Presented at Gwynedd-Mercy College, fall 2008. Based on the work of Wiggins & McTighe: Schooling by Design.

1. Schooling by Design Chapter 7: What Is the Job of an Academic Leader?

2. “ Our goal is to be the #1 comprehensive high school in the state of Pennsylvania.”

3. If you are going to “lead” people anywhere, you must have a specific and worthy destination in mind…

4. Mission Vision

5. We need far more “leadership” and less “management” ….if schools are to honor their obligations and close the huge gap between vision and reality.

6. You said what?

8. How will these envisioned competencies and accomplishments be explicitly addressed within the curriculum?

9. How will they be assessed throughout the grades?

10. What observable indicators in classrooms will show that these desired outcomes are receiving proper attention?

11. The long-term obligation of academic leaders is to ensure that staff members operate as professionals… … basing decisions on defensible criteria and principles closely tied to best practice in their respective curricular areas.

15. Leaders need to establish a process for systematically recording teachers observations of student difficulties in learning and their suggestions for addressing those problems .

18. Adjustments matter more than the original blueprint. Examine results from a variety of sources: external tests, local cornerstone assessments and samples of student work.

19. Use feedback from students, parents, alumni and related institutional clients about what is working and what isn’t.

20. Reform “by design” means that the actions taken are deliberate and focused on a clear and defensible end result.

22. New structures must be in place that demand and encourage constant review of educational decisions by getting and using feedback.

23. … is a function of constant and deliberate self correction, mindful of clear and agreed-upon goals while unflinchingly seeking out feedback and thus dealing with reality

24. … wanting to learn why students are bored or made to feel stupid, and it takes action to correct conduct at odds with the mission. … wanting to know how schools can be learning organizations if faculty resist learning.

33. Is everyone in your school on the bus? Are the people on the bus in the right seats?

36. Time and Mission

37. Teaming and Mission

38. Middletown Area High School 5 Academic Pathways—traditional academic departments & 5 Pathway departments

43. Questions?