Carol A.

Swanson
Competency 3 Diversity Leadership

Diversity Leadership
a. Demonstrate and recognize the significance of diversity and responding to all needs
b. Create and monitor a positive environment for all learner
c. Create and monitor a positive environment for all staff
d. Promote sensitivity of diversity throughout the school community
e. Demonstrate the ability to adapt education programs to the needs of diverse constituencies

The Diversity Leadership competency is essential for effective and equitable school

leadership. All learners deserve a positive learning environment. School leaders need to be

culturally competent. They must understand the different needs of all learners in the school, have

the capacity to assess the skills of their staffs ability to address those needs effectively and

efficiently, while adapting educational programming to meet the needs of all students.

I chose EL Shadowing as my diversity activity. This process is a way to assess the

linguistic needs of EL students in schools. I participated in a pre-meeting with school staff, as

well as a training to prepare for the shadowing experience. I also received an EL student

assessment profile document that disclosed the students academic data, language proficiency,

growth data, a photo of the student and room number. The shadowing protocol creates a process

that is as reliable as possible to get the most authentic measure of student academic listening and

speaking opportunities in a two hour period of time. Participants were given access to a Google

Doc to record the shadowing experience. Every five minutes, activities of the student were

coded. Participants determined if the student was academically speaking or listening, whether or

not the student was speaking/listening to the teacher or fellow students, the format of the

interaction, and if the student was on-task or not. All shadowing participant data was compiled

automatically into the Google Doc. After the shadowing was complete, all participants gathered

to view the compiled data and debrief what we observed about the types of interactions we

coded. As a group, we charted observations of the data, made reflections on the information,

compiled a plus/delta chart and brainstormed possible next steps.

Carol A. Swanson
Competency 3 Diversity Leadership

The findings were powerful. 50% of the time EL students were listening to the teacher in

a whole group setting, while 30% of the time, students were speaking, either to other students or

the teacher. Most of the student speaking was social and not academic (80%). Results also

showed that 42% of the time EL students shadowed were off task. This is a dire situation for EL

students and emphasizes the importance of noticing student engagement, especially those

students who passively disengage from learning. As an educational leader, it is my responsibility

to ensure that staff understand the importance of intentional language instruction and student

academic interaction.

The school leadership team made decisions as a result of this activity by creating practice

profiles on interventions for staff to use to increase student discourse in the classroom. Practice

profiles are documents that specifically indicate the procedures of adult behavior of an

intervention or innovation that directly impacts student discourse in the school. The interventions

included Mathematical Discourse and Think/Write/Pair/Share profiles for teachers to increase

student discourse in their classrooms.

This activity directly provides evidence of competency of Diversity Leadership because it

is a way to help schools see the urgency needed for EL students to be taught and encouraged to

use academic content language. As an educational leader, it is my responsibility to help staff see

the importance of explicit English language instruction, as well as understanding that EL

students need active participation in academic content. EL shadowing was an exceptionally

powerful experience in my current leadership role and as I pursue my principal licensure.