STANDARD THREE: Cultural Leadership
Principals will understand and act on the understanding of the important role a school’s culture plays in contributing to the exemplary performance of the school. Principals must support and value the traditions, artifacts, symbols and positive values and norms of the school and community that result in a sense of identity and pride upon which to build a positive future. A principal must be able to “re-culture” the school if needed to align with school’s goals of improving student and adult learning and to infuse the work of the adults and students with passion, meaning and purpose. Cultural leadership implies understanding the school and the people in it each day, how they came to their current state, and how to connect with their traditions in order to move them forward to support the school’s efforts to achieve individual and collective goals.
Element 3a. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment
School executives should lead the school in creating a positive and collaborative work environment, which in turn will likely result in a positive school culture. Throughout the NCSU Principal Preparation Program, we have learned about and practiced the importance of developing and maintaining a positive culture as such a culture fosters engagement and motivation for continuous improvement. One of the most helpful assignments (below) was to examine the culture of our residency school's culture. I examined teacher working conditions survey, discipline, relationships, and celebrations summarizing each for strengths and areas for growth.
IMPACT:
IMPACT:
- Using my analysis, I worked with staff and students to use areas of strength (e.g. relationships) to improve growth areas (e.g. discipline).
- Webb's leadership team continuously and visibly promoted the WARRIOR Way to set clear, high expectations for staff and students, especially in terms of improving student behavior.
- Webb administrators worked with teachers to increase engagement in the classroom to decrease off-task student behaviors and to increase learning potential.
- The overall impact has been that by using our relationship strengths to address growth areas, we have improved both relationships and student behavior and academics.
Element 3b. School Culture and Identity
As part of NCSU-ELP595C Culture & Collaboration taught by Dr. Lisa Bass, I created a yearlong professional development plan to help create a shared vision and culture at G.C. Hawley Middle School (school where I taught science for 15 years). I used Lead with Culture by Jay Billy as framework for establishing and maintaining positive school culture. In my proposed professional development (below), each month focused on one of the nine key school cultural elements that helps a school develop and work toward a common school vision and collaborative culture. Through Dr. Bass's class and other classes, I realized how important (and challenging) it is to develop and maintain a positive school culture. The class and assignment led me to several great resources, such as Lead with Culture, that could be used to guide a school toward a welcoming, uplifting school culture.
IMPACT:
IMPACT:
- The culture assignment helped me to monitoring the nine key cultural elements throughout my residency year.
- With experience and participation in all aspects of Webb life, I was able to understand the influences that the nine cultural elements have in making up Webb's culture.
- Attending sporting events and speaking with families during meeting and by phone helped me to more thoroughly understand crucial role that demographics and community/school history play in Webb's culture.
- Understanding the foundational culture elements helped me to suggest ways to engage the community and promote positive a Webb image through social media, the WEBBsite, and Warrior News.
Element 3c. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards
School leaders must celebrate accomplishments, reward achievements, and acknowledge and address failures. One of the strengths of Principal Rice at JF Webb High School has been to share achievements either through school announcements or on social media (Facebook). Principal Rice sends monthly Google Forms to solicit student- and staff-of-the month nominations. I have helped promote Webb celebrations in multiple ways:
- Adding student/staff nomination forms and other celebrations to to the Webb and Webb School of Health & Life Sciences websites.
- Nominated several students for student-of-the-month for their leadership showcasing Webb at School of Choice Fairs and for helping with the NCSU Principal Fellows Cohort Webb school visit in March 2020.
- Added pictures of student accomplishments to the digital screens in Webb's cafeteria (see below)
- Created Warrior News, a monthly online newsletter featuring people and events at JF Webb High School.
- Shared positive stories about Webb through Facebook and Twitter.
- Sharing student and staff accomplishments both within Webb and outside to the community, has helped improve Webb's image.
- Students have told me that they love watching the cafeteria monitors for celebrations, news, and to see who got into what college.
- Sharing positive stories about Webb has increased the pride that Webb staff and students feel toward the school, which is especially evident during when student leaders take visitor on Webb tours.
- The NCSU principal fellows cohort remarked about how Webb students and teachers expressed how much they loved being at Webb and the support they receive.
Element 3d. Efficacy and Empowerment
School leaders must identify and promote strategies for developing a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff, students, and families. During my Principal Residency, I sought to understand the well-being of students and staff through personal conversations and online surveys. I learned that most students and staff were proud to be Webb Warriors but also many shared frustrations with some behaviors that impeded learning. I worked with school leaders to address some of these concerns by continuously going back to the Warrior Way expectations. Many students and staff remarked that they really appreciated how I took time to listen to their concerns and follow up with actions that helped address the concerns.
During the Spring semester of 2020, Principal Rice introduced an empowerment strategy based on the Collective Efficacy by Jenni Donohoo encouraging staff to re-think how we work together to improve outcomes for students at JF Webb High School. I created a graphic (below) for Dr. Brenda Champion's special topics class on School Improvement (ELP595) showing how positive outcomes can occur when staff work collectively toward a common cause using teamwork and positive beliefs that change is possible.
IMPACT:
During the Spring semester of 2020, Principal Rice introduced an empowerment strategy based on the Collective Efficacy by Jenni Donohoo encouraging staff to re-think how we work together to improve outcomes for students at JF Webb High School. I created a graphic (below) for Dr. Brenda Champion's special topics class on School Improvement (ELP595) showing how positive outcomes can occur when staff work collectively toward a common cause using teamwork and positive beliefs that change is possible.
IMPACT:
- Creating strategies that help staff feel empowered to make positive changes, in turn helps students and families feel empowered to make positive changes toward student futures.
- The strong relationships built at Webb have led staff and students to feel comfortable sharing ideas with school leadership.
- Staff have shared ideas with Webb administrators and then helped implement such ideas. One example is a teacher who is now working with the cafeteria manager to provide un-used food to be available to students in the classroom after breakfast.
- During the COVID-19 crisis, Webb staff exhibited outstanding teamwork and collective efficacy to rapidly determine staff, student, and family needs and to develop processes to meet those needs.
- Working together during this crisis, Webb has shown that it is a Can Do school in a Can Do district, meeting all COVID-19 challenges with empowered, collective efficacy.