Lindsay Rice

A.C. Reynolds Middle School
Asheville, North Carolina
lindsay.rice@bcsemail.org

Best Practices

1) Assistant Principal’s Role as Instructional Leader: Possessing and demonstrating the skills of an instructional leader is an essential role of an assistant principal. In my role as an instructional leader, I facilitate the use of high-quality instructional practices across all grade levels and content areas, professional growth for teachers, and a focus on student engagement and academic success. The most impactful of those school wide practices currently implemented are detailed below:

• Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) – This school-based team is made up of teacher leaders, our lead school instructional coach, and myself. This team works together to collaboratively plan the school’s instructional goals for the academic year. These goals are informed by student achievement data and are aligned with our District Strategic Plan and our School Improvement Plan. Throughout the school year, the Instructional Leadership Team meets monthly to collaboratively plan the implementation of the goals and the professional development opportunities for teachers in alignment with those goals.
• Collaboration with Instructional Coach – Each week I meet with our instructional coach to plan instructional supports, collaborate on best practices, identify teachers that may need or have requested additional instructional support, and intentionally plan how effective instructional strategies can be shared and modeled at staff meetings. Setting aside time for this collaboration each week creates an intentional focus around effective instructional practices and demonstrates that my role as an instructional leader is a priority.
• School Wide Literacy Initiative – Our school participates in a school wide literacy initiative that we call “All Class Read”. This is a twenty minute period each day where each grade level, across all core content areas, reads a common book. Each teacher is provided with lessons for the book. Within the lessons are embedded literacy strategies that promote critical reading, thinking, and communication skills. This literacy initiative promotes a shared interest in reading, a sense of community, and provides opportunities for students to develop reading skills and habits that will benefit them for years to come.

2) Teacher and Staff Development: At Reynolds Middle School, we are proud of the accomplishments of our dedicated teaching, which is second to none. Over the past two years, our students have made significant academic progress and growth as evidenced by the results on end-of-year assessments. Our staff prioritizes collaboration and continuous improvement, requesting feedback to develop their skills, as well as seeking opportunities to learn new ones. Much of our school level professional development is determined by our Instructional Leadership Team. This team of teacher leaders meet monthly to determine the professional development and opportunities that teachers will participate in. These professional development sessions are aligned to our Instructional Leadership Team goals and support students to become critical thinkers, readers, and communicators. They are focused on public teaching, collaboration, and the sharing of best practices. We also prioritize time for our teachers to collaborate with one another in Professional Learning Community (PLC) teams. Teachers have two days per week of dedicated time during the school day to collaborate with their PLC team. During this time, teachers are engaged in lesson planning, utilizing data to identify students that may need additional support, creating common assessments, and sharing best practices. This time is also used for teachers to observe one another teaching and provide feedback. This supports our goal of public teaching and vertical alignment of grade level standards. Our PLC structure gives teachers valuable time throughout the school year to improve their professional skills and knowledge. To further promote professional development and continuous learning, our teachers are also supported and encouraged to lead professional development for their colleagues at the school and district level. We encourage and support our teachers to enroll in aspiring principal programs, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and other certifications. Our teachers are also encouraged to take advantage of professional development at the district, state, and national levels. Effective professional development is an important component of how we support teachers as professionals, promote collective efficacy, and continuous improvement.