Case

School Profile Of Woodlawn High School
Documented by: Sean C. Tate EDL 610 Dr. Nan Adams
EDL 612 Major Artifact One
School Profile of Woodlawn High School Community Description On a Saturday in August people lined the streets to see a group of warriors being hailed into the stadium, and as their band plays the fight song, students whom just started school do not care because today and the next seven Saturdays will be the highlight of their week the success and failure of their warriors will determine how their week will be. A victory means joyous celebration throughout the town while a loss means pessimism for the week to come; for this is is the town of Tigers and Jaguars. This is Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is the capital of the state of Louisiana. The location of Baton Rouge is somewhat central to that of the major cities in the southern part of the state being an hour to both New Orleans and Lafayette. The other large cities of Shreveport, Alexandria and Monroe are anywhere between three to five hours away. According to the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, the population in 2008 was projected to be 784,411 (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). In 2010, Baton Rouges population is projected to be 809, 282 (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). This is an increase in population of 4%. An even distribution exists between the sexes with a slightly higher population of females with 52.6% (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010).The city is racially diverse with 40.8% of the population being White and 54.2% being African American (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). The Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office provides statistics from the time period of the middle of 2008 to the end of the first quarter in 2009.
In 2008, there were eighteen murders, twenty-six rapes, two hundred twenty-nine robberies, four hundred ninety aggravated assaults, two thousand two hundred thirty burglaries, five thousand three hundred ninety thefts, four hundred thirty-eight motor vehicle thefts, and thirty-seven arsons (Baton Rouge Sheriffs Department, 2009). Baton Rouge is a large city that consists of inner city neighborhoods, where crime is more rampant, as well as more suburban areas where the crime rates are slightly less (Baton Rouge Sheriffs Department, 2009). Baton Rouge boasts, in relation to the parishes surrounding East Baton Rouge, the highest percentage of workforce, with 94% of workers being a high School Graduate or higher (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). It also boasts the highest Bachelors Degree percentage rate at 32% of the workforce possessing a degree, compared to the Parishes around East Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). The high job rates in the chemical and petroleum plants require higher levels of education. With this education, the Greater Baton Rouge Area has an unemployment rate of 3.8% ((Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). School District Description Out of the sixty-nine school districts in the state of Louisiana, East Baton Rouge Parish School System is ranked fifty-sixth, this score comes from the district performance scores (LA DOE, 2008). In 2008, East Baton Rouge School district had a student enrollment of 61,499 students (Digest of Education Statistics, 2008). The student population has dropped significantly over the past twenty or so years. In 1990 the school district had a student population of 61,669 students, in 2000 this population dropped to 54,246 and in 2007 this student population dropped to a new low of 45,714 (Digest of Education Statistics, 2009).
The interesting parallel is the fact that during this same time period the total population of Baton Rouge has increased (Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, 2010). The influx of population has occurred primarily due to the migration out of the Greater New Orleans area as Hurricane Katrina hit. However, during the same time period, the East Baton Rouge School district was split into three school districts, this being the Zachary School district, has a student population of 4,232 students at it six schools, as well as the Central School District, whom has a student population of roughly 3000 students at its five schools (LA DOE, 2008) Another important thing to note is the fact that neither of these school districts received less than a seven out of ten ranking for any school in their district (Zachary Community Schools, 2010) and (Central Community Schools, 2010) The ethnic makeup of the district is 83% African American, 11.8% Caucasian, 2.4% Hispanic, 2.5% Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.1% American Indian/Alaska Native (LA DOE, 2007). There is a stark contrast between the ethnic makeup of the school district compared to the ethnic makeup of the Parish itself where 17% of the total population is Caucasian and 78.9% were African American (LA DOE, 2007). The question therefore lies, why is there such a differential between the school district population and that of the parish? The majority of the Caucasian students are attending private school. It will be interesting to see, due to the recent recession, if these numbers will shift and become a little more balanced. In 2007, 23.2% of these students were in poverty (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2008). Finally, the school district has 77% of students on Free or Reduced lunch, showing that the student population of the school district is quite poor (Digest of Education Statistics, 2009).
In fact, due to this level of poverty that the school board has decided to change two inner city schools into year around schools where the students will have a refuge from the poverty that they find themselves. East Baton Rouge School district is compiled of 81 different schools, ranging from primary to secondary and regular to magnet (East Baton Rouge School District, 2010). These schools can be broken down further into 51 elementary schools, 15 middle schools and 15 high schools (East Baton Rouge School District, 2010). The school district spends 9,159 dollars per student that is above the national amount spent that is 6,059 dollars (Digest of Education Statistics , 2009).
Figure 1: Revenue for East Baton Rouge School District The chart above, shows the breakdown by percentage of the revenue taken in by the East Baton Rouge School District. This revenue can be broken down into 13.9% or 75,588,000 dollars coming from federal taxes, 32.8% or 178,185,000 coming from state taxes and 53.3% or 289,847,000 coming from local taxes (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2009).
6
Breakdown By Expenditure Instructional 57% Student and staff support 10% Administration 10% Other expenditures 23% Source: NCES, 2006-2007
58% 9% 11% 22%
Figure 2. Breakdown of Expenditures The above chart shows, the total expenditures of the school district are 450,619,000 dollars. This is broken down further into $258,306,000 of this goes to paying for instruction, $6,068,000 goes to capital outlay, the school pays 0 in interest on school debt (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2009). The district is allocated 42,862 in Title One funds with 2,826 going to each child that lives in poverty (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2009) The district is made up of 3,090 full time teachers; this means that the average pupil/teacher ratio is 15 pupils per teacher (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2007). The total number of staff members (administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff) is 6164 or a 7.4 pupil ratio to each staff member (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2007). The starting pay for teachers in East Baton Rouge parish is roughly 43,000 dollars (East Baton Rouge School Board, 2009).The average classroom teacher salary is 46,974 dollars which includes extra compensation (LA DOE, 2008). This ranks East Baton Rouge School district as 24th in the state (Profile of Educational Personnel Reports, 2008). The district has seen a high turnover rate, due to the openings of school districts in Zachary that ranks as the number one school district in the state as well as the Central school district.
Regarding the biggest problem facing the school district, in a recent email with Dr. Elizabeth Duran-Swinford, Assistant Superintendant of Human Resources for East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, stated: I can only speak of personnel - With a decrease in the overall number of graduates from Schools of Education it places a burden on school districts to recruit personnel. We have to rely heavier on Alternate Certification program such as Teach for America, which brings Highly Qualified teachers to the classroom but they also increase our teacher turnover as they only commit to staying for 2 years (Email Interview, Duran-Swinford, 2010). This shows that EBR has a significant problem obtaining teachers that are willing to stay for longer than two years and that they are also unable to attract many traditional degree teachers to the school system. Not only does East Baton Rouge Parish have a hard time keeping teachers, they are also having a hard time keeping a superintendant. In the past couple of weeks, John Dilworth, the superintendent, decided to stop being the superintendant effective in June. However since this time he is currently reconsidering this issue (Lussier, 2010). Originally he stated that the problem was the fact that his house in Montgomery had not sold as well as the current ill health of his wife. After speaking with members of the Chamber of Commerce and several board members, it has been brought to the publics attention that there was a significant amount of micromanaging by the school board. It has been stated that he may be waiting for the result of the November election to determine his next move (Lussier, 2010). As of May 6, 2010, Superintendent Dilworth has decided to stay in his position with East Baton Rouge Parish (Lussier, 2010).
East Baton Rouge Parish has a vision statement which states, All East Baton Rouge Parish School System students will graduate with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to become active and successful members of a dynamic learning community (EBR School District, 2008). This is a continuing struggle because the average ACT score has been a 19.7 (LA DOE, 2007). The 2012 admission standards of Louisiana State University, the flagship university, are 22 (LSU, 2010). Further proof 2006 there were a total of 1369 of all 9-12 graders were dropouts (LA DOE, 2009). In conjunction 53.1% of the freshmen cohort of 2008 graduated high school (LA DOE, 2008). In 2008, there was a total of 2,407 graduates district wide (nces.ed.gov, 2006). Other district struggles can be seen in test scores. As previously noted, in 2009, EBR had 1,301 students taking the ACT with the average score was a 19.7. Broken down further the district average in english were 19.6, math 19.2, reading 19.5 and science 19.5 (LA DOE, 2009). This shows that there is a need for improvement in all areas that is tested on the ACT. With regards to state iLEAP scores given to ninth grades, the school district, in English, had one student receive an advanced, ten students received mastery, forty-five students received basic, thirty-three students received approaching basic and eleven students received unsatisfactory (Digest of Education Statistics , 2009). In math, the district had five students score advanced, ten students scored mastery, forty-five students scored basic, thirty-three students scored approaching basic, and eleven students scored unsatisfactory (Digest of Education Statistics , 2009). In regards to the district baseline score over the past seven years the school district has gone up from a 71.5 to a 79.8 (LA DOE, 2007). This shows that the district is improving: however, the test scores need improvements at an even greater rate.
The district mission statement states, The East Baton Rouge Parish School System, in partnership with our community, educates all students to their maximum potential in a caring, rigorous and safe environment (EBR School District, 2008). This is seen through the community involvement program and courses offered at the local high schools through the regional universities and community colleges. There are multiple programs such as math remediation through Gear Up programs as well as AP World History classes offered through Baton Rouge Community College. Most, if not all, schools have a corporate sponsor who is part of the school improvement team (Newman, 2009). School Description Woodlawn High School has been located on Jefferson Highway for the past seven years that makes it the high school that is furthest south and east in the parish. This section of the paper will analyze the history of Woodlawn as an institution, discuss the grades and type of school Woodlawn current houses, the reputation of the school, as well as Woodlawns current weaknesses and strengths and finally the schools mission and vision statements. Since 1911 Woodlawn High School, has had ten principals, all of these were white men. One, L.L. Lindsey, left the principalship to serve in WWII and the latest Mr. James Newman has been the principal for going on four years. The once little one room school has now grown into a large 4A classification school. The school has gone from one teacher to 70 teachers and 4 administrators. The following is the story of Woodlawn High, going from its humble beginnings all the way to its current state. Over time, Woodlawn has had problems and still does so today. This section of the paper will also analyze the history of the school, the administration, teachers, parents and students.
10
Woodlawn High School had its humble beginnings in 1888 as a one room school house called Rosedale School. The students were 6 to 18 years of age. The land was donated by a local citizen. In 1895 Rosedale School was moved to the corner of Hooshootoo Road and Tiger Bend Road and renamed the Hillman school for the only teacher that taught there at the time. In 1910 Jones Creek School was built, in 1911 Hillman school and Jones Creek school were consolidated into one school and named the Seventh Ward School. The school became a three room wooden building and even had school buses which were covered wagons drawn by horses and mules. The school only housed grades 1-7 for high school students had to go downtown. In 1916 Seventh Ward School became a high school and a second three room building was built. This housed the 7-11 grades, a principals office and a library. The school eventually had housing for the teachers and principals as well as an agriculture and Home Economics program. The housing stayed on the school grounds until 2003 when the new Woodlawn High School on Jefferson Avenue was built (Woodlawn High School History, 2009). After World War I the area boomed and with the new population, a new school was built. In 1949-1950 the school enrollment was 286 and continued to increase. It was in 1949 due to a contest for a new name that Woodlawn High School was created. The school continued to grow adding buildings in 1951, 1954, 1958 and finally in 1971. Over time the population of the school went from 286 to over 1000 students. In 2000, it was determined that the school had fallen into disrepair and a new site on the corner of Jefferson Hwy and Antioch Rd. was constructed. In August of 2003, the new school was opened and the old site which has a new building built on it is home to the Middle School (Woodlawn High School History, 2009).
11
Currently Woodlawn High School houses grades 9-12: however, starting with next year the school will also house 8.5 graders (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). Woodlawn currently houses regular education as well as special education, including a gifted and talented program that started in the 2009-2010 school year (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2009). Woodlawn has several programs that it participates in including: Career to Work, which it has been a part of for two years (Newman, 2009). INTECH, this program was initiated this year (Newman, 2009). La GEAR-UP, this program was also initiated this year (Newman, 2009). LaSIP (Newman, 2009). LEAD TECH, Woodlawn has participated for the past four years (Newman, 2009). School-to-Work, Woodlawn has participated in this program for the past four years (Newman, 2009). Accelerated Reader- Woodlawn has participated in this program for two years (Newman, 2009). PROSTART I and II, which is a Home Economics program which Woodlawn has participated in for the past six years (Newman, 2009). Besides these programs, Woodlawn High School also has several partnerships in the community.
12
Woodlawn is partners on a university level with Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana State University, University of Lafayette and Baton Rouge Community College (Newman, 2009). Woodlawn has partnerships with Technical Institutes including: Louisiana Technical College and American Builders and Contractors (Newman, 2009). The feeder school relationship includes Southeast Middle School, Kenilworth Middle School and Well as Woodlawn Middle School. They have a community partnership with the Woodlawn Baptist Church as well as the Jones Creek Business Association, Cajun Constructers and ISC (Newman, 2009). Woodlawn has a mixed reputation in the community; it is viewed as the third best school in East Baton Rouge School District, after Baton Rouge High and McKinley High, which both have a very high student population of gifted and talented students. However, on the contrary, Woodlawn is often referred to as Weedlawn, due to the drug problem that has been at the school for the past several years as well as a school that always seems to be having a problem with security. Woodlawn High School has the highest rate of calling the Sheriffs Department out of any other high school in the parish (Personal Interview with Vanessa Myers, 2010). People often ask, why was there an ambulance or a fire truck or a police officer at Woodlawn today. It seems that we always have some form of emergency vehicle on campus. Woodlawn High has many strengths and weaknesses. The drug incidents are only part of the weaknesses that plague Woodlawn High. Other weaknesses include: a lack of open-ended questions in math classes, this problem was identified through Administrative Observations, Quality Survey Team Classroom Survey, as well as the subgroup report, that stated that the 9th grade black subgroup scored 41 percent proficient in math (Newman, 2009).
13
Another weakness is the lack of use of literacy strategies in the classroom. This was identified through the Spring 2008 GEE/iLeap Criterion-Referenced Test School Performance Report where Woodlawn High scored 48 percent in the constructed response sections of both the math and science components of the test (Newman, 2009). The weakness was also displayed in the QST classroom survey where the external observers noted that students decoded words and were actively engaged in literacy strategies only 25 percent of the time. Administrative observations also noted this as in the principal walk-through only five percent of students were engaged in writing activities (Newman, 2009). Woodlawn also has a lack of differentiated instruction and hands-on activities in the classroom. This was noticed in the trend subgroup proficiency LEAP report where there was a gap between 10th grade students with disabilities and the whole school in math of 50 percent ((Newman, 2009). Administrative observation also noted this as they observed whole group instruction 70 percent of the time (Newman, 2009). Finally this was noted in the Spring 2008 GEE/iLEAP Criterion-Referenced Test School Performance Report where data showed that 34 percent of students scored below proficient in english/language arts (Newman, 2009). Woodlawn also has its strengths. First and foremost, Woodlawn has a strong positive school culture. The data that signifies this includes a parents survey where Woodlawn received a mean score of 3.23 of 3.13 in the question that asked, The school my child attends is improving academically (Newman, 2009). A student survey also showed a mean average of 3.18 of 3.48 to a question that asked, My teachers believe I will be successful (Newman, 2009). The Quality School team noted through external observances that 70 percent of teachers are reinforcing effort and providing recognition of students and finally, in the Spring 2009 GEE/iLEAP Performance Report the whole school subgroup scored above AMO (Newman, 2009). Another strength that
14
Woodlawn has is the fact that Hispanics and whites scored high in both ELA and math, this was determined by the Spring 2009 GEE/iLeap results (Newman, 2009). Woodlawn follows the districts vision of, All East Baton Rouge Parish School System students will graduate with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to become active and successful members of a dynamic learning community(Newman, 2009). This is seen through multiple avenues including; the School Improvement Plan that consists of an action plan to meet the needs of the schools weaknesses to better education as well as the community partnership that the school fosters therefore focusing on the post graduate future of the students. Woodlawns mission statement states, Preparing for lifelong learning (Newman, 2009). The same evidence that holds true for the vision statement holds true for the mission statement. The success of this mission statement rides on four groups of people, the administrators of the school, the teachers that lead their individual classrooms, the students that perform in those classrooms as well as the parental support given to both teachers and students. Principal Description A school is only as good as its leaders and the same is true for Woodlawn High School. Woodlawn High School has four administrators. The Principal, Mr. Newman, whom oversees everything. Three Assistant Principals one, Mr. Blankenship, is over finances and science and math. Another, Ms. Scott , is over social studies and english. The fourth, Mrs. Myers, is over discipline as well as electives and special education. It is on the backs of these four administrators that the ultimate success of Woodlawn High School is determined.
15
Mr. Newman, the Head Coach of the team, brings twenty-three years of experience as a science teacher, three years as an Assistant Principal and seven years as a Principal with him to Woodlawn High School, he has been at the helm of Woodlawn for four years. When asked about his philosophy of leadership, he states, A good leader must believe in delegation, they cannot possibly do everything themselves, they must also have an open door so that faculty, staff, parents and students know that they can go to the principal (Personal Interview with Jimmy Newman, 2010). When asked what he thought his greatest strength was Mr. Newman responded, it is my professionalism, above all else. You must stay professional. My other greatest strength is my love for the kids. In order to be in a position such as this you must love the kids (Personal Interview with Jimmy Newman, 2010). Finally, when asked what advice he would give to a new administrator, he commented: They need to understand that it takes long hours. This is not a 7-3 job like some may believe that it is. Secondly, a good administrator must have patience, people do not always respond as quickly as you may like or understand things the way that you would want them to, you must have the patience to not lose your temper in these situations, and finally an administrator must develop thick skin, they cannot get easily offended because people will always be yelling at you and demanding things from you, you simply cannot allow yourself to take things personally, if you take everything personally, you will set yourself up for failure (Personal Interview with Jimmy Newman, 2010).
16
Ms. Scott, is a first year administrator, graduate of the Southeastern Louisiana University Educational Leadership program: however, she has taught in the public school system for six years. In these years she taught Civics, Free Enterprise and CH at Glen Oaks High and St. Amant High (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). After this time she served as the Curriculum Content Trainer over Social Studies for East Baton Rouge Parish for two years (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). When asked about her leadership of philosophy she responded, a leader is a person that develops and stands by their vision as a way to positively implement change and stability at a school (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). She states that what makes her successful as an administrator includes organization, development and presentation of professional growth material and her communication with staff and faculty, as well as always being a team player (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). Finally, when asked what advice she would give to a new administrator she stated: be prepared to change your schedule and plans at the drop of the hat (write in pencil). Second, develop thick skin and a very high tolerance for every and anything, and thirdly, put ALL personal feelings to the side and never do tears. Its simply not worth it (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). Mr. Blankenship, the administrator over science and math as well as financial issues, has seven years of experience as an assistant, but had served as a science teacher prior to this. He has a MS in Administration and Supervision from Southern University as well as a plus thirty degree (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010).
17
Regarding his philosophy of leadership he stated, you must lead by example to be an effective leader, you must keep abreast of what is working in education and what is not working. You must not be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone to try new ideas, and you must stand firm on what you know is right (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). He feels his greatest strength as an administration is the fact that he is a team player, in order for a school to run as it should an administrator needs to step up to get the job done (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). Due to time constraints and the inability to meet, Mrs. Myers was unable to comment for this paper. TEACHER DESCRIPTION Woodlawn High School has a very diverse faculty. There were 75 faculty members as of June of last year, this includes about 4 full time paraprofessionals, 5 members of the cafeteria staff, 3 full time custodians and 63 teachers (Newman, 2009). These teachers are further broken down into coaches, which Woodlawn High School has the following sports for student athletes to participate in: boys/girls soccer, softball, baseball, boys/girls basketball, football, wrestling, boys/girls swimming, boys/girls bowling, boys/girls track, as well as boys/girls golf (WHS, 2010). There are also multiple vocational courses a student can participate in from agscience, business, Home Economics and ROTC. The school also has 3 spanish teachers and 1 french teacher (WHS, 2010). There is also 2 theater teachers, 2 band/orchestra instructors as well as 1 choir teacher (WHS, 2010). Then the core subjects each have at least six teachers (WHS, 2010). The original number of 63 teachers were upgraded to 80 this year, once the closure of Lee High was announced (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010).
18
The school is also hiring 18 more teachers this coming up year to accomadate for the growing gifted and talented program as well as for the 8.5 graders entering the school (Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). The faculty population can be further divided into about 50% African American, .02% being Latino, .02% Asian and 45% being caucasian. There are 20 males teachers and 60 female teachers (WHS, 2010). The experience of these teachers ranges to 40 years to the newest that started at the beginning of this semester. The personality of each teacher varies greatly from the next: however, they all work together for the betterment of the students. Recently the teachers took part in a survey over the culture and climate of the school. The results showed that the teachers though working in the same school and working for the same goal were still as different as can be. This survey focused on three main areas, these were the leadership of the administration, how teachers feel about teaching and learning, and thirdly teacher commitment
19
to professional development to make the teacher a better educator.
Figure 3. Teacher Survey- Collegial Teaching and Learning The chart above shows that most teachers at Woodlawn High School feel that their actual and perferred levels are the same. This indicates that most teachers feel as though they are exactly where they should be as far as their skills in teaching are concerned. This feeling of competency could be a big key to the reason the faculty often time complains and has a hard time complying with the changes but in my the administration. Teachers at Woodlawn High School
20
are slow to change since they feel as though they are exactly where they should be as far as their teaching skills go. The faculty often argues against any changes that the administration tries to implement due to this.
Figure Figure 4. Average of Teacher Survey- CLT Due to the large sample given, an average of the surveys is provided to further illustrate this point. Note how the second bar, the prefered line is only .15 more than the actual CTL line. Once again showing that most faculty is contempt with the way that they teach and are highly
EDL 612 Major Artifact One likely to complain when it comes to change.
21
Figure 5. Teacher Survey- Leadershp and Vision The graph above shows the faculties feelings towards the administration. The graph shows that some of the faculty would prefer a lot more from the administration. However, there is a small population that believe that the administration does more than enough. Comparing the results from the Leadership Vision results to that of the Collegial Teaching and Learning results it is noted that the faculties feel as though the administrators should do more, however they also
22
feel that they are doing their jobs to the level in which they should I hypothesize that it is the amount of faculty that feels that the administration should do more are also the same faculty that dislike change and usually complain about it in faculty meetings. For example, in the survey fifteen feel as though they have too much in their learning and teaching but the administration does not do enough.
Figure 6. Average of Leadership and Vision The above chart shows that on average, the faculty wishes that the administration would do more to help with the accomplishment of the school vision and mission statements by .15. This is a major contribution to the culture of Woodlawn High School, due to the fact that if we are not willing to work as a team, both faculty and administration than the school will never be able to improve.
23
Figure 7. Average of Professional Commitment. As seen above, the final area that was surveyed is that of professional commitment, if you took an average of all the teachers surveyed 66 percent would prefer to have more professional commitment. The school improvement plan recognizes this need and supplements for it. Several key areas that are addressed include: the spending of seven thousand dollars from Title One funds that were allocated to educating the faculty in differentiated instruction (Newman, 2009). 90.055.79 dollars were allocated from Title One Funds to provide the salary for a literacy coach as well as other materials to assist the teachers in becoming more acquainted with literacy strategies (Newman, 2009). Other areas addressed in the School Improvement Plan included having each department meet together in weekly department meetings to discuss how to better their teaching methods by implementing new strategies that were delivered by the department chairs (Newman, 2009).
24
The next crucial aspect of a successful school are the parents of the students that attend Woodlawn High School. Schools Parents Description Woodlawn has a very diverse population when it comes to the parents of the students that attend Woodlawn. Due to the size of the schools district the parents range from extremely wealthy to middle class to some that are very poverty stricken, 48 percent of our student population is on free or reduced lunch (LA DOE, 2008). There are families in the district that do not have access to internet or a computer at home. The Woodlawn PTO is nonexistent, this is due to the fact that the PTOs presidents son was suspended and the president did not feel that the punishment was warranted and therefore decided to stop being involved with the PTO (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). Since this time, the PTO has been nonexistent (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). During Back to School Night, only 30 percent of parents showed up for meetings with their childrens teachers (Personal Interview with Vanessa Myers, 2010). Most parents are responsive when teachers call them personally about their individual child or when it comes to discipline matters. The area where parents are the most concerned is with athletics. Parents in football, baseball and basketball as well as wrestling are very active in making sure that the programs are successful (Personal Interview with Don Jones, 2010). The parents are always willing to volunteer to assist working concessions or raising money for the teams (Personal Interview with Don Jones, 2010).
25
Parents have multiple complaints about the school. GreatSchools.org, allows parents of a school to post comments, the following are comments that were posted from parents regarding Woodlawn High School. Being a parent of a 16 yr old son, I am very involved in whats going on, his teachers & his classes. It's hard keeping a child interested in school when you feel like the teachers don't want to be bothered; staff is very rude and not prone to listening. It has gotten even worse with the extra kids they have taken on from Lee High. I think having a beautiful school is a waste if your heart isn't in teaching the students. My son was sent to TOR because his uniform shirt became untucked while he was sitting. When I called the school to inquire, the Asst Principle sent him back to class only for the same teacher to refuse to give him class materials. When he got the assigned lesson from another kid, she refused to take it (Parent Reviews, 2009) This is an issue that is heard on a daily basis, the assistant principals have counseled with the teacher that this is concerning, and some teachers have been released from their duties for this type of behavior recently. It is true that with the closure of Lee High School each classs enrollment has gone up by about ten additional students making it harder for teachers to contact each students parents. The TOR room incident is not unheard of however this year, the uniforms culture has become extremely relaxed therefore, and this incident must have involved more than a simply untucked shirt. Despite the fact that I do like some of the teachers, the front office and administration at this school are some of the rudest people I have ever encountered in my life. I personally have also had problems with them not communicating my sons progress with me, but if you initiate conversation with the teachers they will keep you informed. They suspend for the smallest infraction which they want to keep the kids in line, but I think it's so much that it affects their
26
learning. There is also the TOR - Time out room that kids are sent to for being tardy or acting out - This room is also used excessively (Parent Reviews, 2009). Again this parent is correct: with so many students it is very difficult for a teacher to start communication about all of their students. Therefore, many are guilty of waiting to be contacted. However, after this the teachers do well at keeping parents up to date. Woodlawn High School has initiated a new program called Eschoolplus Parental Access, this program allows parents to have access to their childs teachers grade books to see what their child has turned in and what they have not. As long as the teacher keeps this up to date than the parent has all the information that they would need about their childs progress in a class (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). Regarding the suspensions, this issue is an issue that has been brought up to the school board, the results of this issue has been a change in the administration that is over discipline (Personal Interview with Glen Blankenship, 2010). The administrator over discipline is seen as very relaxed in the eyes of the faculty. This leaves many teachers with the feelings that they have to take discipline into their own hands or have nothing done about it at all. Administration, Faculty and Parents have been discussed in regards to whom they are and what the problems that they face in regards to the school. The final group of individuals that will be discussed is that of the student body. As previously noted, the student population of Woodlawn High School has grown extensively this school year and will continue to do so in the upcoming years. The student body is more diverse than any body of individuals previsouly discussed and therefore has its own issues that must be resolved. Student Description
27
The student body of Woodlawn is a highly diverse population. This past year, the population of Woodlawn increased due to the addition of a gifted and talented program at the school as well as the influx of students due to the closure of Lee High School. In 2008, the student population of Woodlawn High School was 1,022 students (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2009), since this time, the population increased by 400 students (Personal Interview with Jamie White, 2010).
Ethnicity Black, not Hispanic White, not Hispanic Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander American Indian/Alaskan Native This School 56% 38% 3% 2% <1% State Average 46% 49% 3% 1% <1%
Source: NCES, 2007-2008
Figure 8. Breakdown of Ethnicity of Students at Woodlawn High School The chart above shows that in 2008, the gender breakdown of the school was 504 males and 518 females. The ethnic breakdown was less than one percent Native American students, two percent were Asian students, fifty-six percent were African American students, three percent were Hispanic students and thirty-eight students were Caucasian (Great Schools, 2008). Out of all of the students, 48 percent of the student population was on free and reduced lunch (Great Schools, 2008). The students of Woodlawn High School take many tests. These include the iLeap, GEE, ACT and Advanced Placement tests. The students of Woodlawn High School had varied assessment scores, during the past three years the scores at Woodlawn High School have dropped each year on the iLeap and GEE as well as ACT.
28
The following are the results of the students of Woodlawn High Schools scores on the 2009 iLeap. In 2009, in english language arts there were no advanced scored, seven students scored mastery, fifty-four students scored basic, twenty-nine students scored approaching basic and ten students scored unsatisfactory (LA DOE, 2008). In math, three students scored advanced, nine students scored masteries, forty-six students scored basics, twenty-five students scored approaching basics and sixteen students scored unsatisfactory (LA DOE, 2008). The ACT scores of the students of Woodlawn High Schools graduating class of 2009 were a composite score of 19.1, 18.8 in english, 18.4 in math a 19.3 in reading and a 19.1 in science (LA DOE, 2009). Finally on the GEE, in 2008, the students of Woodlawn in the subject of english Language Arts scored, one Advanced, twenty-six Mastery, one hundred twenty-nine Basics, fifty-nine Approaching Basic and twenty-five Unsatisfactory (LA DOE, 2008). In mathematics, twenty-three students scored Advanced, forty-one students scored Mastery, ninety-five students scored Basic, thirty-seven students scored Approaching Basic and forty-four students scored Unsatisfactory (LA DOE , 2008). In Science in 2008, five students scored Advanced, twenty students scored Mastery, seventy-five students scored Basic while sixty-two students scored Approaching Basic and thirty-eight students scored Unsatisfactory. (LA DOE, 2008) Finally in 2008, in Social Studies, three students scored Advanced, eleven students scored Mastery, one hundred one students scored Basic, fifty students scored Approaching Basic and thirty-six students scored Unsatisfactory. (LA DOE, 2008) As stated the students greatest weakness is in standardized test scoring, following this the students struggle with getting to class on time with about thirty-six students being late per day.
29
(Personal Interview with Shalika Scott, 2010). The students also have many strengths these include conduct, the amount of write-ups have gone down by thirty percent from this same time last year (Personal Interview with Terry Smith, 2010). Strength of the students is in their extracurricular activities. This past year all sports teams made it to either their individual playoffs or to the state tournament in their sport (Personal Interview with Don Jones, 2010). Part Two- Identifying and Analyzing the Schools Strengths and Areas of Concern Strengths
Figure 9. Comparison of Graduate Exit Exam Scores, 2008. Shown in the above chart, in 2008, Woodlawn High School outscored the district, East Baton Rouge Parish, as a whole on the GEE in the areas of english language arts, mathematics, science as well as social studies. Woodlawn High School also outscored the state average in english language arts as well as mathematics. It is important to note that during this school year at Woodlawn High School, the Social Studies Department went through a very high trend of teacher turnover with half of the teachers in the department leaving the school before the test,
30
therefore the scores of the department rested on the backs of the three new teachers that were hired in the middle of the school year. The test scores are important due because this is the main source that a school has to check its teachers and programs. The higher the scores the better the teachers are learning, the better the curriculum, classroom management and everything else, which indicates the school is on the right track and should be continuing to move in that direction.
When the scores are not high that demonstrates that something be it teacher remediation, classroom management changes, or curriculum changes, something has to change in order to
EDL 612 Major Artifact One increase the scores.
31
Figure 10. Comparison of Graduation Ratre and Certified Teachers, 2008. Shown above is another strength of Woodlawn High School its graduation rate of 69.3%, this is higher than both East Baton Rouge District which is 61.8% and the state of Louisiana at 66.3% (LA DOE, 2008). The reasons for this include the fact that Woodlawn High School also has a higher percentage of highly certified teachers at 84% compared to 74% average of the School District (LA DOE, 2008).
32
The graduation rate is higher than East Baton Rouge School district as well as the state is the fact that the Graduation rate is thirty percent of a schools SPS, School Performance Score (LA DOE, 2008)Therefore, the higher the graduation rate the higher the schools SPS score, the less likely it is to be taken over by the State Board of Education. The number of certified teaches adds to the graduation rate due to the fact that these individuals are trained in what they do and are therefore able to relay that training to their students in order to help the students to reach their ultimate goal, graduation.
EDL 612 Major Artifact One Weaknesses
33
Figure 11. History of Growth and Targeted SPS Scores for Woodlawn High Seen in the above chart, according to the Principals Report Card issued by the State of Louisiana, Woodlawn High School is a school in decline. This is occurs because Woodlawn High School went down 3.2 points in the SPS Growth in 2007-2008 (LA DOE, 2008). The target growth for the year was 5.0 therefore Woodlawn was actually down 8.2 points from where the target growth suggests the school should be. The calculation for the SPS
34
consists of both an Assessment section being weighted at 70% and a Cohort Graduation Rate accounting for 30%. Woodlawn has an Assessment index of 68.8 which is weighted by 70 percent which comes out to a 48.2 weighted index (LA DOE, 2008). The Cohort Graduation Index was 107.5 which multiplied by 30 percent comes out to 32.3 for a weighted index (Education, Principal's Report Card , 2008). Therefore 48.2 added to 32.3 come out to 80.5 (Education, Principal's Report Card , 2008). This problem has been extended over a period of time. In 2007, the schools target growth was 85.1 however the baseline SPS for the year was only an 83.7 (Education, Principal's Report Card , 2008) In 2006, the targeted growth was 90.4, however Woodlawn High School had an SPS of only 80.3 (LA DOE, 2008) This is important due to the fact that it is these scores by which a school is graded. It is important to note that not only have these scores not meet their goals for the previous three years they have also gone down each year. This shows that there is a definite problem that needs to be addressed when it comes to curriculum. The curriculum being taught at Woodlawn is clearly not preparing students for the state standardized testing the way that it should be. Woodlawn has taken action against the dropping scores, this year they initiated a week called Blitz Week, where the students had a crash course for the week in every area that the test would be testing the students on. It is the hopes of the Administration that this Blitz week will increase the SPS score, so that the school will not have to worry with the State Board of Education taking over the school.
35
Figure 12. Woodlawn High Schools ACT Scores in Comparison to District and State. Another weakness, as seen in the chart above, Woodlawn High School faces is the ACT scores of their students. In 2009, Woodlawns students composite scores were 19.1 compared to East Baton Rouge Districts composite score being 19.7 and the State of Louisianas composite score being a 20.1 (LA DOE, 2008). The trend can also be seen in the specific categories tested on the ACT, in english Woodlawn scored an 18.8 compared to 19.6 for East Baton Rouge School
36
District and 20.3 for the State of Louisiana (LA DOE, 2008). In math Woodlawns students scored an 18.4, while East Baton Rouge averaged a 19.2 and the state of Louisiana average 19.6 (LA DOE, 2008). In reading Woodlawn averaged 19.3, East Baton Rouge averaged 19.5 and the state of Louisiana averaged a 20.2 (LA DOE, 2008). Finally in science, Woodlawn averaged a 19.1 while East Baton Rouge averaged a 19.5 and the state of Louisiana averaged a 20.0 (LA DOE, 2008). Therefore, as seen in the chart below; Woodlawn is below the district of East Baton Rouge as well as the state of Louisiana in every category (LA DOE, 2009). The Mission Statement of Woodlawn High School states, preparing students for lifelong learning (Newman, 2009), therefore the school should be preparing its students to succeed on standardized test such as the ACT. However, these scores show that the students are not prepared for the ACT as much as they should be and something needs to occur to increase these scores in order to get the students into colleges and universities, because most local colleges and universities require at least a 20 on the Act and Woodlawn students are currently averaging 19.1. The school has taken steps to improve this by adding a course to the curriculum entitled ACT Prep. This course goes over the reading, english and math sections of the test over two semesters (Newman, 2009).
37
Bibliography
2005-2006 District Accountability Report Card. (2007). Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Louisiana Department of Education: http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/saa/sps2006/rptcards/017_District_RC.pdf East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Department. (2009). Crime Statistics. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office: http://www.ebrso.org/Default.aspx?TabId=122 E. B.R. School District (2010). School Websites . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from East Baton Rouge School District: http://www.ebrschools.org/explore.cfm/directories/schoolwebsites/ E. B.R. School District (2008). Vision. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from East Baton Rouge Schools: http://www.ebrschools.org/eduWEB1/1000437/docs/sap_strategic_accountability_ plan_20082013.pdf Duran-Swinford, D. (2010, April 26). Email Interview . Louisiana Department of Education. (2009, May 27). 2006-2007 School, District and State Dropout Numbers and Percents by Grade Level. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Louisiana Department of Education: http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/uploads/14037.pdf Louisiana Department of Education. (2008). Cohort Graduation Rates. Baton Rouge, La, USA. Louisiana Department of Education (2007). District Report Card 2007. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
38
Lousiana Department of Education: http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/saa/sps2006/rptcards/017_District_RC.pdf Louisiana Department of Education (2008). Principal's Report Card . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Louisiana Department of Education: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_090.asp Louisiana Department of Education (2008). Ranked Listing of District Performance Levels . Retrieved May 10, 2010, from Louisiana Department of Education: http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/uploads/12991.pdf Lussier, C. (2010, April 20). Dilworth Considering Staying in EBR. The Advocate , p. 1B. Lussier, C. (2010, May 6). Dilworth Decides to continue as superintendent. The Advocate . Lussier, C. (2010, April 17). EBR Superintendant Resigns. The Advocate , p. 1B. Great Schools (2010). Central Community schools. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Great Schools: http://www.greatschools.org/louisiana/baton-rouge/Central-Community-SchoolDistrict/ Great Schools (2010). Zachary Community School District . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Great Schools: http://www.greatschools.org/louisiana/zachary/Zachary-Community-SchoolDistrict/ National Council of Educational Statistics (2008). Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2006-07. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from National Center for Education Statistics : http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/100_largest/tables/table_d04.asp National Council of Educational Statistics (2009). Digest of Education Statistics . Retrieved May 6, 2010, from National Center for Education Statistics : http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_090.asp National Council of Educational Statistics (2009). Revenues, expenditures, poverty rate, and Title I allocations of public school districts enrolling more than 15,000 students: 2006 07 and fiscal year 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Digest of Education Statistics . Louisiana Department of Education (2009). 2005-2009 District ACT Scores. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from
39
Louisiana Department of Education: http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/uploads/14651.pdf Louisiana State University (2010). Freshman Admissions. Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Louisiana State University: http://www.lsu.edu/paurec/freshman.shtml US Census Bureau. (2006). Retrieved May 6, 2010, from State and Country Quick Facts : http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/2205000.html Vital Statistics . (2010). Retrieved May 6, 2010, from Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce : http://www.brac.org/site21.php.
40
EDL 612 Major Artifact One Philosophy of Leadership Sean C. Tate Southeastern University
This paper is the capstone of Seminar One. The National Policy Board for Educational Administration has set up standards for graduate candidates, Standards for Advanced Programs in Educational Leadership, by which all Educational Leadership candidates are examined. Theories of leadership and an explanation of each will be evaluated; in addition a short literature review of a particular theory, behavior theory, will be given. Psychological type as it relates to
41
educational leadership will be evaluated as well as how the field experiences have changed leadership perspective. The paper will then conclude with a leadership philosophy where each of the components will be implemented. I. Leadership Theory a. Overview of the ELCC Standards The ELCC standards, as set out by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration, are standards in which every educational leadership candidate must pass through; this is what is expected of a graduate candidate to learn as we venture through our masters program. It is set up as seven standards, as found in our course booklet (Campbell, 2010). These standards are: 1. Visionary Leadership- a leader along with his faculty needs to set a goal. The leader must have the ability to see what he/she wants as an outcome in the future and then plan to achieve that outcome. The leader must be able to utilize all stakeholders (faculty, community members and students) in this endeavor and use logic to discover when this vision needs to be adjusted.
The leader along with the stakeholders needs to collaborate on foreseeable issues that might counter the vision and prepare for these issues as not to fail in the achievement of the vision. They must also take the lead in fostering and achieving this vision (Campbell, 2010). 2. Instructional Leadership- a leader needs to be able to evaluate the level of instruction at his/her school, discover better ways to increase productivity of instruction be it through rearranging teacher loads or courses, modeling lessons for teachers or sending teachers to
42
remedial classes. The leader needs to foster a culture of learning where it is understood that higher levels of instruction are constantly demanded. The leader needs to implement other programs to help both teachers and students in achieving their learning goals. 3. Managerial Leadership- a leader is responsible for the managing of his/her school. This ranges from everything dealing with budgets and jumping through the hoops of spending, to when to have emergency drills and establishing the correct procedure for each. The leader also needs to be organized enough to make the needed changes to set procedure when needed. 4. Collaborative Leadership- a leader needs to be aware of the legal ramifications of the decisions that are made by the school. The leader needs to be aware of governmental programs as well as the regulations that exist within these programs so that the leader can assure that their school abides by these restrictions. The leader needs to be the public relations individual for the school, knowing how to address issues to the media that need to be addressed in a politically correct manner. In all, the leader needs to be able to make sure that all functions are running from the teachers teaching to the coaches coaching, the guidance office guiding and the leadership leading, and are all in their legal correctness. 5. Ethical Leadership- a leader must be fair and just in all that he/she does, even when the leader may not like a specific individual. The leader is also the example for the rest of the school in determining what appropriate behavior is and modeling this. 6. Political Leadership- a leader must know the political ramifications of every decision the school makes. This is largely seen in the field of budgeting: if the budget does not meet state and federal regulations, it will not be passed by the school board and then the students will not have the needed materials that they will need. The leader needs to
43
appreciate that the decisions made by the school often result in larger consequences, be it good or bad in the community. The leader also needs to be out in the broader community making sure that the interest of his/her students is being met. 7. Internship, the culminating standard, the only standard that is not part of the standards set for administration, the time for a graduate student to apply everything that he has been taught. b. Overview of Leadership Theories Leadership theories can be broken down into four main categories. These categories are: Trait Theory, Power Theory, Behaviors Theory and Transformational Theory (Campbell, 2010). Some of these theories overlap, mainly because the different theories used the first for a foundation. The initial theory was that of Trait. This theory holds the belief that it is the traits that one possesses that allow him to be a successful leader. Stogdill (Northhouse, 2007), analyzed these traits as being intelligence, self-confidence, determination and integrity. As time went on these attributes were added upon by theorists such as Yukl (1997), who added energy, internal focus of control, emotional maturity, and need for affiliation, as well as stress tolerance (Yukl, 1997). Both Yukl (1997) and Stogdill (Northourse, 2007) agree that it is not simply possessing these skills that creates a successful leader but also the ability to utilize them in every situation one faces. It is with these traits: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, energy, internal focus of control, emotional maturity, need for affiliation and stress tolerance, that a leader will be successful. The Leader must be intelligent: there will be situations that arise in which he/she must know how to think and analyze the issue. Self-confidence is key: as the leader of the
44
school you will have to be sure in the decisions that you make and not second guess yourself. Determination is vital, you will not always succeed. Leadership is truly trial by error, if you fail once you must be determined to find the correct solution (Hein, 1966). Therefore, a leader must possess integrity, he/she must be honest and live up to the standards that he/she expect those under them to live up to. If a leader does not possess this, they will be seen as hypocritical and not have the support that is needed for success. The second category of theory is that of Power theory. French and Raven (1959) identified what they called five specific bases of social power that are prevalent in all relationships. These are coercive, reward, legitimate, referent and expert powers (Tauber, 2007). Each of these powers are in every situation that we are in, most of them are ongoing simultaneously. A leader would use his/her coercive power when he/she has to deal out disciplinary action, he/she would use reward for a positive behavior. (Tauber, 2007) A leader should strive for referent power which exists only when those following admire their leader. Legitimate power exists due to the position that the leader is in. The thought is that leaders can do anything to the followers to make the follower follow. Finally, expert exists because if a leader is leading, the group has a hope that the leader knows what he/she is doing more than the follower does and therefore will follow the leader (Tauber, 2007 ). Thirdly is Behavior theory, which consists of theory X, classical system theory, and theory Y, human relations theory (Schwable, 2007). Theory X states that workers do not want to work, that they must be forced to do so, that the worker needs to be told what to do and above all else, desire security (Schwable, 2007). This could also be seen as transactional leadership where one believes that another will do something only if there is a reward in it for him/her. Theory Y, on
45
the other hand states that people find work a natural thing just like anything else and that they do not avoid doing it (Schwable, 2007). Finally, Transformational Theory, asks both the leader and the followers to go beyond their self-interest for the betterment of the group (Gill, 2006). Transformational leaders look for all to achieve a higher goal, transactional where everyone looks out for his/herself (Gill, 2006 ) Northouse states that transformational leaders are visionary, confident, articulate and that they are willing to listen to others (Campbell, 2010). c. Literature Review of Theory Behavior theory as theorized by McGregor (1960), looks at the motivation that is required for one to work. McGregor took the work of Maslow and added to it by evaluating the methods by which administrators work with their faculty (McGregor, 1960). This theory answers the question of how administrators see themselves in relation to their faculty (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008).
The theory is categorized into two subcategories, those of X and Y. Theory X, often referred to as classical systems theory, is more pessimistic when it relates to a leaders ideas of the motivation behind the facultys work. Theory Y, human relations theory, is more optimistic in its approach (Schwable, 2007). McGregor chose X and Y because he did not want anyone to think that one option was good and the other bad (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). Theory X states that people work as little as possible; they lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led by someone. They care more about their personal goals then
46
they do those of the organization. They only look out for themselves. Regarding change, the X theorist sees individuals slow to change if they change at all. In the area of intelligence, the X theorist sees people as gullible and not able to think on their own (Sergiovanni, 1993). Theory X administrators do not ask for their faculties advice as the faculty is seen as only looking out for their own job security instead of what is better for the company (Bogardus, 2007). Theory Y counters theory X (McGregor, 1960). Y Theorists view people as finding it necessary to put the organizations goals above their own, as such people are willing and ready to change whatever is needed in order to reach that goal. The followers are able to not only think on their own but are able to help the leader find solutions to the problems facing the organization (Sergiovanni, 1993). Theory Y administrators ask for their faculties assistance in solving problems (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). McGregor wanted to make it very clear that both X and Y theories are only assumptions (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). As assumptions they have to be tested with various situations (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). Each theory comes from deduction instead of research (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). It should also be noted that each theory has its pros and cons. For example, theory X could create a rebellious faculty that feels unappreciated, while a Y manager would come across as too relaxed and the faculty may become so as well resulting in an unproductive school (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). Finally they should not be looked at as simply on two different sides of the spectrum but as a completely different view of people (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). Both theory X and Y focus on administration of the team however; each looks at how management uses their leadership position. Overall, behavior theorists, realize that different
47
forms of leadership will have to be exerted with different situations (Koontz & Weihrich, 2008). Sometimes leaders need to be a theory X leader so as not to appear too aid back or if the faculty is not yet to the level of looking for the betterment of all instead of themselves and still require a reward in order to accomplish goals (Zgodzinski & Fallon, 2005). At other times theory Y needs to be utilized so that faculty can feel appreciated and take on higher visions than they might have previously achieved. With this view of their faculty, the faculty will be able to put forth their suggestions and expect the leader to pay attention to them as the suggestions will be seen as something that will be beneficial for the school. II. Psychological Test The beginning of the course started with each individual discovering his/her psychological type. Mine was an ESTJ type, extraverted thinking with sensing. This was very true for me. As I read the description of what an ESTJ is, several positive and negative things popped out to me that will both help and hinder my leadership capability. The qualities that will help most in my being a successful administrator include being able to set goals ahead of time, being a natural leader, being logical as well as using past experiences in making my decisions. The ability that I have to set goals ahead of time will help me in that I will always have things done before the deadline approaches. Being a natural leader is a positive thing due to the fact that an administrator must lead.
Skills in logic are needed as to understand when something is working or when it is not as well as utilizing past experiences to understand what good options are that may just not work. I also noted some weaknesses in my psychological type. These include making decisions without caring about what others may think, not listening to those around me even though they
48
may be more experienced than myself, enjoying a job where all the success is noted immediately, and judging a decision too quickly. I need to work on both listening to others and taking their experiences into my decision making. I know as a leader, I will have situations occur that I will not know how to handle and will need to allow myself to rely on the expertise of others. I need to realize that not all things can be seen as failure or success immediately and that I will need to be patient enough to wait for the results and then analyze them to make a decision on how I should modify the situation or leave it alone. This also takes in the final aspect that I spoke of that of judging things too quickly. The positives and negatives explained on my psychological type were made even more manifest through the various field experiences that were required of this class. III. Field Experience a. Shadowing the Principal The field experience portion of this course is the one in which I learned the most. Thanks to my administration I was put into real situations where I had to think as though I was an administrator. I must say that through each of the experiences I describe I have learned something, or have become aware of something that I do not think I would have had I not done the field experiences. These experiences ranged from thirty hours of shadowing my administration to creating a vision with my department and then finally exploring the core beliefs of myself as well as educators at my school. The completion of thirty hours of shadowing was by far the most time consuming. It was also here that I became aware of how my perspectives changed in ways that I did not think were
49
possible. The first thing that I learned this semester is that any idea of an administrative position being glamorous or more relaxed than that of a teacher was quickly dispersed. The first day that I shadowed my principal, our day started at 6:30 a.m. Two parents were waiting for him when he arrived at school; after meeting with these two parents he had to make the morning announcements; after this he met with the art teacher over some discipline issues that had arisen in her class the day before; finally two of the assistant principals came in and had him sign things. It was at this time that I went to class and he commented, Let me remind you of what I said when we came in the school: I have to use the bathroom. this was when I realized that he had been bombarded with items since he walked into the school and did not even have the time to use the bathroom. This very first experience changed the way that I looked at this position. I realized that this is not at all what I thought it would be and through other experiences that I will discuss have had to do some real soul searching to discover if I want to continue with this degree and eventually join the ranks of administration. I also learned from shadowing my principal is the fact that I need to stand up for what I know is school policy and not try to change it based on individuals. An incident occurred at a basketball game where the cheerleading policy is that the cheerleaders must cheer for the girls as well as the boys basketball game; they cannot simply cheer for the boys. The rule states that if you are not there for the girls game then you cannot cheer for the boys (Switzer, 2009). This incident involved two seniors who happened to be twins, whodid not cheer for the girls game because they were attending a club meeting. They arrived to the game after the girls game had ended and therefore could not cheer for the boys game. The father of the two cheerleaders became irate and threatened to go to the school board office regarding the cheerleading sponsor for not allowing his daughters the chance to cheer. The assistant principal
50
was there, informed the parent of the rule, stated that the school was indeed going to live up to this rule and that his daughters were not going to cheer that evening. The father became even more irate and eventually had to be escorted off of the grounds by the security. I learned several things from this experience, such as do not give up on your teachers. Had this assistant principal changed the ruling, the administrators credibility would have been lost, which could have resulted in a complete change in the school culture since this administrator is known for supporting his teachers. Secondly, I learned that I can never allow my anger to cloud my judgment or to react to anger. I am a very hot-headed individual and it would have taken a lot for me not to scream back at this individual and, in doing so, proving to be a bad example for my students as well as the community. This is something that I need to work on. Thirdly, rules are rules and that is all that there is to it. The rules of a school should not be bent or changed for any individual regardless of who they may be or what they have done for the school in the past. Another situation that I was put in was when I was asked to shadow the Disciplinarian. This specific day was filled with disciplinary issues, ranging from two fights to drugs on campus to a student needing to discuss bullying. Previous to this experience, I had always been rather distraught with how disciplinary issues were handled at the school, feeling as though students were not punished enough for the offense that I have written them up. However, after shadowing this administrator for the time allotted, I realized that there is much more in making a disciplinary decision then an assigned amount of time for suspension in the Time Out Room. I realized that she had to take written statements on everything that occurred and had to call angry parents who supported their child no matter what the child may/may not have done. The principal then had to come up with a logical punishment to fit the infraction. Finally the
51
principal had to administer the punishment. When there is an expulsion she would have to go to court on the schools behalf and bring all evidence collected on an individual. . After this day, I can say that my write ups have dropped by at least seventy-five percent. I have created different strategies with which to deal with a student that do not involve my sending them to the discipline office. Another shadowing experience that also helped me in reducing the number of write ups was when I had to analyze and then decide what course of disciplinary action to take for two students. I had never had to think of disciplinary issues in this fashion before. It just seemed so simple to write up a referral on a student and let the administration take it from there. However, when put in this position, I had to analyze the severity of the issue and then come up with a punishment that fit the severity so as not to over or under punish an individual for his/her behavior. I also learned that when doing this, personal feelings about an individual should not cloud the judgment rendered. This semester I have learned a lot about administration, simply by shadowing and watching what occurs around me. Prior to this I had no idea what occurred outside of my classroom walls. I have grown tremendously from this experience and continue to do so, because I have seen what the administration does on a daily basis, and not only what occurs in the four walls of my classroom. My principal feels that the best way to learn is by doing. It is as Piet Hein, a Danish scientist, inventor and poet once stated, The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less. (Hein, 1966) I believe that the same can be held true for leadership. It is with this in mind that I fulfill the task set out by my administration, that with hope one day, I will be able to run a school in a successful manner.
52
b. Create a Vision Field Experience The Create a Vision field experience, allowed me to feel what it was really like to be in a leadership position. I was able to progress through the awkward, what am I doing and can I do this phase to I can do this and I just did phases. It put me in a scenario where I had to take a group of teachers, whom I could categorize into three distinct groups, and learn how to get each of these groups to cooperate for the betterment of the whole. The experiences started by passing a sheet of paper out to each of the teachers. On these sheets of papers various questions were asked. These questions ranged from, what is your goal for your classroom currently? to what is your goal for your students when they leave your classroom? to what is your hope that your students will still have with them five years from now that that learned from you? Immediately each group took a different direction. The first group, the realists those that see the world as they really are and not how it could be, stated that visions are too idealistic, that they cannot be achieved because there is simply no way of measuring them. This group simply put anything on a paper and then turned it back in. The second group, the coaches, decided that this should be like an athletic vision and then tried to think of their classrooms as such. The third group, the idealist, those that see the world as it could be and not as it is, really enjoyed the activity and put real thought into what they wrote and what they expected from their students. The answers were then discussed on the papers. It was at this time that I had to take a break from the way that I had originally planned to do things. The realist started to protest, the idealist started to get on the realist and the coaches stopped caring, saying that they had accomplished their part and that I could do the rest. This was the first time that I had to show real leadership. I had to retrace my steps going over again why it was important for our
53
department to have a goal. This time it was a lot less talking on my part and a lot more listening. This is when I discovered that as a leader I need to not only talk but listen to the concerns of those around me. After this was completed, I assigned someone to be the scribe for the group and each individual talked about what he/she at least hoped their students were gaining from their classrooms. Upon the completion of this assignment, we took all of the individual visions and put them together and created, The students of Woodlawn High School will be active members of their community by participating in the democratic process as well as understanding and appreciating a global culture and economy by being an upstanding citizen. Once we had our vision, I went back to the realists and asked them what they thought. As a group they decided that it was too idealistic but not as much as they thought it could have been. The idealistic though that it was too realistic and did not expect enough of the students and the coaches thought that it was just fine. Therefore, the two extremes thought it was too extreme on either side, so I made the decision that it was balanced and left it at that. This experience taught me several things about leadership. First, it taught me never to judge a book by its cover. I knew that the members of my department were very different from each other but the way that they were different really caught me by surprise. The members of the idealistic and realistic groups were not at all who I thought would have been. Secondly, it taught me not to lose control of my temper. Usually if I have a hard time reaching someone I get frustrated and sometimes even angry; however, I realized that anger would not solve this problem and in reality would have only made it worse. Thirdly, it taught me the importance of having all stakeholders, administration, faculty, students and the community, involved. Had I not had everyone involved, the vision would have been weak. Teachers would
54
not have liked the vision and they would have probably either rebelled against it or ignored it completely. c. Core Beliefs The core belief field experience, was something that I found very interesting in class and after discussing it with my administration decided that it would be a school-wide survey. I started with my own department; we had a broad discussion on our educational beliefs. I utilized the circle talk, where one circle formed an inner circle and were allowed to talk about the topic and the second group who formed the outer circle could only listen to what was being said and were forbidden to speak until they were the inner group; it was harder for the outside circle not to talk with my department than it had been for the circle in class. The discussion was very interesting. It was determined by the inner group that students are the ones to blame because they do not come to class prepared to learn. The interesting thing to me was that this inner group was made up of the idealist of the Create A Vision assignment as well as two of the coaches. Upon switching groups, the realist and the other two coaches stated that it was more of the parents and teachers fault that students were not learning. This group stated that if parents insisted upon higher expectations for their children and the teachers would talk to the parents and understand their expectations, then the two could work together and the student would have to achieve. After this, I sent out an email to the sixty-seven teachers of my school and found that out of the forty teachers that responded a third of the teachers think that all three are vital. If we have students working, parents who care and teachers teaching we will be successful. After this
55
result was returned to me I met again with my department, through emails and discussed ways in which we would be able to achieve student achievement. This time, however, the teachers in my department, went back to the way that they were during the Create A Vision. The idealist gave great ideas, the realist said that no matter what we do this can never happen as much as it should, and the coaches simply went with the majority. This experience, taught me a lot about judging. In the Create a Vision I thought the realists, simply did not care about their students, that the idealists cared a lot and that the coaches just went with the flow. This experience changed all of those aforementioned thoughts. The realists, as it turned out, did not want to create a vision because they feared that it would fail. The idealists were on board with creating a vision; however, they felt that the majority of its accomplishment came from the students doing the work and not so much on what they actually did to achieve the goal, and the coaches really were just along for the ride. I also learned that you cannot judge a good teacher based on if they want to complete an assignment or not. If I had judged the teachers solely on the Create a Vision assignment, I would have judged them completely wrong and that would not have been fair to them. So in conclusion, a leader needs to be aware of what is under the surface to discover what the real problem is and then go from there to create a solution. Often times, I hear people say, I thought I fixed that problem only for it to come back. The clue that we are missing is that we are not going deep enough in solving the problem; we are only scratching the surface when we really need to dig deeper. III. Philosophy of Leadership All three of these experiences, shadowing my principal, creating a department vision, and exploring core beliefs has led me to form my philosophy of leadership. I believe that being a
56
leader is a virtue that requires many different characteristics. These characteristics range from humility to bravery to compassion. This is my philosophy of what a leader should be and what I will strive to be as I become a leader. A leader must, first and foremost, take charge; however he/she must do it with love and compassion for those who work under him/her. A good leader will only give constructive criticism that builds up those around him and does not tear them down. He will also provide suggestions for the betterment of those around him. A leader should be like a coach on a football team and take complete responsibility for the outcome of his team. He must understand that the end result will ultimately be upon his shoulders, and with this in mind, he must be willing and ready to make necessary changes for the betterment of the school and the learning environment that exists there. Next, a leader must be a good listener. He/She must understand that with the many problems a leader must face that he will not know all the answers and therefore must swallow his pride in asking for others for help. He must realize that, even though he is the head coach of a team, he does have assistants, and these include teachers, custodians, parents, students and even secretaries, depending on the problem. Third, a leader must be goal driven: he must have a vision for his school. He needs to work with the other players on his team to collaborate and discover what an attainable vision should be. He should also work with each stakeholder to identify problems that could arise in attaining these goals, then find solutions to the foreseen problems before they have a chance to arise. Fourth, a leader must possess both bravery and skills of logic. He must be brave enough to start the change in culture that has been decided upon as well as to stick with the change in
57
face of discrimination from members of his faculty who may not agree with the change. He must also be logical enough to analyze the change to ensure that it is reaching its intended goal or not. In the case of the failure of a change he must be responsible enough to take the blame and approach the drawing board again. A leader must be mild-tempered and collected. He cannot allow his emotions to cloud his judgment in making a decision. He cannot allow the actions of another person to cause him to react in a manner that would put a bad face on the school or his community. He must always remember that his actions are being viewed and reenacted by his faculty and students as the acceptable thing to do. A leader needs to be prepared for anything that could arise. He must have a backup plan for anything that could possibly fail. Once again, the stakeholders should have a say so in this policy-making so as to have the whole team on board. Finally as an Eagle Scout, I believe that a good leader should live the scout law, which is to say that a leader is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. I find that any leader who can possess these qualities as well as those described will be a good leader and will be successful in his/her endeavors. As a believer in the Behavior Theory, I know that there will be times that I will have to use different forms of motivation to get my faculty and students to do things. I understand that as a leader I must realize that even though I can use my logic skills and leadership skills that I must also be willing to listen to those around me. Along with my stakeholders, I need to create a vision for the school that we will focus all of our endeavors to achieve. I need to understand that teachers have varying views on how students learn and the responsibility that goes into the learning, and I need to be able to understand each perspective and explore methods for helping
58
teachers in each view. Finally, I need to be as I have always been taught and allow the traits of an Eagle Scout be a main factor in my leadership style.
Bibliography Bogardus, A. M. (2007). Professional in Human Resources Certification. Indianapolis: Whiley Publishing. Campbell, K.T. (2010). EDL 612 Course Documents. Hammond: Southeastern University Publishing. Gill, R. (2006 ). Theory and Practice of Leadership . London: Sage Publications . Green, R. (2009). Protecting the Art of Leadership 3rd edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon . Hein, P. (1966, October 14). A Poet with a Slide Rule . Life , pp. 60-64.
59
Kirkpatrick, S. A., & Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: do traits matter? Academy of Management Executive, 48-50. Koontz, H., & Weihrich, H. (2008). Essentials of Management: An International Perspective . New Delhi: McGraw-Hill . McGregor, D. (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise . New York : McGraw Hill. Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership Theory and Practice Fourth Edition . Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications . Schwable, K. (2007). Information Technology: Project Management . Boston : Thomson . Sergiovanni, T. (1993). Supervision: A redefinition . New York : McGraw-Hill . Switzer, A. (2009). Cheerleading Handbook. Baton Rouge: Woodlawn High School. Tauber, R. T. (2007 ). Classroom Management Sound Theory and Effective Practice. Westport : Praegar. Yukl, G. (1997). Leadership in Organizations 5 edition. Boston: Prentice Hall. Zgodzinski, E. J., & Fallon, L. F. (2005). Essentials of Public Health Management . London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers International.
60

Case

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

School Profile Of Woodlawn High School

Documented by: Sean C. Tate EDL 610 Dr. Nan Adams

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

58% 9% 11% 22%

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

to professional development to make the teacher a better educator.

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One increase the scores.

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One Weaknesses

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One

EDL 612 Major Artifact One