Secondary
You are a school principal in a 9-12 grade high school. In preparation for a meeting with your ELA department chair, Mr. Wong, you have been analyzing the students’ ELA performance data. Including Mr. Wong, your school has eight ELA teachers. For seven of the ELA teachers, 70% or more of their students are demonstrating good to exceptional outcomes on their writing benchmark data. Four of the teachers have historically yielded student scores with above average state standardized test results in comparison to schools in your district with similar demographics. In previous discussions, Mr. Wong has cited the teachers’ efforts to plan together utilizing the pacing guide, core program, and assessment results as the primary reasons for their students’ positive outcomes.
One teacher, however, Mr. Blumenstock, has been identified as an outlier by the district’s assessment coordinator, relative to the results of his students, compared to the other two teachers. Additionally, you have observed evidence that suggests Mr. Blumenstock is behind on the pacing guide compared to his colleagues. You also have anecdotal information that he does not engage with his teammates during scheduled content team meetings, which leads you to believe that he is not making an effort to plan with them outside the scheduled meetings.
In 750-1,000 words, analyze your chosen case using the three-part guiding questions below.
Part 1: Analyze the Case
Consider the following questions to begin analyzing the situation:
What do you consider the responsibility of the team lead/department chair in assisting the outlier teacher?
What stakeholders should be included in the conversation relative to next steps? Are these individual conversations or a group discussion or both?
What questions should be considered when making a determination about next steps?
Part 2: Identify the Larger Issues
Consider the following questions to analyze the contextual issues present in the situation:
What school or district policies might affect your decisions?
What additional information do you need as part of your decision-making process?
What are the potentially positive and negative outcomes of doing nothing?
What are the potentially positive and negative outcomes of taking action?
Part 3: Create an Action Plan
Use the following questions to guide you in describing what approach you will take to assist the team lead/department chair to help the outlier teacher, including 3-5 specific action steps:
What is your plan moving forward?
How does your plan sustain a culture of collaboration, trust, learning, and high expectations?
How will you include the critical stakeholders in the decision-making process?
What challenges do you anticipate?
How will you provide ongoing support to your team lead/department chair?
How will you evaluate the results of your teacher leader’s efforts?
What does the timeline look like?
