MeTA musings

EDIT: This is a follow-up to a previous post.  

It's a pretty exciting time to work in my current school district.  About twenty years ago, the elementary school implemented a standards-based report card.  Over the past several years, we've seen a grassroots movement in the area of assessment and grading reform in our secondary buildings.  Dozens of teachers and building leadership teams have visited and/or inquired about what's going on in our high school and middle school, which is one of the reasons we'll soon be co-hosting a standards-based grading conference in eastern Iowa (before you ask, we've reached our registration capacity and the waiting list has been closed as well).

The purpose of this post is to create a "one-stop shop" illustrating various artifacts that document our district's standards-based grading journey and next steps.

What is standards-based grading (SBG)?

• The primary purpose of grading is to communicate achievement status to students, parents and others.
• Secondary purposes of grading include providing feedback to students for self-assessment and growth and encouraging student progress and self-monitoring of learning.

4 - Demonstrates thorough level of understanding of course or grade-level standard.
3.5 - Demonstrates understanding of course or grade-level standard.
3 - Demonstrates a developing understanding of course or grade-level standard.
2 - Demonstrates partial understanding of course or grade-level standard.
1 - Demonstrates minimal understanding of course or grade-level standard. 

This is a 3 post collaborative effort between Russ (classroom teacher), Eric (building principal) and myself (central office admin).  Full disclosure: Eric is also my brother and Russ is also my brother-in-law.

We are planning to lead a session at EdCamp Eastern Iowa in a few weeks.  The three of us spend countless hours on Twitter, on the phone and at family get-togethers talking about our differing perspectives on education based partly on our current roles as teacher, building administrator and district administrator.  We don't claim to have all of the answers, but I think we're pretty confident we have lots of questions about what school leadership can and should look like from the perspectives of our roles.  A few of my questions follow.

1. What is leadership?  
• a person with influence?  
• a person with a specific title? 
• a noun?  a verb?
2. What does a leadership structure really look like that values teachers as leaders?
3. Beyond 140 characters, what does "teacher leadership" look like in practice at the building level?  district level?
4. How might a building administrator's actions "in the name of giving teachers leadership experience" actually abdicate his/her responsibility as a leader?
5. What are examples of district and building administrators giving teachers a false sense of influence and voice?
6. As a teacher, in what ways can your principal realistically utilize you as a leader in the building that still allow you to focus on your day-to-day role with students?
7. As a building principal or teacher, what are you looking for in a central office administrator?