Leadership Council

Overview:

The Leadership Council of Cochran Middle School serves as one of the governing bodies of the school. The Leadership Council was empowered by the school’s decision to utilize the Expanded School Based Management (ESBMM) model of school management when formulating the school's Public School Choice Plan. Formally, the Leadership Council is charged with monitoring and supporting the instructional content and practices of the school.

Activities:

My role with the Leadership Council has evolved over the course of the year. I began the year as one of the acting members of the council, but eventually took over the council’s Presidency.

Though, the council’s original mission was to oversee instruction, we would spend most of our time implementing and monitoring the school’s Public School Choice Plan. Cochran Middle School is on LAUSD’s School Improvement List, as such, Cochran has been given the charge of ensuring and maintaining measurable growth in student achievement. The inability of the school to demonstrate measurable growth can result in the school’s reconstitution or the school being opened to public bidding.

As president of the Leadership Council I have been tasked with guiding our team as we implement and monitor initiatives designed to progress the school towards its Public School Choice (PSC) goals.

We began our task by restructuring the Leadership Council to ensure daily operations were guided by democratic principles. To accomplish this task a council newsletter was developed to inform the community of issues related to the Leadership Council and the PSC process. The council also adopted voting procedures for deciding issues. The council held an election for two of our members. The elections were to replace the former president who resigned upon receiving a transfer and our secretary who passed away shortly before Christmas recess. Lastly, we instituted a motion(s) process to ensure the will of each member could be fully expressed.

The Leadership Council set forth several initiatives to progress the school towards its PSC Smart Goals. First, we organized the departments to create rigor rubrics for each department and a lesson/strategy book of teacher generated instructional practices. Second, we started team phone banks, whereby on scheduled meeting days teams of teachers collectively called the homes of selected students. Third, the Leadership Council structured an observation month during February to facilitate collaboration amongst teachers and to fulfill the district mandate of semester observations for all teachers. Lastly, the Leadership Council oversaw the school’s Spring Review Day. The Review Day consisted of: classroom observations for all teachers, debriefing sessions with review team and the completion of the school's evaluation based upon the findings of the review team. In addition, the review team wrote the 2013-2014 goals and implementation plan, both of which will guide the Leadership Council's activities for the upcoming school year.

Reflection:

The Leadership Council has been a great learning space. I have had to learn to negotiate the wants and needs of many different constituencies while maintaining focus on the school’s goals. I have learned to negotiate the interest of the few with the needs of the many. Moreover, I have developed an understanding of the multitude of responsibilities which accompany a leadership position. Throughout the process the Leadership Council has been tasked with executing several initiatives simultaneously. Though, this task has at times been substantial, the experience has given me a new-found appreciation for the values and practices of democratic and distributive leadership.

Artifacts

• History Department Rigor Rubric
• Math Department Rigor Rubric
• Lesson Plan Template
• Project Based Learning Flyer
• Newsletter
• Mid-term Teacher Survey
• Spring Review Final Report
• Spring Review - Reviewer Reflection
• Spring Review - Pre-Review Reflection
• Spring Review - Focus Group Viewing Template
• Meeting Agenda 1-19-13
• Meeting Agenda 3-12-13
• Free Lunch Tickets for Faculty Members
• Winter Election Ballot
• Meeting notes for Presentation to SBLT

CPSEL

• CPSEL #1 - The Leadership Council was required to implement and monitor the school's Public School Choice Plan. As such, the council was the governing body most directly responsible for articulating and driving the school towards its stated vision.
• CPSEL #2 - The Leadership Council initiated activities designed to improve instructional practices through the adoption and utilization of Marzano-based strategies as prescribed by the school's Public School Choice Plan. The Leadership Council executed this duty through facilitating several professional developments. Moreover, the Leadership Council was required to conduct faculty meetings to implement district directives.
• CPSEL #3 - The professional development sessions conducted by the Leadership Council served as the mechanism to coordinate and disseminate best-practice strategies in instruction. The Leadership Council instituted an observation system to monitor the learning spaces and adjust professional developments accordingly. The culminating event for year one of the PSC process was the Spring Review. The Spring Review required the Leadership Council to facilitate the evaluation of the school's instructional program and learning environment.
• CPSEL #5 - Serving in the role of president of the Leadership Council has required a sustained commitment to the effort of progressing the school through the PSC process, while attempting to create structures for a stable distribution of leadership through the school.
• CPSEL #6 - The Leadership Council facilitated focus groups for parents, students and teachers to gather data on the state of the school as perceived by it stakeholders. In addition, as President of the Leadership Council, I was required to meet with district officials to ensure that implementation of the school's PSC plan was correlated with mandates outlined by the district.