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TRAIN
Leader Development
The Challenge:
Sometimes client needs are not always straight forward and require some out-of-the-box thinking to address the challenges they are facing. That was absolutely the case for this team: a school tasked with developing new leaders across the board. This team wanted a wrap-around approach to onboarding a new instructional coach, an entirely new set of grade level department leaders, and transitioning a new curriculum.
The Solution:
DCC identified creative ways to simultaneously build teacher skill, develop new leader capacity, and minimize the challenges of transitioning a new curriculum. The work included creating resources teachers would need to hit the ground running in the fall paired with side-by-side capacity building of the new instructional coach. Over time, the project intentionally released responsibility and decision-making to the new instructional coach, allowing her to slowly gain her footing in effective project management and leader oversight. DCC engaged in quarterly priority planning with the school leadership team to analyze math performance data, making recommendations in regards to the highest impact areas to prioritize for teacher development, and selecting strategies to leverage when engaging in coaching cycles.
The Results:
You know a first year administrator has been set up for success when teacher feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and that was exactly the case in this scenario. The materials created from this project have proven to support teachers with all levels of experience, not just those with deep content knowledge. Our data showed teachers in their first year, and even long-term substitutes, achieving results similar to veteran teachers with 3 and 4 years of experience. Finally, that first year instructional coach? She received unprecedented reviews, with 100% of teachers agreeing their manager contributes to their effectiveness.