| Name
(click on underlined links to download) | Description |
|---|
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Developing a Performance Leadership Handbook | The purpose of a Performance Leadership Handbook (PLH) is to articulate clearly what school and district leaders should do to improve performance. Oftentimes, such expectations are communicated during group meetings and one-on-one conversations with individuals. However, a PLH codifies the expectations and provides a single document to refer to when addressing underperformance.
Topics:
• Preparing for Performance Leadership Handbook Development
• Creating the Performance Leadership Handbook |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Developing Increased Parent Engagement in Districts Using the Balanced Scorecard | Collaboratively develop Balanced Scorecard performance objectives that promote meaningful parent involvement in the school district.
Topics:
• Refining Objectives
• Updating the Balanced Scorecard |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Developing Increased Parent Engagement in Schools Using the Balanced Scorecard | Collaboratively develop Balanced Scorecard performance objectives that promote meaningful parent involvement in the school.
Topics:
• Refining Objectives
• Updating the Balanced Scorecard |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a District through SACS Accreditation Using the Balance Scorecard | When preparing for SACS review, you can save a great deal of time and effort by leveraging your district’s current Balanced Scorecard. With a few modifications, your Scorecard can serve as evidence for meeting the SACS standards. This module will show you how to link your district’s strategic objectives, as documented in your Balanced Scorecard, to the seven SACS standards.
Topics:
• Reviewing SACS Standards
• Linking SACS Standards to the Balanced Scorecard |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a School through SACS Accreditation Using the Balance Scorecard | When preparing for SACS review, you can save a great deal of time and effort by leveraging your school’s current Balanced Scorecard. With a few modifications, your Scorecard can serve as evidence for meeting the SACS standards. This module will show you how to link your school’s strategic objectives, as documented in your Balanced Scorecard, to the seven SACS standards.
Topics:
• Reviewing SACS Standards
• Linking SACS Standards to the Balanced Scorecard |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a Team to Allocate Resources Using the Balanced Scorecard | As much as 60 percent of organizations don’t link budgets to strategy. Rather than simply modifying last year’s budget for the upcoming year, let your Balanced Scorecard drive resource allocation to ensure that priority initiatives are funded. These initiatives support your organization’s strategic objectives and goals, as well as its mission, vision, and values.
Topics:
• Communicating the New Budget Process
• Refining the Balanced Scorecards
• Prioritizing Initiatives
• Allocating Resources |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a Team to Develop a Balanced Scorecard | Translate your vision and strategy into action by creating a Balanced Scorecard for your organization. Based on the principle that “you can't improve what you can't measure,” the Balanced Scorecard is a management, measurement, and communication system that supports strategic planning.
Topics:
• Establishing a Performance Measures Dictionary
• Constructing a Balanced Scorecard
• Inserting Baselines and Targets
• Identifying Initiatives |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a Team to Develop Strategy Maps | Develop a strategy map – a visual representation of cause and effect relationships within the organization and related to its objectives – that will provide the framework to help create the Balanced Scorecard.
Topics:
• Identifying Organizational Goal Areas / Perspectives
• Developing Performance Objectives
• Developing a Strategy Map |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a Team to Implement Visual Reporting | This module describes how to implement visual reporting by establishing a data room — a frequently used room adorned with charts that show data related to student learning, school processes, and stakeholder perceptions.
Topics:
• Establishing a Data Room
• Leading a Data Walk
• Leveraging the Data Room |
| Balanced Performance Improvement Series - Leading a Team to Select Performance Measures | Share with the organization and its stakeholders the results that drive the mission of the organization – and create an environment where you can begin tracking results to ensure that the organization meets its goals.
Topics:
• Generating a List of Potential Performance Measures
• Selecting a Final List of Performance Measures |
| Communications Series, 1 of 4-Leading a Team to Conduct a Communications Audit | Send the right messages to parents and the community by utilizing effective communication planning. Conduct a communication audit when new leadership roles are filled, when there are negative reports in the media about your school, or the school is developing a communication plan to ensure audiences receive the right message in the right way at the appropriate time.
Topics:
• Getting started
• Collecting communications data
• Analyzing communications data
• Preparing a final report |
| Communications Series, 4 of 4-Teaming With Your Community | This module will help school teams plan and implement activities that engender trust and positive school improvement.
• Understanding your community
• Teaming for better communications
• Teaming to provide greater student learning
• Teaming to serve your community
|
| Giving Effective Performance Feedback | Performance improvement is largely dependent on frequent and specific feedback, and your ability to administer effective feedback to those you mentor significantly impacts their ability to meet performance criteria. This module explores ways to determine evidence and clear criteria and outlines strategies for giving effective feedback.
Topics:
• Understanding feedback and performance
• Giving performance feedback |
| Leading a Team Through Group Decision-making | Use techniques such as brainstorming, multi-voting, and reaching consensus to guide the decision-making process.
Topics:
• Overview of the group decision-making process
• Brainstorming
• Multi-voting
• Consensus
|
| Leading a Team to Analyze and Display Data Using Quality Tools | Make complex issues simple and easy to understand for stakeholders by using quality tools to analyze and display information. School leaders and their teams can use these three quality tools to inform team decision-making for school improvement.
Topics:
• The Process Flow Chart
• The Check Sheet
• The Pareto Chart
|
| Leading a Team to Analyze Performance Factors | Analyze, identify, and agree upon the performance factors which impact the performer’s achievement and his/her ability to meet performance criteria. Resulting collaborative development of information can be used to inform actions and decisions regarding solutions and interventions.
Note: Perform this task before observing a performance.
Topics:
• Leading a team to analyze performance factors
• Leading a team to identify owners of performance factors |
| Leading a Team to Analyze Root Causes Using Quality Tools | Avoid the trap of jumping to solutions before identifying the root cause. This module helps leaders dig deep beneath the symptoms of problems to expose the root causes so that the right solutions can be applied. Find the true causes of the problem using these three quality tools.
Topics:
• The Five Whys
• The Fishbone (Cause and Effect) Diagram
• The Affinity (Relationship) Diagram
|
| Leading a Team to Assess Student Work | Determine best practices for assessing student work in accordance with state performance standards.
Topics:
• Aligning student work with performance standards
• Reviewing student performance data
• Giving effective feedback for student work
• Developing effective scoring tools |
| Leading a Team to Conduct Action Research | Description:
Action research is a type of formalized problem solving in which practitioners collect and use data to assess student performance and investigate potential solutions to problems. Schools that regularly conduct effective action research demonstrate improved achievement over time.
Topics:
• Selecting an Action Research Topic
• Reviewing Related Literature
• Applying Action Research Methodology
• Analyzing the Research Results Data |
| Leading a Team to Define Organizational Value Elements | This module shows you how to define the value elements of the organization to its stakeholders, its employees/members, to the media and the public at large – which is the first step to delivering that value, and influencing others to recognize it.
Topic:
• Leading a team to define organizational value elements |
| Leading a Team to Design a School Budget | Effective budget planning ensures funds support student achievement and the School Improvement Plan (SIP). Topics include:
• Analyzing the School Budget
• Aligning the Budget to the SIP
• Revisiting the SIP
|
| Leading a Team to Develop Norms and Covenants | Develop appropriate norms and covenants for group discussions and provide the support for mutual commitments and obligations to accomplish the mission, vision, core values, and goals of the organization.
Topics:
• Getting started with norms
• Getting started with covenants
• Leading a team to develop norms and covenants |
| Leading a Team to Develop SMART Goals | Develop SMART goals using performance measures related to identified school improvement initiatives. (Revised 7/08)
Topics:
• Developing SMART Goals
• Checking SMART Goal alignment
• Engaging a team in developing SMART Goals |
| Leading a Team to Market Educational Involvement Activities | The link between family involvement and increased student achievement has been confirmed in multiple studies. In this module, you will identify opportunities to promote school activities and student achievement to encourage family participation and measure the effectiveness of those activities.
Topics:
• Communicating the Effect of Community Involvement on Student Achievement
• Developing Educational Marketing Messages
• Measuring the Effectiveness of Community Involvement Activities |
| Leading a Team to Select Performance Interventions | Identify the gap(s) between desired performance and actual performance by analyzing the causes. Target possible solutions and generate performance interventions to solve the problem, selecting those that have the highest probability of successful implementation, considering cost, time, culture, risks, and benefits.
Topics:
• Identify causes of inadequate performance
• Generate a list of potential performance intervention(s)
• Select the best performance intervention(s) |
| Leading Better-seeking Teams - Orienting and Focusing | After recruiting and selecting team members to be part of the Better Seeking Team (BST), the next critical step is to get the team oriented and focused on the task at hand. This module shows you how to empower your BST to achieve higher levels of performance on improvement initiatives. (Revised 05/10)
Topics:
• Orienting the BST
• Focusing the BST on Team Roles
• Focusing the BST on Professional Learning
• Focusing the BST on Team Assignments |
| Leading Better-seeking Teams - Recruiting and Selecting | Description:
Select and recruit individuals who collaborate successfully as a Better-seeking Team on improvement initiatives to help the school and students achieve their goals. (Revised 05/10)
Topics:
• Defining personal characteristics of the BST
• Identifying team roles and responsibilities of the BST
• Recruiting and selecting a BST |
| Leading Faculty Study Groups Series, 1 of 2 - Getting Started | Engage all teachers in study teams to work in a collaborative and professional manner as they learn from each other to improve teaching and learning.
Topics:
• Getting Organized for FSGs
• The FSG Kick-off Meeting |
| Leading Tactical Meetings | Master the three critical elements of a Weekly Tactical Meeting: Lightning Round - team members summarize primary weekly activities and provide others opportunity for clarification questions; Progress Review - reporting key metrics toward the organizational goals; Real-Time Agenda - based on how the school/system is performing against its goal.
Topics:
• Getting Started with Tactical Meetings
• Leading a Tactical Meeting
|
| Leading Team Discussions | Involve all team participants in a natural flow of conversation that leads to a common understanding of the issues for effective discussions. The discussion process includes effective questioning and active listening skills.
Topics:
• Asking Questions
• Active Listening
• Dealing With Counter-productive Behavior
• Leading a Discussion
|
| Negotiating for Improved School Effectiveness | When parties can't agree on a solution to a problem or conflict, effective communication becomes critical in order to reach an acceptable agreement. This module presents a negotiation process that you can use to identify strategies that will result in successful interventions.
Topics:
● Know Yourself and Your Opposition (Analyze)
● Prepare to Negotiate (Design)
● Work Toward a Solution (Develop)
● Close the Negotiation (Implement) |
| Planning for Difficult Situations | As a result of many kinds of unexpected and difficult situations, students and/or staff can experience physical problems or threats at school. When these situations occur, the leader must be able to respond quickly in a manner that provides the safest environment possible to all individuals.
Topics:
• Updating your school safety plan
• Preparing school staff and community for emergencies
• Conducting a simulated drill |
| Standards-based Classroom Series, 1 of 2-Leading a Team to Establish a Standards-based Classroom | The Georgia and federal governments expect Georgia school districts to adhere to standards and establish schools whose instruction is structured to support the standards. This module provides key components that will assist you in establishing a standards-based classroom.
Topics:
• Developing Curriculum Standards
• Assessing a Standards-based Classroom
• Designing Instruction for a Standards-based Classroom |
| Using Leader Stories to Build Shared Vision and Commitment | Successfully influence various audiences in their organizations by developing a series of leadership stories. In this module, you will learn how to develop and tell leadership stories such as: Who I Am, Who We Are, and The Future Story. Leadership Stories drive school improvement initiatives.
Topics:
• Creating Your Who I Am Story
• Creating Your Who We Are Story
• Creating Your Future Story
• Sharing Your Leader Stories |
| Writing With Impact for Effective Communication | Effective communication skills form the foundation for successful school management. These skills are so basic that often we overlook their significance. This module focuses on ways to help you fine-tune and master this essential craft. You will learn how to analyze, draft, and finalize effective memos and business letters used for school communications.
Topics:
• Writing Memos that Matter
• Writing Letters that Mean Business
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