CREATING A CULTURE OF ACHIEVEMENT

Cultural Leadership

Culture and family values are the driving force in a student’s education. Maintaining a culture of achievement requires the successful cooperation of many moving parts. Schools around the country try on a daily basis to create safe, effective learning environments for every student who passes through their doors. City High School strives to create a culture of achievement, the process begins with strong administrative leadership, teacher collaboration and equitable experiences for all students. The collection and analysis of data, goal setting, professional development, performance indicators, community collaboration all work together to create a successful culture of achievement. The information provided on this website was collected from an inter-city school. To protect the integrity of the school a pseudo name of City High School will be used throughout this summary.

About City High School

The following section will describe City High School, the student population, culture, and administration. Professional development activities will be described in detail throughout the summary.

Culture

City High School’s cultural heritage is home to a majority of Latino students. Students can find success in the classroom when their personal cultures are reflected in lessons (Mujawamariya, & Hamdan, 2013). To help teachers understand the culture of students it is recommended a survey be sent for all students to complete at the beginning of the year. The results will be sent to grade level teachers to help guide them in their lesson planning. An article by MacBeath (2006) discusses the challenges schools face to uncover the attributes needed to create an honest learning environment. To help guide students, a post-high school plan will be discussed throughout their four years of high school to help students decided the best path for their future.

Administration

Administration teams set the expectations, communication and guidance to successfully change the culture and climate of a school. Years of studies produced by Kouzes & Posner (2012) have found modeling, inspiring, challenging, enabling others and positive encouragement are five useful techniques to effective leadership. City High School creates multiple opportunities for collaboration with teachers throughout the school with a variety of activities.

Professional Development Opportunities

            Teachers are given regular opportunities to give and receive feedback in the form of shared unit planners, weekly department meetings, and built in professional development opportunities during the year. A brown bag lunch is an opportunity to learn from peers during a lunch period (Heathfield, 2019). At City High School teachers sign up to teach a short demonstration of their lesson, observers are encouraged to ask questions and learn from their peers. An inspiring school climate of sharing and respect creates a positive culture for achievement. 

            According to an article written by Scott (2017) the Baldrige is a method for organizations to effectively increase their performance and results. The Baldrige is a data driven system of strategies for organizations to follow in relation to the effective functioning of the administration (Winn & Cameron, 1998). Following successful planning and execution techniques can help an administration set the proper tone for a successful, supportive, safe and collaborative work place. 

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Instructional Vision

            A detailed description of the instructional vision for City High School will be explained in the following section. An explanation of rigor, school environment and the learning plan for the school will also be outlined.

Rigor

            Academic rigor as described by Draeger, Prado Hill and Mahler (2015) finds that getting student feedback in the form of surveys, interviews and focus groups helps students understand and develop their future goals. Understanding students and their academic concerns can help to drive teacher planning and instruction. Data from the student survey will be collected and distributed to all teachers to use when planning instructional activities.

Sheras and Bradshaw (2016) discuss the important impact a school environment has in a student’s growth behaviorally and emotionally. Students at City High School regulate from the adults in their lives and the positive relationships they make with teachers in the school environment. 

Competency Based Learning

A collaborative learning model that coincides with the vision statement for City High School is a focus on Competency Based Learning (CBL). CBL is an opportunity for students to master content of a class to move to the next level of learning, giving students an opportunity to work at their own pace to complete course work (Brodersen, Yanoski, Mason, Apthorp, Piscatelli, 2017). Competences are explicit, measurable, transferable skills that empower students and proved them a conducive learning environment. Assessments are meaningful, challenging, positive learning experiences for students. Proper feedback throughout the learning process is one of the most effective ways for students to understand accountability and how it applies to their personal lives (Wormeli, 2006).

Opportunities for student engagement are provided by teachers in the form of specific and regular feedback. Fleenor, Lamb, Anton, Stinson, & Donen, (2011) describe students completing work is similar to sports teams practicing for games, students need multiple opportunities to fail and succeed, receive feedback and correct their mistakes. Student developmental competencies represent skills and dispositions that support success within and beyond the classroom.

Professional Development

Collier (2005) explains the importance of teacher efficacy when creating student expectations, taking responsibility for student outcomes, revisions of student failures, creating teaching goals for themselves and students and most importantly viewing students and teachers as partners in learning. These goals will be student focused, culturally and socially aware, and will be the foundation to effectively measure student success.

During professional development actives at the beginning of the school year teachers will develop short and long-term goals within their departments. Research by Esch (2018) states giving teachers the instructional tools they need in professional development activities helps teachers to create an equitable experience for students.  The entire staff will work together to create school wide short and long term goals for the school year. In an article written by Katterfeld (2013) goals are written by staff with the guidance of school leadership these goals can improve teacher instructional skill and in turn provide students with more successful educational experiences. These goals will be guided by the administration and will focus on increasing attendance rates for all grade levels and increasing freshman on-track success rates.

Conclusion

            Understanding the multiple layers of culture in a student’s life will help to create lessons and a positive classroom environment. Guiding teachers by creating a supportive and respectful environment for learning creates a positive cultural atmosphere. Creative collaboration of a schools vision, mission and values statements help to provide desired collaborative opportunities teachers need to feel shared educational community values. Teachers can create successful lesson plans when cross-curricular collaboration is available to assure student success.  A school environment is a safe haven for students to build social skills, emotional maturity, and intellectual growth to help them succeed in life. When students can collaborate in small groups, teachers have apply opportunities for professional development and collaboration in a school vison statement, and with proper guidance from administrative leaders a school wide culture of achievement can be accomplished.