Am I culturally diverse?

At the beginning of last week we were asked to complete a Cultural Proficiency Receptivity Scale Survey. After completing this I wrote the following. I thought it worth posting here as well as it really sums up my feelings about where I am in this experiences as I prepare to become a school leader.

While my mind and heart are set at the correct end of the scale, I believe that actually accomplishing these tasks will be much more difficult than having a belief that they are possible. I believe that all students can learn but right now, not all students are learning even when their teachers have a caring heart and provide them with what they need. I then must ask myself what that says about my potential as a leader. I think that as a leader I am still in my infancy about how to incorporate cultural proficiency into my leadership style. What I am finding, in general, is that my teaching style says many things about who I am but is not indicative of who I will be as a leader. I must learn to trust myself on a much grander scale. I must learn a whole new set of tricks to work with adults and train them on how to develop cultural proficiency with their students. And the most daunting task will be to develop a new way to view cultural relationships in the minds of the students.

This closes out another week and I am grateful that the assignments for the upcoming week are a little shorter. I don't know what it says about me that I really struggled with last weeks assignment on evaluating myself and my school on cultural diversity.

I also can safely post here my thoughts on one of the articles that we read on cultural diversity. While I know that the article titled "Cultural Proficiency: Tools for Secondary School Administrators" by K. Nuri-Robbins, D. Lindsey, R. Terrell, and R. Lindsey, was intended to provide information on evaluating cultural diversity in school, I was really put off by the tone of the article. I found myself re-reading page one 4 times before I finally skipped the page to try to find the meat of the article.

I was much more inchanted with the article titled "Teacher-Pay Experiments Mounting Amid Debate" by L. Olson. While I did not review this article here is part of my review of an article on a similar topic.

My district has been experimenting with merit pay for several years now and the word on the street is “I am not sure why they pay me extra for something I would do anyway. I would prefer to just be paid more initially. I am a professional who strives to do what is in the best interest of my students all the time.” I have heard this in the hallways countless times. I also keep in mind that we are a recognized school and so it is not the weak talking because they don’t want to work hard. Every teacher at my campus strives to put the best interest of their students ahead of their own paycheck. For many the merit pay system is just icing on the cake. It does not serve to keep them working at the campus. They choose to work there because they enjoy working with these kids. As a side note, the formulas which are used to determine the payout for each eligible employee are understood by very few people. Most people just state that they will take whatever extra money that the district is willing to throw their way. Personally, I find it a little offensive. My position does not qualify for merit pay because I do not teach a core area. I also do not qualify for school incentives that other administrators receive because I am not truly an administrator. In my position; however, I have a direct impact on graduation rates which is an area that is used to determine the school based payout for every teacher and administrator. In essence, I am working to put money in someone else’s pocket. I don’t negate the idea of merit pay as I agree that school districts should not reward mediocrity, but I firmly believe that further research needs to be done to establish the norms to which such pay is applied. As it was stated in the article, “Incentive pay cannot be provided as a quick fix; providing teachers with more pay will not instantly create better results. The pay-for-performance plans that have truly worked are the ones that are carefully planned and take into account a range of factors to highlight marked improvement.” (AASA, 2010)

Finally, I really enjoyed the opportunity to interview a principal regarding movement to an instructional leader over the traditional "boss." Here is a portion of my write up of that interview.

I believe that most administrators are working toward becoming the instructional leaders of the 21st century. As is also the case with the principal that I chose to interview. He stated that “I am the person responsible for ensuring that effective instruction is taking place in every classroom. This is done through leadership, observation, coaching, and ensuring that instruction is data-driven where possible.” He also observed that “instructional leadership is achieved through building relationships, demonstrating competence, gaining and growing expertise, supporting teachers, and collaborating to set and achieve common goals and objectives related to the academic needs of each classroom.” In terms of where his thoughts met the ideas of a 21st century leader he indicated that there is a big need to align professional development with the needs of the students based on data. This idea seemed to be in line with the stated goals of the 21st century leader. It is also noteworthy that the principal interviewed indicated that the state’s current professional development and appraisal system (PDAS) is a good basic framework for evaluating staff but there are several holes in that framework. This can be evidenced by the different evaluations given to the same staff member when appraised by different leaders. Either there is a hole in the framework or a hole in the professional development of the leader when implementing that framework.