Craig Rizzi

EL 640
Final Reflection on Leadership Activities
Leadership Activities
Since my last reflection in February, I have learned quite a bit
about the bigger picture of the systems in an individual school. As I
mentioned before, my focus during the first year of my internship was
to branch out and make connections across the district. I joined a
strategic plan team, the district grading committee, and the newlyformed Council on Teaching and Learning. I learned an incredible
amount about how the district functions on a daily basis and how there
are so many moving parts that interact with each other, reinforcing the
discussions of systems theory that we had in our leadership theory
class. For instance, we spent an entire meeting brainstorming ways to
effectively use bond money for technology improvements at each
individual building. I was encouraged to see how much thought went
into the process but was also frustrated by the many legal limitations
on the usage of bond money for things that would truly benefit our
students. Overall, though, I have learned a lot about the systems in
place to help the district operate efficiently.
This year, I chose to focus more on my school. I have become
involved in the newly-formed Faculty Advisory Committee, which
examines school culture and teacher satisfaction to ensure that
everything is running more smoothly throughout the high school. I also
became involved in the School Improvement Team and continued my

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
involvement as the co-chair for the yearly Award of Excellence
assembly at our school. Over the past few months, I have had three
significant experiences at the building level while serving in these
various roles.
In my second year serving as the co-chair for the Award of
Excellence assembly, I still worked to streamline the logistics of the
program. The focus of the assembly is something that I hold in high
importance: to recognize students from all grade levels who contribute
positively to the school culture through responsibility, maturity, and
other valuable soft skills. The assembly also recognizes graduating
seniors who have earned a certain grade point average. This year, I
began brainstorming ideas with my co-chair and the Faculty Advisory
Committee to bring a greater emphasis to these soft skills. Currently,
students are recognized with a general Award of Excellence, but I
would like to recognize them for more specific positive behaviors, such
as leadership or maturity, in order to encourage these behaviors
throughout the school. I have learned that being more specific with the
types of behaviors that we expect from our students will help them to
live up to these expectations. Next year, I will be working with the
Faculty Advisory Committee to develop a program in which we define
specific character traits that we value as a staff. We will encourage
these traits throughout the school year through various efforts and
recognize exemplary students for exhibiting these behaviors at next

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
years assembly. Through this process, I have learned that many staff
members are truly interested in developing a positive school culture
but sometimes lack clarity on how to achieve these goals. Im hoping
that directing our focus through the development of positive student
profiles will help teachers to encourage these specific behaviors and
give our students a consistent message of expectations.
My second experience involved my experiences with the district
grading committee. Over the past two years, we have been discussing
standards-based grading at these meetings. We have all bought into
the philosophy, as it encourages a growth mindset and allows us to
ensure that a students final grade actually matches his level of
understanding. I, along with a few other district representatives, put
together a website full of resources for standards-based grading that
we planned to share with teachers throughout the district who are
interested in exploring these ideas (http://rcssbg.weebly.com). At the
beginning of May, we planned to share the website resource with the
teachers at each individual secondary building. One of the counselors
from my building and I are the only representatives on the grading
committee from Stoney Creek, so we put together a short presentation
for our staff.
Unfortunately, there is currently a high level of mistrust
throughout the district because of the way teachers have been treated
in the past few years through contract negotiations, teacher evaluation

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EL 640
changes, and more. Some people viewed this presentation as another
way that the central office was trying to influence school culture and
teachers autonomy. As a member of the grading committee, I know
that this is not true, but it was difficult to convince people of this fact. I
learned through a debriefing with a veteran teacher that posing
change as an opportunity for teachers to reflect on their current
strengths and learn new skills might have helped.
Overall, I believe that I handled the presentation fairly well.
Some teachers asked questions aimed at poking holes in the
philosophy behind standards-based grading, so I did my best to assure
them that they could take pieces of the philosophy and implement
them with success. After the presentation, I debriefed with the learning
consultant and two of my principals and they all said that I did a great
job handling some of these nay-sayers and maintaining a focus on
the topic I was presenting. I have learned that change is difficult for
any teacher, so approaching change by introducing the philosophy
behind the change is incredibly important. Change doesnt happen
overnight; teachers need time to process philosophical differences in
order to reconcile their current beliefs with the new information.
The good news is that I have been approached by multiple
teachers in the English, social studies, and math departments who are
interested in trying standards-based grading next year. It appears as
though after a little time to process the information, teachers were

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EL 640
able to see the benefits for student learning. I look forward to helping
them develop rubrics and grading policies next year that fit with the
philosophy behind standards-based grading.
Finally, I had the opportunity to serve on the school improvement
team for our external review from AdvancED. The team was led by one
of our assistant principals, who did a wonderful job of organizing the
committee by standard in order to allow for us to focus on finding
evidence for a specific strand. Our philosophy was to be as transparent
as possible through the process in order to obtain some meaningful
feedback from the evaluators. As a committee, we knew that our
school has many strengths and a few specific areas for improvement.
However, we chose to be conservative in our self-evaluation in an
effort to be transparent.
The external visit was interesting because the evaluators seemed
to move quickly through each classroom, asking minimal questions of
students and teachers. During the teacher panel, the lead evaluator
seemed to focus on a few specific segments of the teaching
population, specifically those teachers who have been with Stoney
since it opened in 2002. Those of us who had been there longer felt like
our voice and positive opinions werent clearly heard. When it came
time for the presentation of the findings, we were shocked as a staff to
learn that, while our scores warranted full accreditation, we ended up
scoring below average in every category.

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
After some debriefing with the school improvement committee,
we learned that many of our self-reflection scores were very similar to
the final scores we had received. We discussed several possibilities for
this result and grumbled about the final evaluation, because we truly
believe that our school is above average. Finally, we decided to take
the results for what they were and move on with our own self-reflection
recommendations. We decided that, as a staff, we did a wonderful job
of self-evaluating and recognizing our own areas for improvement. The
process caused me to lose some faith in the external review process,
as if we had just given ourselves high marks across the board, we
would have likely received a much different final score. In the end,
though, the school improvement process is more about taking the
opportunity to allow the teaching staff to focus on school culture and
areas for improvement. As an administrator, I will make sure that this
is the focus of the school improvement process, as I believe that selfevaluation is a crucial tool for improvement.
Most Important Learnings by Standard
Standard 1 - Articulation, Implementation, and Stewardship of a Vision
Through the school improvement process, I have learned how to
clearly articulate a vision for learning in the school. We took time
to define what good teaching and learning looks like through
staff meetings and teacher evaluations. I believe that the focus
of a school should be both on academics and soft skills. Through

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
my involvement in the Faculty Advisory Committee, I have begun
to learn how to define and promote positive student behaviors.
Standard 2 Sustaining a School Culture and Instructional Program
As a co-chair of the Award of Excellence assembly, I have
experienced a strong way to promote and sustain positive school
culture through positive student behaviors. I have learned that
recognizing these students for their positive contributions to the
school is incredibly important. I have also learned through
planning various professional development opportunities that
teacher collaboration is the most powerful way to improve
instruction in a school. Allowing teachers to talk to each other
and learn from each other will enable them to take ownership of
their classrooms and find tangible ways to improve their own
instruction.
Standard 3 Management of Organization, Operations, and Resources
Over the summer, I was able to spend a significant amount of
time assisting in developing the master schedule for Adams High
School. I learned that compromise is incredibly important in order
to be able to offer students the best possible learning
experience. You have to take into account a teachers experience
and expertise when assigning classes and also have to consider
which hours to offer each course to minimize overlap between
remedial and advanced placement courses so that students have

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EL 640
as many opportunities as possible. I have also learned that
building strong relationships with the teaching staff will allow the
principal to make changes to the master schedule in the best
interest of students while still maintaining the buy-in of the
teachers. The teachers have to know that you have the best
interests of both the students and the staff in the forefront of
your mind when developing the master schedule. Trust is so
important in this process.
Standard 4 Collaborating with Community and Responding to
Diversity
Through my involvement with the grading committee, I have
learned that including parent and student representatives on
committees is a great way to gain the perspectives of these
stakeholders. An added benefit is that these individuals often talk
to other parents and students to show that their opinions were
valued and included in major decisions. I also had the
opportunity to help prepare a report on weighting AP grades for
the school board, so I learned a lot about reporting best practices
in a way that many different individuals can understand. I have
seen firsthand how important community buy-in is for any
initiative, including the school improvement process.
Standard 5 Acting with Integrity, Fairness, and in an Ethical Manner

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
I have had the opportunity to sit in on a few disciplinary
meetings with students to see how the principals handle these
situations. I learned that developing strong relationships with
these students goes a long way in creating a high level of mutual
trust and respect, which comes in handy when suspension
becomes necessary. It is very important to keep parents in the
loop during the entire process so that they can support the
efforts of the school. Through chaperoning various school
dances, I was also able to see how the administrators dealt with
various student incidents at these functions. I have learned that
it is important to have multiple adults present in these situations
so that there is no discrepancy in accounts of the incident.
Standard 6 Advocating for Student Learning
As a member of the grading committee, one of my major focuses
has been to spread the benefits for student learning of
standards-based grading. I have tried to focus the message on
the growth mindset, the opportunity for formative assessment,
and the reduction of feelings of helplessness, especially in our
struggling students. I have learned how important it is for us to
be a voice in support of all students advanced, average, and
struggling in order to ensure that their needs are met through
various support programs. As a teacher leader, I have found
ways to advocate for all students by support teachers in their

Craig Rizzi
EL 640
professional learning through collaborative efforts. Helping
teachers explore new teaching techniques is a great way to
ensure that all students are receiving the best learning
experience possible.