Benchmark Assessment Education Administration

EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION

Education Administration: Benchmark Assessment

Part 1: Planning an Opening Staff Meeting

A need for a meeting arises when the school staff is to be mobilized to improve Math achievement for Miami Senior High school so that the students achieve higher grades in the said subjects across the district. The meeting would highlight some important features that are to be integrated into the upcoming year’s plan so that the instructional improvement target could be achieved methodically. The prioritized instructional target for improving Math grades compared to district averages would be emphasized, and elaborations in the specified area would be elucidated to the school staff.

Technology: Agenda Outlining the Purpose and Intent of Meeting

In the upcoming school year, the prioritized instructional target for Miami Senior High School would be achieving high scores in Math subject and bringing improvements in the school averages. It was mentioned previously when the school improvement plan’s findings were communicated that there was a 6% decrease in Math achievement compared to district averages (PowerPoint hyperlink). Data-driven decision-making would help reach the result logically and systemically so that the outcome is close to reality. Proactivity with the infusion of technology would support in saving huge costs. The school staff would be involved in the meeting so that the instructional improvement could be made possible with the help and utilization of their skills. The following sections of the paper would highlight the areas that need emphasis in this regard so that next year, the resources are fully employed in this direction.

Professionalism: Vision and Mission for the Year

The mission for the next year would be: “Miami Senior High School would focus on bringing an improvement in Math achievement scores as compared to district averages in the same subject. For this, the school aims at fostering positive relationships among the school staff, students, and their parents for working together towards the same target. Facilitation of this prioritized instructional improvement target would be based on non-discrimination of gender, race, age or ethnicity.”

Vision for the next year would be: “The school envisions empowering students of Miami Senior High School for acquiring the necessary skills in Math in the upcoming year with the essentials of curriculum and inculcation of the technology so that they do not lag behind the district schools’ performances. For this, practicing the core values of the school like respect, the inclusion of all genders and races, and striking excellence would ensure lifelong learners excelling in the globalized arena.”

Collaboration/ Professionalism: Balancing Value System with School and District Policy

An educational institute’s most common values include accepting diversity, inclusion, achieving excellence, provision of a learning environment, accountability of the leaders and followers, teamwork, and community realization with integrity (Watkins & Donnelly, 2014). These values would be balanced with school and district policy and the values of the staff, students, and community members so that with cohesive efforts, the instructional improvement plan for the next year could be employed with ease. The value of inclusive education would emphasize the listing of students from all diverse backgrounds to achieve excellence in overall school Math grades. When various ethnicities would be involved in the improvement plan, the students would actively engage and learn so that a sense of teamwork and community is enabled.

The same stands true for teachers and community members, leading to the fact that diversity and inclusion would provide a solid foundation for achieving all the school’s remaining core values so that the improvement plan works well in the coming year. The staff from different ethnicities would be empowered and trained to expedite equal employment opportunities and job equity. An intercultural communication would be promoted by a culturally responsive teaching workforce (Howard, 2010). A learning environment and care for the staff would be instigated from the school’s side to highlight core values within its system and functioning. The staff would be highly engaged to work to better the school and students gain Math efficiency across the district. Community members would observe all the positive changes after the school instills its core values and professionalism into the next year’s improvement plan, resulting in better outcomes and community assistance.

Professionalism: Dealing with Ethical Issues

Being a school administrator, a leader’s responsibility is posed so that ethical issues are handled effectively. This would facilitate a smooth accomplishment for the next years’ instructional improvement plan to avoid violations in conduct, fair practices in students’ assessments, and commitments in planning to reflect professionalism (Tyler, 2014). The components of moral decision-making would be utilized for reaching a just solution if ethical issues arrive. The four components are moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character (Benninga, 2013, p. 81). There are numerous perspectives through which ethical issues could be idealized: personal interests, maintaining norms, and the post-conventional maturity of morals (Benninga, 2013, p. 82). It would be ensured that the code of ethics in the profession of education is followed so that each student’s diverse needs are addressed appropriately to eradicate ethical issues and timely fulfillment of the next year’s instructional improvement goal (Benninga, 2013, p. 84).

Data Analysis: Top Instructional Priorities

Student-centered mathematical practices are considered more effective in gaining higher math grades for the selected school (National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2013, p. 2). A study indicated that the student-centered instructions that provided maximum correlational results for their effectiveness in Math achievement were asking open-ended questions, a teacher telling the student what strategy to acquire for answering, teacher answering students’ concerns about math problems, answering with neutral responses, answering with justification or better reasoning, giving hints to students to work with the right math technique, clarifying and extending upon the students’ responses, and highlighting the work of a student who does well in the class National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2013, p. 9). This evidence shows that teachers should adopt these approaches in their instructional priorities so that students of Miami Senior High can gain Math efficiency in the upcoming year. Other teacher-centered strategies and involve peer collaboration in learning could also be put to use for better results regarding the set target.

Collaboration: Fostering a Sense of Teamwork and Togetherness

Fostering teamwork and togetherness is imperative for reaching the set target for the next years since collaboration is the key to success. The school would take pride in making efforts for encouraging teamwork by joint decision-making, emphasizing actions based on the background data provided, sharing the same objectives, making rules that should be by all equally, bringing teachers together with different backgrounds and accepting their differences, joining hands with recognition of diversity to foster innovation and creative ideas for betterment, giving strength by professional autonomy within groups, sharing the weaknesses and possibilities of improvement in the identified areas, inducing spirit and motivation for quality-induction, cost savings with the production of superior work, and constantly improving employee morale with uninterrupted communication (Don & Raman, 2019). Certain ways could be planned to bring together the school staff for instilling these practices into their routine by arranging lunches once a month to discuss the progress of the classroom instruction, their effectiveness, and their outcomes in the form of students’ achievement in Math.

Collaboration/ Technology: Using Staff to Roll out Training/ Exercise/ PD

The practicality of technology in teaching could not be ignored, especially in times of globalization when students and teachers have to be equipped to face world challenges. In upcoming staff meetings, inputs would be taken from teachers for training, exercises, and personal development through technology infusion. Gaining access to new digital resources would incorporate the newly learned strategies from the internet within the classroom instructions. New learning games and exercises would be learned from the internet to use in all Math classes. The information and communication technology (ICT) model is effective when all of its features, such as audio and video aids, are used for student learning in Math (McAleavy et al., 2018). The teachers could be trained to select appropriate learning materials from the internet; if necessary, the gadgets would be introduced in the class to learn new technological techniques as internet materials are more engaging and increase their learning process. Moreover, technology could also be used for training teachers while at home, even in remote areas. Training with low-cost technology-assisted methods could be useful for collaboration and teachers’ personal development in the current pandemic.

Collaboration/ Professionalism/ Technology: Effective Strategies or Communicating the Building Of Visions and Mission with Parents and Community

The benefits of technology infusion for communication with parents and community members could not be ignored. It is the low-cost method to gain maximum input from the two major stakeholders of the education system and the suggested next year instructional improvement for Miami Senior High school. Today, in modern times, each parent and community member has access to technological applications such as email, laptops, mobile phones, and the internet, making communications seamless. The school can share the instructional improvement program’s mission and vision for the upcoming year through emails, text messages, the school website and application, notifications, presentations, blogs, and social media. Another useful tool that helps send and receive quick messages to and from the parents is the formulation of the WhatsApp group. The parents of one class or section are added to one group so that teachers and other school managers, such as PRO, could resolve issues soon enough. Also, today’s concern is not only to communicate with the community members but also to keep them engaged (Kinney, 2017). The community members and parents could be asked to leave comments on the social media posts for feedback and suggestions to know about their opinions about the improvement that it wants to make to achieve a higher school average in Math. This would help the parents and the community members stay connected with the school and its necessary implementation that it would make from time to time to progress towards its set goals for the Math achievement program. The communication of the school’s best practices and their use in the instructional program would be stated in the messages so that the parents could envision their advantages. Once the parents are satisfied that the school is making efforts to better and develop their children’s academic achievements, they would be content and support the school in its endeavors. With the unceasing support of parents and community members, the school would build a framework where policies and practices would be defined for gaining consistent performance from the students. Parents’ involvement from all ethnic backgrounds would also give a new meaning to the school’s core value that states ‘diversity inclusion’ so that cultural and economic differences could be eliminated for addressing the current issue.

Part 2: Budgeting

As the upcoming year would emphasize improving the Math achievement of Miami Senior High school so that its averages are higher than the district school averages, it requires a budget for fulfilling its objectives of the plan. If the instructional improvement plan is to be implemented online, ensuring that all the required technological resources such as mobile, laptops, internet, access to social media platforms and website, etc., are present for the school staff, teachers and students would be necessary. In the current pandemic, the program’s online implementation would be the most feasible and low-cost method, especially if students, teachers, and parents are already equipped with technological resources. Data information of Miami Senior High school cited that the school has a current population of 1,310 students comprising students with diverse backgrounds. An ‘all-inclusive’ approach would be required for the school so that socioeconomic differences could be set aside for higher and bigger gains of the students. Additionally, the school plans to provide a safe and effective learning environment for diverse learners so that their life-long learning is based on a strong foundation from this school. For this, the students have to be prepared for facing the contemporary world challenges in which being familiar with technology is the primary one.

A detailed data analysis observed that budgeting would be essential for resource management to gain students’ achievement and school effectiveness. Human resources would include a sufficient number of teachers for all the grades and sections for skilled training in Math, their training for handling the technological resources, and awareness of best practices for effective instruction. Physical resources would include laptops, mobiles, and internet connection if the program is employed via an online medium. Financial resources would be required if the teachers are to be trained for the program and the accessibility of technological resources is to be ascertained within the school premises.

The overall systems thinking helped gain a better budgetary notion since the school structure and its cycles in management are the catalysts for achieving better student progress in Math. Technological challenges could include server availability, planning for the Math curriculum and relevant offerings of the courses, software requirements for mobile and laptops, and any possible obsolete devices (Hiefield, n.a.). Gaining feedback through technological devices such as social media comments and implementing them for self-regulation and rectification would help the school system become stronger so that with homeostasis and purposiveness, the school achieves its set target for the next year (Betts, 1992).

The priorities are set for the budget. The budgetary factors are enlisted below, starting from the most important one to the least important.

i. Instructional goals

ii. Physical facilities maintenance