The visioning process leads to the creation of a vision that is accepted and understood by all stakeholders in an educational institution. This enables all stakeholders to understand their roles in the vision, which translates to a higher level of commitment. This also facilitates efficiency and effectiveness since every stakeholder understands their roles. The most important stakeholders who will be involved in the visioning process are the parents and teaching staff. The role of the teaching staff in the visioning process is to offer input on the best teaching mechanisms and delivery methods for different groups of learners thereby facilitating the creation of educational goals. The parents will be involved in defining their expectations and the scope of their support towards the schools general objectives.
The visioning process will comprise of various steps, the first of which is a definition of the key issues and interests of various stakeholders. The main focus of any educational organization is to impart knowledge and skills and facilitate the holistic growth and development of the learner. The second step would be to allow all stakeholders to design a proposed vision for the school based on the issues they consider most important. Third, proposed strategies that would be employed in order to attain the vision would be discussed. This step allows for a realistic approach to the creation of the vision. When some objectives cannot be attained within the time allotted, or are inhibited by other factors, they can be eliminated. Lastly, a vision would be created using a combination of concepts displayed in the stakeholders views and drafted visions. The school’s vision should be one that depicts an improved mode of operations compared to the schools past, and should inspire confidence among all stakeholders and learners.
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Continual and sustainable school improvement requires an active review of the schools mission, goals and objectives, and the progress that has been achieved so far. This review will consider the timelines set for short and long term goals and the rates through which progress is being achieved, if any. Sustainable school improvement will be facilitated by the input provided by all stakeholders. Change and evolution in current knowledge facilitates and necessitates improvement in processes. Promotion of improvement requires a high level of dedication from all stakeholders, thereby making it necessary to motivate them and keep them informed about all progress.
The sustainable school improvement efforts will be based on certain factors. First, the main focus is on student learning and the teachers’ ability and capacity in knowledge delivery. Secondly, professional learning practices will play a major role in improvement efforts. Third, sustainability necessitates objective and deliverable-focused resource use. Fourth, the improvement efforts will continuously seek out ways in which learning environments can be enhanced and improved using various emergent technologies. Fifth, the school will build on a relationship with the community and external parties and authorities with which the institution must work together. For instance, the school must be accountable to different regulatory and quality assurance boards.
Professional learning plays an important role in continual school improvement due to the sharing of knowledge and the improvement in delivery and learner assessment methods as necessary. Continual school improvement processes are based on the introduction of new knowledge that is expected to have a positive impact on the schools operations and effectiveness. Professional learning also builds the capacity of teachers who are the most important stakeholders in any educational institution.
Effectiveness of school plans can be evaluated in various ways. The first approach would be to compare the objectives against the tangible results that have been achieved. If there are no tangible results that have been achieved, it is important to reevaluate the set targets. The objective could also be revisited to ensure that it is achievable. Secondly, the school results could be tracked along timelines to determine whether they are being achieved at their desired rates. Thirdly, external benchmarks which could have been used when formulating the school plans could be used as points of comparison.
Effective leaders ensure that the objectives set satisfy the SMART criteria whereby they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Whenever a goal or objective meets these criteria, it can be easily evaluated after a time period. Objectives that do not achieve the desired results are then revised. Alternatively, the processes or individual activities that are undertaken in order to achieve the objectives may be altered as necessary.
Part B. Create a Positive Learning Environment and Improve Student Achievement
In order to design and evaluate learning strategies, assessment data would be collected from various sources. One major source would be the results of learners’ assessment, which would be indicative if the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer and delivery methods being used in various learning processes. Secondly, it is also important to consider research conducted by scholars on teaching and learning, which can be obtained from various sources such as journals and libraries. Organizational effectiveness can be evaluated using such parameters as effective resource use and external feedback from observers and stakeholders. Variables that affect student achievement can be determined by comparing the outcomes or results after teaching in different environments or using different methods.
Facilitation of personalized learning would necessitate the provision of human and financial resources for that purpose. The responsibility of the faculty would be to identify the special needs of the learners and to suggest methods in which these needs can be met. The administration will them focus on providing whatever is required to cater for these needs. The main method which would be used to influence school culture would be to change practices which do not support the created vision. Inevitably, continual school improvement would also have a significant effect on the schools cultural values as processes change.
Various strategies would be used to evaluate teacher performance. Standard-based evaluations would be employed whereby structured observations are carried out on practicing teachers. Professional guidelines then become the base by which the observations are used to determine the level of the teacher effectiveness. Various systems would be used to collect data for teacher evaluation, including attendance data and student assessment results.
Advancement of technology has availed various teaching tools that have increased efficiency and effectiveness in teaching. A technology plan for teaching aims at defining the technological applications needed for effective knowledge transfer and school improvement. Various strategies will be used in instructional technology. Instructional technologies have various applications which include gathering information of learners opinions and learning progress, providing interactive learning and sharing, offering remote learning capabilities, enabling the creation of social skills among teaching staff and learners, and enhancing creativity. The technology plan will focus on maximizing the resources available to ease and facilitate teaching, as well as providing a platform for maximum student presentation. However, the learners’ needs must first be assessed in order to determine the appropriate technology needed. Secondly, the technology must be deemed useful for its instructional function. The administration must invest in school improvement technologies, but only in those that are necessary. An ICT department will manage all the ICT applications being used within the institution. Technologies will be evaluated based on their ability to support student learning and increase efficiency and effectiveness in internal organizational processes.
A professional development plan ensures that activities within a certain profession such as teaching are of the required quality and are standardized. Creating a sound plan would first require an evaluation of the current state of affairs and the traditional operations of systems and processes. Key areas are then aligned to the defined vision. A large part of the plan will focus on the improvement of teaching methods and delivery, which will require teaching staff to keep abreast with new knowledge. It also ensures that professionals are consistently trained to improve their skills and delivery. In collaboration with the district professional development coordinator, a school leader should provide an enabling environment for school staff to grow and develop professionally. An evaluation on staff effectiveness will often determine the extent to which employees should be enrolled into programs that transform them into better and more efficient workers.
Working with other leaders is essential in ensuring the leadership roles are properly distributed and that leadership responsibilities do not clash. In order to work effectively with other leaders such as grade-level leaders, all roles need to be clearly defined and every leader should fulfill their mandate. The education system is composed of on various functions which are dependent on each other for the entire system to succeed, hence the need for each function to work effectively. At their level of leadership, the principal should inspire harmony and cooperation among all the leaders who are subordinate to them. Moreover, it is necessary to delegate functions wisely, in order to ensure that important aspects are not mishandled or left unattended. It may also be wise to encourage distribution of leadership in such a way that all social groups of people feel adequately represented. Contented teachers are highly motivated and also make work easier for the leaders.
