Standard A: Instructional Leadership for Continuous Improvement

u. Work with the administrator to create and build the master schedule.

Description:
As a member of the leadership team, I worked to improve the master schedule to make it
more conducive for the Response to Intervention implementation of the following year. We
needed a schedule that would allow each grade level access to interventionists, ESOL, and
exceptional education without pulling students our of tier 1 reading instruction. Along with
administration, we determined to use a Walk to Read approach. In this approach, students
from a grade level are grouped into tiers, and at a certain time in the day, the students move into
one classroom for tier one, another classroom for tier two, and a third classroom for tier three.
The tier one classroom would work on a faster pace in a whole group setting; the tier two
classroom would form small group instruction and differentiate instruction to meet the groups,
and the tier three classroom would be assisted by interventionists and exceptional education staff
to form small intensive groups (Calendar, 2012, p.11).
What went well?
We created the schedule to plan for next years challenges. We knew that the RTI
implementation would be a big change, so the schedule was designed to give teachers adequate
time and resources to include it. Each grade level had 30 minutes that was labeled RTI time.
During this time, students could leave for pull out classes, which would ensure they would not be
pulled out during core instruction. The ESOL, interventionists, and exceptional education
teachers followed the same schedule.

After the schedule was created, each grade level chair shared it with their teams. Each
grade level team analyzed the schedule and listed concerns they had. We met back as a
leadership team, and shared our colleagues concerns. The principal made small revisions to the
schedule based off of these concerns. Therefore, when the new schedule was passed out at the
start of the year, every teacher had already reviewed and approved it. This created a sense of
buy-in from the entire staff.
What did not?
An attempt was made for everybody to approve the schedule to ensure every ones needs
were met. However, ESOL teachers did not see the schedule for review and approval. This was
just an over sight because an ESOL teacher does not serve on the leadership team. As it turns
out, the new schedule did not include a pull out time large enough for their time requirements.
ESOL teachers need to meet with student one hour a day, and our schedule only allowed thirty
minutes. This oversight created complications the following year.
Given the chance to do it again, how would you do it better?
Since the new schedule was created in a new way with the idea of RTI in mind, it would
have been best to have sent the tentative schedule through an email to the entire faculty. This
would have ensured that everyone was able to review it. This would have prevented the ESOL
oversight. In addition, a representative from the ESOL department needs to serve on the
leadership team. We have a steadily growing population of ESOL students, so that is a valuable
stakeholder that should part of the team.

Works Cited
Callender, W. A. (2012). Why Principals Should Adopt Schoolwide RTI. Principal, 91(4), 8-12.
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