board in mathematics

2. Where are the significant oppor-tunity gaps in language arts when compared to the top comparable schools in NJ?

A language arts opportunity gap occurs between the percent of students scoring proficient between our school and the top performing schools in our district factor group. There is only a very small oppor-tunity gap between the number of advanced proficient students and the top comparable schools

3. What classes, or track of classes, are students taking who score advanced proficient on the HSPA Test in mathematics and language arts?

In order to answer this question all current senior transcripts were analyzed to determine which class-es in mathematics and language arts each student had taken during their four years in high school. The following items summarize the findings.

• Everyone with at least 1 honors math class scored advanced pro-ficient on math HSPA

• 19 students with all honors Eng-lish classes only scored proficient on HSPA

• 46% of the students who started in honors math were dropped to CP level

• More CP level math students scored advanced proficient than students with all honors level math classes

4. Why do we have so few math honors students scoring advanced proficient? How many students are currently taking honors and AP courses in math and language arts?

Figure 3 represents a grade dis-tribution of students who are currently taking honors and AP classes. Mathematics is on the left and language arts is on the right.

The analysis of all student tran-scripts and current schedules indi-cated that we have a much greater

number of students tak-ing honors and advanced placement language arts courses than mathemat-ics courses. This may explain the large oppor-tunity gap (20%) we see in advanced proficient students in mathematics and the relatively small opportunity gap (1%) in advanced proficient stu-dents in language arts.

5. What is the current school-wide distribu-tion of students in our mathematics and lan-guage arts programs?

Hackettstown High School Language Arts Data (NCEA www.just4kids.org)

Language Arts

The graph above illustrates the differences in Language Arts performance between Hackettstown High School and the top comparable schools in our demographic group, as well as the top schools in the State. Differences or “opportunity gaps” occur between the percentage of students who are proficient, but not between the percentage of students scoring advanced proficient. The top comparable schools have nearly 98% of students scoring proficient compared to Hackettstown where only about 90% of students score proficient. The top comparable schools also have about 31% of students scoring advanced proficient and Hackettstown has 29% scoring proficient. This provides a single “opportunity gap” to investigate as part of our school improvement plan.

Figure 2

4. Why do we have so few math honors students scoring Advanced Proficient? How many students are currently taking honors and AP courses in Math and Language Arts?

Current Distribution of Students in Honors Classes Grades 9-12

The two graphs above represent a grade distribution of students who are currently taking honors and AP classes. Mathematics is on the left and Language Arts is on the right.

The analysis of all student transcripts and current schedules indicated that we have a much greater number of students taking honors and advanced placement language arts courses than mathematics courses. This may explain the large opportunity gap (20%) we see in Advanced Proficient students in mathematics and the relatively small opportunity gap (1%) in Advanced Proficient students in Language Arts.

2006-2007 Honors & AP Language Arts Students

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Honors 9 (47)

Honors 10 (43)

Honors 11 (81)

Honors 12 or AP(61)

Male Female

2006-2007 Honors & AP Mathematics Students

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Honors 9 (27)

Honors 10 (18)

Honors 11 (19)

Honors 12 or AP(41)

Male Female

Figure 3


In language arts there is a balanced distribution of students in honors, college prep and traditional level courses district-wide (Figure 4).

However, there is a disproportion-ately high number of students in the traditional level of mathematics instruction district-wide. This is the least rigorous mathematics curricu-lum available to general education students. If we could increase the numbers of students in both honors and college prep mathematics this could reduce the opportunity gaps in mathematics (Figure 5).

To ImproveThe results of my investigation were presented to the principal and curricu-lum supervisors. Everyone agreed to review the course and grade require-ments which prevented students from taking our most rigorous courses. The high school administration agreed to lower the prerequisite grades needed to get into honors courses in all sub-ject areas for the next school year. A plan to reduce the numbers of partial-ly proficient students was not devel-oped, because the Director of Cur-riculum and Instruction had already implemented a plan for the district.

When I tried to return to the Just-4Kids website to monitor any changes in performance, I realized that the website no longer provided the in-formation on New Jersey schools. In order to find out if the lowering of grade prerequisites had any effect on the number of advanced proficient students, I used the archived school

report card data from the department of education’s website. I compared Hackettstown High School to all the schools in Warren County to see if there was an increase in the percent-age of students scoring advanced proficient on the HSPA.

In analyzing all the years of data available, from 2002 through 2010, I found that prior to lowering the prerequisite grades Hackettstown High School had the highest percent-age of students scoring advanced proficient in language arts only once in 2005 and never in mathematics.

After one year of implementing the prerequisite changes, Hackettstown High School has had the highest per-centage of students scoring advanced proficient in math and language arts for 2009 and 2010.

The simple Just4Kids strategy to Inform, Inspire and Improve proved successful through a detailed under-standing of our current reality and a cooperatively developed plan to close an opportunity gap.

5. What is the current school-wide distribution of students in our mathematics and language arts programs?

In Language Arts there is a balanced distribution of students in Honors, College Prep and Traditional level courses district-wide.

English Student Course Level Distribution

Traditional, 26.90

CP, 46.78

Honors, 26.32

However, there is a disproportionately high number of students in the traditional level of mathematics instruction district-wide. This is the least rigorous mathematics curriculum available to general education students. If we could increase the numbers of students in both honors and college prep mathematics this could reduce the opportunity gaps in mathematics.

Mathematics Student Course Level Distribution

Traditional, 38.91

CP, 51.22

Honors, 9.88

Figure 4

5. What is the current school-wide distribution of students in our mathematics and language arts programs?

In Language Arts there is a balanced distribution of students in Honors, College Prep and Traditional level courses district-wide.

English Student Course Level Distribution

Traditional, 26.90

CP, 46.78

Honors, 26.32

However, there is a disproportionately high number of students in the traditional level of mathematics instruction district-wide. This is the least rigorous mathematics curriculum available to general education students. If we could increase the numbers of students in both honors and college prep mathematics this could reduce the opportunity gaps in mathematics.

Mathematics Student Course Level Distribution

Traditional, 38.91

CP, 51.22

Honors, 9.88

Figure 5

About the AuthorChris Halloran is a 2007 graduate of NJ Excel. He has 24 years of experience in public education as a science teacher, supervisor of curriculum and instruction, and director of student services. He is currently starting a new position as a vice-principal at Sussex County Technical School in Sparta, NJ.

ReferencesUsing Data and Best Practice to Improve Performance (Webinar, April 27,2006). Jean Rutherford, Ed.D. Director of Educational Initiatives, NCEA

SUSTAINING SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT: Data-Driven Decision Making. Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning

Narrowing the Achievement Gap: Schools in New Jersey that are Making Significant Progress, 2003-04 to 2004-05. Standard & Poor’s analysis of achievement gaps in New Jersey through the 2004-05 school year. www.schoolmatters.com


Reculturing the Assistant Principalship By Beverly J. Hutton

All educators who embark upon the journey of educational administration do so with the intention to be a change agent—one that makes a positive difference in the lives of students and teachers. The aspiration is to lead a school environment that is both collegial and collaborative, where all

constituents work together for the common good of all members of the school community. Assistant principals enter into educational administration because they want to be school leaders—leaders of vision, people, and purpose.


The assistant principalship is the entry level to educational admin-istration and the gateway to the principalship, yet many assistant principals will say they have been ill-prepared for the lead principalship (Chan, Web, & Bowen, 2003). The question is, “Why?” Why aren’t as-sistant principals being prepared to become lead principals? What skills are they lacking? What experiences haven’t they been exposed to? Who is responsible for their professional growth and development?

Teachers receive professional devel-opment in the areas of teaching and learning. Supervisors receive profes-sional development in the areas of curriculum and assessment. Prin-cipals receive professional develop-ment in the areas of data analysis, leadership, and management. How-ever, assistant principals typically do not receive any professional devel-opment in the areas to which they are traditionally assigned—student conflict, staff relations, and facili-ties management; and development in only those areas does not prepare them to become lead principals. Orientation into the assistant princi-palship is more like “baptism by fire, sink or swim” (Marshall & Hooley, 2006). This needs to change!

But the real change needs to be in the perception of the position itself. Even though some assistant princi-pals have already begun to recognize that their jobs can be more satisfy-ing if they assert themselves beyond their typical areas of responsibility, all assistant principals should be actively engaged in professional activities and responsibilities that prepare them for the lead principal-ship. Thus, a “perceptual recultur-ing” of the assistant principalship is needed to facilitate a culture of shared leadership within the school community.

The assistant principalship is an untapped area of school leader-ship potential; and in this era of increased accountabilities placed on schools, the position needs and warrants more attention (Bartho-lomew, Melendez, Delaney, Orta, & White, 2005). A school community can greatly benefit from the power

of leadership that emerges when the skills and insight of every member of the school leadership team are utilized. Therefore, it is imperative that a collaborative, collegial, and cooperative relationship between the lead principal and the assistant principal be established and consci-entiously maintained and nurtured.

The national education agenda, which includes the No Child Left Be-hind Act (NCLB) of 2001, The Com-mon Core Standards, and Race to the Top, places accountability for school success on principals and their leader-ship teams. Today’s demands for ac-countability and measurable results in student achievement have changed the roles and responsibilities of school principals, inevitably changing those of assistant principals as well. The question is: how do we ensure that those changes will enhance the assis-tant principalship, allowing assistant principals to contribute more directly to the success of their students and to be acknowledged for the critical role they play in supporting principals, teachers, and students.

Preparation for the PrincipalshipSchool leadership programs must begin to address the issue of Princi-pal preparation differently. Tra-ditional programs have remained stagnant in their school leadership curricula, while non-traditional programs have become a more rel-evant source of preparation, adding pertinent action research projects gives the participant an opportunity to experience facets of the job before entering the field. New Jersey is one of 18 states that offer an alternate certification program, NJEXCEL. In fact, NJEXCEL has graduated more students than any other non-tradi-tional program, having graduated over 600 candidates (National Center for Educational information, n.d.).

Principals also have a responsibility to mentor their assistant principals and develop their leadership capac-ity, which prepares them for career mobility that usually includes the lead principalship. Building leader-ship capacity affects instructional ef-ficacy. Building instructional efficacy

yields increased student achievement. Increased student achievement leads to overall school success. Assistant principals should be crucial to that trajectory. Yet, assistant principals are often underutilized instructional resources routinely relegated to mun-dane building management tasks. This poses two problems. First, schools lose valuable leadership resources for teachers. Second, assistant principals have few opportunities to grow, con-tribute, and experience sustaining job satisfaction.

Lead principals have a responsibil-ity to create an environment where continuous professional develop-ment opportunities are available to their assistant principal, by asking themselves questions like “will this responsibility help prepare them for the principalship?” or “am I best utilizing the credentials and skills of my team member?” The answer to either one of those questions can serve as a filter for the legitimacy of the assignment, and build the leader-ship capacity of the school admin-istrative team. Likewise, assistant principals should constantly seek out opportunities for professional development that leads to sustained professional growth, by asking themselves questions like: “How can I become more entrenched in the direct support of classroom instruc-tional practices?” or “What oppor-tunities can I engage in to make me an integral part of the teaching and learning processes?”

Professional Development Assistant principals are literally in-volved in every aspect of the school community. They work with teach-ers, they manage students, they communicate with parents and they collaborate with administrator col-leagues. Their affect on the school day is undeniable because they are the glue that holds the school culture together. The myriad of duties and responsibilities assigned to the assis-tant principal which occur primar-ily during the school day, makes it nearly impossible for them to leave the building to attend professional development seminars and work-shops. Therefore any professional


growth should be embedded into their daily responsibilities. Job–embedded professional development has been proven to make sustainable changes and improvement in instructional practices as opposed to the single “drive-by” style of workshop that, while helpful, does not lead to lasting change and sustained implementation (Marshall & Hooley, 2006).

The readiness of assistant principals is largely dependent on two things: (a) the types and structure of experi-ences their principals provide within the context of the school day and (b) their principals’ attitudes toward outside leadership opportunities (Kaplan & Owings, 1999). Principals must share power, employing shared decision-making models to build the leadership capacity of all their col-leagues and staff. They must give their assistant principals autonomy to lead and assist aspiring assistant principals to identify and build their leadership skills. The readiness and success of assistant principals can be determined by the nature and extent of the instructional leadership experi-ences they have.

An Ideal Job-Embedded Professional Development ModelEven though lead principals are responsible for ensuring the prepa-ration of their school leadership teams, assistant principals should actively seek growth opportunities. To do so, they need to know how to elicit the supportive leadership of their principals. Developing col-laborative relationships with them is important not only for personal and professional growth, but also for career advancement and mobil-ity. Learning from others, network-ing, participating in opportunities to contribute to the profession through professional organizations is another means of growth and development.

All school leaders should have com-prehensive knowledge of what I call “the five essential understandings” to be strategic and deliberate agents of change and organizational leadership. Within the domain of their position,

assistant principals must find areas of essential understanding needed to in-crease and enhance their instructional leadership skills. An understanding of self-efficacy theory and community of learners methodologies is critical to their relationships with their princi-pals. Professional development and leadership are the primary theoretical frameworks through which instruc-tional leadership can be accomplished. School leaders need to understand leadership styles and responsibilities while identifying their own leadership style and understanding the leader-ship styles of those they work with. They should be able to employ that knowledge while dealing with the various situations they face each day. Moreover, they need a comprehensive understanding of how adults learn and how they respond to change. This is important, as all leaders are respon-sible to know how to garner the col-lective support of their stakeholders. As instructional leaders, it is impera-tive that assistant principals know how to promote a school culture of collaboration, communication, and lifelong learning.

In my book, Reculturing the Assis-tant Principalship – Perceptions and Practices, you will find a professional development model program that is built on those five “essential under-standings” or program components, and offers recommended activities for a job-embedded program that can fit into the daily life of assistant princi-pals, aspiring principals and teacher leaders. The program is aligned with the professional development stan-dards of NSDC, NASSP, NBPTS and ISLLC. It promotes several modali-ties through which the five essential understandings and the standards can be learned and applied within the scope of the daily work-life of school leaders. The recommended activities in the program model offer oppor-tunities to build leadership capacity. A lead principal desiring to build the leadership capacity of his school lead-ership team will find it relevant. The aspiring assistant principal will find the program model motivating; the teacher leader will find it aspirational, and the practicing assistant principal will find it doable.

Taking Action: Reculturing the Assistant Principalship Lead Principals must be willing to share leadership, autonomy, and responsibilities with their assistant principals, who are colleagues and also credentialed principals. The lens through which the assistant princi-palship is viewed by both assistant principals and others must change. Assistant principals are first and foremost principals whose current responsibilities are to work alongside their lead principals to fulfill the vi-sions and missions of their schools. Embracing this paradigm shift will increase and strengthen the capac-ity of school leadership teams. Lead principals should make a conscious effort to provide work life activities that prepare them for increased lead-ership responsibilities.

Reculturing the assistant principal-ship, should begin with assistant principals. They need to see them-selves as instructional leaders work-ing alongside their lead principals for the betterment of their students and their schools. Rather than mere student managers, they must see themselves as principals. If they don’t see themselves that way, no one else will either.

Assistant principals are ultimately responsible for their own profes-sional growth and development. While lead principals should feel obligated to create opportunities for all school leaders to grow, they are simultaneously responsible for establishing, articulating, and imple-menting the vision and mission of the school. This involves a myriad of other requirements. Thus, assis-tant principals should be their own advocates. Breaking out of the ste-reotypical roles and finding ways to expand their influence in other areas of school life is not an easy task, but a necessary one in order to pave the road to true instructional leadership. This means actively participating in relevant professional development activities and professional growth activities that are easily transferable into daily practice—Job embedded projects and opportunities.


Consistency Counts

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Just as assistant principals make themselves indispensable to the suc-cess of the co-curricular programs, they must be prepared to make themselves integral to the instruc-tional program in their schools. They must demonstrate their commitment to teaching and learning by help-ing their teachers build a repertoire of instructional practices and create assessments that inform instruc-tion based on multiple data sources and disaggregated data. They should regularly provide their teachers with resources to improve the effectiveness of their daily instructional strategies. To do that, assistant principals must know emerging trends in educational research and pedagogical practices.

Opportunities to learn and practice the habits of mind of lead principals and the skill sets required in the principalship must also be initiated (Good, 2008). Assistant principals need to know how to lead their respective buildings in the absence of their principals. To be appropriately prepared to do so, they need to learn to manage budgetary issues, handle

parent concerns, mediate person-nel issues, and accomplish dozens of other typical responsibilities. Assis-tant principals who have experience in these areas are better prepared for the lead principalship.

Assistant principals should also join and become active in their profes-sional organizations. These groups are rich sources of professional develop-ment opportunities in addition to being advocates for educators. NASSP, for example, specifically advocates for assistant principals. Nancy Herr, chairperson of the NASSP Assistant Principal Task Force reports, “We are committed to raising the leadership potential of assistant principals and becoming their number one source for information and training” (personal communication, April 2009). The task force has proposed professional development opportunities for as-sistant principals that emphasize the following areas: (a) school culture, (b) leadership for learning, (c) manage-ment for learning, and (d) ongoing professional development: modeling, engaging, and developing others.

Embracing the ConceptThe demands on school leaders have changed and the deep-rooted, tradi-tional role of one principal leading an entire school community is passé and debunked. Those who still operate un-der this model often find themselves exhausted and discouraged because no matter how much they labor, there’s more work to be done, and truthfully, it is impossible for one person to have all the answers. Principals are called to be instructional leaders that lead the implementation of a rigorous cur-riculum which prepares students with 21st century skills. It takes a team of people working together to do that.

The principal who does not regard the assistant principal as a valuable partner in the leadership model is not working at full capacity and does not have a school of optimum productiv-ity (Johnson, 2000). Shared and Dis-tributive Leadership approaches form a “flatter” school leadership model (Friedman, 2005). A flatter leadership model is characterized by distributive, shared, participatory, structured and


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intentional forms of decision making that recognizes that power of many can replace the traditional hierarchi-cal leadership that is characterized by the power of one. The responsibilities

of school leadership are simply too varied and too numerous to contin-ue the hierarchical leadership model inherent in most schools.

About the AuthorDr. Beverly J. Hutton is the Principal of Educational Services at the Burlington County Institute of Technology. She is a member of the NJPSA’s Board of Directors and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. She is the recent past president of the Burlington County Principals and Supervisors Association, and is currently serving as the president of her local district administrators association. Beverly is a previous recipient of NJPSA’s Visionary Leadership Award.

References and Resources Bartholomew, S. K., Melendez-Delaney, G., Orta, A., & White, S. (2005). “Untapped Resources: Assistant Principals as Instructional Leaders.” Principal Leadership, 5(9), 22–26.

Chan, T. C., Webb, L., and Bowen, C. (2003, October 10). “Are Assistant Principals Prepared for the Principalship? How Do Assistant Principals Perceive?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Sino-American Education Consortium, Kennesaw, GA.

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Good, R. (2008). “Sharing the Secrets.” Principal Leadership, 8(8), 46–50.

Johnson, R. (2000). “Other Duties as Assigned: Four Rules for Surviving the Assistant Principalship.” Bulletin, 84(612), 85–87.

Marshall, C., and Hooley, R. M. (2006). The Assistant Principal: Leadership Choices and Challenges (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Kaplan, L. S., and Owings, W. A. (1999). “Assistant Principals: The Case for Shared Leadership.” NASSP Bulletin, 83(610), 80–94.


2012 FEA/NJPSA/NJASCD Fall Conference Rethinking Leadership: Coherence Matters

October 18 & 19, 2012Ocean Place Resort, Long Branch, NJ

2012 FEA/NJPSA/NJASCD Fall Conference Rethinking Leadership: Coherence Matters

October 18 & 19, 2012Ocean Place Resort, Long Branch, NJ

Keynote Speakers:

Be Our Guest at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch.Hurry to Register. Special NJPSA member benefit to the first 200 who register for the full 2-day program.If you are among the first 200 NJPSA “active” members (in good standing) to register for the full 2-day conference program, NJPSA will give you a complimentary overnight stay on October 18th at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch. Take advantage of this great benefit. Registration is now open! Register online at www.featraining.org. (Note: You will have to log into your account to register.)

Now Through June 15th “Members Only” FeeReduced Early Registration 1-day $125Reduced Early Registration 2-day $195 (includes complimentary overnight stay for the first 200 registrants)

After June 15th “Members Only” Fee1-Day Registration $1472-Day Registration $245

Non-Members1-Day Registration $1852-Day Registration $275Hotel Room (night of October 18th only) $155NJASCD members, please contact Donna Jensen at 609-860-8991 to register.

Evaluating Principals and Teachers• Implementing Common Core State Standards• Understanding Assessment and Accountability• Integrating Technology• Fostering Positive Culture and Climate•

Improving the Quality of Instruction• Using Data Effectively• Working with Struggling Students• Redesigning School Time• Understanding School Law•

The following Workshop Strands will help you prepare for major educational reform:

Registration is now open! Register online at www.featraining.org.Note: You will have to log into your account to register.

Michael FullanMichael Fullan is Professor Emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and is recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform.

Dave MarraDave Marra is an Apple Senior Systems Engineer and nationally recognized as a presenter in such specialty areas as digital multimedia, internet technologies, accessibility, and Mac/PC integration.

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