Missy Herek, currently the principal of Hillsboro Elementary School, was the principal of Lawrence-Lawson Elementary School, which serves 250 K-3 students, and Cataract Elementary School, which serves 85 4K-3 students in the Sparta Area School District (WI). Lawrence-Lawson received the Wisconsin School of Recognition award annually from 2010 to 2015 and, in 2016 earned both the Wisconsin RtI Center Certificate of Merit in mathematics and the Wisconsin PBIS Center Certificate of Merit for its implementation of RtI and PBIS. In the 2015-2016, she was selected as the Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year. Missy has been using the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) in her district since the 2014-2015 school year to measure instructional leadership practices.

In the 2015-2016 school year, Missy used the CALL tool as part of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Title I Leadership for Learning Project. After she administered the CALL assessment, Missy referred the CALL Data Feedback System to identify target areas of school improvement. She compiled data from multiple surveys, including CALL. The leadership teams at Lawrence-Lawson and Cataract Elementary Schools identified trends from the data and developed building-specific surveys to further explore areas of focus. This process led to the development of the schools’ improvement plans.

CALL provided an opportunity to look at shared leadership by examining specific practices rather than focus on the single principal. Missy and her team identified trends, established goals for improvement, and then celebrated successful growth. Year-end administration of the CALL survey helped the leadership team set goals for the following school year at Lawrence-Lawson and Cataract. Missy sees CALL as a formative tool to support ongoing continuous improvement: “I plan to continue to administer the CALL survey each year. The data provides areas of growth and identifies areas for continued improvement. CALL was part of the development of our schools’ improvement plans and has led our leadership teams to set goals for the next school year.”