Week 4 - Strategic Problem-Solving Assignment -Monitoring, Adjusting, and Communicating Progress

Instructions and Rubric for Submission (W4LO4, W4LO7, W4LO8, CLO3, CLO4)

This assignment has three components. The components include a memo, documentation, and a
reflection. Please review the rubric. Use all three components of the assignment to influence the
opinion of the grader.

I. Memo #3:

You will continue to assume the role of a new hypothetical principal at a campus as you respond to the
issues related to the Agricultural Science Program found in the letter of concern by the hypothetical
superintendent. As in the last strategic problem-solving assignment, the letter is found in the resource
packet. In this week’s activity, the candidate will prepare a four-paragraph written memo that
addresses the following prescribed actions (superintendent directives):

a) Develop and share a new system of gathering, evaluating, and reporting data to appropriate
stakeholders regarding the measurement of continuous, sustainable improvement in student
achievement and adherence to legal, ethical and equity issues; (NELP 6.3)

VERY IMPORTANT RUBRIC REQUIREMENT – The new system of gathering and reporting data must
reflectively evaluate program improvement and communicate about compliance with laws, rights,
policies, and regulations that promote sustainable student success. I recommend a statement directly
related to the harassment that has been identified. (Consider the safety of the facilities and perhaps
use the safety audit document.) (NELP 6.3)

b) Reflectively evaluate the situational issues presented and share efforts to develop student
leadership/capacity focused on avoiding ethical and equity breeches. (NELP 6.3)

c) Identify and report needed resources to monitor sustained improvement and adherence to laws,
policies, and regulations. (NELP 6.3)

Special note: While preparing the simulated memo and attachments, you must address the
superintendent directives described above. When addressing the superintendent directives, you will use
the Week 4 “BUILDING BLOCKS” found below to frame your memo. Use each building block as the topic
for one paragraph.

Week 4 BUILDING BLOCKS

a) Initiated a collaborative review/reporting process that measures adherence to legal, ethical and
equity issues that promote student well-being – paragraph one; (NELP 6.3)
b) Included students in the teaching of values/ acceptable behaviors to peers – paragraph two;
c) Distributed leadership responsibilities on the instructional team to maximize application of fair and
equitable practices – paragraph three; (NELP 6.3)
d) Considered the impact of future resources on program growth, and student well-being – paragraph
four.

In the memo, you should write one paragraph on each individual week four building block. It should
prove easy to address the superintendent’s directives (a through c) in these four paragraphs.

II. Documentation

Additionally, you are expected to attach simulated documentation that supports your four-paragraph
memo to the superintendent. (Be creative!) The documentation is limited to two (2) additional pages.
Documentation examples could include:

* Meeting notes
* Committee minutes
* Agendas
* Newspaper articles
* Lesson Plans
* Student leadership opportunities
* New handbook with legal policies addressing harassment
* Facility requests or draft budgets
* Many more items could justify or support your memo.

III. Activity Reflection:

This submission requires an Activity Reflection. Answers to the following reflective questions are
required in the Activity Reflection: (BE BRIEF- Use no less than 3 and no more than 5 sentences to
answer each question in the reflection.)

* How does this response make sense?

* Describe how the response fits with the established criteria and models the elements found in
the building blocks?
* What issues did the response address?
* In what other way could this issue be addressed and prove equally or more successful?
The Rubric Is Located On The Next Page – Attach Your Assignment After The
Rubric And Submit It In Blackboard
 Does not meet Approaches Meets criteria Exceeds criteria
the minimum minimum criteria
criteria
W4LO4 – The student Candidate Candidate simulated Candidate simulated the Candidate simulated the collection
will collect and analyze discussed the the collection of data collection and analysis of and analysis of quantitative and
data and demonstrate collection or use aligned to the quantitative and qualitative qualitative data to ethically and
the capacity to evaluate, data to develop school’s goals and data to ethically and equitably equitably develop structures, within a
develop, and advocate resourcing plan. priorities. develop structures, within a resourcing plan that included staff
for a data-informed and resourcing plan that included time, student scheduling, dollars, and
equitable resourcing staff time, student scheduling, tools to support the implementation
plan that supports dollars, and tools to support of a sustainable multi-year action
school improvement and the implementation of an plan aligned to the school’s goals and
student development action plan. priorities.
using a multi-year action
plan. (CLO4)
0 points 7 points 8 points 10 points
W4LO8 – The student Candidate Candidate simulated Candidate simulated the Candidate simulated the collection of
will develop and discussed the the collection of data collection of data to support data to support the development of a
implement development or to support the the development of a multi- multi-year action plan and
management, implementation development of an year action plan that impacted implemented data driven changes in
communication, of an action plan action plan. management, communication, practice, procedures, and/or policies
assessment, and that impacts assessment, and operation needed to support improvement
operational systems. management, systems. efforts that impacted management,
(CLO3) communication, communication, assessment, and
assessment, and operation systems.
operation
systems. 7 points
0 points 8 points 10 points
W4LO7 – The student Candidate Candidate simulated: Candidate simulated the Candidate simulated
will determine key discussed a. the involvement of involvement of community a. the involvement and investment of
supporters and allies to a. the community supporters and allies in the community supporters and allies in
invest in action plan and involvement of supporters in the development of an action plan the development of an action plan
demonstrate the supporters or development of an and and reported progress to the school
capacity to reflectively allies in an action action plan. a. reported progress to the superintendent, community
evaluate, communicate plan. b. a discussion school superintendent. organizations, and parental support
about, and implement b. a concern for regarding where to b. promoted student success groups.
laws, rights, policies, and policy, laws, locate appropriate by communicating appropriate b the promotion of student success
regulations to promote regulations, or policy (NELP 6b) and policy, laws (NELP6c) and by communicating appropriate policy,
student success and procedures. regulations regarding regulations regarding ethical laws and regulations regarding ethical
well-being. equity issues (NELP (NELP 6b) and equity issues and equity issues to multiple groups
NELP 6.3 6a) at the campus. (NELP 6a) to campus of key stakeholders.
SBEC_Pillar.9 administrators.
0 points 7 points 10 points
8 points
Mechanics 5 or more No more than 4 No more than 3 spelling or No more than 2 spelling or
spelling or spelling or grammatical errors. grammatical errors.
grammatical grammatical errors.
issues.
0 points 3 points 4 points 5 points

Week 4 Assignment – Monitoring, Adjusting, & Communicating Progress: Use this rubric to guide your work.
Submit your assignment below:
Memo:

To: Mr. White, Superintendent

From: Mrs. Ritchie, Ima Leader Principal Ritchie

Subject: Progress on Agriculture Sciences Department

I am elated to sit down and write to you about all the improvements that are being made

here at Ima Leader Highschool. We have made so much progress in such a short time, I cannot

wait to see where we are in a year, 3 years, even 10 years from now. The leadership team has

developed a timeline for the current school year that will bring us to a point where we can begin

the 2021-2022 school year with the ball rolling and new programs in place. Areas we are

working on the remainder of this school year is Gender Equality Education, Student Mentor

Program, Agriculture Science Enrollment for the 2021-2022 school year, and a 15% increase in

Benchmark and End of Year Agriculture test scores. We are currently tracking our goals on a

monthly basis and I have provided a calendar of important dates below that will help us track our

goals. For example, we participated in a Gender Equality Education course January 11-22, 2021

and our data shows that we have had a decrease in Office Referrals due to Gender Equality. We

have also implemented a new curriculum and now provide Benchmark Assessments every 6

weeks, and are able to track student progress. Lastly, using the student interest survey, next year

we will be adding a gardening program and small mechanics program (until we have a facility to

provide a full auto mechanics and horticulture program) begun advertising for next year’s classes

and project a 15% increase in student participation within the AG Sciences Program next year.
 One of the biggest concerns I felt we needed to take immediate action, was gender

harassment and equality. I knew we would be able to make progress in this area, but I could not

have foreseen the positive feedback and whole hearted buy-in I received from the staff to

building a campus that provides students not only a more enriched education, but a place to feel

welcome, cared for, and safe. One area of huge concern for me in your letter was the lack of

peer-to-peer respect and lack of gender equality. It is never ok for a student to go one second

without feeling safe, and I knew I had to change this not just in the Agriculture Sciences

Department, but throughout the campus as a whole. After sitting down with the Assistant

Principal and Counselor we determined the best way to approach this issue would be enacting a

“Zero Policy” rule and by providing Gender Equality Education to our students. The “Zero

Policy” ruling states that students who participate in gender bullying, gender profiling, gender

discrimination, or harassment will be given 3 days of ISS, and if there is a second event the

student will be sent to Alternative Campus for 2 weeks. To implement, we began a 6- lesson

journey during advisory class for two weeks. Each lesson in this six-lesson unit addresses a

different form of gender bullying: peer exclusion, role exclusion, teasing about gendered

activities, biased judgments, gendered beliefs, highlighting gender. This was then completed by

taking a quiz that determined student’s level of understanding based on the 6 lessons. Students

were then asked to sign the Zero Policy Contract. It has been 6 weeks since the 2-week course,

and we have only had one reported incident on gender bullying, in which the student was

assigned 3 days of ISS. Additionally, our Student Mentors have shown to be leading advocates

for our New Gender Equality Initiative and provide as peer role models.

I believe you would not just be pleased, but amazed to walk our campus now. Yes, we

are a long way from being perfect, but in the few short months we have approached many of
your initial concerns within the campus and staff. We have created a Student Mentoring

Program for the Agriculture Sciences Department, begun a new curriculum for the Agriculture

Science Classes, developed a mentoring program for Mr. Prichart and Mr. fails that has shown to

turn two very concerning staff members into campus leaders. As leaders Mr. Prichart and Mr.

Fails have taken on creating a safe space for all students on campus. Mr. Prichart and Mr. Fails

do not have students during the advisory period and during the two-week Gender Equality

Courses, they visited several classrooms throughout the building and discussed Gender Equality

in the workplace. They discussed famous men and women who are in roles that are seen as

gender stereotypical, for example Danica Patrick as a race car driver. As a campus we are

beginning to flourish and it is such a sight to see when our students are leading peers right beside

our staff.

In my last memo I discussed the Student Mentor Program and removing my initial

thoughts of requesting an extra staff member. After seeing the projected growth, I believe our

campus would benefit from paraprofessional within the program. Once the new facility is

complete and new programs are added, new staffing will need to be addressed to meet the needs

of the program, but for the 2021-2022 school year, a paraprofessional is necessary. Mr. Prichart

and Mr. Fails have both stepped up and shown to be excellent leaders. They are taking part in

every planning session with their mentor teachers, taking initiative in their teaching roles, and

have brought the program back to a place where you walk in a see student engaged and excited

to learn. I believe they were left without leadership before and felt like they were in a rut.

Without someone pushing them to achieve better results, they found no need to produce better

results. With this said, I would hate for their hard work to fail because there was not enough

support for the students.

II. Documentation – (You are allowed up to two pages of documentation.)
JANUARY 2021
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
27 28 29 30 31 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Second Semester
10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Gender Equality Gender Equality Gender Equality

Gender Equality Gender Equality
Lesson 3 Lesson 1-3 Lesson 1-3
Lesson 1 Lesson 2
AG planning review Assessment
17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Gender Equality Gender Equality Gender Equality

Gender Equality Gender Equality
Lesson 6 Lesson 4-6 Lesson 3-6
Lesson 4 Lesson 5
AG planning review Assessment
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Student Interest
Student Interest
AG planning Survey Data
Survey
meeting
AG planning

FEBRUARY 2021
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
31 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agriculture
AG planning Assembly:
Market
7 8 9 10 11 12 13

AG planning Benchmark

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

AG planning

21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Benchmark Data
AG planning
Meeting
28 1 2 3 4 5 6

AG planning

MARCH 2021

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

28 1 2 3 4 5 6

AG planning

7 8 9 10 11 12 13
 AG planning

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

AG planning Benchmark

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

AG planning

28 29 30 31 1 2 3

Benchmark
AG planning
Data Meeting

APRIL 2021
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
28 29 30 31 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Benchmark

25 26 27 28 29 30 1

MAY 2021

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

25 26 27 28 29 30 1

Benchmark
Data Meeting
2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Final Exams

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 1 2 3 4 5
III. Reflection –

* How does this response make sense?

In this memo I have continued to show the progress the campus has made. I have provided

shown leadership from staff and students. Shown projected growth in the program due to the

changes in Gender Equality and program interest and I have continued to use data to guide me

decisions.

* What issues did the response address?

This memo address Gender Equality concerns, which was an area I found to be of immediate

attention. I have discussed projected growth in next year’s program based on the student survey

and progress in Mr. Prichart and Mr. Fails teaching and leadership. I have also covered the

implementation of student mentors and planted a seed for staff growth in the future.

* In what other way could this issue be addressed and prove equally or more successful?

I am not sure in what other ways all areas could have been addressed differently. For Mr.

Prichart and Mr. Fails continued growth I could provide a sub so that they could observe a

neighboring districts Agriculture Program, this could offer ideas to being to our campus. Another

thing that could be beneficial is involving The School, Family and Communication Committee in

the Planning and overseeing of the Agriculture Departments Marketing Assembly.