After researching about characteristics of a systems thinker and education, I saw many similar qualities of my district’s previous Executive Director of Special Education. With the movement of inclusive practices in our district, she demonstrated great leadership in the area of shared thinking within her district team, school administrators, teachers, and related staff. In her first year of leadership, she developed three long-term goals that were aligned with special education policies, best practices, and district goals. I think this was a great example of acknowledging the current challenges of our district and special education programs. At the same time, she kept us moving towards a reorganization of structures, thinking and beliefs that ultimately benefited the students. She challenged our district to always keep the big picture in sight yet she worked tirelessly with each of the interconnected parts and programs to help us make progress towards the long-term goals. She had a great understanding that transformational change was not going to happen overnight and was honest about the challenges we were about to face. She constantly reminded us that this change was an ongoing and continuous process (American Association of School Administrators, 2008). More importantly, she provided our district with the motivation and tools to lead the change by providing direct district personnel support and training to the school site teams. She also identified the importance of being transparent with the goals to the community and made it a priority to include families and community members in the process of change. She consistently attended our Community Advisory Committee that comprised of parents, community members, and families and shared the goals and proposed changes. She lead our district for 3 years and we were able to make great strides. Unfortunately, she retired but made sure the transition went smoothly by having an administrator that served with her during this time of change that had similar energy, experience and knowledge to continue working towards our long term goals. American Association of School Administrators. (2008). Systems thinking for school system leaders. Retrieved July 1, 2017 from: https://www.aasa.org/privateAssets/0/76/380/05888f8b-88aa-4290-b260-5a36b7cc54b1.pdf

Making Ethical Decisions

During my first years of teaching, I had a female student come in with a black eye. She was reluctant to tell me what happened. After some intensive prodding and questioning, she finally broke down and said her father had hit her. She was insistent that it was an accident because he had been drinking. As a beginning teacher, I understood my responsibility as a mandated reporter. I went to our Head Counselor to discuss the incident and seek guidance in how to report it to CPS. His reaction was disturbing, he said he knew this family well and worked with other siblings. He had filed reports before and it only made things worse for the whole family. I was completely blindsided by his answer. Although I could see how things could get worse, I knew ethically that the right thing to do was to follow the law and file the report. I walked away from that counselor’s office feeling strongly that reporting it was the right thing to do even if the parent would become more upset. Although I felt, bad that I could possibly be making things worse for the family, I think not reporting would be negligent on my part. I also think I could not live with myself if I chose to ignore it and the abuse continued in intensity. After filing the report, I felt strange when talking with that student and knowing that I might cause additional issues. However, I knew it was the right thing to do. After a few months, I received a response that the report was unfounded. This is when I realized that my only responsibility is to report was disclosed. It was not my job to investigate the incident. It is the role of CPS to investigate and determine next steps. I think I would ask myself what are my legal responsibilities as a mandated reporter. I would also reiterate that my responsibility as a mandated reporter is only to report the disclosure. The responsibility for CPS is to investigate and determine if there needs to be further action. Deviating from my responsibility would be breaking the law and much more harmful for the student if it was ignored. I think this is a great example of what Josephson (2005) identified in his six pillars of character as “having the courage to do the right thing.” I filed the CPS report despite the ill advice from a school counselor about making things worse for the family. Josephson, M. (2005). Making ethical decisions: The six pillars of character. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MD-2sixpillars.html.

Multi Tiered System of Supports MTSS and SDUSD

We have a very well structured and defined district leadership because of our large numbers of students and teacher, approximately 6,000 teachers that serve 130,000 students (San Diego Unified School District, 2017a). Our district leadership is divided into clusters by community; we have cluster/area superintendents and program administrators that are assigned to lead each cluster area. My school site administrative team also has a well-defined organizational structure, we have our Principal and two Vice Principals’ that each have their own expertise and knowledge and are assigned certain to provide leadership to specific departments. Each administrator shares the responsibility of discipline, although the students are divided by alphabet, and we can go to any of them to seek advice or issues for any of the students. District policies and practices that support a multi-tiered system. I think my district is in the beginning/middle stages of supporting MTSS. Our Superintendent is in her 4th year of leadership and one of the first agenda items from her administrative team was establishing our mission to address these key areas: Creates improved and broader measures of student achievement. Develops schools as neighborhood learning centers. Ensures effective teaching in the classroom Engages parents and community volunteers in the educational process Facilitates communication and support I think this is an example of re-designing services and supports to reach out to all students (San Diego Unified School District, 2017b). Sufficient technology to support instructional decision making and implementation of instruction. My district is in its 7th year of implementation of a technology program that ensures every classroom is equipped with technology to enhance instruction (San Diego Unified School District, 2017c). My current site is completely updated and each classroom has access to a variety of technologies. We follow the district mission of trying to “improve student achievement through seamless integration of the district's Common Core Curriculum with a suite of i21 technologies designed to create an engaging and personalized learning environment (San Diego Unified School District, 2017c). Parent and caregiver involvement I believe my school site and my district value and promote parent and family involvement. My school site works closely with our District Family and Community Engagement (FACE) program to provide support, trainings, and information to our families and community (San Diego Unified School District, 2017d). My site has an organization similar to the PTA but is made up of parents, teachers, and community members. The Friends of Pacific Beach Secondary Schools (FOPBSS) mission is to “foster an environment of excellence in education and student activities for California Department of Education. Multi-tiered system of supports. Retrieved on May 2, 2017 from: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/ri/ Friends of Pacific Beach Secondary Schools. (2017). Retrieved on May 7, 2017 from: http://fopbss.org/

Challenging Conversations around Color Blindness

As a future administrator, I understand the importance of effective leadership how it can significantly affect the outcomes of creating an equity-focused school culture. The issues that surround color blindness or the dilemma of difference can cause many educators to be uncomfortable. As a leader, I will ensure to confront these long-standing achievement gaps and engage all stakeholders to be a part of the solution (Johnson & Williams, 2015). I think it will be important to address these inequities by providing staff, students, and families’ meaningful opportunities to have these types of challenging conversations. Providing this type of structure can enhance the problem solving process and possibly elicit creative and effective solutions to improving equity and access for all students.

Providing Equity for AP and IB Programs

At our end of the year staff meeting, our International Baccalaureate Lead Teacher asked the staff to complete a student and staff needs survey. Throughout the school year, the IB program usually presents the staff with phenomenal statistics of progress and success of the program. However, as a special education teacher, I feel the IB program is a separate entity that excludes a large group of our minority population as well as English Learners, low socioeconomic status, and students with IEPs (The Education Trust, 2013). For example, the IB program does not have any students with IEP’s participating in any of the classes. The option to take one IB class as opposed to being a full participant in the program is non-existent. I have a few students that are excellent critical thinkers and would do well in an IB History or English Language Arts class with the appropriate accommodations and supports. However, these students have been denied the opportunity because both the IB program and administrators feel the support would not be readily available. The Education Trust (2013) conducted research and found a large gap in participation rates for students of color and family income levels. More than 500,000 low-income and students of color are missing out on the opportunity to participate in both AP and IB classes. These inequities seem to result from the unavailability of programs in high poverty and/or high minority schools as well as the policies for enrolling and offering these programs to all students. To end these types of inequities, it is important for schools to address the issue and make swift changes in policies and course offerings. . By re-organizing the policy, students of all races and income levels have the opportunity to access advanced classes. In addition, it is also important to provide the appropriate supports and services for students through supplemental programs such as Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) or AmeriCorps. These type of programs promote both academic and self-advocacy skills that help students gain the confidence in participating and being successful in these types of classes. By raising the expectations and including all students, access to both AP and IB classes can promote educational equity.

Restorative Justice Practices

My district and site both use restorative justice practices. I think it is a great proactive strategy to help students understand the consequences of their actions and resolve conflicts amongst students. Instead of dealing with behaviors with punitive consequences (detention/suspension etc) there is a huge focus on empowering students with communication tools to have difficult conversations with each other. I also like how restorative justice allows students to reflect on their behavior choices and how to make better choices in the future. I think it has made a huge difference with the students at my site and although there are still behavior issues, there is huge improvement with communication and problem solving skills. After just one year of implementation, my district reported that there was a significant reduction in expulsion rates (reduced by 60%) but this was in conjunction with our school board decision to reducing the number of automatic expulsions. This gave sites more discretion in recommending for expulsions. They credit both the shift in discipline policy for expulsion and the implementation of restorative justice practices both impacted the significant reduction in expulsion rates. Here is an article below: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/jul/30/new-approach-discipline-san-diego-unifed-proven-su/