Margarita Maravel is the principal of Hampton Street School, which serves PreK-2 students in Mineola Public Schools (NY). The 2016-2017 school year is Margarita’s first year as principal in Hampton Street. The previous year, the school used the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) to support school improvement planning. The school worked with WestEd’s School Transformation coaches to support the use of CALL. Margarita had the opportunity to use CALL’s action-oriented data to support her transition to her leadership position.

The CALL survey was administered during the 2015-2016 school year in Hampton Street School. Once Margarita began in her role as principal, she accessed the CALL data to review areas of strength and focus areas: “We reviewed the data to see what our strengths and weaknesses are so we can plan accordingly. We were able to identify in what areas teachers needed more support, and have since provided some of those opportunities.” The CALL survey measures specific leadership practices and provides action-based data on those practices. Margarita used the CALL data and feedback to identify the focus areas for her school for the upcoming year, which enhanced professional learning opportunities for teachers.

Using CALL helped Margarita identify the specific needs in her school. The CALL data and feedback informed the district-wide work to support schools and their professional development. According to Margarita, “Our district has six Instructional Leaders who support schools and instruction. One of their responsibilities is to provide Professional Development around a topic that the teachers need support with. This has been tremendous and is helping to improve instruction.” Guided by the CALL data, Margarita and the Instructional Leaders have implemented new initiatives to support teachers. The next step in this work is to measure progress in the focus areas. Margarita and her colleagues can collect evidence of change in practice through various approaches, including administering the CALL survey again as a formative assessment: “I am hoping to receive more feedback from teachers on how to best support them. When teachers are supported in key areas, and we work together as a team, everyone benefits.”