SAMs Instructional Leadership Focus
The School Administration Manager (SAM) Project places SAMs in schools to handle the management duties so that the principal can focus at least 70% of his or her time on instruction. The project is in its second year of partnering with the Rutherford Learning Group to develop a common language of instructional leadership coaching.
The SAM school principals are focusing on 6 big ideas and 18 instructional practices to build and support teacher efficacy. The key objective is to identify teacher strengths and expand their learning capacity, making their schools places where high-quality teacher effectiveness is the habit and student achievement is the result. The six big ideas include:
- clear learning goals
- congruency
- diagnosis of prior learning
- task analysis
- overt response
- mid-course corrections
Over the next several weeks, the ISN newsletter will discuss these six big ideas and share the impact they are having in the schools in the SAM Project.
Annual ISN Conference
The annual Instructional Support Network Conference is set for September 11-12 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville. The conference will focus on high-quality instruction. The conference will begin on September 11 at 1 p.m. for all professional development coordinators. The sessions for the Instructional Support Network will begin on September 12 at 8 a.m. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Galt House listed under “Instructional Support Network Conference.”
To make reservations at the conference rate, contact the Galt House Hotel at (800) THE-GALT or (502) 589-5200 by August 27.
Redesign of DSF and AGC programs
The Kentucky Department of Education recently announced the merging of two highly successful field-based programs. The new District Achievement Gap Coordinators (DAGCs) consist of the eight former District Support Facilitators and five Achievement Gap Coordinators. The DAGCs’ main focus will be to assist Tier 3 districts identified for improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act with building and sustaining leadership capacity.
DAGCs also assist districts in using the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement to review and analyze all facets of a district’s operation and use the review findings to implement improvement plans that will increase student achievement and close gaps.
Other responsibilities include, but are not limited to, assisting the districts in:
· organizing and delivering direct support services;
· using data to close achievement gaps
· assessing policies and practices to ensure that districts are implementing all NCLB requirements
· leveraging resources and supporting professional development opportunities
· working in conjunction with the regional educational cooperatives to provide services that will improve student achievement in the districts
· assisting in the revision and implementation of comprehensive district improvement plans
· defining the district’s vision and developing a plan to support student learning in all schools
The spreadsheet at the link below lists the DAGCs and their assigned districts.
2007-08 DAGC Assignments.xls
Quotable Quotes
“Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.