1/ Reflect

To make the second half of the year a success you’re going to have to look backwards and evaluate your progress. Ideally, you started the year with an action plan (sometimes called a school improvement plan, plan on a page, theory of action, game plan, etc) going into the school year. The action plan should serve as the core of your systems leadership (but much, much more on this in later issues). So, gather up all your data as it relates to your action plan and answer the following questions - first on your own, then with your leadership team, and finally with your staff.

• What were your goals going into the year? (lagging indicators)

• How were you going to meet these goals? (the ole action steps)

  • How do you know if you were doing these things? (leading indicators/ process measures)

• Where are we on track? Why? What data do we have to support each claim?

• Where are we off track? Why? What data do we have to support each claim?

The most important part of this reflective process is answering the “Where are we on/off track and why?” questions. You need to have data to support your assertions when you are responding with the why and you need to be able to insist your staff does as well. Your ability to answer those questions well will depend on how well you have developed your leading indicators.

Let’s sidebar about leading indicators. What are they? Leading indicators should measure how effectively and to what level of efficacy you are implementing your action steps. For example, you might have an action plan in which you have a schoolwide goal that reads something like this: “By the end of the 2023-24 school year, 85% of kindergarten students will be on track for literacy readiness as measured by…” This is a fine goal (there’ll be an issue on goal setting… fear not). To meet this goal your team should identify 2-4 action steps that will result in new and improved practices in the classroom. Your leading indicators are how you will measure the implementation of those action steps. Leading indicators answer the question: Are we doing the things we said we were going to do to meet our goals?

Once you/your team/your staff have done this analysis, you are ready for action planning for the second half of the year.

2/ Action Plan

Built on your diligent analysis in action item #1, you are ready to make a plan for the second half of the year. First, you need to find ways to celebrate success. Celebrate with your staff, celebrate with your central office overlords, and celebrate publicly. Any time you were able to answer “We are on track,” you need to be celebrating! Don’t forget to use the data to understand WHY you are on track so that you can celebrate authentically. When you celebrate authentically you control the narrative and shape your school’s brand. Don’t leave this part out!

Ways to celebrate:

• Staff meeting shoutout

• 1 on 1 before school with the staff member who is finding success

• Drop in on a team meeting and celebrate the team

• Your school’s newsletter

• All school community text (be sure to coordinate with your district comms department if one exists)

• Your regularly scheduled email blast to staff & family

• School assembly

For each of the wins, there will surely be opportunities to make adjustments because, despite your best efforts, you’re just not on track. First, make sure you deeply understand why you aren’t on track and then you need to make a plan to address it. Each circumstance will be unique but starting with these questions can give you some organization to your thought.

Why are we off track? Generally, there are a few possible reasons.

• Your data collection is flawed.

  • What the data says: Your leading indicators are showing that you are doing what you said you wanted to do.

  • What it means: You are collecting data on the wrong things. Whatever your form or checklist is collecting information on must not be the high-leverage pieces of your action step.

  • What you should do about it: Reevaluate your action step, review source material, review the evidence base that led you to choose this action step, and revisit your walkthrough form/checklist/data collection method. Remember, whatever shows up on your formal data collection methods is what gets implemented. You had better be measuring the right things!

• Your action step is flawed.

  • What the data says: Your leading indicators are showing that you are doing what you said you wanted to do and you analyzed the concepts above and are sure that you are implementing the action step in the best way possible.

  • What it means: Your action step is the wrong step or an incomplete piece of the puzzle.

  • What you should do about it: Most school leaders find themselves pondering this question because the vast majority of school improvement plans fail to meet their goals. THIS is why you make the big bucks. Gather the smartest people on your team and work through a root cause analysis.

3/ Staffing Analysis

I don’t want to be a bummer here, but if this is the first time you’re thinking about staffing for next year then you are a little late to the party. There’s good news though! There’s still time. You’ll use the same data analysis you used to do your midyear reflection to place your staff into one of four categories: Urgent need, struggling, strong, irreplaceable. What you title the buckets is not important (and these bucket titles are NOT publicly shared), but you need to have a data-driven method for evaluating teachers that goes well beyond your district’s evaluation method. Let me be clear, this is an INFORMAL process aimed at helping you differentiate support based on the needs of each teacher in your building. So carve out two hours on your calendar over the next two weeks and make it happen.

Here’s what I would use in my informal teacher-categorizing approach:

• Student achievement data - The best teachers are the ones who get results. Period. This is an informal categorizing process so you needn’t only use this year’s data, although your data should have some recency bias to it.

• Formal evaluation data - Likely you have to observe many, if not all, teachers in your building every year. This data can and should be used in this decision-making process.

• Informal walkthrough data - Surely (don’t call me Shirley) you are using some sort of walkthrough process above and beyond your teacher evaluation rubric. You’re not? Oh, well, we will address that in a future newsletter.

• Parent/student feedback - Do you give your parents and students surveys? Do you have anecdotal information that could inform this process?

Student achievement data should be the most heavily weighted of these and there are certainly data streams that I did not mention that would be worthy of inclusion. Once you have all the data, place each teacher into one of the four categories listed above (urgent need, struggling, strong, irreplaceable). Once they’re categorized, make a plan to differentiate support based on need. It might look something like this.

• Urgent Need: These educators need the most support. It might even be time to think about a formal improvement plan. If they are new and your contract allows, you might even be thinking about non bringing them back next year. Take these steps NOW.

  • Contact your supervisor and/or human resources department to set up a meeting to discuss your concerns and your plan of action for these educators.

  • Document your concerns at every opportunity. Start documenting your conversations with them and follow up with them via emails after meetings and coaching conversations.

  • Consider a formal improvement plan.

  • Direct support their way. These teachers should be getting the best and most support you and your team can provide. Pair them with your best coach (maybe this is you, maybe it’s not).

  • Meet with them and share your concerns. You MUST be direct and honest with them. You cannot get to the end of the year and then surprise them with a low overall rating or worse. Good leaders are candid. You’re here because you’re a good leader. You can (and should) do this with grace and compassion, but you must have this conversation soon!

• Struggling: These educators need more support than your best, but they aren’t on the verge of being put on a PIP or being shown the door. Make sure…

  • They have support - who is coaching them regularly?

  • They are aware of their shortcomings - yep, more candid conversations for you.

  • You have a strong coach supporting them regularly.

• Strong: These educators form the core of your school and unless they are a drain on morale, you will want to keep them around for years to come. Be sure…

  • They know they’re doing great.

  • They know you recognize they’re doing a great job.

  • You have talked to them about the areas in which they want to grow and need support.

• Irreplaceable: These educators are truly irreplaceable. Losing one would be a devastating result for the students of your school. More on this in a future issue.

Don’t let this be your reality. 👇👇👇👇👇👇