Running head: LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

Leadership Project Narrative:

Williams Olmedo
Graduate School of Education & Psychology
Pepperdine University
EDSM 622
Dr. Rumack
July 17, 2016

LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

Leadership Project Narrative

Identifying need for PAR Project
The need for my project preexisted before I started working at Revere Charter Middle
School (CMS); in fact it has been around for almost ten years. Revere CMS has had a history of
only 90% of its 8th grade class being eligible to culminate. Two years ago, I was presented with
an idea that was spoken but not brought to fruition. The taught was to work with 20 at-risk 8th
graders that might not be able to culminate and monitor their academics grades every five weeks.
The topic brought others to the conversations and a formal name was given to it: Road-toCulmination (RTC). At the start of ELA, RTC was on its third iteration from its initial start
during the 2013-2014 school year. As a PAR team, it was agreed that RTC needed to be
formalized and written objectives be implemented in order to access the effectiveness of the
program. The PAR team also understood that instead of summonsing the students out of an
elective class or PE, we should have a dedicated period just for them. RTC Homeroom was
created and a homeroom teacher was assigned; the magnet coordinator stepped up and wanted to
take lead of monitoring and running the RTC homeroom. In addition, behavior support and
attendance monitoring were two other components that needed to be addressed with the at-risk
students.
Relationship between PAR project and personal educational vision
My personal educational vision is that I will strive to incorporate the following attributes
into my life:

Becoming a positive role model for all students.

Empowering others as others have empowered me.
Establishing a support network that helps support my personal and professional
endeavors.

LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

My educational vision connects with my PAR project with all three attributes. The PAR
team came together because we want to be the positive role models for the 8th grade students that
are at-risk of not culminating. We want to empower them to make informed decisions and make
adequate choices as they proceed to high school and beyond. Ultimately, we would like the atrisk 8th grade students to create their own support network to help with overcoming high school
barriers.
Specific inquiry question to PAR project
My specific inquiry question for my PAR project is: What is the effect of having a
positive behavior intervention and support system in middle school on academic grades,
attendance, behavior, and culmination?
Research for PAR project
I used the article from Patton, D. C., & Munoz, L. (2008). Examining middle schools that
narrowed the achievement gap in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Los Angeles Unified
School District Research and Planning to drive my PAR project because it examined middle
schools that had narrowed the achievement gap through the lens of collaboration and operational
support, leadership, cohesive environment, culturally relevant pedagogy, human relations,
English language Arts, and mathematics. I supported the Patton article with the following
articles:
Sarah, B. S., & Foote, J. (2015). Creating a culture of connectedness through middle school
advisory programs. Middle School Journal. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2009.11461700

LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

Kim, H. Y., Schwartz, K., & Cappella, E. S., (2014). Navigating middle grades: Role of
social contexts in middle grade school climate. American Journal of Community Psychology.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-014-9659-x
Akos, P., & Martin, M., (2010). Transition groups for preparing students for middle school.
The journal for specialist in group work. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0193392203028002005
Crosnoe, R., (2009). Family-school connections and the transition of low-income youths
and English language learners form middle school to high school. Developmental Psychology.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016131
Wooley, M. E., & Bowen, G. L., (2007). In the context of risk: Supportive adults and the
school engagement of middle school students. Family Relations. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4541650
Wang, M., & Holcombe, R., (2010). Adolescents perceptions of school environment,
engagement, and academic achievement in middle school. American Educational Research
Journal. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831209361209
Jewett, S., (2009). You feel like youre in your second family: Spinning a relational web
in middle school. Urban Rev. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11256-008-0104-z
ELA coursework informing leadership and PAR project
The ELA coursework informed my leadership and project by providing tools that allowed
me to differentiate between leadership and management, grow has a leader by assessing my

LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

strengths and building on my areas of need, build capacity, create a mission and vision,
becoming a transformational leader and working towards a legacy. Each course added
knowledge and skills to my leadership and PAR project starting from reading Gardening in the
Minefield to leaving a legacy.
Results of PAR project
The results of my PAR project were not the expected results of the PAR team, 100%
culmination from the RTC homeroom. However, the results that we were able to attained from
our smaller group of students were better than the previous attempts of RTC, 6 out of 8 students
identified at-risk were able to culminate because their academic grades improved, behavior
referrals decreased, and attendance rates improved.
Measurements of success of PAR project
The measures of success of my PAR project were tracked by comparing 7th grade Fall
and Spring term grades to 8th grade Fall and Spring term grades; making parent contact and
informing parents of the progress that their child was having, and constantly monitoring behavior
and academic grades by formally and informally meeting with each student.
Personal lessons - leadership style, talents, areas of strength and areas for further growth
as a result of PAR project
I learned that I could be a transactional or transformation leader and still work towards
my personal educational vision. My strength came from agreeing and seeing myself as a
transformational leader: arousing emotions from the followers, being proactive, distinguishing
the capacity to inspire and provide individualized consideration, and stimulate followers to solve

LEADERSHIP PROJECT NARRATIVE

problems. My area for further growth is managing the relationship between change and
complexity to the amount of transactional and transformational leadership is required.
Impact PAR project have on improving academic achievement for students
The impact that my PAR project had on improving academic achievement and decreasing
behavioral referrals for the 6 RTC students was a major improvement as quoted my Mannys,
one of the 8 RTC students that was able to culminate, mother, I am proud of all his
accomplishments. I did not receive a call form your office [deans office] all year. Manny was
happier at home and our relationship has improved.
Continuation of PAR project and sustainability
My PAR project will continue next year and it will be sustained by adding more
personnel staff while keeping the number of students to 20. The staffs goals are also the same as
the PAR team, raising the culmination rate of the 8th grade class to 100%. The PAR project will
add mentoring and parent workshops.
Illustration of leadership actions as compared to management actions
I did not do anything to illustrate my leadership actions as compared to my management
actions to my PAR team. I just did what need to be done to go through a PAR cycle, collect and
analyze data, monitor students, and effectively communicate with the parents. However,
internally I knew the difference between both roles and made sure that I constantly reflected and
reminded myself that I was working on a team and needed to make sure that I did not
micromanage or became a tyrant. After reading Primal Leadership, it helped me internally
differentiate between leadership actions and management actions. Furthermore, Primal
Leadership gave me additional tools to grow as a transformational leader.