Reviving School Culture Assignment

Reviving School Culture

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Reviving School Culture – A Case Study

Creating a positive and supportive working environment is the key to meaningful leadership and enhancing productivity in any working system. Without a positive culture that explores the needs of the workers, an organization is deemed to fail. In the school environment, leadership is crucial. Effective leadership is revealed in teachers’ satisfaction in their work as well as school workers’ satisfaction in their areas of working.

Studies reveal that most institutions that do not cultivate a positive and supportive working culture have problems in retaining workers. It is the responsibility of the school leaders to develop a positive learning culture that favors learners, teachers, and other school workers (Lieber & Tissiere, 2015). The question, however, is, how can school leaders foster a vibrant and positive learning climate? It all begins by understanding what constitutes the school’s culture to which they are leading. Research has revealed that when school workers, teachers, and learners feel respected, engaged, and safe, learning measurably rises. Besides, in such a culture, staff, and worker’s satisfaction and retention are enhanced (Lieber & Tissiere, 2015). Without a conducive learning environment, it would be very difficult to promise such. This is the situation of Maynard High school.

Background of The School and The Issues at Hand

Maynard High school is a public high school that came into a operation a year ago. The school began its second year of existence in March 2020. Currently, the school has a population of 1100 learners from grade 9 to grade 11. However, the management is planning to include grade 12 which has been in development since its inception. There is a likelihood that grade 12 will come into existence next year January, bringing the total number of learners to 1,450. Currently, the school has a population of 45 teachers, with 9 new teachers being budgeted for the fall. In the previous administration, the school administration consists of principle as the leader, and he is being assisted by three other assistant principals in the day to day running of the school. However, the principal and one assistant principal did resign before semester break last year, reducing the number of assistant principals by one. I am currently the new principle, having being officially instructed to take care of the school by the state education department until the end of the school year in December.

Ever since I took over the leadership as the acting school principle, seven teachers have already given notice that they are likely not to return next year. This is a great challenge to the school considering that they represent the core areas and electives in the school. The school also has 3 counsellors. The office staff of the school consist of administrative assistant for the principle, two administrative assistants for assistant principals, attendance clerk and receptionist. As the new principal of the school, the main challenges that the school experiences are retention of workers, lack of community involvement in the affairs of the school and poor performance, management. As a result, the school cannot achieve its mission and vision. The school value statement is soar as learners. However, this is entirely difficult to achieve, considering the current state of the school. Narrowing down, the school is suffering from a lack of a positive and supportive working environment. My first step as the school leader would be reviving the school culture by undertaking the following.

Short Term Goals

Motivating the school staff; staff motivation is the key to work satisfaction. The seven teachers who have already informed the management about them leaving the school next year have such a plan because they feel unmotivated, particularly by the previous administration. I believe that without motivation, teachers and workers alike cannot perform their work satisfactorily. One way of building a supportive and positive school culture that would retain teachers is through motivation (Deal & Peterson, 2016). Being a teacher is incredible today considering that teachers are faced with several challenges such as learners behavioral and family issues. As the school leader, I believe that keeping teachers motivated is my duty. This, I will do by praising them publicly because of their efforts and leaving some room in the school budget for small presents. This will help foster a collaborative working culture as well as positive environment for learners and faculty.

Instilling curiosity in learners; following the many challenges the school experiences, there is no doubt that learners have built a sense of reluctance to study. Hence, I would promote a sense of curiosity for learners to cultivate a culture of intensive and extensive learning. This, I would do by rewarding learners who performs well and taking them to benchmarking in other schools where they can share ideas of best ways of studying. I would also ensure that flyers containing school value statement are printed and pinned on the classroom walls, noticeboard and school bus as a reminder to learners and teachers so they can know what is expected of them. These would stir a sense of curiosity and eagerness to learn, and in turn, improve school performance.

Long Term Goals

Employing positive actions curriculum; the standard curriculum the school currently uses has neither been tasted nor is being followed. As such, employing new positive and actions curriculum will the school’s long term goal. The school contains learners from diverse backgrounds. Some are Hispanic, other are African Americans while a greater number are whites. Besides, they have different cultural and economic backgrounds. It is critically important for learners to be taught positive behaviors in a way that is consistent and systematic in the school, and this begins by developing a positive actions curriculum that would teach learners on how to manage their time and their emotions, how to solve challenges and make decisions and how to set their goals that would result to personal growth and academic improvement (Lieber & Tissiere, 2015). I believe that it would help create positive behaviors among learners which will not only enable them feel good and respect others but also foster a culture of hard work among them.

Developing teachers’ performance appraisal and educational improvement; the school will also focus on tracking teachers’ performance in the near future. This will help know teachers input in the classroom learning and devise appropriate ways to motivate them. Besides, in the near future, the school management would provide finance to teachers to further their education in their areas of specialization so they can improve on their knowledge and skills.

Collaboration with Learners and Teachers for Effective Learning

Creating a positive learning environment calls for collaborative teamwork. As a way of getting everyone involved, the school would ensure that teachers work together for the success of the school. To ensure this, the administration would hold weekly meetings where teachers give their views on the best way to enhance learning among learners. They will also discuss freely areas that need improvement in the school as well as their needs. Besides, learners would hold biweekly meetings where they would discuss freely how they would like the administration to make improvements to better enhance their learning (Cook, 2017). This kind of collaboration would ensure that both teachers and learners are engaged, hence, instilling a sense of trust and responsibility among them and eventually creating a positive learning environment where everyone feels included.

Involving and Responding to The Interests of Parents, Community and School Sponsors/Care Givers

It is no doubt that parental and community involvement is integral part of school success. Studies have shown that involving parents, community and school caregivers is a critical factor that impacts performance of learners as well as the learning environment itself (Wilbanks, 2018). The schools involve parents, community and caregivers in its planning and developmental activities, learners are likely to earn higher grades, attend school regularly as well as staying in school longer. Besides, parents, community and caregivers have higher chances of supporting the school in morally and financially. Considering the current state of the school, parental, community and caregivers’ efforts is needed. The school would involve them in any developmental activities. The school is currently planning to hold a general meeting that includes parents, community members and caregivers to give their views on the best way to run the school and ask them to collaboratively work together for a common goal.

Building Community-School Relationship

Community is integral part of the school environment. without a good relationship with the community, a school cannot grow (Teasley, 2017). Since the school has a future plan of expanding, cultivating a good relationship with the community is key as the school depend on them to provide land for expansion in the near future. Also, the school need a play field and we rely on the community to provide us with more space. As a way of building good relationship with them, 40 percent of the total school tender will go to the community members. This will make them have a sense of belong to the school hence offering their support.

Rationale of The Plan

The rationale of this plan is that it would help improve the performance of learners in the school by creating a positive learning environment for the. It is made to be learner centered where students’ views would be considered before making any decision that pertains to their learning improvements. Besides, every decision made would be centered around learners’ performance since they are the key assets to the school. The plan would also create a supportive and positive working culture for teachers and workers. This would help eliminate the problem of retention of workers.

Conclusion

In summary, building a supportive and positive working environment is the key to school improvement and workers satisfaction. This would also have an impact on learners’ academic performance since learning thrive in a favorable learning culture. However, the responsibility for establishing a positive working culture and raising well learned and civic minded generation of youths does not rest with school alone. It must be a consolidated effort by teachers, learners, parents, caregivers and school community. Involvement of these stakeholders is critically important if the school is to realize better performance. Hence, in all its dealings, Maynard High School will work with parents, community, caregivers, teachers and learners for its success.

References

Cook, H. J. (2017). A Community of Collaboration. Principal Leadership, 17(5), 50–53.

Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. (2016). Shaping school culture. John Wiley & Sons.

Lieber, C. M., & Tissiere, M. (2015). Recalibrating climate, culture, and discipline. Principal Leadership, 16(2), 46-51.

Teasley, M. L. (2017). Organizational culture and schools: A call for leadership and collaboration.

Wilbanks, J. (2018). An Award-Winning Way to Partner with Parents. The Education Digest, 83(7), 53-57.