Achieving the goals and objectives set in an institution heavily depends on the collaboration between all stakeholders involved. That said, tutors have the responsibility of maximizing their outputs to benefit the students. However, this is not always possible as the tutors spend less time with their students in the classrooms. Therefore, identifying gaps in students’ learning becomes a challenge to most tutors, especially those new in teaching careers ( DeLuca & Klinger, 2010) . Also, most teachers in Middle and high schools specialize in teaching one subject that makes it even more difficult for them to understand the learning gaps that exist with their students ( DeLuca & Klinger, 2010). As a result, tutors can utilize the Common formative assessments (CFAs), which helps set the standards within a particular subject or unit that assists the students in “mastery of essential learning goals in the curriculum” (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2014). CFAs give the tutors and students credible feedback in which tutors know their level of instructional effectiveness and areas that require improvements (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2014). On the other hand, the students understand the level of mastery of the curriculum and where they want to be as they progress with learning (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2014). With such feedback, the goals and objectives of a learning institution are achieved.
According to Ainsworth & Viegut (2014) , the CFAs development “ must include all teachers and teacher-teams determining what prerequisite knowledge and skills students must acquire, on some incremental basis, before they move to more advanced levels of concept application mastery. ” Therefore, the principal should ensure that all teachers across all grades are involved. However, there need to be team leaders who have strong leadership qualities such as effective communication skills, organized, highly experienced, among other leadership traits.
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As a principal, I would consider creating a panel responsible for choosing these leaders. The panel should be made up of independent mentor tutors and professional development specialist . This panel would assist me in developing the tasks and expectations required by these leaders at the end of the meetings. The selection of these leaders should be made through individual assessments by conducting face to face interviews. After selecting the leaders to fill in these positions, the CFAs development should then start. The development of the CFAs should involve group discussions in which every group member gets involved. Group leaders should be there to facilitate these discussions but should not be making decisions on behalf of the others. Thus, giving competent people leadership positions within the development of these CFAs will ensure that the process will run within the stipulated period of one academic term.
Being a new principal, I would be sensitive to the previous regime as the staff members have been accustomed to the norms and practices of that regime. Before rushing to make changes in the way the institution will be run under my regime, I would first develop a professional relationship with all stakeholders involved in running the school. It is through this relationship that I would come to know the stakeholders on a personal level. I would engage all staff members in meetings to let them know of my expectations by first acknowledging the accomplishments of the previous regime and then introducing them to my short and long-term goals. I would then issue all staff members with questionnaires that would help me “ measure the behaviors, attitudes, preferences, opinions, and intentions of the subjects ” ( Mcleod, n.d.) . That said, as highlighted above, before making changes, I would come up with a panel composed of professionals from the previous regime, who know the staff members on personal levels. However, this team should know about my expectations from the word go.
After analyzing responses given by the respondents in the questionnaires, it is evident that most of the tutors have never participated in CFAs development groups. Most of the tutors had arrived at the school less than a year prior to my arrival; thus, they are not accustomed to the development of CFAs. However, a few of the tutors had participated in developing CFAs at some point in time. Knowing that most of the tutors have no experience affected the selection criteria of the leaders as the tutors were more likely to agree with their suggestions without consulting in the groups.
In making sure that there would be no biases, the CFAs developed would be redefined after every term in which new leaders are to be chosen to lead the respective groups. This action will help in building the experiences of the new educators in the school. Additionally, every team member will be required to write a report of the meetings identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the CFAs developed. Also, weekly reports will be required to be filed by the tutors that will include the milestones reached in the week. This will help to act as a check-list against the CFAs to determine their effectiveness and whether they were worth the time.
This plan has its strengths and weaknesses. The main strength of this plan is that it will last only for a term. This helps in helping the new tutors gain experience due to the rotation in leadership positions. Likewise, everybody has an opportunity to be selected, which makes the process fair. However, the major drawback of this plan is that since most of the tutors are inexperienced, leaders are likely to see themselves as overly wise and make the decisions on behalf of others; CFAs can only be effective when all tutors are involved in the development.
References
Ainsworth, L., & Viegut, D. (2014). Common Formative Assessments 2.0: How teacher teams intentionally align standards, instruction, and assessment . Corwin Press.
DeLuca, C., & Klinger, D. A. (2010). Assessment literacy development: Identifying gaps in teacher candidates’ learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice , 17 (4), 419-438.
Mcleod, S. (n.d.). Questionnaire. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/questionnaires.html#targetText=Questionnaires%20can%20be%20an%20effective,open%2Dended%20and%20closed%20questions.
