Airess Stewart

Reflective Essay

Over the last two years, in pursuit of my Education Specialist degree I have gained a lot

of knowledge regarding systems and leadership. I started a district position as an MTSS/SI

Coordinator the year prior to embarking on this experience and since then have been able to

apply much of what I have learned into my everyday position. In this reflection, I will share how

I have applied my learning in relation to the standards for administrators and identify strength

and growth areas.

Standard one- school vision and five- ensuring all students succeed are the areas I felt I

had a lot of experience in before starting this program since part of my role is leading the MTSS

process in the district to ensure all students succeed. At the beginning of the program I rated

myself as proficient in all areas and ending the program I rated myself exemplary. Throughout

the year I met with school teams consisting of building administrators and teacher leaders to

review and revise the school improvement plan. I am currently working to shift the school

improvement process to a continuous improvement cycle instead of the traditional process of

completing the paperwork. As part of the process I have created a system for all schools to

have a data dig day two times a year to review various data sources (NWEA, F & P, easyCBM,

failure rates), identify needs and adjust instruction for all K-12 buildings. This is the second year

we have provided this time and I feel that it is much needed and appreciated. For this day to

occur, the data literacy coach and I plan with district administrators who lead the day in their

buildings. As we finish the end of the year, I am currently working with teams to review and

revise their goals and activities on their school improvement plan. I also work with a district

level team to review and revise the district improvement plan goals and activities. We are also

working on accountability measures through various evidences and principal conversations

throughout the year. In my district, we heavily rely on google to share information, create
progress monitoring tools and document our work. Other technology sites we use for the school

improvement process include AdvancEd, NWEA, Illuminate and for administrators-Eidex.

I also had some strengths in standard 4 because a lot of my work is centered around

collaboration. The one area I found lacking in this standard was limited involvement with family

and community members in my current role. Through the AdvancEd External Review and

Strategic Planning process I have participated in activities with those stakeholders. We have

also used surveys to gather information from parents and community members regarding our

district. However, I would like to have more involvement from these stakeholder groups moving

forward in regards to participation on teams for continuous improvement. We are also trying to

find creative ways to gain more parent engagement and are connecting with some community

resources such as our religious community and public library to do so. In addition, I am in the

process of creating a Student Support Network to address the non-academic needs of our

learners throughout the district. As part of this team, we plan on having parents, community

members, students, as well as district staff.

Standard two and three were the areas I needed the most improvement. I had a couple

indicators related to evaluation and hiring that I felt needed improvement when I began the

program. I did not have experience in either of these areas and it was not an area I was

exposed to in my current position. Another challenge for me in relation to evaluating instruction

was related to some of my lack of knowledge of instructional/curricular expectations since I was

a school social worker. I have had exposure to instruction and curriculum in other roles,

however I had never had to evaluate it. During the last two years, I have participated in

meetings with administrators to review and discuss the evaluation process. Part of the learning

included observing videos, taking notes and discussion. I have also participated in observations

and conversations related to evaluation. I have also been able to participate in several interview

teams and budget conversations related to staffing. These activities have given me greater

confidence in the evaluation process

 I also had limited knowledge of the school management and operational system and

rated myself at developing at the beginning of the program. Since then, I have been able to

familiarize myself with business and facilities departments more through conversations. I have

a better understanding on how those two departments interact with individual school buildings. I

moved those two indicators to proficient at the end of the program. In my position we have a lot

of conversation about distributed leadership and ensuring time to high quality instruction and

student learning. A lot of my work is with building administration and teacher leaders for the

continuous improvement process. We also have continued conversations in relation to

providing enough time for collaboration amongst teachers and implemented a time dedicated in

the day to provide intervention/extension for all learners called Instructional Support Time. This

block of time has been in place for the last two years and I am currently working with teams to

review and revise for the following year.

As I reflect on my Ed. Specialist journey, this experience has been very valuable

to me for my current role and in preparation for a future administrator position. I found several

artifacts that I could use as evidences for each standard, however tried to find a variety of the

work that I have done over the course of two years. I am committed to apply the knowledge and

experiences I have gained over the last two years. I will continue to learn and grow throughout

my leadership positions to ensure all students succeed.