Praxis 5412 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Vision statement

A future-oriented declaration of what a school aspires to become for its students; it sets direction for goal-setting, resource allocation, and multi-year change initiatives.

Mission statement

A concise statement of a school's present purpose - what it does, for whom, and how - that converts long-range vision into daily operational commitments staff and families can recognize.

SMART goals

A goal format requiring specificity, measurable indicators, achievability, relevance to the school's priorities, and a stated timeline, so progress can be verified rather than merely asserted.

Force-field analysis

Kurt Lewin's tool that lists driving forces pushing toward a change against restraining forces blocking it; leaders decide whether to strengthen supports or reduce barriers.

Kotter's eight change steps

A sequence for organizational change: urgency, guiding coalition, vision, communication, empowerment, short-term wins, consolidation, and anchoring new practice in the culture.

Four data types (Bernhardt)

Demographic, student achievement, school process, and perception data; achievement data show what results occurred, while the other three categories help explain why.

Gap analysis

A comparison of current performance against a desired standard or target, used to rank priorities so improvement plans address the largest and most consequential shortfalls first.

PDSA cycle

Plan-Do-Study-Act: an iterative improvement loop in which a small change is tested, its results examined, and the change then adopted, adapted, or abandoned.

Clinical supervision cycle

A recurring instructional improvement process of pre-observation conference, classroom observation, data analysis, post-observation feedback conference, and follow-up, producing a written improvement goal.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks for understanding during instruction that give teachers evidence to adjust teaching in real time; summative assessment instead judges learning at the end of a unit.

Backward design

Wiggins and McTighe's planning approach: identify desired results first, then determine acceptable evidence of learning, then design instruction and learning experiences aligned to both.

MTSS tiers

A three-tier framework: Tier 1 universal instruction for all students, Tier 2 targeted small-group support, Tier 3 intensive individualized intervention with frequent progress monitoring.

Professional learning community

A team of educators meeting regularly to answer four questions: what students must learn, how learning will be verified, how to respond when students struggle, and how to extend those who succeed.

Andragogy (Knowles)

Adult learning theory holding that adult learners are self-directed, bring experience as a resource, need problem-centered relevance, and are motivated by internal rather than external factors.

Depth of Knowledge levels

Webb's four levels of cognitive demand - recall, skill or concept, strategic thinking, and extended thinking - used to judge the complexity of tasks and assessment items.

Collective teacher efficacy

The shared staff belief that their combined effort can produce student learning; it is among the strongest school-level predictors of achievement in visible learning research.

Supplement not supplant

A federal requirement that Title I funds add to, rather than replace, the state and local resources a school would otherwise provide for its students.

Zero-based budgeting

A budgeting method that builds each year's plan from zero, requiring every proposed expenditure to be justified against priorities rather than adjusting last year's base.

Free appropriate public education

The IDEA entitlement to individualized special education and related services, at public expense and under public supervision, that confer meaningful educational benefit on a student with a disability.

Least restrictive environment

An IDEA requirement that students with disabilities be educated alongside peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate, with separate placement used only when supports are insufficient.

Negligence elements

Four elements a plaintiff must prove against a school: a duty owed, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to harm, and actual injury.

Procedural due process

The notice and hearing a school must provide before depriving a student of a protected interest, such as attendance through suspension or expulsion.

Distributed leadership

Spillane's conception of leadership as practice spread across people, roles, and interactions, rather than a set of traits or authority held only by the principal.

Eisenhower matrix

A prioritization grid sorting tasks by urgency and importance into four quadrants, used to protect time for important but not urgent work such as planning and coaching.

Epstein's six involvement types

Parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community - a framework for designing family and community partnership programs.

Relational trust

Bryk and Schneider's construct built from four components - respect, competence, personal regard for others, and integrity - that enables productive school-community relationships and reform.

Two-way communication

An exchange in which families can respond to and inform the school rather than only receive notices; it produces deeper engagement than one-directional announcements alone.

Funds of knowledge

Moll's term for the skills, information, and strategies families and communities possess; instruction drawing on them connects school learning to students' home lives.

Asset-based thinking

Framing students, families, and communities by their strengths and resources rather than their deficits, which shapes more productive partnership and instructional decisions.

Crisis communication plan

A prepared protocol naming a single spokesperson, pre-approved message templates, and distinct channels for reaching staff, families, and media during an emergency.

Community schools model

A model in which the school serves as a hub integrating academics with health, mental health, and social services delivered through partnerships and often a site coordinator.

Advocacy versus lobbying

Advocacy promotes a cause or position generally, while lobbying asks specific officials to support specific legislation; federal funds restrict lobbying but permit most advocacy activities.