Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.

In this episode we talk about the following:

Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.

• Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
• Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
• How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
• Consistency as key to long-term success.
• How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.

Subject Area Teaming and PLCs

• Large focus on data
• Common Formative Assessments
• Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
• Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
• No need for a big push at the end.
• Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.

Standards-Based Grading

• 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
• Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
• Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.

How you can be a transformative principal:

Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

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