L103 Live Case #1 Questions by Deniann Grant

2025-09-30 17:36:54 UTC

If we improved only one condition in the system, which would most significantly shift both value alignment and academic outcomes?

Are there stories or examples that can help illustrate the problem as you see it? What experiences make this problem feel most urgent to you right now?

2025-09-30 17:38:29 UTC

What have you learned about teacher and administrator needs when it comes to shifting to liberatory mindsets

2025-09-30 17:43:37 UTC

What are the most helpful and most impeding aspects of the ecosystem you are working within, above you and under you?

2025-09-30 17:44:28 UTC

Tell us more about how you are thinking about CIDT as it relates to your core leadership values and instructional goals like liberators mindset.

2025-09-30 17:45:43 UTC

Thinking about the work of distributed leadership schools have been doing for 5 years now. What is the status of that? Do all your schools have a functioning ILT? Are all schools doing Learning Cycles? If so, what is the scale of quality implementation and teacher leadership look like?

2025-09-30 17:51:24 UTC

What elements of the principal/AP contracts are the most difficult to navigate or present the biggest obstacles for achieving your learning goals?

2025-09-30 17:52:13 UTC

How often are you in schools with your principals? How is that time typically used?

2025-09-30 17:53:39 UTC

devinadams5 — 2025-09-30 17:54:46 UTC

Given the reality that school leaders are often consumed by “putting out fires,” what structures or routines have you tried, or considered, to protect time and space for instructional leadership? Are there examples where this balance has been achieved in specific schools or teams?

PD

2025-09-30 17:55:01 UTC

Who is responsible and what structures are in place for PD of staff within schools? (Frequency and duration)

devinadams5 — 2025-09-30 17:55:44 UTC

Are there district policies, funding models, or leadership turnover that make it difficult to sustain instructional improvement efforts?

What is the distribution of principal and AP in comparison to size of the school? In addition, how are administrators provided the opportunity to categorize their day?

2025-09-30 17:55:58 UTC

2025-09-30 17:56:04 UTC

How do you know this is a problem? Do all leaders in your district feel this way? Do you notice trends across seniority?

2025-09-30 17:56:22 UTC

Are there any specific issues, trends, or conditions that have caused a high operations need?

Org Chart

2025-09-30 17:56:39 UTC

Does the org chart at the schools include operational staff? At central office?

2025-09-30 17:56:45 UTC

Do principals have a shared understanding of the challenge here? (that they are being pulled into operational challenges and have limited time to prioritize instructional expertise?

2025-09-30 17:57:05 UTC

How often do chiefs convene? Is there a scope and sequence for what network meetings look like?

Budget & Locus of Control

2025-09-30 17:57:24 UTC

Do you manage a district budget that you have the positional authority to be creative with?

Org structure

2025-09-30 17:57:30 UTC

What is the org structure at school level and what are the roles and expectations for APs?

Network

2025-09-30 17:57:31 UTC

How is your network team currently structured/leveraged to collaborate and prioritize their time supporting schools?

2025-09-30 17:57:42 UTC

What are interventions to shift principals to focus on being instructional leaders?

What are the conditions leading to principal overload? What data supports this?

2025-09-30 17:57:50 UTC

2025-09-30 17:58:04 UTC

Have you already tried anything to address the problem? If, so what was the outcome? If not, why not?

2025-09-30 17:58:20 UTC

What is preventing principals from becoming instructional leaders? What happens if they don't do the operations and delegate that work?

2025-09-30 17:58:53 UTC

What are adult roles at each school? Who else can be managing operational challenges centrally or at each school?

What are the tasks that can be "taken off of the plate" for principals? IE ombudsman, operations, communication. What is within your authority to delegate these types of tasks?

2025-09-30 17:59:18 UTC

The Visual

2025-09-30 17:59:56 UTC

Who created the visual? How do you use it at all with your principals? Would the owner feel slighted if it were changed? Do you have the positional authority to suggest and provide the change?

Driving factors

2025-09-30 18:01:04 UTC

What are the driving factors that underlie this issue? Is there a staffing / budgetary constraint that needs to be addressed to ensure operational needs are met? Is there a capacity / training need?

What are the big buckets for the operational urgencies? Has there been any campuses that have implemented structures meant to address this problem?

tamyrawalker — 2025-09-30 18:01:17 UTC

Performance Management

2025-09-30 18:01:45 UTC

Is the performance management rubric/evaluation for Ps operations heavy? What percentage of indicators are instructiona v operational?

2025-09-30 18:01:59 UTC

What is your understanding of how other networks are succeeding or not with being aligned to these strategic goals? Is there collaboration?

Compliance Requests

2025-09-30 18:02:02 UTC

What compliance issues are arising for Principals and APs? For example, student attendance, IEPs, etc. Where are the compliance requests coming from – district, state or another external entity?

Role of Central Office

2025-09-30 18:02:12 UTC

What is the role of Office of General Counsel (OGC) and central office regarding compliance requests?

What are your strongest principals doing to focus on instructional leadership? What efforts have been made to scale these strategies?

2025-09-30 18:02:19 UTC

Who else in the building besides school leaders exhibit instructional leadership?

tamyrawalker — 2025-09-30 18:02:36 UTC

Principal capacity building

2025-09-30 18:05:35 UTC

What does principal training look like, and what systems do you have in place to follow through in terms of coaching and walkthroughs, as well as data tracking?

What is the "consistent and focused" way that principals’ attention is being supported by the network to refocus on instructional leadership?

2025-09-30 18:05:59 UTC

What is within your power (formal and informal) to give your principals permission to focus and prioritize instruction?

2025-09-30 18:08:55 UTC

Proof points

2025-09-30 18:09:33 UTC

Are there any current principals in the district who balance instruction and operation in alignment with your vision? Any outside of your district?

2025-09-30 18:13:09 UTC

What's the approval process for enacting change from your seat?

Community Assets & Relationships

2025-09-30 18:13:59 UTC

What community assets, relationships, partnerships and resources exist that can help the school network take care of some of these administrative and operational needs? (e.g. grass cutting etc.)

It sounds like the focus here is not on changing instructional practices at the teacher level, but on whether principals FEEL like they are being instructional leaders by being in classrooms more and being aware of instructional practices. Is there a network-wide expectation, measure, or goal that principals would be able to evaluate themselves against to see where they are in their perception of instructional leadership?

2025-09-30 18:16:10 UTC

What exactly are principals asking to have more time to do? Is this the case across all sites?

2025-09-30 18:17:04 UTC