ELCC Standards for District Leadership: Standard 2
Standard: A district-level education leader applies knowledge that promotes the success of every student by sustaining a district culture conducive to collaboration, trust, and a personalized learning environment with high expectations for students; creating and evaluating a comprehensive, rigorous, and coherent curricular and instructional district program; developing and supervising the instructional and leadership capacity across the district; and promoting the most effective and appropriate technologies to support teaching and learning within the district.
My Interpretation of the Standard: Standard 2 represents the district leader's ability to effectively lead through transitions and changes. What matters most in our work is student achievement, and Standard 2 addresses the fact that district leaders must always be looking on the horizon in order to make sense of and lead the district in ways that foster student achievement and competency in a digitally-rich world, which is an ever-changing landscape. Standard 2 also addresses the reality that a successful district leader cultivates an administrative team focused on the mission.
Functions:
- Candidates can promote the most effective and appropriate district technologies to support teaching and learning within the district. Candidates understand and can advocate, nurture, and sustain a district culture and instructional program conducive to student learning through collaboration, trust, and a personalized learning environment with high expectations for students.
- Candidates understand and can create and evaluate a comprehensive, rigorous, and coherent curricular and instructional district program.
- Candidates understand and can develop and supervise the instructional and leadership capacity across the district.
- Candidates understand and can promote the most effective and appropriate district technologies to support teaching and learning within the district.
Evidence of Mastery:
- Analysis of Education in other Cultures: As part of our coursework, we examined the Chinese and Finnish educational systems. I have found this education to be helpful to my work as a superintendent on an almost daily basis.
- Digital Leadership Plan: Understanding and leveraging the learning afforded by the purposeful use of digital devices in the educational environment has been a decades-long focus of my contribution at the local, state, and national level. I was excited to see that the superintendent endorsement coursework included an opportunity for us to explore this topic in depth. My Digital Leadership Plan demonstrates how I am helping to lead in the area of educational technology, which is a critical part of Standard 2.
- District Improvement Plan: Knowing how to strategically move a district forward by working with an administrative team is an important part of increasing student achievement. Our coursework asked us to develop a District Improvement Plan, as a way to demonstrate mastery of this concept.
- Fall Professional Learning Analysis: How one sets up professional learning opportunities for teachers is critical for teacher buy-in but also teacher contribution to the end goal. Our coursework asked us to analyze our Fall Professional Learning activities, which I found to be a very enlightening process.
- Full Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) Ahead: As an example of how I am leading in a way that is looking on the horizon for better ways to achieve our goal, we are beginning a Full STEAM Ahead mobile makerspace initiative. To help us start this initiative, I have been working all year with a design team, which consists of two Yale architecture students, a student, a researcher, and me. Next school year we will launch our Full STEAM Ahead mobile makerspace cart, and I hope to have a Sitka Yale Winter Fellow to person the cart and help teachers begin to implement the concepts of tinkering as a way to increase creativity, computer science skills, and collaboration. Also, our Full STEAM Ahead mobile makerspace will provide teachers with a safe opportunity to explore a changing landscape regarding teacher and student roles. As part of our coursework, I wrote a Crossett grant and narrative to help provide curriculum and access to this new learning resource.
Summary: In summary, given the evidence I have presented, I believe I have met or exceeded the expectations for Standard 2.