• Assess the school climate (teacher-‐teacher rela0onships) o Survey faculty (School Culture Triage Survey) o Board interviews of staff / report informa>on
• Create the knowledge o Present Strengthsquest material
• Build self-‐awareness o Faculty and staff do pre-‐survey ac>vity o Faculty and staff does Strengthsquest on-‐line survey and finds their top 5 strengths o Record personal strengths
• Publicize Strengths o Principal collects everyone’s Strengthsquest survey o Signs are made for each person’s office/work area/classroom lis>ng their strengths o Team talent map will be constructed and placed in the faculty work room o Ar>cula>ng the use of the office signs and the team talent map
• Use strengths to match people with tasks o As tasks arise, they will be assigned based on individual’s strengths
• Use strengths to match people together into teams to accomplish more complex tasks o As complex/mul>ple person tasks arise, team members will be assigned so that
mul>ple strengths will be on each team
• Match strengths to peer evalua0on tools o Create a tool-‐box of classroom evalua>on tools and assign tools to individuals that
match their strengths • Begin peer evalua0on program
o Teachers evaluate each other using the tools that fits their strength
*Poten>al future ac>on
• Students discover their strengths and use them to solve problems, accomplish tasks, and select career paths
Crea>ng a culture within faculty of support and excellence through the shaping of school climate Lloyd McIntyre and Mark ORe
INITATIVE OVERVIEW
A school faculty is a collec>on of individuals united behind a common mission, to educate. The individuals on the faculty must possess a diversity of skills, knowledge, and personali>es to reach and teach every student at the school in all the areas that educa>on occurs. The mission of the school can be compromised by these same individuals allowing personal differences to overshadow the important job that they must accomplish together. The differences can be a lack of apprecia>on between staff members who have different skill sets. The differences can occur from viewing problems and solu>ons from different perspec>ves. The differing views can both lead to solu>ons, yet create conflict. The differences can arise from perceived unequal work loads or work ethics. Regardless of the sources of conflict, a faculty that has difficulty working together will adversely affect communica>on and collegiality that is so necessary for school improvement and therefore student achievement. The faculty loses their focus and the common mission is lost. Our project is to create culture on the faculty that respects the diversity found among it and then to grow that respect into a culture that supports each other, communicates with each other, and builds each other into the best team that they can be.
Empirical data, has made very clear, the rela>onship between school climate and student success. Although a defini>on of school climate is not widely agreed upon, the desire for student achievement is.. Iden>fying the “strengths” of teachers as a means to build, foster, and retain professional capital in order to improve school climate and ul>mately improve student performance, is something all schools can do.
-‐ Woolfolk Hoy, A., & Hoy, W. K. (2012). Instruc(onal leadership: A research-‐based guide to learning in schools (4th ed.) -‐ J. Winter & J. Sweeney (1994). Improving School Climate: Administrators Are Key NASSP Bulle>n (p. 65-‐69) -‐ A. Hargreaves & M. Fullan (2012). Professional Capital Transforming Teaching in Every School -‐ J. Luisell, R. Putnman, M. Handler, A Feinberg, (2005). Whole-‐school posi>ve behavior support on student discipline problems and academic
performance, Educa(onal Psychology -‐ J. Shindler, A. Jones, A. Dee Williams, C. Taylor, H. Cadenas (2009), Exploring the School Climate – School Achievement Connec(on and
Making Sense of Why the First Proceeds the Second
• Assess the school climate (teacher-‐teacher rela0onships) o Survey faculty (summer 2013, principal) o Board interviews of staff (December 2013–January 2014, board of control)
• Create the knowledge o Present Strengthsquest material (In-‐service May 2014, principal)
• Build self-‐awareness o Pre-‐survey ac>vity (In-‐service May 2014, faculty and staff) o Do Strengthsquest on-‐line survey and find the top 5 strengths of each staff member
(In-‐service May 2014, faculty and staff) o Record personal strengths (In-‐service May 2014, faculty and staff)
• Publicize Strengths o Collect everyone’s Strengthsquest survey (Summer – 2014, principal) o Signs are made for each person’s office/work area/classroom lis>ng their strengths
(Summer 2014, administra>ve assistant) o Team talent map will be constructed and placed in the faculty work room (Summer
2014, administra>ve assistant) o Ar>cula>ng the use of the office signs and the team talent map (In-‐service August
2014, principal)
• Use strengths to match people with tasks o As tasks arise, they will be assigned based on individual’s strengths (ongoing,
administra>ve team and others)
• Use strengths to match people together into teams to accomplish more complex tasks o As complex/mul>ple person tasks arise, team members will be assigned so that
mul>ple strengths will be on each team (ongoing, administra>ve team and others)
• Match strengths to peer evalua0on tools o Create a tool-‐box of classroom evalua>on tools and assign tools to individuals that
match their strengths (Summer 2015-‐principal)
• Begin peer evalua0on program o Teachers evaluate each other using their assigned tools (ongoing 2015, faculty)
• “School Culture Triage Survey” NASSP • Strengths Quest Cliion – Gallup • Strengths Insight Guide – Gallup • Signature Themes Report – Gallup • Theme Sequence Report – Gallup • Ac>on Planning Tool – Gallup • Team Talent Map Tool – Gallup • Cer>ficate Creator -‐ Gallup
• In the graph above, a posi>ve correla>on between School Climate and Achievement is illustrated. As school climate improves, so does performance. (Exploring The School Climate, 2009)
• API = Average Performance Indicator
INITIATIVE OVERVIEW
