ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - Staff Selection, Leadership, & Capacity Building

 

Theme: Staff Selection, Leadership, & Capacity Building

 

System level: School

 

Practice: Promote collaboration, teacher leadership, and teacher responsibility.

 

 

What does this practice look like in Arkansas?

 

Principals schedule time during the school day for teacher collaboration. Principals strive to arrange the school schedule so that teachers can meet together and collaborate. While teacher collaboration is not always mandated by the school, the expectation is that teachers will use the scheduled time to meet together and improve curriculum and instruction. Faculty in-service days nearly always have time scheduled for teacher collaboration.

 

Current teachers are involved in the process of hiring new teachers. Teachers may or may not be involved in the hiring of new principals, but are involved in the hiring of new teachers. Typically, teachers within the grade level or subject matter of the new position are included in the hiring process.

 

Teachers are encouraged to find professional development opportunities outside of the district. Teachers are encouraged to find professional development activities on their own, with the understanding that they must provide a rationale to the principal for why they want to attend a particular activity. Teachers are then expected to train other faculty members on what was learned.

 

Teachers are encouraged to pursue advanced degrees and obtain adminstration certification. Teachers are encouraged to pursue advanced degrees, either for the purpose of moving up the pay scale or to obtain certification for administration. New administrators are frequently chosen from the pool of teachers that have obtained or have made progress towards an administrative degree.

 

Teachers are offered a variety of options for staff development, and are encouraged to attend the activities that are most relevant to them. The school offers teachers a wide variety of options for professional development, and teachers are encouraged to attend the activities that are most relevant or interesting to them. If a principal perceives a weakness in a teacher, he or she will encourage the teacher to attend a professional development activity that address the weakness. The teacher is then asked to present the information to the rest of the faculty.

 

 

Documents related to practice:

 

At Ida Burns Elementary, every Wednesday is an early release day. Students are dismissed at 2:40, and teachers meet for curriculum meetings. These meetings may be vertical or horizontal, but are used to track curriculum development and revisions.

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Teachers at Ida Burns Elementary track professional development hours and regularly meet with the principal to monitor progress toward professional development requirements. Teachers are encouraged to find professional development opportunities that are interesting to them, even if they are found outside of the district.

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Candidates for teaching positions at Parkview Elementary are asked a series of set questions.  While the interviewers are not limited to the fifteen questions listed, these questions are considered vital to determining the quality of the candidate.

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At the beginning of each year at Parkview Elementary, teachers complete a professional development needs assessment.  The principal of Parkview uses the needs assessment to tailor professional development activities throughout the school year.  Teachers are encouraged to find their own professional development activities based on their perception of their needs.

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