If a school is performing poorly in a certain subject, what are your immediate action steps?

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If you have the experience, share about a specific time you encountered this problem. Share a high-level description of the problem and the specific action steps you took to resolve it. Include how you identified the problem, how you decided on an action plan, and how you shared the action plan with staff and got them on board. Make sure your answer spans the short term first. If appropriate or necessary, zoom out a little bit and talk about your strategies to improve on a medium-to-long term timeline.

If you don't have the experience here, explain how you would go about tackling an issue like this. Consider what kind of intervention you would implement, what resources you would look into, how you could leverage your staff for ideas and support, and how you would ensure your solution was improving student outcomes.

"I would bring it to the attention of the teachers and ask them if there have been any particular pain points that they're experiencing in the teaching and learning of that subject area. I would then ask them if there's anything they can immediately identify that we could be doing better or if there are resources that they need but don't yet have. Brainstorming alongside the teachers could help to identify some immediate adjustments to improve the situation.
From there, we would talk about deeper issues, such as problems with infrastructure and the administrative system, and collaborate to come up with a better path forward. I would also audit the new strategies to ensure that they were working to improve student outcomes."

Anonymous Answer

"If a school is performing poorly in a certain subject, my immediate steps would be to look at how that subject is being taught. And by that I mean, look at the performance standards, look at the instructional framework that is being used at the school, then look at how the lessons are presented to students. There has to be a breakdown somewhere and it would be my job to find out where that breakdown is happening and then work with the teachers to resolve it."

Cindy's Feedback

Good answer! Your approach sounds very sophisticated and data-driven. The only recommendation I'd make is to elaborate on what, specifically, you'd work on with the teachers and maybe include a past example. This would lend a persuasive concreteness to your answer.