This article was originally posted in January 2021. We have streamlined the content for busy school leaders who want great ideas but need to skim articles quickly!
Who: Dr. Celia Conley
Position: Executive Director (ED) in the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) , supporting a cluster of middle schools and their principals
Best Possip Practice she cultivated as a principal: Divided and conquered with a report reading team
Tips for principals to make the most of Possip Pulse Check reports:
1. Build capacity through a report reading team!
- What is it? A team of school administrators and staff who routinely met to discuss parent praise, feedback, and action steps to close the feedback loop
- Add additional users to Possip so they can have access to the reports, such as:
- Assistant Principals
- Deans
- Community Achieves (CA) manager
2. Assign roles on your report reading team
- For example:
- Principal: Take the praise and any heavy issues
- Dean: Bullying comments
- APs: Student or teacher issues for their grade levels.
- CA: Handle food and technology needs
- We would forward ones that were in Spanish to our translator for follow-up.
3. Share celebrations with staff
- Share school-wide celebrations in weekly emails, in faculty meeting slide deck, etc.
- Send individual teachers praise they received that week immediately
4. Address comments quickly
- Follow-up with parents who expressed concerns
- Thank parents that gave praise
If you’re a district leader or executive director who wants to support your principals like Dr. Conley, she recommends that a good starting point is to “Model sharing the praise with your principals by cutting snippets [from the report].”
Let us know if you want to connect with her to learn more! Read additional Possip Partner spotlights here.
