The research has been completed and your school’s new schedule has been designed. Now the chance announcement is on the horizon. How you announce it could make or break your community’s reception. We have broken down three key errors to avoid when making such an announcement.
Comprehensive Faculty Development: An Overview
In a previous Ideas & Perspectives article, “The Problem(s) With Teacher Evaluation,” ISM described the many challenges schools typically face when trying to implement an effective evaluation system, including lack of time, lack of clarity, lack of consistency, and lack of intended outcomes. The most important challenge is that growth has often been confused with evaluation. Growth requires innovation and risk-taking. When an evaluation system is designed to rate and judge teachers, this clearly hinders growth. Rather, evaluation needs to be a separate process designed to provide a predictable environment with clear expectations in which teachers can flourish. ISM has developed a framework for growth and evaluation that responds to these challenges.
How to Get Teacher Buy-in for Faculty Growth and Evaluation
As a School Head or academic leader, you want your school culture to encourage teachers’ professional development. At the same time, you need to hold faculty accountable to the high professional standards of performance needed to achieve the student outcomes parents expect.
What Does a Growth Goal Look Like?
Each day, people set goals for themselves at work and at home. In school, students set goals for achieving academically and performing well in their extracurricular activities. We see the value of teachers and administrators setting goals for themselves, and how this has the potential to benefit them, their workplace, and, most important, the students.
Creating Your Goal Game Plan
The first part of setting a goal is knowing your “why.” Ask “Why are you working toward this goal? What is pushing you to make this effort?”
Why the Processes of Faculty Growth and Evaluation Should Be Separated
Evaluation does not improve teacher performance. Teachers improve by growing. This concept might sound simple, but it is the key principle of Comprehensive Faculty Development, ISM’s framework for how school’s should evaluate and support their teachers.
When the Teacher Is Absent: Redefining the Successful Substitute Teacher
Every school occasionally needs someone to substitute for an absent teacher. The factors that matter most to schools considering substitute teacher staffing models are cost and ease of administration. While important factors, they are not learner-centered.
How to Prevent Your Teachers From Becoming Toxic
Spotting a toxic teacher is one thing—but there are steps you can take to help prevent teachers from becoming toxic in the first place.
Four Questions Every Academic Leader Must Answer
School leaders must strike a delicate balance when it comes to working with your direct reports. You want the faculty and staff that report to you to know that you care for their well-being, while also maintaining a sense of professionalism in your relationship. To that end, there may be some unspoken questions between you and your employees.
Unemployment Compensation Claims: Protect Your School
Nonprofit organizations, including private-independent schools, must educate themselves concerning the legal and fiscal ramifications of unemployment compensation. The costs of not doing so can be significant and crippling to a school’s financial status.
What’s a Data Team and How Does It Support Your School?
Data is one of the most vital things your school can collect. It’s easy to make assumptions about what students, parents, faculty, and staff actually want. But data, collected often and pragmatically, provides insight into what your constituencies really want and need.