Competency 6: Organizational Management

Related Task:

6.3 Knowledge of procedures for developing and implementing change in a

district/school.

Specific Task:

6.3.5 Conduct a survey and document a list of environmental, financial, legal and
other constraints on program modification.

Smart Goal:
By April 2nd collect data on concerns of the English Language Arts and Social Studies
staff in regards to Cross-Curricular instruction.

Narrative Description of Specific Task:

Waldon Middle School uses a team concept to educate students. Given a team concept
exists, cross-curricular instruction could be used to a greater extent than it already is.
Furthermore, considering low test scores in state achievement tests for Social Studies and
added requirements as a result of an adoption of a new curriculum for English Language
Arts, cross-curricular instruction would be an important component of the solution.
Considering the benefits that could be attained through this strategy I observed that a
majority of the teachers in those subject areas were opposed to the idea. This observation
brought me to considering what could be done to alleviate those concerns and make it
more possible for teachers to implement further cross-curricular instruction. The problem
that I encountered was that I was basing my strategies of informal observations and
instructions that did not consider everyones concerns.

In order to address the concerns that I had observed as well as those I had not identified I
performed a Concerns Based Assessment (CBAM-Concerns Based Assessment Model)
of the two curricular departments. The concerns assessment allowed me to effectively
target concerns that were apparent as well as identify existing, less obvious concerns that
would have only shown themselves once the strategy was implemented.

Conduct an assessment to identify staff concerns surrounding crosscurricular instruction.

Specific

Once the assessment has been conducted I will place the

information gathered into a graph that shows where the highest
levels of concern exist.
Measurable

Identifying the existing concerns surrounding cross-curricular

instruction will help implementation. The concerns that are the
highest can be addressed in the proper ways before implementing
the strategy.
Attainable

Relevant

Lake Orion Community Schools believe that their concept on

middle school education is what is best for students in grades 6-8.
Implementing further cross-curricular instruction would enhance
this impacts of this concept moving forward. This strategy would
improve State achievement scores in Reading, Writing, and Math.

During the 2014-2015 school year Lake Orion adopted a new

curriculum for middle school English Language Arts. The new
curriculum has proved to be lengthy and time consuming, resulting
in a need for added instructional minutes for each unit.

Timely

Narrative Description:
Throughout the last several years I have been observing alterations of curriculum within
my district in conjunction with state achievement test scores. The focus of my observations have
been the English Language Arts curriculum improvements and Social Studies alterations
compared all to achievement scores. Over the course of making these observations I began to
formulate concepts from the ground level that would address the concerns and complaints that
were arising from instructional staff.
The issues seemed to focus around the ideas of time and test scores. Many people in the
ELA middle level department expressed concerns over the amount of time the new curriculum
expectations were going to take and subsequently, the impact that it may have on test scores. On
the other hand the Social Studies department was well aware of a pattern of low test scores.
Facing these issues, my thought process began to focus on mental experiments regarding
daily practice, with the goal of ultimately finding solutions to these issues, or possibly, one.
Through analyzing and synthesizing my observations and conversations I began to narrow the
scope of my focus. The solution that I started to hone in on was the concept of block and crosscurricular instruction.

Given all of the roadblocks to success that were brought to my attention I felt that
increasing cross-curricular instruction and incorporating opportunities for ELA/S.S. block
instruction would make strides toward resolving the issues. Through my lens, increased crosscurricular instruction and block instruction opportunities would achieve increased minutes for
ELA instruction through aligning it to S.S. standards as well as address the reading and Social
Studies test scores through providing more opportunities to read non-fiction text that would also
supplement the areas of Social Studies where test scores were low.
However, in addressing this concern I was limited in my focus because even though I had
numerous conversations and made many observations, I was not able to identify all of the
concerns that would be present if I were to create a opportunities for cross-curricular and block
instruction. To solve this problem I was introduced to the idea of a Concerns Based Assessment
Model (CBAM) which would help me identify all of the concerns that may get in the way of
achieving a solution.
Using CBAM I was able to create a list of all the possible concerns that may arise from
the concept or Innovation Configuration I proposed. For each concern I assigned a scale from 110 and asked teachers to complete the survey by selecting their level of concern in correlation to
each concern that was identified. Once the surveys were complete I was able to collect the
information and place it into a graph that would show where the highest levels of concerns were.
This task proved to be very informative because it exposed relatively hidden concerns that
needed to be addressed before implementation could begin.

Reflection:

Using CBAM for the first time I have a lot to reflect upon. Going into the process I did
not fully comprehend what CBAM was for and what I was going to get out of it. At the
beginning I thought that it would be a tool that would help me identify a problem or a concern
and use the data collected as a catapult to launching or implementing a concept. What I left with
is the recognition of the importance and continued development of skill sets such as
communication, listening, and understanding.
I began this journey as a result of seeing a need, a need to assist teachers in their ability to
educate students. As I observed the problem of ELA instructional time and low achievement
scores, two ideas stood out to me. One, is that teachers have the ability to achieve crosscurricular instruction, block instruction, and alignment of reading expectations. The second was
that students would greatly benefit from our ability to implement this concept. However, when I
began, I thought that is was as simple as that. Unbeknownst to me was what seemed like a
perfectly logical reason to strive toward achievement, wasnt enough when dealing with an
organization.
I learned before the construction of any concept it is necessary to identify the concerns
that are present within the organization. What occurred to me throughout the process was that
these otherwise unidentified concerns are the very concerns that often times prevent goals from
being achieved. To further explain, I realized that had I implemented the plan as I originally
intended the concerns that I failed to identify on the outset would have arose in the midst of
implementation, bringing everything to a halt, if not, terminating the project as a whole. Using
CBAM to identify these concerns would provide a foundation that would support successful
implementation of projects.
Looking ahead to the next time I conduct a Concerns Based Assessment there are a
couple improvements I would make. First, I would take the time to clearly introduce my
Innovation Configuration both verbally and in writing. This would afford staff members time to
ask questions and comprehend the exact meaning and benefits of the IC. I would also use the
feedback from the introduction of the IC to help shape the questions that I would ask in my
survey.

Finally, evaluating my abilities I viewed myself has having effective communication

skills, specifically being able to clearly communicate through the usage of concise statements.
What I learned is that effective communication is a skill set that needs to be fine-tuned
continuously. Whether that be through expressing ideas more clearly or broadening my
vocabulary so that my thoughts can be conveyed using less words.
What I also gained from this competency was a reinforcement of the importance of
building culture. Above all, the individuals that you work with must trust a leader to not place
them in situations that are going to hurt them. If a culture of safety is not maintained people are
always going to be hesitant of new ideas out of fear for their own safety. A building must also
have a culture of perseverance, meaning that as a whole the staff perceives roadblocks as
obstacles instead of permanent barriers. Finally, a building must be trained on how to work with
others. I have learned that far too often people are viewed as having to ability to work as a team
because they are either adults and or well-educated.