SamTastic Weekly Tip: 8/4/25 - Show What You Value

This week’s tip: Show What You Value

Most SAM teams are back at school getting ready for the arrival of students.  Some SAM teams had their first day with students in July.  Others will not see students until September.

Last week I shared ten things effective SAM teams are doing now for a great new school year.  Ten SAM Team Resolutions: CLICK HERE

This week, I encourage you to consider this question: Does your TimeTrack schedule for today align with what you value?  Do you have any events for today that are intentionally set to improve a teacher’s practice?  A session with a new teacher?  A celebratory session with a group or individual?  Maybe a planning session to examine how to better support a teacher who had difficulty last year?

Some leaders say: “I’ll do the instructional work after the school is running smoothly in a few weeks.”  How would you respond to a teacher with lesson plans where academic work was absent for the first few weeks of school so the students can settle in first?

Your staff, students, and school community are watching you.  They believe what they see, not necessarily what you say.  When you look at what you’ve scheduled today, are you pleased with the look?  Does your schedule align with what you value?

Enjoy the new school year.  Schedule events you believe will help teachers improve their practice and enjoy the mission.

Finally, enjoy the comments about your work from NSIP Board Vice President Paul Katnik, below.  Nice!

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Hello!

My name is Paul Katnik, and I am an Assistant Commissioner for the Missouri Department of Education. I also serve on the NSIP Board for SAMs.

The NSIP Board met back in July and one of our tasks that day was to review the annual data from the Rubric Assessment. The first exciting finding I noticed was that it had a 100% completion rate, which is amazing! Thank you for your hard work on this! With a submission from nearly 800 school leaders from twenty-two states, this data set literally represents the best assessment of school leader practice anywhere in the entire country.

It was also very exciting to see the large increase in the amount of time spent by school leaders “seeing instruction” in the classrooms of their schools. Research is very clear that when school leaders see instruction, student learning improves! Congratulations!

Also exciting was the big gains in feedback that teachers are receiving from their school leaders. What was especially nice to see is that the longer you are involved in the SAMs process, the more feedback your teachers are receiving from you. As research confirms, when teachers receive more feedback from school leaders, they improve their instruction and students learn more!

You should be very proud of the amazing work you are doing! As NSIP Board members, we certainly are!! Thank you for your life-changing work and being a part of the SAMs process!

Paul Katnik

Assistant Commissioner

Office of Educator Quality

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Office: 573-751-2931

Paul.katnik@dese.mo.gov

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To access the 2025 SAM Team Performance Report:   http://bit.ly/44MbQ8t

To access the Executive Summary, 2025 SAM Team Performance Assessment:  https://bit.ly/4fh2V2k 

Registration for the 19^th Annual National SAM Conference opens Labor Day.  Go to www,SamProcess.com to register or use the direct link you will receive the day before.

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 7/28/25 - New School Year Resolutions

1. If I am back at work, I am in the GREEN and will have my SAM Daily Meeting today.  (I know I can schedule at/above goal, even if my SAM hasn’t returned yet. I’ll start having my SAM Daily Meeting when my SAM returns.)

2. I will review with my SAM the performance assessment rubric we completed with our Time Change Coach and incorporate the things we said we wanted to do in our TimeTrack.

3. I will set my monthly instructional time goals with my SAM.  (TimeTrack logo, upper left, Monthly Goals)

4. I will update my staff and group lists with my SAM.  (TimeTrack logo, upper left, Individuals and Groups)

5. I will update my contact day for the new school year.  (TimeTrack logo, upper left, Contact Days)

6. I will select Focus Teachers, people I want to spend more time with, for the first semester.  (TimeTrack logo, upper left, Individuals and Groups)

7. I will schedule time in each focus teacher’s classroom the first and second day students are back.

8. I will consider leading a PLC with all new teachers on my staff.

9. I will look at my data for last school year and decide which instructional descriptor percentages I would like to see increase this year.  (Dashboard, far left, middle; reset to show the 2024-25 school year data by clicking the options tab.  Then, TimeTrack logo, upper left, select General Options, then scroll down to target descriptors.)

10. I will look forward to working with my Time Change Coach.  (Your Time Change Coach will contact you the first week of August to determine your status.  If you are active, scheduling at/above goal, your Coach will begin working with you monthly.  Each month, Time Change Coaches attend one of your SAM Daily Meetings, review your TimeTrack to give you feedback and will provide training and support your request.  If you are not back at work yet, your Time Change Coach will connect when you return.)  By the way, you can see your TimeTrack access dates just like your coach can.  TimeTrack logo, upper left, select Time Track Access, You will see the last access, date and time, to the right of each name.)

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To access the 2025 SAM Team Performance Report:   http://bit.ly/44MbQ8t

To access the Executive Summary, 2025 SAM Team Performance Assessment:  https://bit.ly/4fh2V2k 

Registration for the 19^th Annual National SAM Conference opens Labor Day.  Go to www.SamProcess.com to register or use the direct link you will receive the day before.

2025 SAM Team Performance Report:   http://bit.ly/44MbQ8t  Executive Summary:  https://bit.ly/4fh2V2k

Music Video: I Am a SAM  https://bit.ly/48OCjCm

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 7/21/25 - Four Times More. That’s Impressive.

This week’s tip: Four Times More.  That’s Impressive.

SAM principals spend four times more time working with teachers to improve practice than their non-SAM peers.  The 2025 SAM Team Performance Annual Assessment was shared with the NSIP Board at its summer meeting, July 8.  Member were impressed and each has elected to prepare comments that will be shared oved the next several months in the SamTastic Weekly Tip.

To access the 2025 SAM Team Performance Report:   http://bit.ly/44MbQ8t

To access the Executive Summary, 2025 SAM Team Performance Assessment:  https://bit.ly/4fh2V2k 

Please feel free to share these links with colleagues.  

Here’s a report on the July 8 Board meeting from Bert Hendee, President NSIP Board of Directors:

As we have shared with you before, the board of directors meets two times a year in person.  One meeting is held in conjunction with the National Conference and one in the summer either June or July.  Two other virtual meetings may be held each year as well.  At each meeting we have updates from each member of the board and the executive director.  We are passionate about this work and always working towards improvements in our performance and support of NSIP.

During this most recent board meeting we focused on several important things:

1.    Revised a few of our board policies to more align with the work we actually do. 

2.    Renewed Board Officers for another year: Bert Hendee, President, Paul Katnik, Vice President, Nathan Roberts, Treasurer, Dave Sechler, Secretary, Jennifer McCrystal, SAM Principal and Jennifer Stapleton, SAM. 

3.    Reviewed the results of the annual SAM Teams Rubric Assessments and were so very impressed that 100% of the teams submitted their assessment and 95% of those teams can directly connect their use of time to improved teacher practice!  Very impressive!!  All Board members will be sharing their thoughts about the assessment results in the coming weeks.

4.    Reviewed the results of our board self-evaluation and set goals for the coming year.

5.    Revised the Mission and Vision statements to more clearly articulate and simply state our “Why” for NSIP. 

Mission:  Provide a comprehensive process and set of tools to develop effective instructional leaders resulting in greater student success.

Vision:  Increase principal time spent improving teacher practice and student outcomes.

If you have questions please feel free to reach out to any board member at any time.  Our contact information is on the NSIP website.