Oanh Diep

50142675
EDAD 615
Reflection paper week 1
This weeks materials mainly focused on how principals at low income schools respond to the constraints of time, staff, and funding.
However, these principals were able to persevere and managed to
create positive environments for students. I find the Principal Story
clip to be most powerful and influential. There were three Standards
for Principal Certification that were highlighted in this weeks materials.
The first was I. Learner-Centered Values and Ethics of Leadership: A
principal is an educational leader who promotes the success of all
students by acting with integrity and fairness, and in an ethical
manner. The second was II. Learner-Centered Leadership and Campus
Culture: a principal is an educational leader who promotes the success
of all students and shapes campus culture by facilitating the
development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision
of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. And
finally, II. Learner-Centered Human Resources Leadership: a principal is
an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by
Implementing a staff evaluation and development system. To improve
the performance of all staff members, selects and implements
appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and applies
the legal requirements for personnel management. These three

Standards for Principal Certification also correspond with Competency

001, 003, and 004 in the TeXes Principal Competencies.
In the Principal Story clip, it focused on the struggles of two
principals working at school with 87%-90% low-income students.
These two principals believed in being very hands on with their
teachers. Tresa Dunbar allowed her new teachers to make mistakes
and then learn from their mistakes. She quickly admitted to her
struggling teacher Mrs. Dubin that she did not provide adequate
support and that is her fault. She then asked a retiree, Mrs. King, to
help model effective teaching strategies to help Mrs. Dubin. Once she
has done all she could to support Mrs. Dubin and the results have not
changed, she did not hesitate to let Mrs. Dubin go. I think this is a very
good example of Standard I of the Standards for Principal Certification
and Competency 001 under TeXes Principal Competencies. Under
Domain I, Compentency 001 of TeXes Principal Competencies, it stated
that the principal knows how to create a campus culture that sets high
expectations, promotes learning, and provides intellectual stimulation
for self, students, and staff. Principal Dunbar was quick to admit her
failure to provide support to Mrs. Dubin and that lead to her failing as a
teacher. She gave Mrs. Dubin the resources and time needed for
improvement to meet her high expectations. Once Mrs. Dubin has not
met those expectations, Principal Dunbar was decisive in relieving Mrs.
Dubin of her duties. This also ties in with Standards for Principal

Certification I. a principal understands and is able to: 1) model and

promote the highest standards of conduct, ethical principles, and
integrity in decision making, actions, and behaviors. Principal Dunbar
was there to console Mrs. Dubin, gave the help needed and time frame
for progress. She made the difficult decisions of relieving Mrs. Dubin,
but she made it to ensure students benefit from teachers
improvements. A good leader has to retain the role of an teacher and
authority to ensure a school is efficiently managed.
In addition, the second principal was Principal Kerry Purcell who
promotes leadership among her teachers to build future leaders in
schools. She also promotes parental involvement among her students.
Finally, she consistently uses data to create future programs and
motivates her students. Principal Purcell visited every homes and
families around her school to demonstrate her dedication to her
students success. She also hosted Family Education Night to
promote parental involvement in their children learning process. Her
actions proved that she has adequately fulfilled Standard II which is
ensuring that parents and other member of the community are an
integral part of the campus culture. Principal Purcell was also a very
involved principal within her school. She was present in the
classrooms helping new teachers, in the cafeteria during lunches, and
in weekly discipline meetings. In addition, she also used data to
improve students performance by having monthly speed reading tests.

Students know how many words they can read in a minute and their
progress if they have improved. This demonstrated that Principal
Purcell successfully facilitated the use of sound research-based
practice in the development and implementation of campus curricular
activities in Standard VI and Competency 003 and 004.
Another intriguing material I have learned this week was the
video How a Gread Leader Motivates. Pedro Noguera talked about
his experiences meeting a principal who does not perform her
administrative duties but have trained her secretary to complete them
for her. That principal lead by examples, she supports his staff in being
100% committed to improve students learning rather than escaping
the classroom duties. A good leader understands his teachers battles
and is not afraid to fight to win the war. The principal retained the role
of lead teacher in her school and focused her attention to the at-risk
students who misbehaved in class. This concept stuck out to me
because it is highly admirable and foreign. I am familiar with leaders
of the school spending most of the time handling discipline issues and
test results. It is quite foreign to me that school leaders would be in
the classroom, teaching difficult students and providing hands on
support to their staff. I would hope to acquire such dedication similar
to the principal Pedro mentioned. That to me is the definition of a good
leader, one that is involved in real time and understands their
teachers difficulties on a daily basis. When school leaders become

personally involved in students improvements, the celebration is real

and sincere. Teachers can build great rapport with students but there
is nothing like administrators sharing that success.

Bibliography
A Principal Story. (2012)[Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV38-gxMI8k
How a Great Leader Motivates. (2013)[Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ3FhXsvOOs

Texas Education Agency. (2010). Texas Examination of Educator

Standards Preparation Manual. Retrieved (2014, August 30th).