Superintendents Gather—

NHS Hosts

A ‘Super’ Meeting

By Eliza Hallabeck

Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais said when Newtown School District Superintendent Janet Robinson announced that a group of superintendents from across the state would be coming to a school in Newtown to give constructive criticism, he volunteered NHS as their destination immediately.

He said there is no better time than now to welcome the group from the Connecticut Superintendents Network, which is a group of educators that go to different districts to inspect, observe, and critically examine aspects of other districts.

“Instead of making judgments, they make observations,” said Mr Dumais.

The day at NHS started at 8 am for the superintendents on Wednesday, December 3, according to Mr Dumais. The visit included Dr Robinson sharing opening remarks, visits to different classrooms, watching a video of a purposely video taped administrators meeting at the high school, and a lunch prepared by students in culinary arts classes.

“The best part of today was the opportunity to have that critical friend model here,” Mr Dumais said.

Before the Connecticut Superintendents Network visits a school, the host school establishes a “problem practice,” which designates a specific area the school wants the superintendents to observe.

“You’re talking about educators at the highest level that really behave like educators,” said Mr Dumais.

Mr Dumais said the observations the superintendents made were all based on “snippets,” “But it’s incredible to see how insightful they are.”

The superintendents rotated through, observing the same classes at different times in small groups.

“They came back with examples that definitely supported the engagement piece,” Mr Dumais said. He also said the superintendents came back with examples that were not supportive of the goal.

Before the superintendents came to the school to observe, Mr Dumais said a definition of what the school wanted them to look for was written out to enable them to fully understand the school’s concept of its “problem practice.”

Administrators at the school worked with staff to establish the focus, according to the write-up given to the visiting superintendents. A definition of engagement was used to describe what the school wanted the superintendents to watch for during their visit.

Some of the examples the write-up identified as behaviors as evidence of authentic student engagement are students being able to make connections between the lesson and related content or personal experiences, students develop and communicate opinions about lesson content or related ideas, students respectfully challenge presented material, and students behave as critical friends, giving constructive feedback to others.

“A lot of these things, as far as education is concerned, have a local flavor,” he said while explaining why the superintendents needed a write-up of what the school expected from its students.

Mr Dumais said the administrators at the school expect the same critical analysis and respectful learning environment that the superintendents were observing in the students to take place at all levels of the school, including between teachers and administrators.

“Modeling that behavior is the best way to enforce it,” he said.

Mr Dumais said the day was extremely valuable to the school “in a number of different ways.”

“We have some tools now for advancing them all forward,” said Mr Dumais.

This was the first time the Connecticut Superintendents Network visited a school in Newtown.

“The fact that we’re participating in the process has a tremendous amount of value showing teachers that we practice what we believe they should practice,” said Mr Dumais.