The Data-Driven Leader: Jayne Ellspermann

Photo by Vicki Mokuria

     In the second week of our Distinguished Speakers Series, we received a visit from the 2015 National Principal of the Year of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), Jayne Ellspermann.  I had the opportunity to welcome Jayne at the airport before having dinner with her at Laguna Beach.  At our dinner, Jayne was eager to share that she loved data.  Over the next two days, I could see that this love fueled the transformations she enacted at West Port High School.  

    Jayne first started her workshop by sharing, “I love my job.”  She explained how she first began in law enforcement and that by chance and through a friend at a party, she entered into the teaching field.  When Jayne first entered West Port, it had an average 100 student referrals a day and 65% of the teachers reported feeling unsafe on campus.  Today, there is a 14-day lapse per student referral and 100% of the teacher report feeling safe on campus.  Looking at those numbers, one many wonder how did Jayne transform her school?  It goes back to what she believes in: “to enable others to exceed their own perceived potential.”  She started looking for folks who would help others grow; she started cultivating other principals.  The district she works in has had 19 principals that were all Jayne's former assistant principals.  Jayne shared about taking numbers seriously.  For example, she transformed the school schedule so that all teachers' planning period was at zero period.  She then added a few minutes before and after the school day that freed up an hour in the middle of the day.  This hour became part of Jayne's creative lunch program called PowerHour.  It is one hour where students can take their lunch to any place on campus and simultaneously do anything from tutoring to club activities to mentoring other students.  The program has a double benefit it that it also allows teachers to have extra time with struggling students.  

    Transforming the school calendar was just the start.  Jayne implemented a variety of professional development routines that helped to transform teacher attitudes and quality of teaching.  She started a thirty minute Friday Faculty Focus meeting that always begins with five positive things that happened that week.  She also started CrateWalks, a weekly walk through of the school where students work is collected in a crate.  Teachers then go through the work and label the grade, subject, and standards associated with each work.  They chart their labels and align it with the actual grade level and required standards.  The activity helped teachers to see how their work was initially far behind what was required of their students and strive to raise their quality of instruction.  

Jayne’s Take Home Points: 

1. “If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow” John Dewey
2. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” Marianne Williamson  
3. As a leader, you have to be cognizant of what you’re emitting 
4. “You need PhD to be a principal: Passion, Humility, Determination” Ronnie Rowell  
5. “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future” Franklin D. Roosevelt 
6. It’s not about splitting up time, but about making the best use of the time we have 
7. “We need to redefine leadership as being about lollypop moments” Drew Dudley 
8. Leading is about letting go
9. You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with 
10. Presumed Competence

    The most important number Jayne stressed was the number five.  She explained, "you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with." In looking back, Jayne gave us so much more than we anticipated in those forty-eight hours.  She had built in hours and hours of planning and preparation for us.  She had built in inspiration and shining examples.  I could tell from the incredible amount of energy she put forth in our two days together that part of West Port High School’s transformation was her own enthusiasm. 
     Before leaving SUA, Jayne left us with the words of John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”