• Model trust and respect as an administrator/leader
• Develop staff led committees
• Actively involve staff in faculty meetings
• Emphasize the importance of banding together as a team to reach shared goals
• Take a Lesson Study approach to building teacher collaborative relationships

A commitment to building strong partnerships with key stakeholders -  An important piece in any shared decision making process involves building partnerships with other committees, groups and individuals that can support your work.  Leaders who make these partnerships a priority and are creative when looking for partnerships, will have a much larger support system when needed throughout all stages of sustaining curricular changes.  In all leadership roles I have held, I have needed support from others and the larger my network, the more successful I could be.  

Strong collaborative skills - building strong teams involving many stakeholders requires strong collaborative skills.  Collaboration isn't always easy with many different personalities and opinions but beginning by building trust between members is key.  leading with integrity, strong ethics and ability to take responsibility for mistakes will help to build this trust.  I also believe part of earning trust is showing resolve and determination by being decisive, delegating responsibility when necessary, and being results oriented. 

Results Oriented - A results oriented approach helps to frame discussions, structure meetings, and focus on long term goals.  It's easy to get sidetracked or derailed in work that continues over a long time period.  Using benchmark data, monitoring feedback and being purpose driven helps all team members stay focused, positive and readjust quickly when needed to get work back on track. 

Committed to continuous improvement - The leader and team must be committed to continuous improvement.  Improvement is always possible and maximizing outcomes requires a commitment to creating systems and practices that allow for reflection, feedback and growth during the process of sustaining curricular change.  Monitoring and evaluating the systems and practices requires that the leaders strive to be good listeners, make time for self reflection and lead with an open mind.  

Benchmark Assessment (link) - Benchmark assessments are assessments administered periodically throughout the school year, at specifi ed times during a curriculum sequence, to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills relative to an explicit set of longer-term learning goals. The design and choice of benchmark assessments is driven by the purpose, intended users, and uses of the instruments. Benchmark assessment can inform policy, instructional planning, and decision-making at the classroom, school and/or district levels.

Artifact in project Management - In project management, a project artifact is a document designed to keep the project work aligned to project requirements and business goals. The PMBOK® Guide – 7^th edition defines a project artifact as: “a template, document, output, or project deliverable.” (p. 153). Attributes of project artifacts include:

• Created as part of overall project documentation

• Tailored to specifics of the project

• Linked to project management, not project deliverables

• Created by the project manager and project team

• Subject to change as project work progresses

• Referred to as artifacts, documents, deliverables, and/or templates

• Require formal updating

  
  

Artifacts in the classroom- Artifacts are a form of evidence that educators can use to tell the story of their classrooms and showcase their instructional practices.

Being results oriented and maintaining focus on the end goal is a strength for me but I find it sometimes creates a blind spot to the concerns and needs of others.  It's important to be results oriented to guide work and maintain progress but it's possible to do that and create a timeline that allows for needed diversions from the path or modifications to the original plan.  

A commitment to continuous improvement is something that all educators should actively strive towards.  Standards are constantly changing, advancements in technology create constant changes in education, as individuals we grow throughout our career in our understanding of how our students learn best and new research provides many new opportunities for educators.  I believe that all educators are committed to continuous improvement but this is an area that I am concerned about as a future leader.  Many educators are very burned out by the need to constantly make changes and keep up with all that is recommended for educators. I have often felt myself resist the constant requests for me to make more changes before I feel confident in how I have adjusted to the last change.  I believe it takes careful management skills and consideration of what is most important when deciding how to commit to continuous improvement.   

I've worked with many different districts to implement the new NYS Science Learning Standards but have never looked at the schools' mission and vision statements before beginning work within these districts. Moving forward, my goal as a leader will be to focus first on laying the foundations with a clear mission and vision and then work to establish a strong team with well defined research based goals. With a strong foundation, clear plan, and invested leaders, any new initiative has the best chance of success.