Keith+Brown

__** Keith's High School **__

__Problem Description__ The problem Keith's HIgh School is having is with the realm of Data Collection. Last year I was approached to create a system to help track the Data Keith's High School needed for documentation purposes, like AYP. The Data was to be updated on a regular basis and saved to a central location for the administration to use another sheet I created, to compile all data for the school. The problem occurs because many of the teachers have fought the additional work that has been forced upon them, and therefore the data collection has suffered.

Here is a copy of the sheet I created. It is Numbers, since I am working on my Apple, but it was created in Excel, since that it what the teachers have at school.

__Summary of History and Background__ Keith's High School has now been open for eight years, and is placed in East Cobb County of Metro Atlanta, Georgia. The School is a diverse school, of approximately 1800 students, that has seen many many changes in its brief existence. We have had six different schedules in the eight years, and we are currently on our second version of a hybrid schedule. We have had three different Principals, with our current Principal being in place now for four years. We have had approximately thirty administrators, and just this year were assigned three new ones. The school has not lived up to many people's expectations as far as excellence among the other schools in the County. We consistently rank right in the middle of the other fifteen high schools in our County/District. We have not made AYP two out of the last three years. Last year the Administration wanted to do a better job of tracking data to see where the short comings existed and how they might address them.

**Module 2**

 * The problem is that teachers do not want to update their Data Sheets, and they surely do not want to do more than one class of data collection.
 * The Performance Gap comes from the difference in the Administration's idea of what the teachers should be doing with their Data Sheets and what the teachers are actually doing with their Data Sheets.
 * The reasons I have discovered for the Performance Gap are multi faceted. The teachers do not like the fact that they were forced to complete this activity at specific intervals throughout the year. They feel like it is just one more thing forced upon them, and they do not have enough time to teach and plan.
 * Goals -
 * To get all teachers to keep all Data updated throughout the school year
 * To get teachers to keep Data for all academic classes
 * The ultimate goal would be to have teachers updating regularly by the end of the first semester and to have multiple classes being kept by the start of the second semester
 * Objectives -
 * have teachers understand the reason for the data collection
 * have teachers see the fruits of their labor, where data collection is concerned

**Module 3**
HPT Intervention Ideas
 * 1) Have Department Heads send the teachers in their department an email thanking them for updating their data collection sheets on time
 * 2) Have the Administration send an email to the teachers that have not completed their data collection sheets on time, reminding them to please be more cognizant of their deadlines and responsibilities
 * 3) Have the Administration praise the teachers that are collecting multiple classes of data, prior to the second semester, at a faculty meeting

**Module 4**
Strengths and Weaknesses
 * 1) Constant communication from the DH in a positive manner, the downfall to this is the time it will take the DH to review the timely submissions and create an email for each teacher.
 * 2) It may force some teachers to do the data collection, especially in the given economic times where people are afraid of a bad evaluation and loss of job due to that evaluation. The downfall is lower teacher moral.
 * 3) The positive atmosphere and celebration of the event may spark some teachers to see that completion is not such a bad thing. The downfall is that some teachers are going to see this as another dog and pony show played out by an administration that seems to disregard the teachers efforts.

Justification I, as the Project Manager, will ask the Department Heads to email each person with a quick email thanking them for completing the data sheet and helping the school to make progress in its quest to meet AYP. Without the help of teachers doing the little things like this Data Sheet we cannot be as effective at meeting the student's need. I believe the teachers will appreciate a little thank you for their efforts. Most of the teachers in, Keith's High School, simply want to be acknowledged for their efforts. The quick/simple email will be that acknowledgement they are looking for. There are so many things placed on them that they feel overwhelmed, so a simple thank you can go a long way. Once the Department Heads have begun to see a change in the promptness of the data input, in a positive change, maybe they can add to this by asking that the administration place all of the names of the teachers, that have updated regularly, into a drawing for a simple prize donated by a partner in education.

Documentation //I must place this next part in here to help explain the documentation. I used the technology of the school to do a school wide training on the Data Collection sheet. One morning, when we would have had a regularly scheduled faculty meeting I went to the TV Broadcasting studio and connected to the Closed Circuit and had all departments gather in their Department Head's room for a training. All teachers had their lap tops, and I had mine connected to the video so they could all see what I was doing as I walked them through the process. I was wearing a microphone so they could hear me, and had an administrator in each location, as well as with me, to help with questions and speed of delivery. I decided this was going to be the best wayy to train the teachers and prove to them that the data collection sheet is not overwhelming, as it would appear if you simply opened it with little or no instruction. Even with instruction those people who are not comfortable with technology would balk.// I have spoken with several teachers around the building, actually they came to me, and told me things like this; "I was really against doing this, but when I saw how simple you have made it for us I could not refuse to do it." "I don't want to do this but since you showed us how simple it is I am going to do this for you." "Thank you for doing this, it looks great and should be a wonderful tool for the school." One day, not long after our "training" I went to the lunch room to perform my duty, and my Principal had a smile on her face and called me over. She informed me that she had just been to a "Cluster Meeting" (where all of the feeder schools to Keith's High School come together) and she had talked about the Data Sheet and given it to each school to use, to help with their data collection and their goals to meet AYP.


 * Have the Administration praise the teachers that are collecting multiple classes of data, prior to the second semester, at a faculty meeting

I did not choose this one because I thought it was too far away from the goal of getting the teachers to do one class of data collection. I was afraid if we waited this long, which would be almost eighteen weeks, that the teachers would have dropped the ball, so to speak, and forgotten about the importance of the data collection as it relates to the over all well being of the school. I would like to see this done, in-conjunction with the strategy I selected. I think it is were used with that strategy it would reinforce the importance the administration places on the collection of the data, making teachers more likely to be aware of it even if they do not want "the prize" for doing it.


 * Have the Administration send an email to the teachers that have not completed their data collection sheets on time, reminding them to please be more cognizant of their deadlines and responsibilities

The teachers in Keith's High School get enough negative feedback from the administration, as it is. They do not need another reminder of how they are not doing their jobs to the fullest of their abilities. The teachers truly feel as though the administration doe snot understand all of the things they are asking them to complete, and that they continue to pile things on the staff, while taking more responsibility off the students and parents.


 * Project Manager Responsibilities**


 * Planning, Monitoring, Controlling
 * As the PM on this I will utilize these three ideas, as presented in the text. I have already completed the Planning phase with the creation of the document, and training of the teachers. As well I will have already spoken to the Department Heads about this goal. I will explain to them that if we break this down into smaller more manageable pieces it will seem less overwhelming and much more "doable". The monitoring process will be two fold, as the DH will monitor the teachers in the department, and I will monitor the DH to keep up with how well the project is working. During this monitoring process there will need to be meetings to discuss what the DH are receiving as feedback and what they are seeing within their department, to see if there needs to be a change in strategy. The Controlling in this Project may be seen as the Motivation aspect of Leadership. I will control the ultimate collection of data but must motivate the DH to continue to work with their people in a positive manner to encourage the outcomes desired.
 * The resources used for this Project will be no additional or new resources. Every teacher involved has access to, in their classroom, the resources needed to complete the collection of data. The teachers will be emailed the Data Collection Sheet, and given instructions on how to save it, name it, and where to save it. Once the teachers have been given the sheet they will be trained using the video capabilities in their classrooms, as well as a reviewable video placed on their BlackBoard shell. The tracking will be done through the BlackBoard Shells for each department. Each DH has access to the submissions of their teachers, and through the BlackBoard they can tell when the sheets have been updated, and can view them to see if they are complete.
 * As stated above, the teachers will all access their Bb shell and upload the most current data collection, for the DH to view. The Administration has access to the entire staff's Bb shell so they can oversee the entire process. This use of BlackBoard surpasses the use of a common staff drive on the server because it is more secure and cannot be changed by anyone accidentally.

**Module 5**

 * Financial and Budget Information**
 * The Intervention Strategy will cost the school nothing,or very little if they decide to reward the teachers with a small token of appreciation that cannot be donated by a partner in education, as the County/School District has already allocated fund for the use of BlackBoard, and provided the teachers with laptops and Microsoft Software, to complete the project. All training will be done in house, and has been recorded and stored to the Bb shell for teachers to utilize as a refresher course, or for new teachers brought in at a later date.
 * N/A
 * Technical Information**
 * The technology needed to implement this intervention is as follows;
 * computer with Microsoft Software, Excel
 * connectivity to the school server
 * BlackBoard
 * training
 * There will be no specific equipment to purchase
 * There are no charts to show, or resources needed to support the intervention


 * Project Assessment/Evaluation**
 * The Project will be evaluated through documentation of teachers completing the data collection process on time, and compared to the previous year's results. Also the number of teachers deciding to collect data for more than one class will be tabulated to see if there has been an increase in this sector of the project (multiple class collection)
 * Formative - DH will keep an Excel sheet with the number of on time submissions for each ending date, which can easily be turned into a graph to visualize the Project's effectiveness for a given department.
 * Summative - All formative assessments will be given to the Project Manager to be compiled into one large graph to show the number of teachers submitting on time
 * //Excel sheet still under construction//
 * When all number are compiled the Project Manager will present the findings to the Principal prior to a Faculty Meeting

**Module 6**
To be submitted in Course