Running Head: THE WEBSTER CASE

The Webster Case

Jenny Gieselman

Shelly Schantz

Oakland University

Caryn Wells, Ph.D

EA 8820

October 24, 2017

THE WEBSTER CASE

Our plan is based off of a fictitious school where the HR director is hired to mentor a new
principal in a school with multiple areas for improvement. We worked together to plan a
mentoring experience that was focused on providing coaching and supports that will transform
the school

1. How do you distinguish between telling the principal what she needs to do
and guiding or coaching her to discover what needs to be done? How are these
practices different?

Coaching will be the ideal way to start with the new principal. It is important that we provide
feedback in the form of data and questions. A big part of this plan will be that the principal and
us will begin with observations. Those observations will become the data points we use to
prompt questions. According to the article entitled, Changing principals' leadership through
feedback and coaching, it is stated, “In order to inform goal setting and to direct behavioral
change, feedback must contain meaningful information that leaders perceive to be both valid and
reliable” (Edward Guthrie, Golding, and Bickman, 2014, p. 684). This meaningful information
is going to come in the form of observations and data digging.

It will be our job to make sure the questions we are asking evolve into goals and next steps for
the principal without “telling” her what to do. Ultimately she will be creating clear goals of her
own. The only time we will ever plan on stepping in with telling her what to do is if her
decisions would harm either her students, staff or parents.

Telling is us taking what we know or believe and trying to make her feel or do the same. If we
approach this new principle in that way, we will not be modeling how she should be
transforming her staff and school. This isn’t the way transformational learning takes place. We
are aware that the only way true learning and change takes place is through coaching, when done
properly.

2. What are the questions you would ask the principal to get her to think about
improving the effectiveness of the staff?
It will be very important of us to model coaching, so that she feels it is helping her. She can then
take these techniques to her staff. It will also be important for her to find the effective teachers
and bring them under her wing to help her grow her leadership team. Ultimately, this will also
help with change within her building.
- Tell us what you are thinking about what we saw in observations?
- Are you noticing any patterns?
- What are the strengths of the building? What can be built upon?
- What areas did you notice that could use improvement? What do you wish you
had seen?
THE WEBSTER CASE

- What is the ultimate objective? What needs to be done before you meet the objective?
- What are positives that you could highlight? What evidence did you find that indicates
best practices?
- What does the data (test results) indicate about student achievement?
- What is your next step?

While these questions will be used in coaching conversations, critical information about the
board’s goals and the resources available for professional develop will be shared. Since one area
of concern is the lack of collaboration among the staff, setting up collaboration among the
administrative team will be established.

3. How does a leader work to change the culture of a school? How will you
frame the questions to guide her thinking, as opposed to tell her what she must
do?
Building relationships will be key here and establishing community is number one. Since it will
be important for her to build the trust of her staff, we will encourage her to take some time to get
to know the current culture. Questions will be framed in such a way that we are asking for her
observations and general “feeling” she has about the staff. Since she has not had much time with
the staff, how can she get to know them and build the trust? Who appear to be the positive
change agents? Those who may be resistance agents? How do you know? What can be done to
uncover the culture?

Working together, we would plan a series of observations and encourage evidence based
reflections. Our first observations will be focused on getting a general feel for the current culture
of the building. We will be sure to observe the halls in the morning and directly after school.
What are the teachers doing? We will also observe the staff lounge, the work room and any
other teacher common areas.

We will also be looking at teacher and student interactions, as well as those between parents and
teachers. Students and teachers play an important role in the community of a school. We will
ask her what role she plays in those interactions.

After many observations it will be time for us to sit down with her and ask her what she notices.
From there we will ask her what relationship she will focus on first to make the biggest positive
impact. Again, highlighting the positive aspects of the culture and what she wishes she had seen.

We will then ask her what her first step to establishing that relationship will be. After we get the
goal clarified, we will then establish a meeting date where we will check in on the progress to
ensure implementation.
THE WEBSTER CASE

Changes she has or we’d like her to notice about the culture include: lack of collaboration,
feeling of hopelessness in the school, passivity, the feel of the building- physically and
emotionally.

4. How can you guide the principal to assess the community and the parents?
It is important to have the new principal learn about the community and the parents by being
visible and encouraging her to notice and discover what is in place. Asking her what she has
noticed in the area of the community and the parents is one way to begin the conversation.
Asking her:
- What have you noticed about the community? The parents?
- How do they affect your school? Position? The learning?
- What role do you/ could you play in those groups?
- Are there any patterns?
- What needs addressing or a new direction?
- How would that look? Who else could help facilitate a shift?

In the midst of coaching, information about the known issues will be “pulled out”- English as a
second language and parents with 2nd generation students in the school. We’d guide the focus to
include communication and activities that will make all community members feel welcome and
proud of their school.

5. Are there ‘landmine’ issues that you should warn the principal about with
regard to Webster or the larger school district?

We feel it will be important for us to let her know the demographics of Webster and history of
the school. There may be a situation where a “landmine” issue needs to be stated in a factual
and concrete way. In such a case, we would let her know about it (or them) and give her specific
information so that she is blindsided by something that she could have de-escalated if she had
only known. For example, the fact that the superintendent and the school board is looking for
changes. (Since the new principal was hired to transform the school, this may already be a
known issue to the principal). For these types of issues, we will ask her to consider what next
steps may be necessary. If we just tell her people in the community have a negative perception
of Webster, that’s a pretty broad statement. We will help create a survey with the principal to
gather community perception of Webster, or review a previous survey. These data will help her
to narrow the her focus. It would be our job to help the principal narrow down the opinions to
form obtainable goals.
Asking her questions such as:
- What do you notice?
- What are the issues that you notice that must be addressed?
- Can you prioritize the needs? What needs immediate attention?
THE WEBSTER CASE

- What steps could be taken to address it?

- What would be the next steps?

6. What do you think are the most serious challenges to moving forward and
how would you work in a supportive relationship to help the principal?
Probably the most serious and challenging problem is for the new principal to gain the trust and
respect of the staff. While it is important to build the relationships with all stakeholders, getting
the teachers and support staff on board can work to her advantage, which ultimately works to the
school and districts advantage. They can be the biggest testament to the school when they
exhibit positivity to all other stakeholders. Encouraging her to see the veteran staff as well as the
newer staff as valuable piece of the puzzle can boost morale and elicit change. We would
encourage her to see the positives while keeping in mind the serious needs of the school. We
would also encourage her to take the time to build this trust and collaboration with the staff.
We’d work as a sounding board of ideas and work to help her work through her ideas without
giving directives (unless really necessary). Once the culture is improved, a focus on best
practices will be received in a more positive tone.

The second most challenging issue is the behavior referrals that she receives and the
inappropriate student behavior that is perceived (by the number of reported incidences). While it
is important for the staff and parents to know that issues are dealt with promptly and fairly, it is
also important for her to develop a culture of prevention and positive attention to appropriate
behaviors. We would encourage her to be proactive in developing a behavior plan and standard
and implement both policies for referrals and education to both the students and the staff.
Having other principals share what has worked for them and sharing research based literature for
her to review would be a first step. Providing the resources to develop and implement this issue
would be a support that would also help encourage the first issue by turning around the feeling of
hopelessness in regards to behavior.

7. What are the listening skills that would make a difference in your work to
support the new principal?
It will be important for us to let her know we are listening to her and are empathetic to her
position. It would be important for us to notice if she is struggling emotionally from the job and
give her tools to help her through it, incorporating mindfulness might be something that would
be important. It will keep her focused as well as mentally sound through this challenge. It will
also be important for us to take what she is saying and paraphrase back so she can hear her own
thoughts, this will evoke many coaching conversations and ultimately help her clarify her goals
and outcomes. We need to listen to hear what she is saying and not to jump in and solve her
issues but to provide her with the tools to work them out.
 THE WEBSTER CASE

8. Develop a success rubric for goals for this school year along with the
principal, realizing that not everything can be done in one year, and that it is
important to triage the areas that are most essential. List up to five goals and
what would convince you that success had been made in these areas. In your
opinion, what would be realistic staff development goals for this year? If you had
your choice, what would you most want to see happen?

1. Improve the culture of the school community among staff, students and parents
2. Have a common discipline system in place, such as “Conscious Discipline” or
“Positive Behavior Intervention Systems”
3. Focus on instructional best practices
4. Increase staff engagement
5. Build leadership capacity

While we feel that all of these goals are important, we would give the most weight to the first
two goals; improve the culture of the school and have a common discipline system in place.
These are two things that can lead to the other three, which is why we included them in the rubric
on the next page.

Year One: Webster Elementary Principal’s Improvement Rubric

Goal Exemplary Progress Adequate Progress Inadequate Progress

*Improve the culture of the
school
● Increased teacher ● Increased teacher ● No evidence of
pride with teachers pride in school. increased pride in
initiating additional ● Opportunities school
opportunities. planned to increase ● Parent culture ratings
● Increased parent parent pride. regress
 THE WEBSTER CASE

ratings of school ● Parent ratings ● No change to the

culture remain the same inviting feel of the
● Physical feel of the ● Evidence of building- no student
building is inviting- student work on work displayed.
with student work display
displayed in ways
that exhibit pride

*Common Discipline ● Significant reduction ● Professional ● No Professional

System in referrals to Development of Development provided
principal. common system or planned
● Evidence of provided. ● No plan drafted or
Implementation of ● Draft of plan drafted with no
common system. created with staff collaboration
input

Focus on Best Practices ● Professional ● Professional ● No Professional

Development Development Development planned
Provided in 1 or planned around around best practices
more core areas. best practices ● No evidence of
● Evidence of most ● Evidence of pilot implementing best
teachers or a few teachers practices
implementing implementing

Increase Staff Engagement ● All staff observed ● Several staff ● Staff members remain
actively participating members observed resistant to
in collaborative participating in collaborative
conversations and collaborative conversations.
regular meetings. conversations

Build Leadership Capacity ● Evidence of at least 2 ● Evidence of at ● No evidence of teachers

teachers taking an least 1 teacher being selected or
active role in taking an active coached into
initiatives role in initiatives leadership.
or being coached
to do so.

References

Goff, P., Edward Guthrie, J., Goldring, E., & Bickman, L. (2014). Changing principals'

leadership through feedback and coaching. Journal of Educational Administration, 52(5), 682-

704.