1. Developing Trusting Relationships: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with building trust. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. There was no clear evidence that Mr. Rogers spent time developing a relationship of trust with the staff (Martin, 2019). All of the peer responses that I read in the discussion board were in agreement with this assessment. The analysis of the question in Martin, et. al., (2022) about relying on others is a key indicator of this shortcoming. Mr. Rogers did not meet with campus members to analyze the problems or look for common solutions. Instead, he came in with his own solution at the very start. 2. Leading in the Realization of the Vision: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with the realization of the vision. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The consensus among the peer discussions reviewed and my own analysis point to a lack of vision on the part of Mr. Rogers and by extension, no shared vision between the stakeholders in the school. The first question in Martin, et. al., (2022) about a clear vision is missed in the scenario. From the actions of Mr. Rogers, such as doubting that the teachers would use new equipment if they had it and worrying about the college making their concerns about LHS public, it seems that Mr. Rogers is reacting to problems instead of analyzing the situation in comparison to a shared vision for the school. 3. Making Shared Decisions: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with shared decision making. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The assessment from my analysis on shared decision making is in line with that of the peer discussions. Mr. Rogers is making decisions independently of the teachers and the community. In the first year, he started planning to implement an early college program without first consulting the teachers. Many of the faculty leaders have been at the school for more than 15 years. Discussions with these individuals would have provided insight and helped forge alliances by making collective decisions about the direction the school should go in. 4. Communicating Effectively: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with effective communication. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. Most of the discussion posts reviewed pointed to an ineffective communication strategy employed by Mr. Rogers. In the first year, he came out and announced a radical change to the school by implementing an early college program. This idea created a lot of push-back from the staff that signaled a lack of a safe and open communication system between them all. In the second year, Mr. Rogers held a faculty meeting where he announced the poor review of LHS by the college. 5. Resolving Conflict & Issues: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with conflict/issues resolution. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The consensus among my peers seems to be that there is conflict within the staff as indicated by the negative and low perception of the students by the faculty. A few noted the conflict between the faculty and the college as well. In all of these cases, the conflict was not dealt with by Mr. Rogers and was instead either ignored or he took sides. 6. Motivating and Developing Others: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with motivating/developing others. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. All of the peer discussions reviewed indicated a lack of motivation by the faculty and a lack of effort to meet the needs of the students and staff to help drive motivation within these groups. Mr. Rogers was reacting to the individual events and pushing for changes without working to meet the needs of those he was seeking to induce a change within. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. The primary problem introduced by the case study (Martin, 2019), is that few students from Landon HS are attending King Community College and of those that do, few finish the program. The remainder of Cast Study #1 provides demographic information about the school and community, a brief history of the principal’s (Mr. Rogers) interactions with the staff, and a few other background pieces of information such as the changing demographics of the community. The school is in a rural community with a large population of low socio-economic families. The community is starting to see an increase in families moving to the area that are in higher socio-economic brackets. The school faculty do not seem to be in alignment with the principal and KCC over the prospects of the students. From the scenario, there are several near-by colleges that students from LHS attend after graduation. There are also several demographic groupings at LHS. Currently, approximately half of the student population come from families that did not attend college. At the same time, more professional families are moving in which will alter that percentage. The information given does not indicate what group of students are performing poorly at KCC and there are no concrete indicators given as to the areas they are struggling with. All that is provided is that they are not finishing the two-year program. The first information needed would be to find out more about the students who are attending KCC and what specific areas of deficiency they are experiencing. From the information given, the next area for investigation is why students are not performing well at LHS. The teachers say that they are more interested in going to work than going to school. There are several options to explore at this point. The scenario discusses the Mr. Rogers views and the teachers views along with demographic information. It seems that most students are in a low socio-economic demographic. Their parents work, but do not make enough money for the family and the students have to work as well. This does not help the students to see a value in school. This would lead to exploring why the school is not partnering with the community and the college to improve employment opportunities through avenues such as trade programs and associate degrees. These questions lead to a more root problem of a lack of unified, shared vision for the school that incorporates the school, students, parents, community, and college. Each group has their own goals and agendas which are not aligned and creating conflict. Additional data still needed to verify this as the root problem and help with moving toward solutions would be related to the local economy and the school. There is only some data given about the demographics. It would be helpful to have better information on what students do after leaving high school. How many go straight to work, how many go for some secondary education, how many go to college. Additionally, data on how many students work during high school will be informative. From there, data on teacher interventions and classroom activities along with the results of those will help in identifying strategies that work and strategies that do not. Another area of inquiry would be to find out what the objectives were for the students who went to KCC. Were they looking for a trade certificate, a 2-year degree, or looking to move on to a 4-year college? This data will help in discussions with all of the stakeholders to clearly identify the needs of the students. From this analysis, there seems to be a need for all of the stakeholders to work together to create a shared vision for the school. If the students and families are more worried about paying current bills than going to school, then traditional educational incentives and opportunities will not be as relevant. By working together to include the parents and the community in the vision planning, Mr. Rogers can help to align the school with the current needs of the students. From the information given, it does not seem that the educational work at LHS is aligned with the job market needs locally. By including teachers in the discussions, the teachers are able to build upon the strategies that have worked in the past and better align them with the students. Having conversations and an aligned vision with the community will help the teachers provide activities that are more motivating to the students because they are more relevant to their current situation. Having KCC involved in the building of the vision and action steps helps the college to align their offerings with the community and educate the community about the opportunities and support they offer. As these groups work together, they will also have a chance to include in their planning support for the current economic needs of the students. The scenario states that working is a top priority for the students right now. If the school can work with the community and the teachers to better accommodate this environment, then the students will be more motivated to continue with their studies to meet their goal. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. Case Study #1 (Matin, 2019) was an interesting scenario that I have seen in various ways many times. I was very interested in seeing the viewpoints and analysis of my peers. I had my interpretation of the reading, but I am very aware that I bring my unique viewpoint that has its own blind spots. I have enjoyed reading through the posts and seeing the various ideas and thoughts. In general, we were all in alignment together. Just like any concept that deals in averages, everyone has various divergences. I found many that went into greater depth than I did on some competencies (Martin, et. al., 2022). The theme was in alignment, but I was able to see a different viewpoint and nuance. I have learned that what is important or substantial to me is not necessarily the same for others. I have a very strong dislike for making avoidable errors. I am very willing to take a calculated, researched risk knowing that the result may not come out as intended. At the same time, I prefer to get as much input and outside information as I can before deciding, so I don’t make preventable mistakes. It would be interesting and informative to see how each person’s unique analysis coalesced into a final root cause. It was not always obvious, but there did seem to be some that could reasonably go to a different conclusion than mine did.
I have always taught my students to trust the process when making decisions and working through a problem. The work of analyzing the competencies for mistakes and successes was very helpful in making an in-depth determination. I also found a great deal of benefit in reading through the peer discussions. I did not make any large shifts in my analysis, but I did see other nuances that came to the surface. One in particular was my consideration of trade programs. Ironically, I teach a CTE class, but my initial analysis did not include that on the list. I was originally focused on 4-year college analysis. Bringing in the different viewpoints helped me to see more than I had seen otherwise and also to be aware of things that I overlooked myself. I do believe that I worked down to a useful and workable root cause of the problem. Doing a root cause analysis is something that I do routinely. I enjoy puzzles and solving problems. Root cause analysis is something that I teach my students as well. We spend a great deal of time and effort into collaborative problem solving and analysis. At the same time, I am very confident in my analysis because the situation presented in the case study is something that I have actively been working on with schools around the country. I have been fortunate to be a part of a team working with low socio-economic school to create a collaboration between the teachers, administrators, students, parents, local business and industry, and community colleges. What we have been doing has been making an impact in those communities. My experience along with the detailed analysis process gives me a high degree of confidence. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge.
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About 5311This is my first course in my principal certification program. The course focus on leadership. ArchivesCategories
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