A Key to Effective Inclusive

High Schools

Institute on Community Integration (UAP)

Tom Bartholomay

Teri Wallace

Christine Mason

The Leadership Factor

The Leadership Factor

A Key to Effective Inclusive

High Schools

Tom Bartholomay

Teri Wallace

Christine Mason of Excellence

Beacons

Institute on Community Integration (UAP)
Printed December, 2001

This document was produced by Beacons of Excellence: Achieving Exemplary Results

for Students with Disabilities in Secondary Education (Grant Number #H023D70102)

awarded to the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota,

in collaboration with the Council for Exceptional Children, by the U.S. Department

of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). This document does

not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education, the Institute

on Community Integration or the University of Minnesota, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

This document is available in alternate formats upon request. For alternate formats

or additional copies, contact the Institute on Community Integration Publications

Office at 612-624-4512 or publications@icimail.coled.umn.edu.

http://ici.umn.edu/beacons
Table of Contents

Using This Document: A Guide / p. 1

Introduction / p. 3

Overview / p. 3

School Reform and Inclusion / p. 3

Purpose of the Research / p. 5

Leadership: Its Significance Within The Beacons Study / p. 9

Leadership Themes Defined / p. 11

How Were the Leadership Themes Defined? / p. 11

The Four Schools and The Factor Of Leadership / p. 13

Fred J. Page High School / p. 13

Sinagua High School / p. 16

High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology / p. 19

William H. Turner Technical Arts High School / p. 21

Leadership Themes / p. 25

Challenge All Students and Their Teachers to High Standards / p. 26

Build an Inclusive and Collaborative Community of Learning / p. 29

Foster a School Culture of Innovation and Creativity / p. 32

Engage Stakeholders in School Leadership / p. 35

Promote Professional Development / p. 38

Hire Staff Who Reinforce School Values and Vision / p. 40

Use Data for Decision-Making and School Improvement Planning / p. 42

Relationship Among Themes / p. 45

High Standards and Inclusive Community / p. 46

Culture of Innovation / p. 46

Stakeholder Involvement in Leadership / p. 46

Professional Development, Using Data-Decision Making,

and Hiring Staff Who Support School Values / p. 47

Administration / p. 47

Changing To Inclusive Education: A Chronology of Administrative

Decisions / p. 49

Example: High School of Telecommunication Arts / p. 49

School Leadership Self-Assessment Worksheet / p. 53

Bibliography / p. 61
Acknowledgments

This document would not have been

written if it were not for the generous

participation of the four schools that

shared information with the Beacons of

Excellence project: Fred J. Page High

School (Franklin, Tennessee), Sinagua

High School (Flagstaff, Arizona), High

School of Telecommunication Arts and

Technology (Brooklyn, New York), and

William H. Turner Technical Arts High

School (Miami, Florida). These schools

went out of their way to provide us with

access to their data, classrooms, and

stakeholders. Administrators and teachers

energetically supported research efforts by

compiling school data, and arranging site

visits, interviews and focus groups,

observations, and the administration of

surveys. These efforts were always

couched in an appreciated concern for

kids, in terms of both the value of the

research and not letting the research

interfere with the school’s ability to

deliver quality education.

Within these schools there are particular people who took the initiative to open

their school doors to our research team

and remained as key sources of insightful

information and contact at each school.

The Beacons project is indebted to their

efforts and dedication to the project and

to school improvement. These people

include —

Page High School

• Joe Yeager, Principal

• Phyllis Williamson, Special

Education Department Chair

Sinagua High School

• Kim Flack, Special Education

Teacher/Coordinator

• Dave Flack, Special Education

Teacher

• Keith Bacon, Special Education

Teacher

High School of Telecommunication

Arts and Technology

• Charles Amundsen, Principal

• Deirdre DeAngelis, Assistant

Principal Special Education

• Ellen Victor, Assistant Principal

• Steve Resnick, Assistant Principal

Special Education

William H. Turner Technical Arts

High School

• Mary Jones, Special Education

Facilitator

• Robert Carskadon, Vice Principal

• John Simpson, Special Education

Department Chair Person

As the leadership themes described in

this document are based on the views of

each school’s community, we extend a

special thanks to all administrators, staff,

students, parents, district, and other

involved stakeholders. Their pursuit of

educational excellence is what made this

publication meaningful.

Special thanks also goes to three people

who meticulously helped to analyze the

leadership data —

Dr. Susan Hupp, Professor, Department of Educational Psychology,

College of Education and Human

Development, University of Minnesota

Gonzaga de Gama, Research Assistant,

Institute on Community Integration,

University of Minnesota

Robert W. Kambeitz, Research

Assistant, Institute on Community

Integration, University of Minnesota

This document

does a great job

identifying themes

that are important

for school leaders

who are pursuing

standards-based

reform and inclusion.

It sheds light on

issues that are basic

to school leadership

today. Particularly

helpful is that it goes

beyond lofty

descriptions to offer

many practical

examples and tips on

what leaders can do

within their own

contexts.

Ann Zweber Werner

Coordinator of

Licensing and Leadership

Development

for Educational

Administrators,

University of Minnesota
I could see this

document being used

during principal

workshops in our

district. It is concise and

quickly summarizes

important points that

would lead to good

discussions. This

document describes

what we have been

trying to do in our

district for the past three

years.

Barbara Pulliam

District Superintendent,

St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Education,

Office of Special Education Programs

(OSEP) funded several research projects

in 1997, entitled Beacons of Excellence.

The intent of the projects was to identify

factors associated with schools whose

students with disabilities were achieving

exemplary learning results within the

context of all students achieving such

results.

The Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota, in

collaboration with the Council for

Exceptional Children (CEC), was

awarded a research project to study the

factors associated with exemplary inclusive high schools (Grant Number

#H023D70102). Four schools across the

country were identified as a result of a

national search and were studied for 2

years using a variety of data collection

methods. This document represents the

results of hundreds of stakeholder

opinions regarding a key factor they

associated with the success of their school

— Leadership!

The significance of leadership in each

school and the seven leadership themes

that were found to be essential to the

success of these inclusive high schools is

described. Recommendations for school

leaders are included as well as a leadership

self-assessment based on the research

findings. This document describes what

school and district leaders can do to build

high schools that help all students learn

to high standards while they help all

students really feel like they belong.

Teri Wallace, Principal Investigator

Tom Bartholomay, Project Coordinator

1 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Using This Document:

A Guide

4. Leadership Themes

Each of the following leadership

themes are described in three ways —

1. As the theme applies to the four

schools.

2. As the theme applies to one school

in particular, as an example.

3. As a set of administrative recommendations, informed by all

schools relevant to the theme.

Themes —

• Challenge all students and their

teachers to high standards

• Build an inclusive and collaborative community of learning

• Foster a school culture of

innovation and creativity

• Engage stakeholders in school

leadership

• Promote professional development

• Hire staff who reinforce school

values and vision

• Use data for decision-making

and school improvement

planning

5. Relationships Among Themes

A brief overview of how the themes

relate to, and build on, each other.

6. Changing To Integrated Settings

A Chronology of Administrative

Decisions: A description of one

school’s experience as it moved to

greater inclusion.

This report is designed for school and

district administrators. Efforts have been

made to keep it short yet informative. It

is a composite of the leadership themes

identified in the case studies of four high

schools studied through the Beacons of

Excellence research. (These case studies

can be found on the Beacons Web site,

http://ici.umn.edu/beacons). This report

is divided into seven segments. These

segments function independently of each

other, and the reader should feel free to

go directly to the segment of interest.

However, the segments are logically

ordered to offer readers a sequential

understanding that reinforces itself

through the document.

The seven segments are as follow —

1. Introduction

A general overview of the Beacons

of Excellence study — its context,

purpose, information on the schools

that participated in the study, and

why leadership became an important

focus.

2. Leadership Themes Defined

A brief description of the process by

which the Beacons leadership themes

were defined.

3. School and Leadership Summaries

A brief summary of each school,

drawn from school-related documents. In addition, this section briefly

describes what stakeholders have said

about the significant role that school

leadership and administrators have

had in their school’s success.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 2

7. School Leadership Self-Assessment

Worksheet

A useful list of administrative behaviors that emerged from stakeholder

interviews at the four schools included

in the study. Whether pursuing

improvement or greater inclusion, or

both, this list offers school leaders an

easy way to assess the degree to which

their behavior is similar to the behavior of the leadership involved in the

research.

More Information

As mentioned earlier, this document

is designed to be short yet informative.

All the information that was collected

on leadership at the four schools is not

included in this document. For more

information on the four schools, including complete descriptions of each school’s

leadership themes, please visit the Beacons Web site at: http://ici.umn.edu/

beacons.
3 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

School Reform

and Inclusion

The current era of school reform has

included many approaches for improving

educational outcomes. Standards based

reform, probably the dominant reform

movement today, is based on the underlying belief that high expectations and

standards should be maintained for all

students. At the same time that schools

are being asked to raise achievement of

all students, technology, global competition in the adult labor force, and changing demographics are driving schools to

reconsider curriculum content, pedagogy,

and the relative merits of teacher autonomy versus standardized approaches

to instruction. These forces sometimes

result in a push-pull phenomena with

a foray into virtual learning expeditions

countermanded by rigid accountability

that imposes a curriculum dictated by

the content and the frequency of standardized testing, and a practical push

for literacy to meet workplace needs.

Teachers and administrators can be torn

by opposing approaches, philosophies,

and concerns.

Both educators and the general public

realize that many schools need to be

revitalized and restructured. However,

while some would encourage more

standardized content and a focus on

acquisition of facts and skills, others

are concerned about adequate time for

exploration, flexibility, creativity, problem

solving, and inquiry (Consortium for

Overview

High schools today are facing increased

pressure to demonstrate excellent outcomes for all students, including students

with disabilities. The current emphasis on

high-stakes assessment, improved student

outcomes, and overall success provides

a major impetus for principals and other

educators to implement reforms that

will result in immediate and substantial

improvements in academic achievement

of all students. At the same time, test

results for students with disabilities are

now being reported in aggregated reports

for individual schools and districts. As

a result, teachers and administrators are

being held accountable for outcomes for

these students, creating a new interest in

their education and strategies to enhance

their success.

Introduction
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 4

Policy Research in Education, 1997).

While some view charter schools or

privatization of schools as the answer

to quality (The Center for Education

Reform 2000; Nathan, 1996), others

want to improve practices, including

the quality of instruction, within public

schools (U.S. Office of Education, 1997).

School leaders and administrators are

faced with a multitude of advice, advice

that is often provided without thought

to its proven efficacy or to its probable

long-term impact.

Despite the differences in approaches

to school reform, a common element

has been a focus on “reorganizing and

revitalizing the entire school rather than

isolated, piecemeal efforts.” (Educational

Research Services, 1998). Most of these

efforts have begun with developing a

vision, nurturing staff collaboration and

participation in decision making, relying

on professional development, and

bringing the community into the school

(American Institutes for Research, 1999;

Educational Research Services, 1998).

While some of the reforms have been

implemented on the basis of philosophy

without a sound research basis to substantiate the approach, research has been

undertaken to further our understanding

of the relative merits of some of these

reform efforts for the general student

population (American Institutes for

Research, 1999). However, relatively

little is known about the impact of these

reforms on diverse learners, including

students with disabilities (McLaughlin,

Nolet, Rhim, & Henderson, 1999).

The Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act Amendments of 1997

requires states to establish goals for the

performance of students with disabilities

and that these goals, to the maximum

extent appropriate, be consistent with

other state goals and standards for all

students (P.L. 105-17, 20 U.S.C. §1400

et seq.). While this was the most explicit

reference to current school reform trends,

several other changes addressed the same

general issue – providing increased

opportunity for students with disabilities

to learn the things deemed important

by society and making it possible for

schools to be held more accountable

for these students’ success. Such changes

include —

• Increasing involvement of general

educators in developing individualized

education programs (IEPs),

• Ensuring students with disabilities

access to the general curriculum,

• Increasing the use of appropriate

assessment accommodations,

• Requiring that most students with

disabilities participate in state and

district-wide assessments, and

• Requiring alternate assessments be

developed for those who cannot

participate in these assessments even

with accommodations and modifications.

A research void has been created due

to the changing relationships among

students with disabilities, educational

outcomes, availability of data, and the

processes that yield positive outcomes.

Most educational research on processes

and outcomes in the last fifteen years has

used data from schools that were implementing at least some elements of

standards-based reform. Unfortunately,

this research base has very few studies

including students both with and without

disabilities, making it difficult to examine

the impact of reforms across these

populations.
5 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Purpose of the Research

To learn about factors associated with

inclusive high schools whose students

are achieving exemplary results, the

Beacons of Excellence project at the

Institute on Community Integration,

University of Minnesota, (in collaboration with the Council for Exceptional

Children) implemented a three-year

project, funded by the Office of Special

Education Programs. The project was

designed to study how curricula, instruction, leadership, and other factors

contribute to exemplary results for all

high school students. The conceptual

model used to guide the research was

built on the framework established by

the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality

Award for education, which was established in 1998 to recognize performance

excellence in schools (National Institute

of Standards and Technology [NIST],

1998). Additional input for the model

was gathered from a broad group of

constituents interested in youth and

educational concerns, and school completion and post-school outcomes established by the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of

Minnesota.

A variety of data collection strategies

were used to collect and prepare databased descriptions of each of the schools.

In addition to developing individual case

studies, common themes across the

school sites were identified. Before

describing the findings associated with

leadership, the strategies used to collect

information about the schools will be

briefly described.

Data collection strategies used —

• Data on student achievement, documents such as school improvement

plans, and staff development activities

were reviewed.

• Classroom observations were conducted using a computerized data

collection system. Data were collected

on teacher and student behaviors as

well as on the ecological context, such

as instructional setting, classroom

design, and so on.

• Teacher surveys were conducted

to identify personal teaching styles,

behavior expectations, assessment

and reporting strategies, instruction,

instructional support, role of special

educators, collaboration between

general and special education teachers,

satisfaction, and curriculum

coordination.

• Interviews and focus groups were held

with district and state level administrators, school administrators, teachers,

parents, students, and community

representatives.

Because the purpose of this study

was research, the definitions of the seven

Baldrige categories — designed as criteria

for recognizing schools deserving awards

— were adapted to this study’s research

purposes. The resulting, adapted, category definitions are listed below. These

definitions were used to code all of the

data from the interviews and focus groups

conducted at the schools.

1. Leadership — School-based leadership system and actions of the leaders.

2. Strategic Planning — How the

school sets its directions, identifies

priorities, allocates resources, takes

actions to meet a goal, and plans to

track progress.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 6

3. Student and Stakeholder Focus —

The manner in which the school

addresses the needs and expectations

of all stakeholders.

4. Information and Analysis —

The way in which a school uses data

and other information to monitor and

improve its performance.

5. Faculty and Staff Focus —

Characteristics of faculty and staff

when tied to job (hard working,

committed), process for hiring, faculty

and staff development, expectations

for job performance, physical/social/

emotional design of the work

environment to meet faculty needs,

and faculty satisfaction.

6. Educational and Support Process

Management — School efforts

regarding supporting the needs of

students (educational program,

teaching methods, support practices).

7. School Performance Results —

Specific data or other results used by

the school to assess its performance.

The Baldrige criteria consider performance of the school as a whole, including

all students, staff, faculty, and administrators. The Beacons project selected schools

that were making efforts to include

students with disabilities in general

education environments. A goal of the

project was to examine schools as a whole

to see how they meet the needs of the

student population as a whole. A highly

separate system of special education

would have been inconsistent with that

goal, as well as with the tenets of standards-based reform.

Data were collected in four secondary

schools chosen by a National Advisory

Panel as part of the Beacons of Excellence

project. The schools were selected from

a field of 114 schools that were nominated for the project due to their success.

Fourteen of the nominated schools

completed and submitted comprehensive

applications. These schools were identified through a rigorous process that

included school information disclosures

and thorough analysis of each school’s

submitted information against selection

criteria. Data reviewed for selection

included: the extent to which students

with disabilities were included in the

general education curriculum, reviews

of anecdotal descriptions of each school

and its history, levels of school demands,

school resources, descriptions of student

populations, school completion outcomes

(e.g., dropout rates), and post school

outcomes (e.g., postsecondary education

enrollment rates) of students with and

without disabilities. In addition to the

criteria listed previously, sites representing

urban, suburban, and rural locations were

purposely selected.

Information from the schools was

organized and comparisons were made

to national and state specific statistics,

as well as project generated data. Members of the project’s National Advisory

Panel, consisting of researchers, practitioners, parents, school administrators, and

professional organizations, reviewed the

information from the 14 schools over

the period of two days. Based on their

recommendations, researchers validated

applications by contacting references

(parents, community members, and

school staff), and four schools in four

different states were selected.

Selected schools varied in terms of per

pupil resource allocation, number of

students enrolled, and the percentages
7 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

of students receiving services for Limited

English Proficiency (LEP) and special

education, as well as the percentage of

students qualifying for Free and Reduced

Lunch. However, all selected schools had

high rates of inclusion of students with

Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) within

general education and high rates of

graduation for all students, including

students with disabilities. School information regarding resource allocation,

student population, and rates of inclusion

and graduation are provided in Tables

1 and 2.

Table 1. Descriptive Information for Student Populations by School

Miami, FL Brooklyn, NY Franklin, TN Flagstaff, AZ

(Urban) (Urban) (Suburban) (Small City/Rural)

Per Pupil Allocation $5,000 $7,350 $4,575 $4,676

Number of Students 2,090 1,345 875 987

Students Receiving 11% 19% 14% 11%

Special Education

Services

Students Receiving 55% 54% 3% 17%

Free/Reduced Lunch

Students with IEPs in 70% 66% 100% 90%

General Education for

75% or More of Day

% of Students with LEP 6% 11% 0% 6%

% of Students IEP* 0% 0% IEP*

Not Included in

Accountability Testing

% of Students that 0 0 0 5%

Leave Building for

Services

Graduation Rate for 96% 91% 95% 95%

All Students

Graduation Rate for 96% 87% 95% 95%

Students with IEP’s

Note: Data are from the 1997-1998 academic year

*Decisions made on an individual basis by each student’s IEP team
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 8

The majority of students who receive

special education services at the four sites

do so under the category of learning

disability (LD; 63%-88%). The percentage of students receiving services for

emotional and behavioral disorders ranges

from 3% to 18%. At one site, 31% of

the students receive services for speech.

The percentage of students labeled

mentally retarded was similar across

sites (3%-4%). Other special education

categories, such as orthopedic, visual,

and hearing impairments, were less

common. The percentages of students

by special education category and school

are provided in Table 3.

Table 2. Racial/Ethnic Composition of Student Population

School African- Asian or Hispanic Native White not

Location American Pacific American Hispanic

Islander origin

Miami, FL 53.0% 0% 42.0% 0% 5.0%

(Urban)

Brooklyn, NY 18.5% 3.6% 59.6% 0% 18.3%

(Urban)

Franklin, TN 9.3% .6% 1.6% .2% 88.3%

(Suburban)

Flagstaff, AZ .6% 1.0% 8.0% 15.0% 75.0%

(Small City/Rural)

Note: Data are from 1997-1998 academic year.

Table 3. The Percentage of Students in Special Education by Category

Miami, FL Brooklyn, NY Franklin, TN Flagstaff, AZ

(Urban) (Urban) (Suburban) (Small City/Rural)

LD 81% 68% 88% 63%

EBD 4% 17% 3% 18%

Speech 3% 31% — 2%

MR 4% 4% 3% 4%

Deaf/Hard of Hearing 6% 1% — 8%

Other 1% 3% 4% 3%

Multi — 4% 2% 4%

Ortho 1% 2% 1% 1%

Visual 1% — — 1%

Note: Data are from the 1997-1998 academic year
9 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Leadership: Its

Significance Within

The Beacons Study

When stakeholders at all four schools

(a total of 20 focus groups and 12

interviews) were asked what factors they

associated with the successful outcomes

of their school, 75% of the groups and

individuals replied with statements

associated with leadership. Because

of this frequency, leadership became

a particularly important focus for the

Beacons research study.

To understand what stakeholders

defined as important leadership factors

associated with their schools, we first

transcribed each interview. We then

coded or identified each stakeholder

statement that was directly or indirectly

linked to the school-based leadership

system and/or the actions of the school

leaders. This process was conducted by

two people who established high reliability in their consistent classification of

leadership statements. Once identified,

these statements were analyzed, school

by school. The themes that emerged from

the statements were checked and validated by Beacons staff who were familiar

with the interview text and schools.

Lastly, the resulting case studies for each

school were given to school administrators to be shared with relevant stakeholders for further validation. Although the

individual case studies can be found on

the Beacons Web site (http://

ici.umn.edu/beacons), what follows in

this document is a composite of the

leadership themes as they apply to all four

schools.

Figure 1. Percent of Focus Groups and Interviews Associating

Factor Categories With School Success.

75

62

59

22

88

75

41

0 20 40 60 80 100

Leadership

Planning

Student/

Stakeholder Focus

Information/

Analysis

Staff Focus

Educ. Support

Results
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 10
11 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

This process, we believe, stayed true

to stakeholder intent, and the emergent

themes represent what stakeholders

highlight as important leadership events

within their school — events that

support schools that produce exemplary

outcomes for students with and without

disabilities.

Leadership Themes

Defined

How Were the

Leadership Themes

Defined?

The rest of this document describes the

leadership themes that emerged through

interviews with stakeholders at each of

the schools. It should be noted that the

information presented does not cover all

that school administrators and school

leadership systems are doing, but represents what stakeholders at each school

identified as important leadership related

events. In fact, many of these described

events were said by stakeholders to be

directly associated with their school’s

success.

Stakeholders also defined which school

events were related to leadership. Leadership was defined as the “school-based

leadership system and actions of the

leaders.” Only the stakeholder-described

events that could be identified as explicitly related to this leadership description

were included in the themes that are

reported here. If a stakeholder statement

was not explicitly related to leadership,

however much the administrator or

leadership system may have been involved

in the event, it was not included.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 12
13 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

The Four Schools and

The Factor Of Leadership

• Fred J. Page High School

• Sinagua High School

• High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology

• William H. Turner Technical Arts High School

several new athletic facilities, and a stateof-the-art media center. The current

principal started at Page in 1993. The

context in which the principal arrived was

one in which the school was having

difficulty maintaining even an acceptable

reputation. His foremost task was to

improve the

school and

reestablish its

reputation.

Currently,

Page’s

overriding

aim is to

prepare its

students

for college,

although it

offers a twopath curriculum that includes a career

education focus. Page prides itself on its

wide selection of courses and programs.

Academically, they have eliminated all of

their basic classes and replaced them with

differential courses that challenge students at every level — from remedial and

study skills courses to college level

courses. Support is built into the daily

schedule through a 50-minute “Directed

Study” period that allows all students to

Fred J. Page High School

Summary

Fred J. Page High School (Page) is a

comprehensive 9-12th grade high school

located in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb

of Nashville.

The area

surrounding

the school is

picturesque,

with rolling

hills, trees and

open fields.

Page serves

about 875

students, most

of them

Caucasian

(85%) and black (9%). Fourteen percent

of Page students have Individualized

Education Plans.

Page first opened in the fall of 1976

as a 7-12th grade high school. In 1981,

a middle school was built across the street

to serve seventh and eighth grade students. Since 1976 the school has experienced four major renovation projects,

including the addition of a new gym,

nine science labs, four computer labs,

If you have a strong

principal, you have

strong leadership...

you’re going to have

a staff that’s driven in

delivering the goods

and making things

happen.

District

Administrator
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 14

[The primary factor

associated with this

school’s success is]

the principal’s

involvement. That

was six years ago now

in January. We were

a very sleepy

community....We

were the runt of the

litter. The principal

came in and, in his

first year here, was

principal of the year

for the State of

Tennessee, which

was kind of an eye

opener for me.

Special Education

Administration

study in the classroom of the teacher of

their choosing. Alternate day block

scheduling, allowing 90-minute instructional periods, offers instructional latitude

and opportunities for teacher collaboration within departments and across

departments. In addition, there is a

school-wide emphasis on incorporating

knowledge application, problem solving,

and critical thinking in all courses.

Graduating students are required to

complete a culminating project that

draws on a variety of skills to present to

a panel of experts, including topic-related

professionals from the community.

Extracurricular efforts emphasize

activities that are relevant to students

and staff. Although there are competitive

activities, such as sports and debate, the

less competitive activities stem from

student and staff interests, with an

underlying objective of connecting

students with the school community.

When the current principal was

assigned to Page, he initiated an effort to

increase expectations for all students. A

new resource program was developed to

encourage the involvement of students

with disabilities in the general core

curriculum.

A staff monitor was connected to each

student with a disability and this person

would remain in this role throughout the

students’ high school experience. Currently, 95% of students with disabilities

spend 100% of their day in the general

core curriculum, and the remaining 5%

participate for at least 75% of their day.

Only one class is offered exclusively for

students with disabilities.

A Partial List of School

Programs/Initiatives

• Site-based decision-making along

the framework of the Effective

Schools program.

• Joining the High Schools That

Work program of the Southern

Regional Education Board.

• Extensive staff development

program in effective instructional

strategies, including Socratic Seminars,

Cooperative Learning, Application

of Learning, Writing Across the

Curriculum, Interdisciplinary

Instruction.

• Implementation of an Extra Help

Network.

• Peer Mediation and Anger Management program.

• Freshmen Transition programs.

• Integration and Expansion of

Technology program.

• Upgrading all vocational classes

to include college preparatory

curriculum.

For more complete information, check

the Beacons Web site http://ici.umn.edu/

beacons.
15 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Fred J. Page High School:

The Significant

Factor of Leadership

One of the primary factors associated

with the success of Page is the quality of

its leadership. When stakeholders at Page

think of leadership, they almost always

think of one person, the principal. It was

the arrival of the current principal that

marked the change in Page’s direction and

performance. The principal carried with

him absolute values that fused with the

values of the staff and eventually transformed the school. These values included

a belief that all children can learn, that

performance is only as high as expectation, and that a school needs to be oneone group of staff and students, driven by

one common vision.

The principal at Page focuses on

developing and maintaining a single, high

quality, learning community that strives

to challenge students and staff while

supporting their individual needs. He

does this by regularly renewing, reinforcing and aligning school objectives around

a common school vision; by setting and

communicating high standards; by being

consistent and systematic (fair); by

expanding student access to challenging

classes while expanding their responsibility for their choices; by being visibly

present and involved at many school

levels; by giving professional autonomy

to staff while promoting an energetic

climate of innovation and collaboration;

and, finally, by expecting that all students

are part of the general education curriculum while, at the same time, expecting

the school will continue to give students

the individualized support they need to

succeed.

Page’s staff and students have positively

responded to these efforts. In six years

Page transformed itself from a school that

was characterized as the “runt of the

community” to a school that now

produces exemplary results for all of its

students. In response to the school’s

success outcomes, students with and

without disabilities have begun traveling

beyond their own district boarders to

attend Page.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 16

I think the original

administration at this

school was very open

and positive with

their staff. Their

students became

excited. The parents

saw the excitement.

They came here to

see what was it that

turned their kid on

so strongly. They got

the same excitement

and passion... That’s

why we have the

parents... [that] are

willing to be there

and help if they feel

wanted, appreciated,

needed, and they see

that it is having a

positive influence on

their children.

Community Advisory

Panel Member

Sinagua High School

Summary

Sinagua High School (Sinagua) is a

comprehensive 9-12th grade high school

located in Flagstaff, Arizona. The school

is nestled in a small valley just outside of

town, with

large scenically forested

spaces

around it. Its

facilities are

large, open,

and uncrowded. It

is the newest

of three high

schools in

the city of

about

50,000 people, and serves about 990

students. Fifteen percent of its students

come from the Native American population (Navajo tribe), which has a large

reservation outside of Flagstaff. Another

8% of its students come from the surrounding Hispanic community. Of all

the students attending Sinagua, 11% have

disabilities. These differences combined

with the diverse mix of rural and small

town backgrounds and high and low

socioeconomic statuses makes for a

unique school community.

Sinagua High School first opened in

the fall of 1989. It is a community-based

school whose objectives reflect changes in

the community it serves. Singaua offers a

broad outcome-based curriculum for all

students. Some of its programs include

advanced placement courses in all

disciplines, vocational trades blocks, as

well as concurrent enrollment opportunities at

nearby

universities.

In response

to its large

minority

population,

a strong

Limited

English

Proficient

Study Skills

program

has been developed.

From the start, Sinagua was progressive

in its perspective toward students with

exceptionalities. Its original principal and

staff placed a high value on all students

participating in the core curriculum. In

1989, when mainstreaming was relatively

rare, Sinagua placed an expectation on

itself that all students with disabilities

would spend at least 50% of their day

in core curriculum classes. They have

exceeded that expectation.

Even after a bus accident with 32

students resulted in a large increase in

the student population with serious and

profound disabilities, Sinagua today

includes 90% of its students with disabilities in the general core curriculum for

75% or more of their day.
17 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

A Partial List of School

Programs/Initiatives

• Emphasis on authentic assessment.

• An alternative program, called New

Start, which allows potential dropouts

(students with and without disabilities)

to complete high school courses

independently.

• A support program for expectant

mothers and parents, called Teen

Academic, Pregnancy, and Parenting

(T.A.P.P), which provides daycare

options and transportation for pregnant and parenting students.

• A special program for students with

disabilities who are having difficulty

working in the general education

setting, called Turn It Around (T.I.A.),

which aims to provide a safe, structured, and nurturing educational

environment.

• Vocational courses specifically gear

students for certification and employment opportunities after high school;

for example, Certified Nursing

Assistant, Certified Food Handlers.

• Incorporating school-to-work activities

in all curriculums is strongly encouraged.

• Goal-setting, study habits and test

preparation are stressed throughout

the high school.

• Current news and community events

are incorporated into the curriculum.

For more complete information,

visit the Beacons Web site at http://

ici.umn.edu/beacons.

Sinagua High School:

The Significant Factor

of Leadership

When stakeholders talk about leadership

at Sinagua, they often refer to a school

committee, called the Site Council. The

Site Council is facilitated by the principal, and includes representatives from

all of Sinagua’s stakeholder groups —

the administration, community, parents,

staff, and students. This committee makes

most of the school-wide decisions at

Sinagua, and its participatory nature

points to what is probably Sinagua’s most

fundamental characteristic: Sinagua is

of and for its community.

This community-orientated leadership

extends in all directions within the

school, making leadership appear more

structural than administrative. There are

regular department head meetings and

numerous other committees that consolidate information and present it to the

Site Council or to the administration

(who then presents it to the Site Council). Although it appears on the surface

that the administration has a secondary

role to the participatory, structural

processes that lead Sinagua, the system

would not work without the crucial

efforts of the administration — efforts

that have made the participatory system

thrive.

Sinagua’s first principal initiated and

modeled a hardworking, dedicated, and

nonhierarchical mode of operation within

the school. These values spread throughout the school community and have

endured throughout the course of

Sinagua’s development. When thinking

about factors around Sinagua’s success,

many stakeholders point to what they call

a “passion” that was cultivated by the

[The current

administration is]

very positive, very

enthusiastic, and

very supportive of

teachers and students

and the school

programs.

School Advisory

Panel Member

[The current

administration is]

very positive, very

enthusiastic, and

very supportive of

teachers and students

and the school

programs.

School Advisory

Panel Member
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 18

administration — a driving passion

that was the result of the first administrator’s ability to select a base of dedicated teachers, model excitement and

momentum, and facilitate a structural

and administrative invitation to the

school’s community to determine the

school’s direction

School “passion” is essential for

Sinagua, as it is “passion” that motivates

stakeholders to provide the needed

leadership and direction. However,

cultivating this motivation is a delicate,

three-part process for administrators.

For one, the administrators subtly

abdicate their directive roles to staff,

parents, community, and students.

Secondly, while opening up leadership

avenues, they compel stakeholders to

accept and responsibly carry out the

leadership functions. Finally, administrators manage the leadership system, as the

whole process depends on the equitable

coordination and guidance of the administrator. If one of these factors is compromised, the others suffer. If administrators

take upon themselves too much of the

control, or if there is not enough impetus

for each stakeholder group to get involved, there is either a lack of invitation

(pull) or a lack of interest (push) to bring

stakeholders into leadership roles. If the

system is not equitable and inclusive,

some contingencies will be left out (or

perceive themselves as being left out)

and power-politics will distort the

process. The administration has a subtle

but complicated job of orchestrating

the leadership system and facilitating

its success.

Currently, Sinagua experiences an

abundance of stakeholder passion and

active participation from all constituencies. Furthermore, because the leadership

system models an integrated, participatory process, the school community and

instructional system reflect these values

as well. Sinagua is perceived by stakeholders as one community. There is a focus on

providing every student with the support

he or she needs to succeed, and all

department requests and student needs

are approached through the same channels. Students with exceptionalities largely

receive instruction in the general education curriculum and, conversely, students

without disabilities can receive supplemental instruction in the resource room.

As a direct result of the inclusive leadership process, academic support is built

into the whole school, for all students.
19 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

High School of

Telecommunication

Arts and Technology

Summary

High School of Telecommunication

Arts and Technology (Telecom) is a

comprehensive 9-12th grade high school,

located in

Brooklyn, New

York. Telecom is

housed in an

old, brick, three

story building

that fills a small

city block.

Serving about

1,350 students,

it is a school that

is physically

pushed to —

and some people

would say beyond — its capacity.

A couple of small, temporary buildings

have been erected across the street to

absorb some of the overflow of students.

Every square foot available is being

maximally used in a city that puts a

premium on space.

The student population at Telecom

is largely Hispanic (60%), with the

remainder split nearly equally between

African American and Caucasian. Nineteen percent of Telecom’s students have

disabilities.

Half of the students are chosen by the

city, using a lottery process. The other

half apply to and are selected by the

school. Telecom can boast of a 91%

graduation rate in a city where a 49%

graduation rate is the norm.

Telecom has a focus on integrating

the classic liberal arts education with an

awareness of technology while celebrating

its diverse population in a sort of “global

village.” There is special emphasis on

learning tolerance, understanding,

cooperation and mutual respect; the

teaching of these values is supported

through a conflict resolution program,

the bilingual poetry journal, a leadership

training class, and multicultural festivals,

among other

diversity oriented

programs.

Telecom also

offers students

an independent

study program,

a cooperative

education

program (with

paid work

experiences), a

teacher assistant

program in which students tutor at

elementary schools, and the Executive

Internship Program that provides students with opportunities to serve as

interns to executive sponsors in government and industry. Telecom offers

differential leveled courses in all subject

areas — from study strategy courses to

Regents level courses.

Over the past six years Telecom has

incrementally expanded the inclusion

of students with disabilities in their core

curriculum. Sixty-six percent of Telecom’s

students with disabilities spend more than

75% of their day in the general education

setting. Telecom relies on collaborative

teaching between general educators and

special educators and substantial assistance from paraprofessionals in general

education classes.

I came from an

intermediate school

that had very

dedicated staff but

an administration

that was very closed

to the staff and not

open to new ideas.

It was a very different

experience [than

here]. It was not a

happy place to

work... [T]he

leadership here...

has really made this

happen. Because

of her [assistant

principal of special

education’s]

foresightedness and

dedication and

listening to us and

hearing what we had

to say, I think this is

why we’re where we

are. If we didn’t have

the leadership, I

don’t think we would

have come that far.

Special Educator
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 20

... I think, number

one [in making

inclusion successful]

was her [assistant

principal of special

education] energy,

her enthusiasm, and

her vision. That was

number one.

Someone who was

young — What I

mean by that is she

wasn’t wedded to the

past. She didn’t have a

vested interest in

perpetuating

something because

she wasn’t part of that

past... [Secondly,] you

had [a principal] who

was relatively new in

the job when we

started this... and was

willing to do things

differently because

they made sense... So

you had an AP who

was all gungho, [and]

you had a principal

who was willing to

say the [kids in special

education] are part

and parcel of my

school and they’re not

separate.

District Administrator

A Partial List of School

Programs/Initiatives

• The Humanities Program links English

and social studies classes; and in the

ninth grade the program is also linked

to technology classes.

• The Advanced Placement Program

allows students to receive college credit

for courses taken in high school.

• The College Early Intervention

Program prepares special education

students for post-secondary education

by linking students up with the

College of Staten Island.

• The College Now program provides

students to earn up to eight free

college credits during their senior year

at the Kingsborough Community

College.

• Citizenship and community involvement are top priorities at the school.

• There is an overall philosophy that

emphasizes cooperative learning,

critical thinking exercises, discovery

learning, and hands-on instruction as

essential to success.

For more complete information,

visit the Beacons Web site at http://

ici.umn.edu/beacons.

High School of

Telecommunication Arts and

Technology: The Significant

Factor of Leadership

Leadership, according to stakeholders,

has been a pivotal factor in the success

of High School of Telecommunication

Arts and Technology (Telecom). In

connection with this success, three school

administrators are frequently referenced

— the principal and two assistant

principals — one of whom specializes in

special education. Each of these administrators brings something unique to

Telecom’s leadership. The principal is

supportive, flexible, and receptive to new

ideas while he holds strong values in

relation to clarity, direction, and creativity

for staff and students. The special education assistant principal is a very social and

assertive individual — a visionary —

who strongly believes that inclusion is

the best approach for all students, and

who will work at great lengths to make

her vision happen. And lastly, the general

education assistant principal is described

as a “forward thinker” who is receptive

to new ideas and has a propensity toward

systematic thinking about the logic and

details of program implementation.

Although these three administrators

have different characteristics, they are

similar in their relentless focus on better

services and outcomes for all students.

Their non-hierarchical working relationship is an open, dialectical process —

where new ideas are pitched, discussed,

debated, revised, and formulated. All

three are accessible and trusted by

stakeholders, and they involve staff,

students, and parents in their decisionmaking. Together as leaders over the past

six years, they have (with the help of the

superintendent) redefined Telecom from

a relatively low performing, unfocused

high school, to a school where expectations and standards are high and clear

and apply to all students. Students are

integrated under the same system of

differentiated educational services,

wherein staff feel supported and work

collaboratively, and where innovation and

improvement flourishes.
21 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

If you put a school

together with a lot

of motivated people,

unless somebody has

a vision and has a

dream... you can be

hard-working, but

how creative are you?

District Representative

William H. Turner

Technical Arts High

School

Summary

William H. Turner Technical Arts High

School (Turner Tech) is a comprehensive

9-12th grade high school that has a

strong career focus. Located in a residential area of Miami, Florida, Turner Tech

is housed in a large, relatively modern

building that has open, airy, Floridaclimate

architecture. Of the

approximately

2,000

students at

Turner

Tech, 53%

are African

American

and 42%

are Hispanic.

Eleven percent of Turner’s students have

disabilities.

Turner Tech describes its education as

a “two for one” opportunity — students

are offered an academic diploma and a

practical career-oriented skills certificate.

The large school is divided into seven

academies that offer students a relatively

small community experience. The seven

academies include Academy of Residential Construction, Agri-science, Applied

Business Technology and Entrepreneurship, Fannie Mae/National Academy of

Finance, Health, Industrial and Entertainment Technology, and Public Service/

Television Production. All students

wear uniform shirts with each academy

represented by a different color. Each

academy offers a battery of courses that

support a license, certificate, or preparatory training that reflects its focus. Much

of the school’s academic education comes

from application-oriented activities

within these academies, but some does

not. Paralleling the academies are academic courses that reflect the diverse

objectives of a comprehensive high

school. The number of these courses

that students take generally tapers off

as the students get closer to graduation

and closer

to a career.

The

building

reflects these

practical

activities.

A large room

accommodates sections

of a house

that is being

built. A large

garden and sheltered animal feeding area

supports the interests of the Agri-science

academy in the city. The school’s supplies

are managed by students in Applied

Business Technology. In addition to these

on-campus activities, Turner Tech is

strongly linked with its community.

Industry representatives spend time in

the school, and students spend time

training in outside industry.

All students, with or without disabilities, attend classes in their chosen academy. Seventy percent of the students with

disabilities spend more than 75% of their

time in core curriculum programs. As
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 22

I have to give credit

where credit is due.

I got here in July.

I didn’t make this all

happen, you know.

We like to think that

we enhance it and

make things happen

around here and

keep the quality to

the expectation, but

it is a we thing.

Administrator

added support for students with disabilities, Turner Tech offers a number of

special education classes in various

academic areas. These represent smaller

classes with special educators as their

instructors.

A Partial List of School

Programs/Initiatives

Turner Tech —

• Develops partnerships with industry

to acquire needed support.

• Develops and implements a marketing

plan to promote Turner Tech’s goals

regarding recruitment and curriculum

that will enhance the school-to-work

concept in existing programs.

• Promotes self-learning by adopting

technology-enhanced curriculum and

instruction that strengthens reading

and mathematics skills.

• Is a member of the Coalition of

Essential Schools, and views teachers

as coaches and students as workers.

• Links its clubs to organizations

that are consistent with the school’s

academies —

- Vocational Student Activities

- Future Business Leaders of America

- Vocational Industrial Clubs

of America

- Distributive Education Clubs

of America

- Health Occupations Students

Association

- Future Farmers of America

- Florida Public Service Association

For more complete information, check

the Beacons Web site http://ici.umn.edu/

beacons.

William Turner Technical Arts

High School: The Significant

Factor of Leadership

Turner Tech’s success has made it a

model high school for Dade County,

which plans to build 10 more similar

schools. Turner Tech has a relevant,

practical vocational focus that is an

attraction for students who are vocationally minded, regardless of exceptionalities.

This tangible focus on student goals leads

students, stakeholders, staff, and administration to rigorously serve that end as it

applies to each student. Creative collaboration, curriculum, and supplemental

services are constantly being utilized as

a means to enable students to achieve

their personal goals. Student engagement

and satisfaction are high. Parent engagement and satisfaction are high, teacher

engagement and satisfaction are high,

and businesses are serious about contributing both time and money. From the

district to the student, Turner Tech

succeeds largely because it has incorporated its community into its leadership

process. Consequently, the school represents the real and changing interests of its

stakeholders.
23 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

She [the special

education

coordinator] really

has a good, strong

vision of where

things ought to be.

She’s like a dreamer.

She comes up with

really interesting new

approaches to gather

around a problem

and to get to a

solution.

Advisory Panel Member

Stakeholders associate leadership

with Turner Tech’s success. Turner Tech’s

founders had a strong and independent

vision that set the school on a path of

practical relevance. The current coordinator of special education, whose approach

is very much student-centered, works

endlessly to support students while

searching for and instituting effective

instructional and collaborative strategies.

All stakeholder groups — students,

parents, district, community, staff, and

administrators — have an integrated role

in the school’s leadership system, assuring

that support is broad, that relevancy is

maintained, and that community resources are fully utilized. There is a focus

on improvement, using data-informed

decision-making. And lastly, the administration treats staff as professionals, experts

at their craft, whose involvement in

administrative decision-making is viewed

as essential to effective improvement.

Together, these leadership factors sustain

a high level of stakeholder involvement

and a culture of end-oriented innovation,

which leads to tangible success for

students.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 24
25 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Leadership Themes

1. Challenge All Students and Their Teachers to High Standards

2. Build an Inclusive and Collaborative Community of Learning

3. Foster a School Culture of Innovation and Creativity

4. Engage Stakeholders in School Leadership

5. Promote Professional Development

6. Hire Staff Who Reinforce School Values and Vision

7. Use Data for Decision-Making and School Improvement Planning

Continuous

Improvement

Challenge

all students and

their teachers to

high standards

1

Build an inclusive

and collaborative

community of

learning

2

Foster a school

culture of innovation

and creativity

3

Engage

stakeholders in

school leadership

4

Promote

professional

development

5

Hire staff who

reinforce school

values and vision

6

Use data for

decision-making and

school improvement

planning

7
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 26

1

He expects kids

to learn. He doesn’t

believe that just

because you are poor

or grew up in the

country or are a

minority, that you

can’t learn. [The

principal’s] attitude

is one of ‘If we

expect quality, we’ll

get quality.’ I think

that he’s out there

expecting what he

expects. He’s very

visible in and around

the school.

District Representative

Challenge All Students

and Their Teachers to

High Standards

Stakeholders interviewed at three of the

schools (Page, Telecom, and Turner) refer

to high standards as an important theme

associated with their success. In these

schools, high standards provide a tangible

and unified marker for students and staff

to strive towards and measure themselves

against. Standards are set and influence

decisions at the school and classroom

level. In all three schools there is an effort

to apply the standards to everyone, and

only under particularly exceptional

circumstances, determined by an Individualized Education Plan, is a student

exempted from these standards. However,

the exemption is viewed as a temporary

status.

In two schools (Page and Telecom),

high standards were used to help set

school reform in motion. Clarifying

what the standards were and what would

need to be done to reach them presented

a new challenge, required new strategies,

and necessitated the need for new

thinking. While standards spawned this

renaissance, they also set common goals

and common expectations toward which

staff could align their efforts. High

standards not only provided students

with a direction toward which to work

and measure themselves against, it also

provided staff with common direction

and measures to assess their improvement. As these schools set these standards, they were, in essence, setting the

blueprint and expectations for students

and their services.

In these schools, standards are integral

to a core value of continuous improvement. As school services improve and

student performance increases, standards

and expectations are appropriately raised.

Example: Fred J. Page High

School (Page)

When the principal arrived at Fred J.

Page High School he began to work on

unifying the staff into a community with

a common focus. The “first thing we

worked on was climate and philosophy

and mission and with where we were

going,” says an administrator. Aligning

visions, goals, and objectives became

essential to integrating the school-staff

and students. More coordinated objectives were viewed as a means to a more

effective school with higher outcomes.

However, coordination of objectives first

required an underlying philosophy and

vision upon which objectives could be

coordinated.

Page’s vision was developed around

the following explicit beliefs or assumptions —

• All students can learn.

• The level of learning is proportionate

to the level of challenges.

• All students should have access to

all the school’s support.

“United in the pursuit of excellence.

We educate each student by valuing

respect, responsibility, and relevancy

in a dynamic and enlightening

environment.”

 — Mission Statement
27 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

The primary factor

— I try to emphasize

this with groups that

I speak with when

I have a chance to

talk with other

administrators at

workshops — the

thing I try to get

them to see and the

thing that I try to

relate when we talk

about the success

that we’ve had here

is that the first thing

we worked on was

climate and

philosophy and

mission and vision.

That was of primary

importance to us, to

get everybody

aligned with where

we were going.

I think that is one

of the things that

we’ve been able to

do and it’s not

been easy...”

Principal

Fundamental to the principal’s objectives is an assumption that students will

learn if the structure is set up to challenge

them. This assumption is one that

stakeholders refer to as an empowering

premise, having a motivating affect on

what staff believe they can do with

students and, in turn, what students

believe they can do with staff and themselves. This optimism is fundamental to

Page’s reform efforts and is the result of

a variety of coordinated administrative

objectives.

Developing and Maintaining

High Expectations

The principal promotes high expectations

for all students, regardless of background

or disability. Each year, strengths and

weaknesses of the school are discussed

and evaluated, and the envelope of

expectations is expanded where possible.

For example, recently Page increased the

criteria for a passing grade. The school

had reached a performance level where

a “D” was no longer useful as a measure

of minimum student performance.

Subsequently, the minimum performance

level was graduated to the level of “C”

while maintaining the same assessment

criteria as before this change.

When expectations are clear and

understood, it empowers students to

make informed and responsible decisions.

The principal personally takes it upon

himself to reinforce and clarify expectations. Whether at an assembly, at a

meeting, or in a classroom, the principal

takes the opportunity to refresh the

expectations and how they relate to the

vision of the school. Often, the principal

will meet with new students to clarify for

them and their parent(s) what is expected

of them and what the school will do for

them.

Trusting Student Potential and

Expanding Student Choices and

Responsibility

Another way that the principal increases

the challenges for students is by expanding their realm of responsibility. Page has

pushed to increase student responsibility

by giving them more academic latitude

yet holding them accountable for their

choices. While students may be more

vulnerable to making choices that exceed

their abilities, greater options can lead

to greater challenges and engagement.

For example, Page lowered the admission

criteria for advanced placement classes to

make them available to a larger number

of students. Although some students

overextend themselves and struggle

within these classes, the performance

measures remain the same, and the

students are challenged and grow from

the experience. A special educator

describes a situation where a parent of

a student who was not performing well

requested an adjustment in the grading

scale. “The principal’s response to the

parent was: ‘We cannot modify to ensure

passing; we can modify to ensure the

ability to pass. But if he’s not willing

to take the responsibility, there are no

modifications for passing any class.”

Standards are firm and students are given

choices but held accountable. The school

views these challenges as part of its goal of

providing instruction and support that

each student needs to achieve success.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 28

One Learning Community

Page is focused on sustaining one learning

community for all students. This is an

expectation that is placed on the school

and on all students. Out of a total of 219

classes during the fall of 1999, only one

class was exclusively for students with

disabilities. Where there is a special

educator collaborating with a general

educator, all students receive access to

the same level of assistance. Teachers talk

about students working together and

Since the beginning,

the outlook [has

been] ‘all kids can

learn’; we need to

figure out how.

Special Educator

accepting each other’s differences, and

offering each other classroom support

when needed. Students talk about Page

as a friendly place, an accepting community. Parents talk about Page as an

inviting, respectful environment, where

their children feel accepted and connected. Stakeholders in general talk about

an environment where the same expectations apply to everyone, and everyone is

part of the same community, sharing

similar struggles, goals, and successes.

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Challenging All Students and Their Teachers to High Standards

• Set expectations high, understanding that students and staff

will excel to the degree that they are challenged.

• Trust in student potential, and expand their choices and responsibilities

to an optimal degree while holding them accountable to their choices.

• Expect that all students will meet the school standards and that the

school will successfully support them to do so within the general

education curriculum.
29 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

2

Build an Inclusive

and Collaborative

Community of Learning

A prevailing theme at all four schools

is the value of an inclusive learning

community. Administrators, staff,

students, parents, and other community

members see their school as a single

learning system and culture. This perspective unites the community, embraces all

of its participants, and sustains an

inclusive community of support that

motivates and excites its members.

Segregated settings, we/them dichotomies, and other forms of staff and

stakeholder exclusions are not compatible

with this value of community. This value

is reflected in each school’s structure,

services, goals, and outcomes.

Within the four schools the fostering

of community is viewed as a fundamental

responsibility of the school, having

implications for many levels of decisionmaking. Although this value has challenging implications for decision-making,

there is a predominant belief that a

unified community is fundamental to

their objective, as it unites resources and

staff around a common purpose and

results in more freely-coordinated, endsoriented collaborations and goals. In

contrast, more delineated models of

student services and staff objectives are

perceived as inconsistent to the school’s

purposes, as they fragment a united effort

or marginalize a student population. This

self-imposed mandate has brought with it

special ongoing challenges that have

strengthened each school’s community

and effectiveness. Community requires

and necessitates inclusion and collaboration among its members, and the resulting collaborative relationships have fueled

innovation, maximum utilization of its

community talent and skills, and influenced the way each school works with

teachers and students.

The concept of inclusion and

mainstreaming in each school is indistinguishable from its concept and value

of community. Inclusion is not a special

program that has been installed in the

schools to serve students with disabilities

in the general education setting. Rather,

inclusion is applies to all students, staff,

parents, and community. Exceptionalities

exist in many different ways, at different

times, for different durations. Each

school works to include all of its members

in one, shared, learning community.

Administrators and leadership within

each school have promoted inclusive

learning communities. Administrators

have effectively communicated the value

of community, and rigorously pursued

strategies to expand and develop it. In

varying ways, they have successfully

united their staff, incorporated stakeholders and students, and facilitated structural

supports that successfully support

students and staff within the same

educational system.

Example: High School of

Telecommunication Arts and

Technology (Telecom)

Telecom is an inclusive learning community. Administrators consistently reinforce

a school identity that is singular — a

message that says all students, parents,

and staff are involved in the same school,

with the same expectations, and same

opportunities. This singularity facilitates

school-wide understanding of goals and

expectations while at the same time it

clarifies for members their place within

I have tried very hard

to do away with the

traditional hierarchy

that exists in schools.

My door’s always

open. Students are

in. Parents are in...

No one sees people

according to their

title. We all treat

each other openly

and very honestly.

Administrator
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 30

the school. The same system that supports all students also supports students

with disabilities and other student

exceptionalities. For example, less advanced classes, often bolstered with

shared-teaching or smaller sizes, are

available to students who need them,

regardless of exceptionalities. As all

services support all students, the fragmentation among departments, programs, staff and students that can often

be found in high schools is replaced

with a shared community perspective

that reinforces direction, roles, and

expectations.

The administration supports a culture

of inclusion in several ways. One way is

through an egalitarian approach to school

management. The administration has

made a conscious effort to eliminate the

hierarchical structure that often exists

between administrators, staff, and

parents. Although each group has a

different role, the administration strives

to treat each other as equals. The administration has an “open-door policy” and

welcomes whomever comes to their

doors, while maintaining frequent

communication with staff, parents,

and students. Parents can be seen in

classrooms collaborating with teachers,

comfortably pitching their opinions

and ideas.

School-wide decision-making at

Telecom includes many individuals who

that are comfortable with voicing strong

opinions. The egalitarian openness leads

to discussions that include diverse

perspectives. This sometimes heated

interchange is constructive for several

reasons: It encourages the involvement

of staff and parents; it draws in new and

useful ideas and opinions; and it nurtures

the value of sharing different perspectives.

When a decision is made in this open

context, it is a decision that is well

understood by the people involved.

The policy of school inclusion leads

to integration of staff as well as students.

The administration advocates for teacher

collaboration across departments and

within departments. When teachers work

together in single classes, administrators

have set a directive that they teach

collaboratively, toward the same goals

and objectives, as they both serve all of

the students. For this reason, the collaboration is called “shared teaching.” Special

educators do not have a special curriculum. As a result, students can seldom

detect if there is a special educator in the

classroom, nor can they identify which

students have disabilities. As a result,

conceptual barriers that confuse learning

and collaboration are reduced. Instead,

staff and students simply focus on

improvement, instruction, and outcomes.

Consistent with the administration’s

egalitarian approach, shared-teaching

has been introduced as a voluntary

opportunity. Based on class need and

personal teacher characteristics, administrators will identify potentially compatible matches and introduce the idea of

working together to the two teachers.

Required commitments last only for a

semester, but often continue beyond

then. This voluntary approach gives staff

greater ownership in the collaborative

arrangement, thereby increasing the

likelihood of success. In a similar way,

paraprofessionals are given an opportunity to prioritize — based on interest and

personality — which teachers they would

like to work with most. These matches

also increase the likelihood that the

collaboration will be successful, and that

the personal interests and talents of the

paraprofessional will be utilized.

[Administrators

allow you to] come

at it from your own

perspective...

Everybody comes

at it with a totally

different agenda...

But in the end,

everybody is working

for the same goal.

Administrator
31 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

When making substantial decisions,

the administration formally involves

students in the decision-making.

Through this process students are given

opportunities to understand the issues,

present their opinions, and offer ideas.

The administration believes that student

involvement is critical to substantial

changes, as their support can provide

the needed momentum to make the

initiative successful. When the administration proposed the idea of school-wide

inclusion, students became a critical

contributor to the decision.

[When a special

educator works with

an English teacher in

the same classroom,]

whether you’re a

special education

teacher or not, you’re

an English teacher.

You need to be in the

[English] department

and you need...to

work on curricula

together.

Administrator

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Building an Inclusive and Collaborative Community of Learning

• Have a clear vision of what the school should look like. Be committed,

determined, enthusiastic, and hold the course.

• Expect that all students will participate in the general education curriculum and school activities. Expand activities to attract students who might

not typically participate or who need support to do so.

• Establish creative support mechanisms for all students in need of them.

• Develop an accessible “open door” relationship with staff, students,

parents, and others in the community. Establish a nonhierarchical working relationships with staff and colleagues. Be involved in the work of

staff and students — on the intercom, in classrooms, hallways, cafeteria.

• Consistently communicate and reinforce the value of inclusion, regularly

clarifying the message that it is one school serving all students.

• Promote communication between the school leadership and the school

community through newsletters, communication protocols, regular

meetings such as a monthly “Parent Coffee Hour,” etc.

• Involve parents and local businesses in decision-making processes regarding curriculum and extracurriculars programs and activities, treating them

as equals, embracing differences, and negotiating and reconciling

conflicting views.

• Facilitate and provide training and direct support for purposeful, intentional collaboration at all levels, involving special and general educators,

administrators, paraprofessionals, and community members.

• Support an end-oriented focus, reinforcing services that enable students

to identify and meet their goals. Within this framework emphasize

student assets and view exceptionalities as tactical issues, not barriers.

• Ensure that administrators and staff realize that it is their responsibility to

creatively support each and every student in successfully reaching his/her

goals.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 32

The philosophy of

enabling people to

experiment and take

risks without there

being a punitive part,

but rather it being a

very positive thing is

something that I

believe in and

certainly has been

embraced here. It’s

“Let’s try something

and if it doesn’t

work, let’s not

abandon it but let’s

make it better.”

School Advisory Group

Member

3

Foster a School Culture

of Innovation and

Creativity

Probably the most resonating theme

that emerged across the schools during

interviews was related to school innovation and creativity. In fact, innovation

is perhaps the predominant core value

in the culture of each school, and is

practiced at all levels. Whereas at one

time it may have emanated from pockets

within the school’s community, the value

now saturates the cultures of these schools

and reinforces itself. The high prevalence

of innovative attitudes and activities in

each school are associated with several

principles —

• A pursuit of continuous improvement.

• A value of experimentation.

• Nonhierarchical relationships between

administrators, staff, and stakeholders.

• Emphasis on inclusive communication.

Each school’s administration and

leadership has been responsible for the

growth and maintenance of their school’s

culture of innovation. As it is not something that can be mandated, the development of innovation has relied on sophisticated efforts to promote innovation,

support innovation, and decrease barriers

to innovation.

Example: High School of

Telecommunication Arts and

Technology (Telecom)

Innovation is perhaps the most powerful

resource available to Telecom. The school

building is filled to over-capacity, money

is scarce, and the principal has little-to-no

control over who is hired. It is largely the

leadership’s ability to sustain a culture of

innovation that has led to Telecom’s

success — an improved and integrated

curriculum, a large increase in teacher

collaboration, more support services and

opportunities for students, clearer goals,

and greater school unity.

When administrators at Telecom

increased their school’s focus towards

high standards, it fundamentally changed

the way the school worked. Rather

suddenly, administrators, staff, and

stakeholders needed to redirect their

efforts toward new goals. Changes

demanded new ideas and innovation.

And questions like “What if...?” and

“Why not...?” began to infuse the school

community with energy and momentum.

This change in school goals laid the base

for Telecom’s culture of innovation.

Maintaining a culture of innovation

is not only a by-product of a school-wide

push for higher standards, but it continues to be a specific goal of Telecom’s

administration. The administration

supports it in several ways —

• Provides staff with autonomy and

leeway to innovate. Autonomy gives

staff a level of control that enables

them to believe they can change their

environment. Leeway gives staff room

to experiment.

• Encourages staff to think creatively,

experiment, and take risks. New ideas

are welcomed and recognized. The
33 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

administration is receptive to ideas

concerning school-wide issues and

supportive of ideas concerning instructional programming.

• Minimizes the negative connotations

associated with unsuccessful efforts.

Risk-taking is defined as taking

necessary steps toward improvement.

Unsuccessful efforts are viewed as

learning opportunities and do not —

personally or professionally — discredit the person who is trying something new.

• Puts resource support behind requests

— even if it requires reaching outside

the school to the district, parents,

community, or searching out grant

opportunities. The administration

views itself as serving teachers, helping

them actualize their objectives.

• Models risk-taking by introducing

new ideas to the staff.

• Invites students to discuss and assess

new initiatives — through leadership

positions, school activities, and

classrooms activities. Students see that

the school is focused on improvement

and this can have its own effect on

student engagement and performance.

• Supports a reciprocal relationship with

staff regarding new ideas and initiatives. Staff are invited to discuss and

assess administrative ideas. Conversely,

this invitation encourages staff to

include administrators in discussion

and assessment of their new ideas. The

reciprocity facilitates open communiWe’ve been very

fortunate because we

[the staff] have a

tremendous amount

to say. We’re not

[hearing from the

administration], ‘Oh,

this is what you’re

doing’ — we’re

asked. This is what’s

happening and

[we’re] not afraid to

try something even if

it doesn’t work. And

if it doesn’t work,

you don’t feel like,

‘Oh my goodness.’

You’re not afraid to

try. And I think a lot

of ideas have come

from the faculty and

they have been

implemented because

the leadership has

allowed us to grow.

Special Educator

cation and sharing.

Telecom’s focus on innovative improvement has attracted the attention

of its district. When the district has new

opportunities, it approaches Telecom

because Telecom has the ability to process

these ideas and take advantage of them.

This can generate financial and other

kinds of support for Telecom’s teachers

and students.

The administration’s support of school

innovation has resulted in innovation

reaching a saturation point at Telecom.

Teachers appear excited, open, and

optimistic about their objectives. And

with the emergence of new instructional

approaches and programs, students are

better able to succeed.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 34

I think the

supportive

administration and

an administration

that is not so

controlling that

people can’t try new

things — I think that

leads to the

collaboration and a

lot of other things

that are going on in

their school.

Community Advisory

Panel Member

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Promoting a School Culture of Innovation and Creativity

Promote Reflection and Generation of Ideas

• Prompt staff, formally and informally, to reflect on their professional

objectives.

• Infuse school with applicable research to prompt reflective thinking.

• Generate and propose substantive ideas regarding school improvement

and initiatives.

• Reassess and update school mission and goals and evaluate programs

on a routine basis.

• Promote risk-taking as part of improvement by minimizing the negative

connotations associated with unsuccessful individual or departmental

efforts.

Provide Direct Support

• Offer time and expertise to assist individuals and departments.

• Creatively locate resources to support individual and department

requests.

• Assume responsibility for staff and stakeholder initiatives, if appropriate.

• Utilize humor and lightheartedness as a means of defusing stress and

anxiety, which contribute to barriers to risk-taking.

Offer Staff Control and Individualization

• Allow staff to modify and adapt school-wide initiatives to conform to

their professional contexts.

• Perceive and treat staff as highly trained, respected, and qualified

professionals. Give them significant autonomy.

• Provide staff with leeway for experimentation.

• Invite teachers to formulate school programs, write specific grants,

summarize school issues, etc.
35 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

4

Engage Stakeholders

in School Leadership

To varying degrees, all four schools

involve stakeholders in leadership decisions. Staff, students, parents, district

representatives, and other community

members have active roles in the leadership system of each school. Involving

stakeholders strengthens the school’s

community, utilizes valuable resources,

helps ensure that the school’s direction

and priorities reflect the community,

and models a process that respects

differences. In addition to what stakeholder involvement does for the school, it

also has an effect on the stakeholders.

Their involvement informs them, engages

them, and motivates them to become

more a part of the school. This in turn

strengthens the bond between the

community and the school and helps

spread the school’s educational message

beyond the school walls, into the home,

into community organizations, into

businesses, etc. As a result, the stakeholders are quite active in the schools and

students receive messages in their community that often coincide with the

messages they receive at school.

All four schools have close relationships with their district. The district

played an important role in enabling

each school to achieve their reform

objectives. Stakeholders described a

reciprocal effect between their school

and the district: As the school accelerated

its pursuit of improvement through

innovation and change, the district

responded with interest and support;

and as the district generated new initiatives, their attention would fall on the

school as a site that could successfully

implement them. This relationship

developed a collaborative trust between

the two organizations, as each supported

the interests of the other. This relationship sometimes brought to the school

additional money, technical assistance,

conference and training opportunities,

and a significant degree of latitude and

flexibility that is the result of a trusting

relationship. Without the latitude, several

of the schools would not have been able

to implement the unconventional ideas

that were important to their success.

Interviews revealed that two schools

(Sinagua and William Turner) not only

incorporate stakeholders in their leadership system, but depend on them. In

these schools, administrators depend

on staff, parents, student, district, and

community members for direction —

as administrators at these schools organize

much of their work around facilitating

stakeholder involvement and being

responsive to stakeholder concerns and

ideas.

Example: Sinagua High School

(Sinagua)

Sinagua’s leadership system is participatory and stakeholder based. Stakeholders

commonly refer to the school’s Site

Council as a school steering committee

that represents all stakeholder contingencies — administrators, teachers, parents,

students, and other community members.

Through this committee anyone can

initiate discussion about a concern or

idea. In addition, there are several school

procedures in place to ensure that various

stakeholder concerns and ideas are

equitably received by the leadership. In

the case of Sinagua, the administration’s

role is facilitative. They establish trusting

relationships with stakeholders; gather

opinions, ideas, and satisfaction levels;

[The Site Council]

has been very

supportive. When

a teacher comes with

a new idea, she [the

Chair] asks them

how they want to

handle implementing

it and what steps

need to be taken.

She really supports

faculty.

Special Educator
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 36

I’ve always felt...(and

I see it with respect

to other parents) that

the parents are

treated as equals, too.

If there’s a group or

committee or people

working on things,

the principal may be

involved but I always

felt there wasn’t a

hierarchy of “We’re

the administration,

we’re the teachers,

and we’ll let you

participate.” It’s been

a very equal kind of

participation, which

I’ve appreciated.

Community Member

facilitate committee discussions; keep

stakeholders informed of initiatives; and

work to carry out the desires of stakeholders.

As Sinagua’s leadership is participatory,

so are its goals. The nature of Sinagua’s

decision-making system ensures that

school goals represent the desires and

concerns of its stakeholders, which

represent many perspectives that evolve

and change with time. To accommodate

these variances, the leadership system

functions flexibly, and school goals reflect

this flexibility. When stakeholders talk

about school goals, they identify relatively

short-term and response-oriented goals,

rather than goals that are long-term and

relatively fixed. For example, a driving

safety issue arose from the concerns of

one department. This led to an analysis of

the situation and an eventual plan to

solve it. Although schools often rely on

long-term goals to provide consistency in

direction from one year to the next, it

appears that this consistency, for Sinagua,

emerges from the continuous saturation

of stakeholder input.

When asked about school goals,

stakeholders frequently (with pride)

refer to three characteristics of goal

development —

1. They are often stakeholder-driven

initiatives.

2. They are processed in a participatory

manner.

3. The administration makes sure

that everyone feels involved.

In Sinagua’s leadership system, school

initiatives can be proposed from anyone

inside or outside of this system. Simply

by identifying a problem or an idea,

a person can launch the process toward

goal development. Although all issues are

accepted in earnest, they are evaluated in

the context of time, priorities, and

resources. Ultimately it is the Site Council that determines the fate of the issue.

As school direction is dependent on

the initiatives and input of stakeholders,

stakeholder involvement is particularly

important. Lack of involvement by a

stakeholder group may result in an critical

oversight, with school-wide implications.

There are four ways that Sinagua keeps

stakeholders involved in leadership —

1. Representatives from each stakeholder

group have formal positions on the

Site Council, the school-wide decision-making council.

2. Staff have roles (voluntary and

mandatory) as committee members

or formal group members. These

groups are directly linked to the Site

Council, and structurally facilitate the

involvement of stakeholders. For

example, a Steering Committee

concerns itself with school direction,

and each goal is spearheaded by

a committee; and department heads

meet monthly to review initiatives

and make recommendations.

3. Procedures are also in place to ensure

that departments are highly involved.

For example, each department must

submit its own budget proposal to

the Site Council.

4. Lastly, a receptive and responsive

system like this one is not only

designed to receive input from

stakeholders, but depends on their

involvement. Stakeholders are aware

of (and proud of) this dependency.
37 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Although the participatory leadership

system ensures equitable stakeholder

representation, the administration plays

an important role in maintaining and

facilitating this representation. They keep

people connected and help support them What is critical, I

think, for a group

like this [the Site

Council] is that it’s

recognized as all the

constituencies. It

covers all the bases so

that everybody has a

voice and a place to

come if they have a

concern.

School Advisory Panel

Member

by escorting their issues through the

leadership process. They also make sure

that the supporting committees and

groups complete the needed tasks so

that information is readily available.

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Engaging Stakeholder Involvement in School Leadership

• Develop a participatory leadership structure that includes stakeholders

from all constituent groups — administration, staff, students, parents,

and community.

• Ensure that councils within that structure are sensitive, receptive, and

responsive to stakeholder ideas, opinions, and concerns, emphasizing

that all stakeholders are needed and their ideas valuable.

• Develop methods to keep stakeholders informed and to gather opinions

and establish roles to ensure involvement.

• Encourage trusting relationships between stakeholders and constituent

groups.

• Maintain a close and open relationship with the district — seek their

cooperation and input.

• Incorporate all members as resources for curriculum, relying upon

teachers as experts and recruiting industry to offer post-school curriculum advice and partnerships.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 38

About four years ago

[the principal] called

me and said a bunch

of teachers are going,

and he’s driving the

van...to Atlanta

to go to a school-towork conference.

The next year I was

driving with him

somewhere to

present at a school.

District Representative

5

Promote Professional

Development

All four schools promote professional

development as a decisive strategy for

school improvement. Proactive and staffresponsive professional development is an

essential factor associated with each

school’s success. Professional development

promotes improvement that is aligned

with goals, it nurtures innovation, and it

provides the practical knowledge to

implement changes. It also reduces

barriers to change as it helps to make

known many of the stressful, previously

unknown, aspects of change implementation — increasing the likelihood of

success while also increasing the motivation that comes from incurring this

optimism. All four schools eventually

learned that professional development

was an expense and effort that was

fundamental to school success. Once

understood, administrative efforts turned

toward identifying professional developmental needs, responding to departmental and individual professional development desires, and coming up with

creative ways to finance teacher training

and cover for resulting teacher absences.

Example: Fred J. Page High

School (Page)

Ongoing professional development is

a key to success at Page. The principal

nurtures professional development by

promoting staff learning opportunities

that are aligned with the school improvement plan, and supports departmental

and individual desires for additional

training that may or many not be aligned

with the school improvement plan. In

addition to targeted training objectives

and programs, the principal infuses the

school culture with new information to

stimulate new ideas relevant to teaching

and particular school issues.

When the principal first arrived at

Page, he brought with him a positive

momentum. This momentum was

communicated to staff through thoughtprovoking articles, thought-provoking

questions, and thought-provoking

discussions. Topics were broad and

pertinent, including readings by such

authors as Deming and Covey. A summer

reading list was initiated that included,

among other authors, Total Body/Soul

and Teaching In The Block.

In addition to initiating new ideas,

the principal promotes opportunities

that further school improvement plans.

This includes identifying and supporting

staff involvement in objective-related

learning opportunities. But the principal

doesn’t stop at support: He often leads

the effort in learning by initiating and

participating in these events himself.

A special educator offers an example

where the principal loaded up a van of

faculty and, with a sense of camaraderie,

drove to several cities to observe programs

that modeled initiatives that Page was

wanting to develop. In another example,
39 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

They went one year

to learn how to do it,

they did it, they got

grants, and then a

year later [the

situation] was turned

around. That

happens with

a lot of things here.

District Representative

the principal identified a school in

Delaware that would be useful as a model

for Page. He then accompanied department heads and other faculty on a three

day site visit to observe the Delaware

school program.

The principal also supports individual

staff learning objectives, primarily (but

not exclusively) when the objectives are

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Promoting Professional Development Among Staff

• Encourage staff to assess their own performance by facilitating a

teacher self-assessment program and/or observing and constructively

critiquing teachers on their teaching methods.

• Promote creative thinking — provide new ideas and current research

to staff through journal articles, summer book readings, etc. — and

respond creatively to individual requests for development.

• Identify, provide, and facilitate learning opportunities for staff, ensuring that all educators have access and that a mix of staff — for

example, general educators, special educators, and paraprofessionals

— attend programs together.

• Display personal investment in staff development by attending professional development opportunities with staff, organizing committees to

develop goal-specific staff capacities, and aligning professional

development with school-wide goals.

• Make efforts to promote and facilitate the sharing of ideas and

collaboration between colleagues, i.e. arranging for opportunities for

staff to present to their colleagues and others what they have learned

at workshops.

• Entrust teachers with administrative responsibilities that extend their

professional capacities beyond the classroom and department, while

rewarding them for this effort.

aligned with school-wide goals. These

activities include conferences, workshops,

as well as other learning opportunities.

When staff return from training, they

share what they have learned with their

colleagues. This climate of learning and

sharing has prompted staff at Page to

offer more presentations at conferences

than any other school in the district.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 40

No matter what

system or

organizational

structure you have,

if you don’t have

good teachers and

you don’t have good

staff and support

staff, then it’s not

going to work. So

that has been our

primary [job].

Administrator

6

Hire Staff Who Reinforce

School Values and

Vision

Stakeholders at two schools (Page and

Sinagua) attributed part of their success

to the school administrator’s ability to

hire staff who unite the school and push

its progress. Although subject knowledge

is an important factor in the administrator’s selection of teachers, a greater

factor is the level of the teacher’s commitment to ensuring that students learn.

Administrators at Fred J. Page High

School view hiring as perhaps the most

important part of their job. They have

identified criteria for staffing that they

believe supports the direction and

priorities of their school. They search far

and wide for the best candidates. They

have a rigorous application processes.

And once staff are hired, the administrators allow them the autonomy they

deserve as professionals.

Example: Fred J. Page High

School (Page)

Administrators at Page believe that a

school can only be as good as its staff.

For this reason the principal sees his

most important job as “being able to

attract quality faculty.” Once identified,

scrutinized, and hired, he then empowers

staff with a lot of professional autonomy.

Through a process of inquiry and

research the principal will identify

teachers throughout the region who have

strong reputations in the areas he needs to

fill. He will attempt to attract their

attention with whatever means he has

available, while making sure that he

is ready to hire quickly if the candidate

meets his criteria. On a few occasions

the district representative has even been

asked to come to the school on a Saturday

to finalize a contract.

The administration uses a rigorous

screening process when selecting teachers

to hire. One teacher describes the process

as “brutal.” Although there have been a

few exceptions to this hiring process, it

usually follows these steps: First, prospective teachers complete an application at

the district level. If this is accepted, the

teachers produce a video that is available

to principals throughout the district.

Next, there is the school-level interview.

As one teacher explains, “We’ve had

teachers who we thought were going to

be great, and they didn’t pass the interview process.” The teachers may have

exceptional knowledge of their disciplines, but that is only one of four criteria

used.

The other criteria that Page’s administration uses for selecting teachers is well

defined. They are as follows —

• Altruistic: Is the teacher teaching

because he or she cares about children?

• Compatible: Is the teacher compatible

with the school’s culture, purpose, and

philosophy?

• Open-minded: Is the teacher personally interested in learning?

A combination of the above attributes

has been the recipe for a vital, responsive,

and cohesive staff that embraces the

concept of community and continuous

improvement.
41 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

The thing that comes

through that I look

for the most is

altruism. It’s caring

about kids. Why are

they doing this? Is it

about them? Is it

about fulfilling their

needs and their

desires or their goals?

Is it because they love

English or they love

math? Or is it about

wanting to help kids?

Administrator

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Hiring Staff Who Reinforce School Values and Vision

• Approach staff selection as an essential component to building

the base for a quality school.

• Give staff professional autonomy.

• Aggressively pursue good teachers through creative research

and recruiting efforts.

• Develop a clear understanding of what the school has to offer

the prospective teacher as incentive.

• Implement a rigorous screening process.

• Conduct a rigorous screening process, including a teacher

observation on video.

• Hire teachers who are not only qualified, but are altruistic and

student-centered, compatible with school values and culture,

are favorable to learning, and dedicated.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 42

7

Use Data for DecisionMaking and School

Improvement Planning

Stakeholders at two schools (Page and

William Turner) highlighted the role

of self-evaluation in school improvement

plans and decision-making. This is done

for two purposes: One, to identify

weaknesses around which to set new goals

and objectives; and two, to assess progress

made on elements of the improvement

plan. This data-informed decisionmaking and planning complements a

systematic, proactive management style.

Whereas the administration of Fred J.

Page High School (a relatively small

school) is, itself, spearheading the design

of data collection and data analysis, the

administration of William Turner (a

much larger school) allocates these

responsibilities to others while focusing

on the orchestration of the process.

In both schools informed decisionmaking involves reviewing the school

mission and goals and identifying variables that measure progress toward these

objectives. Once objectives are identified,

administrators select variables which are

key indicators that can be practically

assessed. The administrators of both

schools have close and trusting relationships with their districts and have relied

on the district for assistance in designing

the evaluation framework, analysis, and,

to a certain extent, the reporting of the

findings. In fact, this relationship has

helped to nurture a stronger and more

respectful bond between the school and

the district. Once the data are collected,

the findings are used to prompt discussion and inform decisions. Data are not,

however, used to override the perceptions

and ideas of those involved in school

leadership. Committees and councils

debate issues from varying stakeholder

perspectives, and decisions are grounded

in a broad range of perspectives.

Example: William Turner

Technical Arts High School

(Turner Tech)

Administrators at Turner Tech utilize

school data in the development of their

annual improvement plans and ongoing

improvement decisions. In addition, the

administration encourages and facilitates

the use of data for teacher curriculum and

instructional improvement. These efforts

are partly facilitated by state and district

requirements in annual improvement

plans, but data gathering and use are

extended beyond these requirements.

Data are used to inform specific projects

and objectives, to identify school

strengths and weaknesses, to monitor

progress on the annual improvement

plan, and as one means by which teachers

can assess their curriculum and instruction.

The state of Florida and Dade County

require that Turner Tech submit to the

district an annual improvement plan.

This school-wide improvement plan is

primarily developed by a school advisory

committee, called the Educational

Excellence Council — which is composed of teachers, parents, community

members, and one administrative designee. By conducting a school needs

assessment and an assessment of progress

on the previous annual improvement

plan, the Educational Excellence Council

updates school goals and improvement

plans.

As I understand it,

there is a database of

specifics, the

demographics and

statistics of our

school, like test

scores and student

achievement. That is

examined by the

school improvement

team and the EESAC

[Education

Excellence School

Advisory Council]

committee. We sit in

this room and have a

brainstorming

session.... We

brainstorm needs

and concerns that we

have and came up

with a list of

problems or

concerns. Then the

writing team tried to

make that fit into the

format of the school

improvement plan.

School Advisory Panel
43 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Assessing the needs of the school

includes an analysis of statistical information that describes Turner Tech’s demographic characteristics and student

performance scores. Armed with this

data, the school’s Improvement Advisory

Committee and the Educational Excellence Council meet together and discuss

the findings, areas of success, and areas

of concern. The diverse stakeholder

composition of the attendees ensures

that diverse interests are represented

and considered. The meetings are described as big “brainstorming” sessions,

located in what is referred to as the “war

room.” Their primary goal is to identify,

plan, and support effective strategies for

improvement. Once clarified, a subcommittee is put in charge of describing the

plan and its details in the annual report.

Although the administrator facilitates the

process, the stakeholders are largely put

in charge of the report.

A guiding touchstone used in the

school assessment process is the school’s

mission statement which, according to

many stakeholders, has lost some of its

original relevancy. In response, there is

an elaborate effort to “refresh” the

mission, to develop greater continuity

between the school’s mission and the

school’s current expectations and goals.

Consistent with the leadership’s inclusive

approach, the process of revising involves

input from all levels of the school —

starting in each department and graduating to nine ad hoc committees that are

managed primarily by teachers who have

a large degree of control over the outcome.

Besides the annual improvement plan,

Turner Tech’s leadership also pursues

ongoing improvement in curriculum,

instruction, and relevancy. A particularly

significant effort is aimed at learning

from the insights of business leaders in

the community. As Turner Tech is

oriented toward tangible, vocational

outcomes for its students — such as

occupational certificates and licenses —

its leadership wants its educational

outcomes to be congruent with employer

needs. In addition, the school’s administrators are partial to the business model

of organizational management. To satisfy

these interests, administrators have

formalized a role for the business community at Turner Tech, on what is called the

Industry Advisory Committee. Business

leaders on this committee include such

notables as the president of the Nation’s

Bank and the vice president of Solomon

Smith Barney. Some of the committee

members are quite familiar with Turner

Tech’s curriculum, teachers, students,

and issues. On a regular basis, this

committee meets, discusses issues, and

generates recommendations to the

school’s leadership.

Improvement is also generated by

the ongoing efforts of the Improvement

Advisory Committee, which keeps Turner

Tech’s leadership informed of improvement related issues and progress related

to the school’s improvement plan.

In addition to the school-wide improvement focus, administrators encourage and facilitate data-based self-assessment among teachers. Although it is

described as a “tedious” process, a program was initiated where all student

report cards were assessed every nine

weeks. Teachers were taught how to

interpret the data, and adjustments

were made to curriculum and activities

to respond to deficient areas (in some

cases, individual student schedules were

changed). By analyzing the data every

nine weeks the adjustments could be

assessed until improvement was achieved.

[We] have the

Improvement

Advisory Committee

that’s been able to

help us find out if

anything is going on

that we need to get

ahead of instead of

reacting to.

School Advisory Panel
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 44

Recommendations That Emerged From the Schools:

Using Data for Decision-Making and School Improvement Planning

• Develop an improvement framework that is systematic and based

on a vision.

• Refresh the school vision, goals, and objectives as part of an ongoing

process involving stakeholders.

• Utilize the framework of an existing reform program to assist in

developing an improvement framework; for example, the High

Schools That Work program.

• Use school data in the development of annual improvement plans

and ongoing improvement decisions.

• Encourage, facilitate, and train teachers in the use of data for teacher

curriculum and instructional improvement.

• Use data to inform the development of specific projects and objectives,

to identify school strengths and weaknesses, and to monitor progress

on the annual improvement plan.
45 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Relationship Among

Themes

Stakeholders in all four schools focus

on the following leadership themes

within their school: a culture of innovation and creativity, learning communities

that are compelled to include all students

and staff, the pursuit of goals of high and

inclusive standards for students and staff,

the substantial involvement of stakeholders in their leadership processes, and

strong support for professional development. Two of the schools highlight databased decision-making and the hiring of

a base of staff that reinforce the school’s

direction and values. Each of the four

schools is holistically oriented, and all

seven stakeholder-identified themes

enable and reinforce each other.

Continuous improvement and exemplary

outcomes at each of the four schools can

be associated with a pyramid of goals,

supports, activities, and attitudes as

depicted above. The relationships among

the themes is important, as many of these

relationships are interdependent — one

would not work if not for the existence

of the other. Each school pursues continuous improvement as each school’s

vision is modified in response to achieved

goals and objectives. The leadership

themes that school stakeholders identify

work together to make improvement

happen on a holistic scale — for all

students and staff.

Continuous

Improvement

Challenge

all students and

their teachers to

high standards

1

Build an inclusive

and collaborative

community of

learning

2

Foster a school

culture of innovation

and creativity

3

Engage

stakeholders in

school leadership

4

Promote

professional

development

5

Hire staff who

reinforce school

values and vision

6

Use data for

decision-making and

school improvement

planning

7
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 46

Although there are many relationships

among these continuous improvement

themes, several seem to be paramount:

High Standards and

Inclusive Community

When high standards apply to all students and staff, a natural aligning of

the community occurs. Staff work

together toward common goals and

objectives. Barriers to effectiveness —

segregated services and segregated objectives — are reduced as cooperation and

collaboration become necessary. In all

schools, the collaboration that was part of

including students with disabilities in the

core curriculum demonstrated the value

of collaboration to other segregated

elements of the school — teacher-toteacher, department-to-department,

activity-to-activity. This demonstration

unleashed a momentum of collaboration

that, over time, enveloped the whole

school, in many spheres. A dedication to

high standards and inclusion also binds

the whole community within a common

struggle — improving the performance

of all students. Responsibility overlaps,

accountability overlaps. In response,

cooperation, innovation, and creativity

emerges across the whole school, benefiting all students.

Culture of Innovation

The importance of innovation becomes

clearer within an inclusive, high standards

community. Conversely, high standards

and inclusion will not occur without

innovation. Innovation spawns the ideas

and initiatives that produce high standards and the means by which they are

reached. Stakeholders at all four schools

underline this factor over and over.

Stakeholder

Involvement

in Leadership

Innovation, an inclusive community,

and high standards are all closely linked

to stakeholder involvement in leadership.

The involvement of staff, students,

parents, community, and district in

leadership connects the standards with

the community. Stakeholder involvement

in leadership ensures that school goals

and standards represent more of the

community, and increased stakeholder

control over direction and process

motivates stakeholder investment of time,

effort, and resources. As ideas have greater

impact, they have greater meaning —

and greater meaning leads to greater

involvement. Involvement of stakeholders

in leadership is essential as stakeholders

are probably the largest resource available

to each school.
47 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Professional

Development, Using

Data-Decision Making,

and Hiring Staff Who

Support School Values

Three themes that stakeholder’s referred

to — promoting professional development, hiring staff who reinforce school

values and direction, and using databased decision-making — support

innovation, high standards, and community. Professional development was

referred to by all four schools as an

essential ingredient to successful change.

It enables the school to expand beyond

its current capacities. This is particularly

important when continuous improvement is pursued through high standards

and community inclusion — as the

future of each school is uncharted. The

use of other people’s success increases

the likelihood of successful change,

as it builds confidence, links resource

networks, and buttresses school objectives. Professional development is related

to hiring quality staff who are apt to

reinforce school direction and values,

as this strengthens the community and

increases the likelihood of the school

reaching its objectives. The use of data

in decision-making also reinforces

community and the likelihood of achieving success, as it reveals, prods, and

challenges schools to reflect on what they

are doing and how well they have done it.

Administration

Stakeholders referred to the actions

of administrators as being vital to the

school-wide and interdependent themes

that have been associated with the success

of these schools. Administrators were

given credit for successfully leading or

facilitating the development of these

themes at each school. These administrators pursued these themes from different

contexts, circumstances, and directions.

They also differed in some of the ways

in which they developed these themes

within their school communities. However, the results are similar: inclusive

communities, dedicated to high standards, working together to achieve their

goals.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 48
49 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

Changing To Inclusive

Education: A Chronology

of Administrative

Decisions

Stakeholders at each of the four schools

describe a different scenario that led to

their decision to integrate special education with general education. William

Turner’s career focus required, from the

beginning, that all students take core

courses to prepare them for their career

goal. Sinagua’s orientation toward

inclusion was also set from its very start,

as its original administrator was progressive in her inclusive educational philosophies. But for Page and Telecom, inclusive education reform emerged as a

natural companion to other school

reforms that were being implemented.

Among them, high standards and inclusive education were complementary

reforms. To improve outcomes for all

students, all students needed access to

content experts, effective instructional

strategies, and individualized support

services.

Example: High School of

Telecommunication Arts

The initiative to transform Telecom’s

system of segregated special education

services to that of full inclusion and

services for all was correlated with the

presence of a relatively new administration that was solutions-oriented. This

solutions-orientation compelled them

to look around and beyond barriers to

change — establishing a tendency to try

to maneuver around bureaucratic norms

to reach their goals. This creative “bootstrap” approach to problem solving

was embraced by school staff as it represented a leadership that put improvement

above tradition.

At Telecom, the fundamental school

changes to high and accountable standards raised questions about the standards

for students with disabilities. The momentum behind this reform — a reassessment of what can be expected of

students — quickly spread to higher

expectations for students with disabilities.

As there is a federal mandate (IDEA) that

students with disabilities be placed in the

least restrictive environment, the notion

to have one supportive education system

for all students was not inconsistent with

the goals of special education.

There was a culture

in this school from

[the current and past

administrators]

which said, ‘We don’t

need to follow the

rigid bureaucratized

rules... [T]here was

support, there was

a culture, and [in

regards to the idea of

integrated settings]

I think they were

willing to say, ‘Let’s

give it a try. If it

works, let’s run with

it.’ It took a lot of

things to make it

work, but I think

they saw that there

was support from

[the principal, the

assistant principals,

and] support from

the superintendent’s

office.

District Representative
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 50

Furthermore, the district representative

who worked most closely with Telecom

was a strong proponent of the inclusive

approach to educating the exceptional

student. The district representative had

already been promoting inclusion among

district superintendents, and he had

organized a program for superintendents

to attend a conference on inclusion. He

then created opportunities for school

administrators to attend the same program and approached Telecom. He

stipulated, however, that for every special

education administrator attending the

conference an equivalent general education administrator must also attend.

Although Telecom’s principal was not able

to participate in the conference, two

assistant principals went. They returned

from the conference convinced that

inclusion was the right direction for

Telecom to take.

Telecom’s staff viewed a state grant

that was designed to promote inclusion

within schools as the start. After an

arduous process of conceptualizing

inclusion at Telecom and the process

to put it in place, staff completed the

application and ultimately received the

three year grant. As a first step, administrators began introducing “sharedteaching” to the school by doing the

following —

• Focusing on one grade level

• Beginning with non-academic classes

• Matching up likely successful teaching

partners, one by one —

- Identifying general and special

educators that would work well

together

- Introducing the idea and the

opportunity to these teachers,

individually

- Maintaining the opportunity as

voluntary, and not a commitment

for more than a semester

In particular, the special education

administrator coordinated this stage of

the transition. Over several semesters,

shared-teaching partners worked together,

some eventually choosing to work alone,

and some eventually choosing to work

together again. Inclusion grew slowly,

partially, class by class, and into other

grade levels. Staff noticed the positive

affect it had on the students, and these

observations kept staff open to the

possibility of participating.

A pivotal day in the transition occurred when the district representative

met with key school administrators to

push for faster change. He proposed

moving inclusion to an entire grade level.

The administrators’ first response was

that of serious apprehension, but finally

they agreed. The administrators and

district pitched the idea to the staff,

parents, and students. Having already

observed its positive affects on student

performance, each stakeholder group

agreed to the substantive change.

A structure of courses representing

academic levels was organized. Voluntary

shared-teaching was established in classes

where students had particularly challenging objectives. In other classes, some

appropriately smaller than others, a

special or general educator would teach

alone. In some classes a paraprofessional

was added. Nearly all classes were open to

all students, and all distinctions between

students with disabilities and students

without — such as on class rosters —

were removed for the first two weeks of

classes. Advanced classes were also

offered. In addition to these general

What they also

saw is that the kids,

the suspensions they

had, those were

down.

The behaviors

improved.

The attendance

improved.

The kids started

to academically

improve.

District Representative
51 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

classes, there were classes that offered

particularly specialized assistance.

Over time, administrators found that

collaboration began to flourish among

staff and ideas began to flow as the

barriers of specialization were reduced.

Furthermore, student overall performance

significantly improved. As the model

sold itself to stakeholders, inclusion was

eventually moved to another grade level,

and then another grade level, until the

entire school was transformed. As a result,

a common or shared school identity

began to emerge among students. The

performance level for students without

disabilities improved, as there were

support services for all students who

were having difficulties. Furthermore,

the performance of students with disabilities rose as they became integrated into

the now-unified school. In all, the

academic performance of students with

and without disabilities improved as the

school increased its standards, unified,

and modeled inclusion and support at all

levels.

I don’t define special

ed as a special ed

issue; I define it as

a general ed issue.

District Representative
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 52
53 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

The following worksheet is provided as

a way of self-assessing the degree to which

individuals involved in the school leadership process implement the themes that

emerged from the participating high

schools — themes that support exemplary

outcomes of students with and without

disabilities. Each theme is represented

with a set of leadership behaviors. By

assessing each behavior and noting the

degree to which it is currently occurring,

school leadership groups can identify

their strengths and weaknesses in relation

to these leadership themes. To further

School Leadership SelfAssessment Worksheet

utilize this worksheet, it is suggested

that people involved in school leadership

respond to this assessment by discussing

the results, involving stakeholder groups,

and generating specific actions that would

maintain strengths and address indicated

weaknesses.

The definition of who is involved in

school leadership varies from school to

school. School leadership can include

committees that involve administrators,

staff from varying levels and disciplines,

students, parents, and community

members.

1. Challenge All Students and Their Teachers to High Standards

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership sets expectations high, and

understands that students and staff will excel to the

degree that they are challenged.

B. Our school leadership trusts in student potential,

and expands their choices and responsibilities to an

optimal degree while holding them accountable to

their choices.

C. Our school leadership expects that all students will

meet the school standards and that the school will

successfully support them to do so within the

general education curriculum.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 54

2. Build an Inclusive and Collaborative Community of Learning

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership has a clear vision of what our

school should look like. We are committed, determined, enthusiastic, and hold the course.

B. Our school leadership expects that all students will

participate in the general education curriculum and

activities. We have expanded activities to attract

students who might not typically participate or who

need support to do so.

C. Our school leadership has established creative

support mechanisms for all students in need of

academic or other kinds of support.

D. Our school leadership has developed an accessible

“open door” relationship with staff, students,

parents, and others in the community. We have

established nonhierarchical working relationships

with staff and colleagues. We are involved in the

work of staff and students — on the intercom, in

classrooms, hallways, cafeteria.

E. Our school leadership consistently communicates

and reinforces the value of inclusion, regularly

clarifying the message that our school is one school

serving all students.

F. Our school leadership promotes communication

between the school leadership and the school

community through newsletters, communication

protocols, regular meetings such as a monthly

“Parent Coffee Hour,” etc.

G. Our school leadership involves parents and local

businesses in decision-making processes regarding

curriculum and extracurricular programs and

activities, treating them as equals, embracing

differences, and negotiating and reconciling conflicting views.
55 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

H. Our school leadership facilitates and provides

training and direct support for purposeful, intentional collaboration at all levels — involving special

and general educators, administrators, paraprofessionals, and community members.

I. Our school leadership supports an end-oriented

focus, reinforcing services that enable students to

identify and meet their goals. Within this framework

we emphasize student assets and view

exceptionalities as tactical issues, not barriers.

J. Our school leadership ensures that administrators

and staff realize that it is their responsibility to

creatively support each and every student in successfully reaching his/her goals.

3. Foster a School Culture of Innovation and Creativity

Yes Somewhat No

Promote Reflection and Generation of Ideas

A. Our school leadership prompts staff, formally and

informally, to reflect on their professional objectives.

B. Our school leadership infuses the school with

applicable research to prompt reflective thinking.

C. Our school leadership generates and proposes

substantive ideas regarding school improvement and

initiatives.

D. Our school leadership reassesses and updates the

school mission and goals and evaluates programs on

a routine basis.

E. Our school leadership promotes risk-taking as part

of improvement by minimizing the negative connotations associated with unsuccessful individual or

departmental efforts.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 56

Provide Direct Support

F. Our school leadership offers time and expertise to

assist individuals and departments.

G. Our school leadership creatively locates resources to

support individual and departmental requests.

H. Our school leadership assumes responsibility for staff

and stakeholder initiatives, if appropriate.

I. Our school leadership utilizes humor and lightheartedness as a means of defusing stress and anxiety,

which contribute to barriers to risk-taking.

Offer Staff Control and Individualization

J. Our school leadership allows staff to modify and

adapt school-wide initiatives to conform to their

professional contexts.

K. Our school leadership perceives and treats staff as

highly trained, respected, and qualified professionals, and gives them significant autonomy.

L. Our school leadership provides staff with leeway for

experimentation.

M. Our school leadership invites teachers to formulate

school programs, write specific grants, summarize

school issues, etc..

4. Engage Stakeholders in School Leadership

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership has developed a participatory

leadership structure that includes stakeholders from

all constituent groups — administration, staff,

students, parents, and community.
57 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

B. Our school leadership ensures that councils within

that leadership structure are sensitive, receptive, and

responsive to stakeholder ideas, opinions, and

concerns, emphasizing that all stakeholders are

needed and their ideas valuable.

C. Our school leadership develops methods to keep

stakeholders informed and to gather opinions and

establish roles to ensure involvement.

D. Our school leadership encourages trusting relationships between stakeholders and constituent groups.

E. Our school leadership maintains a close and open

relationship with the district — seeking their

cooperation and input.

F. Our school leadership incorporates all members as

resources for curriculum, relying upon teachers as

experts and recruiting industry to offer post-school

curriculum advice and partnerships.

5. Promote Professional Development

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership encourages staff to assess

their own performance by facilitating a teacher selfassessment program and/or observing and constructively critiquing teachers on their teaching methods.

B. Our school leadership promotes creative thinking —

provides new ideas and current research to staff

through journal articles, summer book readings, etc.

— and responds creatively to individual requests for

development.

C. Our school leadership identifies, provides, and

facilitates learning opportunities for staff, ensuring

that all educators have access and that a mix of staff

— for example, general educators, special educators, and paraprofessionals — attend programs

together.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 58

D. Our school leadership displays a personal investment

in staff development by attending professional

development opportunities with staff, organizing

committees to develop goal-specific staff capacities,

and aligning professional development with schoolwide goals.

E. Our school leadership makes efforts to promote and

facilitate the sharing of ideas and collaboration

between colleagues, i.e. arranging for opportunities

for staff to present to their colleagues and others

what they have learned at workshops.

F. Our school leadership entrusts teachers with administrative responsibilities that extend their professional

capacities beyond the classroom and department,

while rewarding them for this effort.

6. Hire Staff Who Reinforce School Values and Vision

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership approaches staff selection as

an essential component to building the base for a

quality school.

B. Our school leadership aggressively pursues good

teachers through creative research and recruiting

efforts.

C. Our school leadership conducts a rigorous screening

process.

D. Our school leadership hires teachers who are not

only qualified, but are altruistic and student-centered, compatible with school values and culture, are

open to learning, and dedicated.

E. Our school leadership develops a clear understanding of what the school has to offer the prospective

teacher as incentive.
59 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

F. Our school leadership gives staff professional

autonomy, once hired.

7. Use Data for Decision-making and School

Improvement Planning

Yes Somewhat No

A. Our school leadership develops an improvement

framework that is systematic and based on a vision.

B. Our school leadership refreshes the school vision,

goals, and objectives as part of an ongoing process

involving stakeholders.

C. Our school leadership utilizes the framework of an

existing reform program to assist in developing an

improvement framework.

D. Our school leadership uses school data in the

development of annual improvement plans and

ongoing improvement decisions.

E. Our school leadership encourages, facilitates, and

trains teachers in the use of data for teacher curriculum and instructional improvement.

F. Our school leadership uses data to inform the

development of specific projects and objectives, to

identify school strengths and weaknesses, and to

monitor progress on the annual improvement plan.
The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools 60
61 The Leadership Factor: A Key to Effective Inclusive High Schools

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