Summer creates space to look beyond the day-to-day demands of running a campus and focus on the work that shapes the year ahead. While your to-do list may still be long, this season gives you the opportunity to reflect, plan, and make intentional decisions with leadership planning that will impact your staff and students long before the first day of school.
One of the most valuable ways to invest that time is by reflecting on your staff. Who are they today? What strengths do they bring? Where do they need support? And how can you position each person for success this year?
In Good to Great, Jim Collins reminds us that effective leaders put the right people in the right seats on the bus. That isn’t simply a hiring decision. It’s an ongoing leadership practice that requires observation, reflection, and intentional planning.
Summer is the ideal time to ask:
- Do we have the right people in the right roles?
- What support will help returning staff continue to grow?
- What do we already know about our new staff members?
- Where can we provide meaningful support from the very beginning?
These conversations are most effective when they’re collaborative. As a leadership team, you can reflect on the past year, assess your campus’s current needs, and develop a thoughtful plan for coaching, professional learning, and ongoing support.
Gather the Evidence for Leadership Planning
Start with the staff you already have.
Strong leadership decisions are grounded in evidence, not a single observation or one particularly challenging week. Looking at multiple sources of information provides a more complete picture of each staff member.
Instructional Practice
Review formal evaluation data, such as the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) or your district’s evaluation system. Include walkthrough notes and coaching conversations.
Ask yourself:
- What patterns emerge over time?
- Where does this teacher consistently excel?
- What opportunities for growth continue to surface?
Professional Responsibilities
Effective teaching extends beyond classroom instruction.
Review lesson plans, planning and internalization documents, professional learning community (PLC) contributions, family communication, professional learning, and goal-setting artifacts.
Consider how each teacher approaches collaboration, preparation, and continuous improvement. These habits often reveal as much about professional growth as observation scores.
Student Performance
Examine both current and historical student growth data.
Look for patterns over multiple years rather than isolated results. Consider how effectively teachers support a wide range of learners, including students with language differences, learning differences, and behavioral needs.
Multiple years of data provide a clearer understanding of both teacher growth and student outcomes.
Consider the Whole Person in Leadership Planning
Just as we encourage teachers to see students as whole people, we should approach our staff the same way.
A single data point—or even a single difficult year—rarely tells the complete story. Campus transitions, team dynamics, personal circumstances, and changes in student populations can all influence outcomes.
Looking across several years helps distinguish trends from isolated situations. It allows you to recognize strengths, identify authentic areas for growth, and make more informed decisions.
Maintaining this broader perspective doesn’t lower expectations. Instead, it helps you provide support that is both fair and effective.
Analyze the Evidence Together
Once you’ve gathered the evidence, don’t analyze it alone.
Collaborative conversations help uncover blind spots, strengthen equitable decision-making, and build shared ownership across the leadership team.
As you review each staff member, consider these questions:
- What are this person’s greatest strengths?
- What opportunities for growth should we prioritize?
- What level of coaching or support will help them succeed?
- What should their professional goal focus on this year?
- Are they in the role where they can be most successful?
- Would a different grade level, subject area, or team better leverage their strengths?
These questions are not intended to be punitive. Instead, they help create an individualized roadmap for growth and ensure every staff member receives meaningful support throughout the year.
Why Leadership Planning Matters
Summer planning shapes the entire school year.
When you thoughtfully study your staff and develop intentional support plans, you begin the year with clarity instead of uncertainty. You know who will benefit from coaching early, where strengths can be leveraged, and how to provide the right level of challenge and support for each educator.
That preparation benefits everyone.
Staff members who feel seen, supported, and appropriately challenged are more engaged, more effective, and more likely to remain on your campus. Strong retention strengthens campus culture, preserves institutional knowledge, and improves outcomes for students.
Every investment you make in developing your staff today creates lasting benefits for your campus tomorrow.
As you plan this summer, gather your leadership team, review the evidence, ask thoughtful questions, and create intentional support plans. The work you do now will make a difference long before students walk through your doors in August.
Helpful Resource
This month’s freebie comes from the Effective Schools Framework resources, and it is ready for you to use today. The Teacher Assignment Rationale Spreadsheet helps you and your leadership team organize your thoughts, keep track of your evidence, and make careful choices about where to place teachers for the next year. To access the tool, click “login,” and enter “overview” as the username and “participant” as the password.
Natalie is an Educator Evaluation and Leadership Administrative Specialist at ESC Region 13.
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