The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

We’ve hired high achieving school leaders and here is how

January 10, 2011 by Bill Durbin

As Jen Hines highlighted in her recent blog, YES Prep’s fundamental secret to success is the high-caliber people it attracts, develops, and retains. Whether you are at Google, General Electric, or YES Prep, you have to continue to create opportunities for high-achieving staff to see a future in the organization and receive training that prepares them for increased leadership. If you do not create these opportunities, your organization will struggle to retain your best people, and the organizational results will suffer. While we are in the process of developing growth and leadership pathways for our teachers, we also offer teacher-leaders and school-level administrators leadership development opportunities that prepare them for success in their current and future roles. We call this program Leading Excellence. Leading Excellence includes several pathways that address the professional development needs of various teacher-leaders at YES Prep.

LEADERSHIP COHORT
At YES Prep we strive to be the best place in the country to grow and develop as educational leaders. We offer the Leadership Cohort program for staff who are serving in a position where there is management of a team or cross-team projects, positions such as content specialist or course leader, instructional coach, operations manager, grade level chair, data czar, dean of instruction, dean of students, college counselor, student support counselor, instructional support specialist, or program coordinator. As a leader in each of these roles, there are some important skills that leaders need to develop to be effective in this role. This cohort includes four days of training:

• Days 1 and 2 (Summer): These sessions address 1) understanding your own leadership style, 2) building effective teams, 3) effective listening, 4) managing difficult conversations, 5) effective meeting facilitation, and 6) goal-setting.
• Day 3 (Fall): These sessions address 1) time management, and 2) follow-up on leading a team and difficult conversations.
• Day 4 (Spring): These sessions address 1) goal-progress, 2) reflection of performance in current role, 3) growth areas for future success, 4) professional development in preparation for next year.

LEADING EXCELLENCE DAY
For current team-leaders or staff interested in moving into positions with increased leadership expectations, such as dean of students, dean of instruction, content specialist, principal, or school director, YES prep offers the Leading Excellence Day. Leading Excellence Day consists of a series of activities/simulations that encompass the 12 competencies embodied in effective school leadership at YES Prep. These competencies are: Analysis and Planning, Communication, Team Orientation, Influence, Creativity and Change, Business Focus, Customer Focus, Critical-Thinking, Commitment to Development, Valuing People, Professionalism, and Results Orientation.

As part of these activities, you will complete a task, and then time will be taken with the activity facilitator to reflect on your performance. On any given Leading Excellence Day, participants will receive feedback from the CEO, multiple school leaders, and prominent home office staff. Participants walk away from each activity with specific feedback on your strengths and growth areas in relation to the school director competencies. At YES Prep we value people and their development so much that we ensure that participants experience time with the current leaders in the organization.

LEADING EXCELLENCE FELLOWSHIP
For external candidates interested in running a YES Prep school or internal staff interested in school leadership and various organizational project work, YES Prep offers the Leading Excellence Fellowship. The Leading Excellence Fellowship is an intensive one-year training and professional development program. During this time, fellows have the opportunity to visit eight high-performing YES Prep campuses to learn the culture and academic program that makes the YES Prep system one of the best in America. In addition, fellows are able to identify their strengths and growth areas, tailor a professional development and work experience to best facilitate their personal growth, and complete specific action projects at various YES Prep schools as a means to “give back” to the host schools.

At the end of the one-year fellowship, the goal is that Leading Excellence Fellows are prepared to take on a school-level leadership position in the following year, and that they have developed the foundation necessary to run a YES Prep school in the future.

The Leading Excellence Fellowship is an intensive one-year training and professional development program and a pathway to school leadership at YES Prep Public Schools, a nationally-recognized charter school network and a driver of education reform throughout Houston. During this one-year program, 2-3 Fellows will:

• Work at one or several of our eight campuses to learn about the culture and academic program that makes the YES Prep system one of the best in America
• Complete specific and tailored mission-critical projects that will leverage existing interests and skills and have a tangible and immediate impact on YES Prep students
• Design an individualized professional development plan designed to facilitate growth and provide the tools necessary to take on school leadership roles within YES Prep
• Be a part of one of the most innovative education reform communities in the country and help push Houston schools past the tipping point and toward the goal of providing all low-income students with a high quality education

SHARE YOUR IDEAS!
A strength at YES Prep is our continual critical eye for improvement. We know that while these current Leading Excellence pathways are a good start, we need to continue to refine our development and support of teacher-leaders and school-level leaders. Suggestions have been given that leaders would like to see more multi-session training opportunities on specific topics (meeting facilitation, team goal-development and management). Others have suggested creating forums where your highest performing staff come together for a day to attack an organizational challenge and develop possible solutions, with the idea that such an event would let your high-performers know who they are and simultaneously use their brain-power to create solutions. As mentioned above, organizations across all continents and industries are trying to crack this nut. We would love to hear your ideas/suggestions!
 

--
0 Comments
Be the first to leave a comment