Crucial Conversations and Due Process Procedures

This project focuses on PSEL 2 (Ethics and Professional Norms), PSEL 3 (Equity and Cultural Responsiveness), PSEL 6 (Professional Capacity of School Personnel), PSEL 7 (Professional Community for Teachers and Staff) and PSEL 9 (Operations and Management).  Your report should include the steps that are followed when having one or more crucial conversations, creating a plan of improvement, and possibly disciplining a staff member are taken to ensure that due process is afforded to the employee. For information such as this, you should start with your principal or mentor, and if more information is needed, they will direct you to that person. Review To prepare yourself concerning these policies, study PSELs 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 to understand the dispositions, responsibilities, and actions of a  school leader.  Pay attention to the specific elements of the PSELs to determine which ones apply to situations where there maybe be an ineffective employee.  Research Find your school’s (district’s) policy related to due process for certified and non-certified personnel. Also, find the procedures and policies related to the improvement and/or dismissal of an employee. The part that we are focusing on is teacher/staff improvement of behaviors related to performance, attitude, ethical conduct, etc. We are not focusing on how to dismiss an employee. That will be addressed in a later module. Inform your mentor of the topic for this project. Ask if there are other documents that you should read. From these documents prepare yourself to answer these questions: Research Questions: 1.    What is an example of a crucial conversation that should lead to the improvement of a faculty member? Under what circumstances would this take place and how?  2.    What does an effective plan of improvement look like for a faculty member or a staff member and how does each differ from the other? 3.    What does the term “due process” mean? Why is it needed? 4.    What are your school’s/district’s procedures for addressing personnel lack of performance? Distinguish between formal and informal procedures? 5.    What are the procedures for warning of a staff (non-certified personnel) and faculty (certified personnel)? 6.    What is the process for dismissal of staff? Is this different than the process for dismissal of faculty? 7.    Provide any additional pertinent information found in the policies and procedures. 8.    Summarize what you learned. Interview Interview at least one school leader from either your school, another school, or the school district about their experience with personnel plans of improvement or dismissal practices. The interview questions and answers will be placed in your report on separate pages. Obtain a signature to use as artifacts of the interviews. Interview Questions: 1.    Have you ever experienced problems with staff or faculty that resulted in having to use a plan of improvement? 2.    How did you proceed through the process? 3.    How did the faculty member respond to the plan of improvement? 4.    Did it lead to a grievance being filed by the faculty or staff member?  5.    What was done to ensure that due process was followed in implementing the plan? 6.    What could have been done differently? 7.    What did you learn about the stated procedures? Preparing the Written Report Follow this format to indicate subsections in your academic paper. Your written paper without the attachments (interview notes, improvement plan, and mentor signature) should be no less than 6 pages. ·         Format the paper: o    Use 1 inch margins (top, bottom, left, right). o    Use 12 font of Times New Romans. o    Double-space all lines throughout paper o    Must use subsections to organize thoughts o    Use graduate-level grammar and mechanics in APA 7 format. o    Bibliography Page- stands alone-use APA 7 formatting o    Title Page-Title of This Topic, Your Name, Date, Course Name-centered  ·         Prepare a title page for the assignment: o    Place the  title of the assignment in the center of the Title page. o    Place your name on the next double-spaced line. o    Date under name o    Course Name under Date o    Number the pages in the header and aligned on the right. ·         Title the first subsection as “Introduction.” o    Write a narrative Introduction that explains why this project is being conducted-using crucial conversations for plans of faculty performance improvement, and how due process is followed in your school. o    Include the name and a brief description of your school. o    Explain why and how PSELs 2, 6, and 7 are related to this project as far as when plans of improvement are needed and how to create one. Include how the standards relate to due process procedures. Don’t simply restate the standards, rather incorporate their meaning into your narrative. you can refer to them as PSEL standard “2” for example. ·         Title a second subsection as “Research” o    Answer the research questions in a narrative format. o    Include how your school uses crucial conversations for plans of faculty performance improvement, and how due process procedures are followed. o    Summarize this section by answering question 7. ·         Title a third subsection as”Interviews.” o    State the reason for using interviews as part of the research. o    Describe the leadership role of the persons interviewed. o    Explain what you learned by answering the interview questions in a narrative format. o    Summarize what you learned from the interviews. ·         Title a fourth subsection as “Improvement Plan”. o    In Narrative format, describe the plan including concerns being addressed, goals, etc. Then attach the actual improvement plan(see example) and submit. o    Allow your mentor to help you with this. Do not use the name of a colleague or other real person to include here. You will either use an unnamed personnel situation or create one and how you think you would address it following policy and procedures in your school district. ·         Action Planning for Personnel Improvement: o    Identify one Area of Weakness: Base this on your findings and/or create a real example of a personnel plan of improvement. o    Improvement Goals: You must identify one Improvement Goal for the  identified area of weakness or concern based on your findings, provide a rationale and any supporting data to justify your reason for selecting this improvement goal. o    Improvement Strategies/Interventions: You will develop at least 3 Improvement Strategies/Interventions to be used to implement or steps to follow to meet the Improvement Goal from above. Include how crucial conversations was used here. o    Research Support Strategies/Interventions: For each of your Improvement Strategies, you will need to provide an explanation from supported research to support each of the 3 identified strategies/interventions that you are planning to use. Be sure to cite any references in APA format. o    Implementation of Steps, Assessments & Timeline: For each of your Improvement Strategies, you will need to determine activities for how they are going to be implemented and assessed throughout the year and in the subsequent year along with dedicated faculty and staff to be accountable. Once you have listed and described each of the chosen assessment measures, be sure to include a timeline for the assessment to take place. ·         Title another subsection as “Conclusion.” o    State what was learned from this project and how it relates to the PSELs. o    Conclude with what you still need to learn about crucial conversations, improvement plans, and due process procedures to be an effective leader. ·         References Page. o    Include all references used along with reference to any article or book used that I give you. o    Follow APA7 formatting guidelines. o    Title of page is References.  o    List references in alphabetical order by last name of author. o    Double-space o    Hanging Indents to begin each reference. Include Attachments ·         A created plan of improvement using the format provided. ·         Place the notes from the interviews as artifacts. Include the name of the person interviewed, questions asked, and the date of the interview on the pages.