Individual Leadership Plan Narrative Summary

Year II Benchmark Assessment #1

Complete and submit one Assessment document for each of your three Year I ILP goals.

Name: Shameka Andre

Date:

CPSEL (circle one) CPSEL 1 CPSEL 2 CPSEL 3 CPSEL 4 CPSEL 5 CPSEL 6

3C-1Strengthen school climate through participation, engagement, connection, and a sense of

belonging among all students and staff.

The following narrative describes the extent to which actions were taken and results achieved in
meeting and/or exemplifying the above standard for each standard concept. Narrative responses for
each question should be no less than 300-and no more than 1000 words for each numbered question.
Please type your response under each question in a blue ink.

1-6 Practice the Meets the Standard (required)

1. Describe the factors that inspired the development of your clear vision for this goal?

Goal: Standard 5 Ethics & Integrity: Education leaders make decisions, model, and behave in ways that
demonstrate professionalism, ethics, integrity, justice, and equity and hold staff to the same standard.

 5A-3: Engage in professional learning to be up-to-date with education research, literature, best
practices, and trends to strengthen ability to lead.

Last school year was marked with unprecedented change in education. School closures continued into
the 2020 school year which resulted in tremendous changes in how we educate students and
engagement school communities remotely. Key stakeholders in education continued to voice concerns
about the impacts of distance learning on student’s academic growth and social emotional learning. The
decline in student engagement made it evident that once students returned to campus for in person
instruction, teachers and school leaders would need to provide robust supports to ensure students were
on track to meeting learning outcomes. With that in mind, I wanted to ensure that I was prepared to
meet this need when students returned so, I focused on staying up to date with current research, trends
and best practices in education.

2. Detail the factors that informed the design and direction of your action plan for achieving your
vision?

To further my own personal growth, I completed several graduate courses this school year. The courses
included Conceptual Curriculum Perspectives, Organizational Theory and Advanced Research. These
courses prepared me work with staff around a shared vision, to understand the complexity of school
organizations and policy and analyze data in the effort to increase student achievement. In anticipation
of students returning to campus full time, my work in these courses will guide the implementation of
academic supports for students.

The second factor that informed the design of this goal was engaging in professional development that
would support the shared vision and initiatives of my school site. Ensuring students were provided with
rigorous instruction during distance learning and planning adequate supports for students once they
returned to campus was a priority at both school sites. Therefore, it was important to engage in
professional learning aligned to these goals.

3. What professional learning did you solicit and experience in order to inform your practice within
this goal, and how did it impact your vision and actions?

This particular goal revolves around increasing leadership skills through professional development. I was
able to take advantage of a variety of professional development opportunities that were aligned to
supporting teachers in best instructional practices and the cultivation of professional learning
communities at both school sites. These professional learning opportunities included:

 ACSA Leadership Summit 

 ACSA Every Child Counts Conference 
 PLCs At Work 
 Time For Change- Four Essential Skills for Transformational School and District Leaders 
 DNA Math
Through these professional development opportunities, I was able to collaborate with the school
teachers and the administrative teams to explore research-based instructional practices, plan
interventions for the upcoming school year and refine grade level planning. Knowledge and skills gained
from these professional development opportunities were applied when meeting with teachers during
the evaluation process and while collaborating with grade level teams. The PLCS AT Work professional
development was done in conjunction with teachers, where we read current literature revolving around
standards -based instruction, unwrapping standards and instructional strategies to increase rigor while
simultaneously supporting student’s individual needs. We then discussed how teachers planned on
incorporating these practices to support student growth.
Knowledge gained from these professional development opportunities shifted my thinking with this goal
from it focusing solely on my individual growth to how collaborative professional development increases
my individual growth. By engaging in professional development with a team, I was able to see how
teachers viewed their role in increasing student engagement and achievement and the unique
challenges faced at each grade level. By engaging in dialog, we were able to discuss solutions to
common barriers that traditional prevent teachers from trying more research-based instructional
practices.

4. What specific actions did you take build the leadership capacity of others within this goal work?

I believe the biggest action was engaging in collaborative professional development. The PLCS At Work
professional development was completed with the majority of the teaching staff over a series of
Saturday mornings. The Time for change conference was completed with my administrative team at
Cottonwood which enabled us to discuss ideas and plans for implementation in real time. Throughout
the Every Child Succeeds conference, I discussed the breakout sessions with other vice principals within
the district. We shared take-aways from the varying sessions and how strategies can be brought back to
the district to support student needs.

5. What specific actions did you take to engage and compel the staff and/or broader community in
cooperatively working toward your individual goal toward becoming a shared goal?
Response:

Engaging in professional development to further site initiatives assisted in cultivating a professional

learning community and working toward my goal in preparing to support students academically upon a
return to campus as well as staying up to date with current research and trends in education.

In completing graduate courses and attending educational conferences I was able to apply this
knowledge when working with teachers in grade level teams to review NWEA data and communicating
this data to parents during ELAC meetings. For example, although I was reassigned to a new site I was
able to pull site-based assessment data reports for ELA and Math, disaggregate the data and present the
findings to parents during an ELAC meeting. I communicated student growth by year with parents and
discussed how the data was being used to inform instructional decisions and funding next school year.
The data was also presented at the School Site Council meeting to connect spending to student needs.
6. How did your work specifically result in increasing student and staff growth and well- being?
Include substantiating data (qualitative or quantitative).
Response:
I believe my engagement in professional development opportunities enabled me to contribute
to student and staff growth and well-being in a variety of ways. This included exploring best
practices with teachers, applying those strategies throughout the evaluation process and
increasing student engagement through literacy and team building. By researching and
launching the Battle of the Books competition, students engaged collaborative teams and read
varying genres. Being that this goal focused on self- growth through professional development, I
was unable to measure how the goal actively increased student and staff growth and
development.
5-7 Practice that Exemplifies the Standard (optional)

7. In your work within this goal/standard, describe innovative practices or programs did you
designed and employed in your work with staff and/or students?
Response:

8. Describe how the positive results of your work in this goal resulted in your
staff/students/community rallying their commitment and support for this effort.
Response:

9. Describe the way in which you leveraged relationships to distribute leadership and
accountability across the community in order to continuously improve outcomes beyond
expectations.
Response: