Student advocacy and teacher evaluation in school leadership

¶ … leadership branch of any school organization is explicitly responsible for many of the obvious things that occur in and during school hours. There are however important student management issues which are not so obvious that are equally important in managing and directing an educational organization towards its stated goals and objectives. The idea of advocacy for the student, I feel is the best approach to this issue as I have discovered in this course of instruction. By realizing that school leadership is not merely responsible for doing the least for the student, but rather exploiting the system to help each student as much as possible provides a useful philosophy to guide many difficult and challenging ideas on this subject. The knowledge gained in this class regarding the many ways to become a student advocate helps address the issue of student management issues discussed in this course in a more holistic and productive manner.

Journal

Teacher evaluation, contracts and remediation play a large and important role in the administrative duties of a school leader. The ability to accurately and fairly assess teacher performance must combine artistic and intellectual approaches that tests the leadership abilities of that school leader. The information presented in this course gave me more familiarity and hence more confidence in the many approaches available to assess teacher performance. The strength of any faculty is measured by the weakest among the group. It is important that when assessing teachers, that both the bad and the good are identified. Using teacher assessments as a tool to help balance the quality of educator within a school organization is a very valuable asset to help in school leadership guiding the faculty in a way that is consistent with school objectives and goals. There is always room for improvement, and I believe that through continual exposure to these practices, I may be able to synthesize what I have learned in forming a strong and practical leadership style that espouses the lessons learned in this course.

Journal 3