[Ous-lp-rp13] EDAD 6020, Response to Answer for Question #3

[Taylor, Dakota]

Molly, I am always captivated by what you have to reflect on, as I have gained (to date) the most experience within your school during my student teaching/professional internship year. The principal you speak of had an amazing way of valuing people, developing people, building a community, displaying authenticity, and providing leadership as well as sharing leadership: “During his time at Green he built a positive culture and nurtured self and collective efficacy. He was a servant leader, who exemplified inspirational motivation and individualized consideration regularly with his staff, which lent itself well to building efficacy” (Sylvia). After reading these two short sentences, it forced me to go back and reflect on the six characteristics of servant leadership, as I mentioned above, your principal most definitely was an effective servant leader!


I wanted to also mention that during my time in your school, the two word phrase “the list” is permanently ingrained in my memory. The list helped redirect curriculum toward an Ohio standards focus only, and it helped cut back on “unimportant” assignments for lack of a better word because in order to make the list work, every assignment needed to be meaningful. This is certainly my biggest praise of the ICU and “the list” system because I believe that creating a school environment that guides the students learning of accountability to be an effective and possibly long-term solution or building block for a cultural change (change-orientation). The list also directly intersected with student motivation and self-efficacy, as you mentioned: “But, as we helped them chisel away at their missing assignment list, students' motivation and self-efficacy increased, as well. They became more engaged in class and ultimately were exposed to more curriculum than when we'd simply given them a zero for the assignment” (Sylvia). Any change that builds self-efficacy within students and exposes them to a more focused array of curriculum is A+ to me! Thank you for sharing with such vivid and descriptive detail.


EDAD 6020, Response to Answer for Question #3

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“On Monday, our principal accepted a position at our Educational Service Center and turned in his resignation.  He was liked by all of the staff and dearly loved by many. During his time at Green he built a positive culture and nurtured self and collective efficacy. He was a servant leader, who exemplified inspirational motivation and individualized consideration regularly with his staff, which lent itself well to building efficacy. He believed in his staff and helped us to believe in ourselves. He brought us together, along with his vision: that every student could complete every assignment and that every assignment could be a quality assignment so that no student would fail and student achievement would increase. Not everyone was sold on the vision immediately, but he spent time each teacher individually, mentoring us and bringing us all closer together under his vision. We truly believed that if we worked on our assignments and ensured that every student completed every assignment, we could greatly affect student outcomes.

And, it worked. Over the last two years under this vision, we nearly reached that goal, dropping our failures from 89 two years ago to 8 this last year. It was hard at times, when students would have 20-plus missing assignments. But, as we helped them chisel away at their missing assignment list, students' motivation and self-efficacy increased, as well. They became more engaged in class and ultimately were exposed to more curriculum than when we'd simply given them a zero for the assignment. Staff were motivated, believed in themselves, and worked to make better quality assignments. It was not always easy to get the assignments turned in at times, so we wanted to be sure the assignments were aligned to the standards and would truly benefit the students. It was a big job. We processed and made many adjustments individually and collectively. At times, we experienced individual setbacks, and a teacher's self-efficacy would wane. Other teachers shared their personal success stories and reminded each other of the steps already taken forward. Over time, teachers recovered and pushed through difficulties on their own, making adjustments to their processes as needed.

Currently, our collective efficacy is low. We don't know who our new administrator will be and if they will continue the work we've begun. Challenging times are ahead, yet self-efficacy can motivate much of this work to continue, with or without an administrator on board.”

By Molly Sylvia


Dakota Taylor

Teacher/Coach

(304) 208-0198



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