1. If your district does not have a shared vision, begin the process now. If you do have a vision but haven't
reviewed it in a while, place it on your team agenda to discuss whether it's still alive and well.
2. In a team meeting, assess your district using Figure 9.1 (the District Leadership Capacity Matrix). Identify and
discuss areas for possible intervention.
3. Review Figure 9.3 (Superintendent Acts of Leadership). Add other acts that you consider important to the list.
Place a plus sign beside actions that you do well and a question mark beside those you would like to improve or
implement. Develop a personal action plan for developing stronger capacity-building skills.
4. In a team that includes principals, post large pieces of chart paper on the wall and sketch an image of district
decision-making groups, drawing lines to show how they connect. Discuss whether the teams are congruent,
democratic, and inquiry-based.
5. How do you define accountability? Discuss with your team. Review the feature on inquiry-based accountability
in this chapter and compare with your findings. Plan to improve your accountability processes.
6. In a conversation with parents and school board and community members, conduct a study of instructional
effectiveness by considering the guiding actions listed under "Leadership Capacity Feature #6" in this chapter.
Develop criteria for improving engagement and participation.
7. With district staff, design an evaluation of your professional development program and use it to assess district
and school personnel. Include conversations at sites in the assessment process. Compile your findings,
disseminate them to all, and plan for improvements.
8. Meet with a trusted colleague in the privacy of your office to examine how strongly you believe in equitable
outcomes for all students. Do your policies and practices reveal that commitment?