Running Head: CORE VALUE: THE PRINCIPAL’S ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE 1

The Principal’s Role as a Leader of Change

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Presented to the Department of Educational Research

And Post Secondary Education

University of Northern Iowa

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By

Allison Brewer

Allison Freitag

South East Junior High

Iowa City, Iowa

May 1, 2017

EDLEAD 6282 Dr. Robert Boody

MEASRES 6205 Dr. Nicholas Pace

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Setting the Stage

South East Junior High is the largest of the three comprehensive junior high schools in

the Iowa City Community School District, an Iowa district with over 13,000 total students. Over

the last 10 years, South East’s student population, as well as the population of Iowa City, has

grown significantly. The student body population in 2005 was 681 and currently there are 829

students enrolled. After 30+ years of consistent administration, South East has recently

experienced significant changes in leadership. During the past four years there have been three

different building leaders and therefore there have been significant valleys and peaks in regards

to school culture and climate as well as staff morale.

To date, 44% of South East students are minorities, and the free and reduced lunch

percentage has grown from 29.2% in 2005 to 45.7% in 2016. 11.5% of South East students are

English Language Learners and 12.5% of students have Individualized Education Programs.

70.7% of the 7th and 8th grade students are proficient in reading and 71.8% of students are

proficient in math. South East Junior High School is “acceptable” according to the State of Iowa

Department of Education 2016 annual school report card.

Why an Intervention Block?

Starting in the fall of 2013 South East Junior High began the process of implementing

MTSS (Multi Tier Systems of Support). Administration and staff in the building had identified a

need for a systematic approach to provide tiered supports for students academically and

behaviorally. Through teacher feedback and professional development centered around Hattie’s

research our building leader was able to determine the first major need was time built into the

school day for students to individually meet with teachers for reteaching and additional
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classroom help. This time was not readily available in the typical school schedule and typical

classroom settings.

Teacher feedback was obtained through a survey administered to all South East staff

during the 13-14 school year. The survey asked what type of school the staff members wanted to

see and be moving forward. Results included:

*30/35 staff members wanted to be a school that does whatever it takes to

ensure students are successful.
*Teacher identified needs for this to happen: intervention support from highly
qualified teachers and time blocked in the day to implement.
Professional development provided to the South East staff included research conducted

by John Hattie who organized a meta-study in 2008 that brought to the forefront the concept of

visible learning.​ ​Hattie’s meta-analysis was the most exhaustive meta-analysis in education to

date. He compared the effect size of many aspects that influence student achievement in schools,

in an attempt to show that there are many things teachers can do during the school day that have

a greater impact on student learning than a student's home environment or socio-economic status.

Hattie ranked the ten most effective influences relating to student achievement:

1. Student self-reporting grades 6. Teacher-student relationships

2. F​ormative evaluation 7. Meta-cognitive strategies

3. Teacher clarity 8. Self-verbalisation/questioning

4. R​eciprocal teaching 9. Teacher professional development

5. Feedback 10. Problem-solving teaching

Once it was determined that a majority of the South East staff believed that all students

could learn at high levels, it was concluded that the next step was to pilot an intervention block
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within the school day. The building leadership team worked with a group of teachers to develop

a pilot plan. The pilot plan lasted 6 weeks at the end of the 2014-2015 school year. From there

staff and students were surveyed and the team used that feedback to create the intervention block

plan for the following academic year (2015-2016). The intervention block, called Little Hawk

Time, is still being used today during the 2016-2017 school year.

Research Question

Is the intervention block currently utilized at South East Junior High, called Little Hawk

Time, helping all students learn at high levels?

What it Looks Like

During the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year the administrative team rolled out the

intervention block plan during professional development based on feedback from the previous

year. The educational leaders shared the goal of the intervention block and the specifics with all

staff members during the beginning of the year professional development days. Appendix A

shows the initial information shared with South East staff during the introductory phase.

The overall goal of this intervention block was to ensure that all students are learning at

high levels. South East staff understood that not all students learn at the same pace, have the

same needs, or come to school at the same level. To gauge the success of the intervention block,

it was determined that South East will look at the total number of Fs among the student

population, as well as the total number of students with failing grades. Success will also be

determined by staff feedback on how the intervention block is helping students build critical

skills for academic success.

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First Attempt - Trial Launch

The trial launch of the intervention block at South East Junior High was during the final

six weeks of the third trimester during the 2014-2015 school year. During the pilot period,

students remained in their 8th period classroom and had intervention time for the last thirty

minutes of the school day. Students were allowed to request to see teachers and teachers could

request to see students. There were no enrichments provided during the piloted intervention

block. At the conclusion of the pilot, May 2015, feedback was gathered from staff to determine

next steps of implementation for the following school year. See Appendix B for teacher feedback

from May 2015.

Full Implementation

Full implementation of the intervention block has been under way for two academic

years. Initial roll out was during the 2015-2016 school year and was a success for all three

trimesters of the year. This current school year, the 2016-2017 academic year, full

implementation of the intervention block was also delivered for all three trimesters. Teachers and

students have increasingly relied upon the time more and more to provide or receive additional

remediation or enrichment. On any given day teachers have on average 10+ students that visit for

remediation opportunities. There are, on average, ten or more enrichment opportunities for

students to choose from in a given week. Attendance in these enrichment opportunities has been

much greater this year than last year during the first year of the intervention block. In 2015-2016

1,232 enrichment slots were filled by students, so far during the 2016-2017 school year, 2,192

enrichment spots have been filled.

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According to Hall and Hord (2015), reflection and checking progress is a key function of

implementing change (p. 33). Feedback was requested after the pilot in the spring of 2015, after

one semester of full implementation (December 2015), and after 1.5 years of implementation

(December 2016). The forms in Appendix C show the method building leaders used to obtain

feedback.

After receiving great response to the feedback requested, it was determined that as of

December 2015, 90.3% of the staff supported adding the intervention block with full

implementation to the daily schedule. Only 9.7% of staff said no to the addition of an

intervention block to the school schedule. 54.8% of staff wanted the enrichment time in the

mid-morning and 42.5% of staff preferred to have in mid-afternoon. 51.6% of responders wanted

the intervention block to be a separate period and 58.4% wanted the block to be an extension of a

class already in the schedule. 90% of respondents wanted to have intervention block time 3-4

times per week, 5% wanted it 2 times per week and 5% wanted an intervention block once a

week. The response from teachers was overwhelmingly in support of continuing to offer an

intervention block for students.

Based upon the feedback received the intervention block, Little Hawk Time, has been

used for the past two academic years. Currently students meet with their homeroom teachers on

Monday of every week to check grades and go over any advisory materials. Tuesday,

Wednesday and Friday of each week the intervention block is a period of 30 minutes per day and

is held between 2nd and 3rd hours (10:23-10:53). Teacher, parent and student feedback continue

to praise the implementation of the intervention block and rave about the benefits provided by

the additional time built into the school day.

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Research Based

Before the intervention block was put into place, South East administrators and teachers

made sure they had educated themselves about the key components of a successful intervention

block. One expert the team turned to was Mike Mattos. South East administration and a team of

teachers attended several conferences hosted by Mike Mattos centered around the MTSS

process, with a specific focus on intervention blocks. The South East team indicated several key

takeaways from Mattos. The first takeaway was that staff needed to clearly understand the skills

and knowledge that students will need to be competitive in the world they inherit. Secondly, staff

need to provide each student with targeted instruction, this includes teaching practices that are

designed to meet the individual learning needs of each student. Lastly, that change in a school

has to start by building a culture of commitment, empowerment and ownership.

As leaders discussed and planned the intervention block at South East they kept Mattos’ 4

C’s in mind: collective responsibility, concentrated instruction, convergent assessment, certain

access. Staff had been assessed and the team knew that teachers in the building believed that it

was their job to ensure that students learned at high levels. The team understood that if an

intervention block was going to be successful content area teams would have to identify the

essential learnings for each unit/lesson and students would have to be assessed on those learnings

on a regular basis. Lastly, they knew that reteaching would have to be done by the content area

teachers and in a timely manner.

Richard DuFour (2016) suggests “the fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure that

all students learn at high levels (grade level or higher), and this focus on and commitment to the
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learning of each student are the very essence of a learning community” (p. 11). In order for

South East to live out the beliefs of Mattos as well as Hattie’s research, Professional Learning

Communities needed to be created. In these PLC groups teachers in similar content areas were

able to identify essential learnings as well as collaborate on the systems of support to provide for

students who did not initially show proficiency with a given skill. In this way, PLC groups were

created at South East and from these groups teachers agreed that as educators they “must work

collaboratively and take collective responsibility for the success of each student” (p. 11).

Because of this mentality amongst a strong majority of the staff the PLC groups have been

successful in determining what to teach, common formative assessments to use while assessing

quality of student work, what to do when students don’t learn and how to challenge those who

have already achieved proficiency with an essential skill. Without full functioning PLC groups

the success of South East’s intervention block would be limited.

According to Hall and Hord (2015) there are many steps in accomplishing change within

an educational setting. “A first step in moving toward a changed and improved future is the

development of a shared dream or vision of what will be - such as a vision of the future that

increases student outcomes (p. 31). One of the key elements of a shared vision of change is that

the intervention is clearly defined as possible and facilitators must “continuously communicate

the vision to enable implementers to move toward high-quality implementation (p. 31).

Another function of change interventions includes regularly checking progress (p. 33).

Throughout the pilot and implementation of the intervention block at South East there were

regular check ins with all stakeholders: teachers, parents and students. The educational leaders at

South East, especially the current principal, Michelle Cook, is a great example of an “Initiator”
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when it comes to leadership styles (p. 138). Principal Cook has great vision and passion and is

always thinking ahead. Without the Initiator facilitator style the implementation of our

intervention block might not have gone as well as it has.

Harris, Smith, and Harris (2011) maintain that a reliance solely on data is not ideal for

school leaders or for students. Within their research, the authors cite a study by Jones which

listed the five areas for which schools should expect to be held accountable for (measures other

than solely test results and data). These five areas are: the physical and emotional well-being of

students, student learning, teacher learning, equity and access, and improvement (p. 137-138).

Interestingly, although the data below may show otherwise, the implementation of Little Hawk

Time has addressed every one of these five areas. Students are able to make better connections

with teachers in a more relaxed classroom setting, students have additional opportunities to learn

skills that may have been missed during initial instruction as well as learn other 21st century

skills during enrichment opportunities. Teachers are learning how to best serve the needs of

students with this new process and the process is improving each trimester, semester and year of

implementation. Perhaps the biggest advantage with regards to the intervention block is the

equity and access. Students have a level playing field when it comes to accessing teachers during

the school day for additional instruction and students have equal access to enrichment

opportunities not provided prior to offering the intervention block.

South East Junior High Results

Looking at the total number of failing grades and the total number of students with failing

grades is one way South East is evaluating the impact Little Hawk Time is having on student

achievement. The data presented in Appendix D compares the total number of failing grades and
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total number of students with failing grades for each trimester dating back to the fall of 2015. If

South East were only using failing grades to measure the impact of the intervention block, the

results would suggest that the intervention block is not ensuring that all students learn at high

levels. The data actually shows that more 7th and 8th grade students had failing grades in

2016-2017 than there were in the 2015-2016 school year. One would anticipate that if the

intervention block were successful, you would see a decrease in both the total number of failing

grades, and the total number of students with failing grades.

In addition to failing grade(s) data, South East has administered surveys twice a year to

staff, parents and students. The survey data shows wide support for the intervention block.

Parents were asked how pivotal the intervention block was at helping their student achieve at

high levels. In 2015-2016 53.5% of parents said the intervention block was extremely useful and

32.6% said it was useful. In 2016-2017 55.2% of parents said the intervention block was

extremely useful and 34.5% said it was useful to helping their student achieve at high levels.

This information seemed to match what teachers were seeing during the intervention block. In

2015, a staff survey was completed by 34 individuals. When asked how useful they felt the

intervention block was for helping students achieve at higher levels, 40% said it was extremely

useful, and 44% said it was useful. In 2016 40 staff members took the same survey. 42% said it

was extremely useful and 45% it was useful. In 2015, 86% of the staff said that the intervention

block had helped students achieve higher grades, and in 2016 that number jumped to 88%. The

South East student body had positive things to say about the intervention block. A student survey

completed in the Spring of 2015 to 525 students reported that 49.5% of the students had been

requested to work with a teacher during the intervention block. In the Spring of 2016 the survey
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was completed by 563 students and 54.3% had reported being requested to see a teacher during

the intervention block. In the Spring of 2015, 63.2% of the students reported that the intervention

block helped them raise their letter grade in a class, and 30.2% said it helped them understand

material they did not understand before. In 2016, 65.4% of the students who responded said it

helped them raise their grade, and 34.6% reported that it helped them understand material better

than before. The staff survey results overwhelming supported the intervention block.

There are currently over ten enrichment, or extended learning, opportunities students are

able to take advantage of during a given week. Some of these enrichment opportunities include

Math Lab, which assesses the current level of the students math abilities and then provides skill

building activities. Math lab requires proficiency with a skill before advancing to the next skill.

On average there are 30 kids or more attending math lab on a given day.

Another enrichment opportunity is Fuel Up to Play 60. This enrichment is a school based

health and wellness program. Participation in this program has been upwards of twenty or more

students and opportunities include nutrition and exercise programs and resources, connection to

local collegiate athletes and competitions amongst students in the same building and other

districts. A third enrichment opportunity students may take advantage of is Achieving Potential.

Achieving Potential is a group that provides additional college and career ready opportunities for

minority students. These students hear from various speakers, complete a variety of projects and

travel outside of the school to visit colleges and other events. Appendix E shows some of the

many options students are eligible to sign up for.

By providing opportunities for students to work one on one with teachers to obtain

additional assistance with challenges they may face and the opportunity to attend various
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enrichment programs, all South East students are challenged to learn at high levels. Teachers are

encouraged to brainstorm new and exciting enrichment opportunities they can provide for our

students. Students are encouraged to request to see a teacher if they have specific questions or

need assistance beyond what is offered in the traditional classroom setting.

Recommendations for Future Actions

Based upon the extensive research conducted as well as the specific results from South

East Junior High it is recommended the intervention block continue to be utilized at South East

Junior High. While the total number of F’s and total number of students with F’s have not

statistically decreased, the feedback from parents, staff and students indicates that these

stakeholders value and believe in the intervention block. Because South East is still early in the

implementation of an intervention block it will be important for building leaders to stress the

importance of content area PLC’s to focus on essential understandings, administering more

common formative assessments and sharing the data from these assessments. This process will

help to narrow down the essential skills that students must have when they leave junior high and

help target the reteaching during intervention time. With increased knowledge of the offerings of

remediation and enrichment students, parents and teachers will continue to benefit from the

additional time built into the day for teacher contact and additional educational opportunities.

This research based approach to challenge all students to learn at high levels has achieved

success in the short time it has been implemented.

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Works Cited

Buffmun, A., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2012). ​Simplifying Response to Intervention​.

Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

DuFour, R. (2016). ​Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at

work​. Bloomington, Ind: Solution Tree.

Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (2006). ​Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes​.

Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Harris, P., Smith, B. M., & Harris, J. (2011). ​The myths of standardized tests: Why they don't tell

you what you think they do​. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub.

Hattie, J. (2012). ​Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning​. London:

Routledge.

Iowa Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved May 02, 2017, from

http://reports.educateiowa.gov/schoolreportcard
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Appendix A

Below is the introduction South East staff received in terms of piloting Little Hawk Time. This

was presented to staff at the opening professional development days of the 2015-2016 school

year.
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Appendix B

Below is the survey South East staff members received on May 4, 2015 in the midst of the pilot

of an intervention block known as Little Hawk Time.

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Appendix C

Another survey was administered to staff in December 2015 after full implementation of Little

Hawk Time had been going since the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year.

Appendix D

The two graphs below present the Total Number of F’s and Total Number of Student’s with F’s

throughout the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years. They are both organized by Tri 1, Tri 2,

Tri 3 with 15-16 school year first and 16-17 school year second. The 8th grade data is in the top

graph and the 7th grade data is the bottom graph.

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Appendix E

Below is the Google Form South East students use to sign up for any available enrichment

opportunities. Although it changes from time to time, this is representative of the average

enrichment opportunities available for the students in the building.

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