Want to change a school...change the conversations

How often does this happen in your school: A teacher goes to another teacher with a problem with the students or problem with another colleague, or any other of the number of other things they may be talking about. That conversation turns into a venting session, gossip, maybe even slander, but in the end the person with the problem still has a problem.

What if the conversation was changed?

What if instead of asking more questions to get more juicy gossip or sharing their experience or trying to one-up the other person with even a better story... What if the listeners responded with, “I hear you, so what are you going to do now?”

That simple change in response can have the power of changing the culture of your school in the one that is a culture of coaching.

Coaching is a different type of conversation that focus, is on committed listening, powerful speaking in questions, and reflective feedback.  (Gross & Reily, 2018) The focus stays on the speaker. As a committed listener, you listen with the intent to hear the essence of the conversation. You value silence and give a speaker an opportunity to continue speaking. You listen without the intent of solving a problem with but with the intent to hear. When speaking, questions are powerful and thoughtful. Questions have a positive intent assuming that the speaker is doing their best and we want to help them see what they're doing. In giving feedback, the feedback is reflective. This means the speaker is ultimately given themselves feedback because as a listener we are asking clarifying questions, offering value statements to acknowledge the speaker and we ask questions of possibilities and curiosity that allows the speaker to reflect on what they said and come up with their owns solutions.

You see the great thing about coaching is it frees us as listeners to not have to solve the problem. The solution comes from the speaker. Our whole goal is to listen and reflect back to the speaker what we hear and help them continue in their process. Keeping a mindset of possibility and curiosity as listeners, we can help our colleagues find their own solutions within themselves. This is an empowering process that can radically shift the culture within our schools.

Creating a culture of coaching doesn't happen accidentally. It takes intentionality to develop the capacity of you are people to have the confidence to engage in the coaching process. It takes practice. It takes continued development. It takes an environment where risk and failure are seen as part of the learning process and where celebration happens quick and often as we see people engaging the work and finding success.

If you want to change our schools, we need to change the conversations. This does not mean that I can't go to my colleague and feel like I can't unload on them with a problem I am facing. But what it does mean is my colleague will likely turn the problem back on me and help me figure out what I'm going to do next. This may take more work and efforts, but at the end of that conversation, I'll feel much better than I would if I was still holding onto my problem. Now I walk away from the conversation with a solution hand; a solution that I developed myself. That is a powerful place to be and a powerful way to change your school.

*Gross Cheliotes, L. M. and Reily, M. F. (2018). Coaching Conversations: Transforming your School One Conversation at a TIme. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Yes your child is a snowflake, but so is everyone else.

How would you feel if your friend had a child in a different school district then the one your child attends and you discovered that the district of your friend invested 6x the amount of resources into the education of their students?

Let's put this into today's dollars. Right now California funds schools at an amount of around $10,000 per student per year. In the scenario above that would mean that your friend's district is funding their schools at $60,000 per student. Do you think the extra $50,000 will make a difference in the quality of education? Of course, more money means more resources, higher salaries for teachers, which means the ability to recruit top-notch talent.

Prior to 1972 the way schools were funded had this discrepancy, and California passed laws to equalize funding, but this step was only going part of the way to close the funding gap.

Do you know that all students are not created equal? If a student has a learning disability, or their first language is not English, does that student have the right to the same quality of education as a student with no learning or language challenges?

In my view and according to state and federal law the answer is yes. If that is the case, then some students require more support then others. More support means more resources. More resource means more money.

When the states equalized funding it closed the gap between wealthy districts and poor districts, but there was another gap that remained unaddressed. Over 40 years later, in 2013, Governor Brown passed the Local Contol Funding Formula, which provided a weighted student funding formula. It acknowledged that the equalization of funding was not equitable. By weighing student populations, those students who need the most support get the most funding, thus bringing greater equity to how the state funds public schools. With the Local Control and Accountability Plan, districts are held accountable for how they use the additional funds they receive to improve the performance of the students for whom the funding is intended.

The system is far from perfect but it is a move in the right direction. California still ranks in the lower 50 percentile in per-pupil funding, but the trend over the past few years is positive.

So yes, your child is a snowflake, but there are some snowflakes that need some extra help to get to the ground to make their contribution to the world.

Impacting ALL students by reaching EACH student

There is a big difference between a school mission to deliver high-quality education for all students and delivering a high-quality education for each student. The difference between all and each is significant. If the goal is to reach all students, it is easy to settle for most students, because it is justifiable to say that reaching 100% of all students is impossible. Most is a great achievement. Is most 90%, 75%, 51%? The word all leaves plenty of wiggle room to claim success when there are still many students whom the school fails to reach. 

Now each student is another challenge. Each student is an individual. Each student has a story. Each student has gifts, strengths and unique abilities. Each student deserves the best effort of their teachers. Each leaves no wiggle room. Either each student is reached or they are not. It is 100% or 0%. There is no middle ground. Each student is entitled to a high-quality education. Each student can achieve at high levels. Each student has assets that make him or her uniquely gifted to do something great with their lives. Each student comes into this world for a specific purpose. 

Somewhere along the way, each student encounters circumstances and challenges in their lives. These experiences can create strength or they can cause damage. Regardless of the road each student has been on, they come to school as individuals and their teachers become a part of their individual story. Teachers have the ability to play a powerful part of each student’s story. Teachers can bring strength, teachers can help repair damage, and teachers can help each student become more aware of the part they play in their own story and the story of others. Teachers have this type of impact and schools can be an amazing place for all students. It begins when schools and teachers turn their focus from all the students to each of their student's. 

Radical school change begins with the individual: an individual teacher with an individual student discovering what each student needs to achieve at high levels and helping each student get what they need. It is not lowering the bar, but opening the ceiling.

Flipping the Dog and Pony Show on it's Head

This is my 10th year as a classroom teacher. In those years I have had a variety of experiences when it came to teacher evaluation. While I seek to gain insights from the feedback in my observations, all too often it feels like I am in a dog and pony show. I have a pre-evaluation meeting in which I am told what my goals are for this year. I plan my lesson, the administrator shows up, I do my thing and with the vice principal in the room for the first time in the year, the students are on their best behavior. The administrator spends much of his time typing on the computer. They leave, I breath and invite the normal students back into the class, because the ones who were there during the class visit were not my normal students. I go to the debrief meeting, hear the feedback, but in reality, I am waiting to see if I "passed"; do I "meet or exceed district expectations."

Don't get me wrong. I have gotten good insights in some of my meetings. But in the end, my only real hope is that I don't do anything that will cause me to have to go into improvement. I just want to pass. The process is just a hoop to jump through. Now let me get back to work.

What if things were different?

What if the teacher evaluations process was teacher-centered?

What if it looked like this?

The year begins and it is my year for evaluation. I meet with my administrator and they ask me what I want to work on to grow as a teacher this year. They give me the CSTP's to consider, but really it is about how I want to improve, or what have I been thinking about trying in my class but never actually did. Together we talk and I land on an essential question that will be my action research project for the year. Instead of being my evaluator, my administrator becomes my action research advisor. When they come into the room, which will be frequent, they are in there to gather data for me. Because they are a regular part of the class environment, students act normal around them and they can gather authentic data for me that helps guide my practice. Through the year we work together to reflect, refine, and my administrator keeps me accountable for continuing to press into the question I set out to explore. The year finishes with a Presentation of Learning at a staff meeting where all the teachers who are in the evaluation cycle share their learnings with the staff.

Imagine how this type of work would shape a school into a learning environment, where teachers are learners as well as the students. I, as a teacher, grow tremendously in my evaluation year. The administrator became a coach rather than an adversary who holds the keys to my "passing grade".  

If I end up in an administration position next year, it will be my vision to put this into practice with some of the teachers I oversee. If I have another year in the classroom before I make my move, next year is my evaluation year so it will be my challenge to enroll my administrator in rethinking the tired old district evaluation process; turning it on its head.

To suspend or not to suspend. That is the question...

So how do we improve student behavior in schools? I will tell you what does not work, suspending kids from class. Let’s just think about that for a moment. Disruptive students are usually not really interested in the class they are in, so they misbehave, are defiant, disruptive, cause an impact on student learning…you name the offense. What is our solution to the problem, give them what they want and send them out of class. Maybe is for a class period, or a day or two, but we give them what they want and then they come back into the learning environment and nothing changes.

Yes, for some kids when they get suspended from a class or from school, the resulting discipline they receive from home will cause a change in the classroom. For many of our at-risk students, they don’t have a home environment that is giving them the tools they need to manage themselves in class. We send students away from the supportive and structured environment in the schools into an environment that is part to the challenge for these at-risk students.

There needs to be a better way. Students need to be held accountable for their actions, and they need to learn how to make the changes in themselves to be able to function in the learning environment of the school. I would propose the need for a space on campus where:

• They are held accountable for their actions that warranted the removal from their class.
• Are given the academic support they need so as to not fall behind during their time away
• Integrates restorative practices with emotional wellness to give students the tools they need to manage their behaviors and return to their class in a positive way.

The traditional in-school suspension method usually meets two of these criteria; accountability and academic support. It is the third criteria that can be the change agent that disrupts the repetitive behavior cycle characteristic of at-risk students.

As school leaders evaluate the data around discipline, looking for trends on office referrals, suspensions and student profiles will help them to see the gaps they have in meeting student needs. Perhaps the space presented here is what they need, or something different. However, regardless of the school location or student demographics, at-risk students need more from their schools to become productive members of society; a mission every school claims they are doing.

Leading with Love

Early on in my educational journey, I had a school director who gave the print above as a parting gift when she moved on to a new assignment. It says, "Just Love". She shared that at the end of the day, when all the curriculum and projects are stripped away, the most important thing that we can do for our students is to love them. Her message has stuck with me and shaped my thinking about leadership so much so that it is one of my core leadership values.

In The Six Secrets of Change (2008), Michael Fullan lays out a set of actions that a leader can take that will help an organization thrive in the process of change. His first secret is "Love your Employees." In the world of education, the focus is on the students, which are the customers of the school. Far too often in both the private sector and the public sector, the customer is the focus, to the detriment of the employee. It is the expectation that the employee(teachers) will sacrifice to give the customer what they want and need. Fullan claims that one of the secrets of change is that we do not forget about the teachers and we love them as much as we love our students.

So how do we love our teachers?

• Offer generous compensation packages, as much as the budget allows.
• Give them time to plan and collaborate with others.
• Offer meaningful professional development.

These are the things that happen in the private sector and is happening in a number of schools today. The results that top companies see in loving their employees are also seen in some of the public schools who are being intentional in loving their teachers.

• Increase in student achievement.
• Increase in teacher tenure. Teachers are staying in the profession longer.
• Decrease in teacher turnover. New teachers are staying in the profession.

As I consider the role I will play in leading a school, I will take this secret from Fullan and the insights I received from my old director to "just love". "Love my People" sounds good because it reminds me that all the decisions I make are about what is best for my people: students, teachers and the rest of my staff. There are a lot of pieces to juggle but in the end considering all my people will create the change we want to see happen.

What's for Breakfast?

The late management guru Peter Drucker once said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." For anyone who has tried to lead a new strategic plan or been on the receiving end of a new initiative know this statement is true. Culture is everything. It represents the set of values and ways of doing things that exist in every organization. Culture is a powerful force, much like a river. A strategy that seeks to change the way things are done in an organization needs to start with culture. Any other way will leave you down the river in a place you did not want to be, fighting against the current of culture.

The good news is that cultural change is possible, just as it is possible to change the course of a river. So how does one begin the change the culture?

• What's your purpose? John O'Brien said in The Power of Purpose  that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast, and culture gets its appetite from purpose." If you are going to change the way things are done in an organization you have to give your people a new purpose. As Simon Sinek says, "It starts with why."
• Start with your people. Too often outsiders are brought in as the experts to bring about change, overlooking the expertise within the organization. Build the capacity of your people, empowering them to be the leaders of change.
• Be the facilitator of your teacher's success. In The Missing Link in School Reform, Carrie Leana makes the claim that the new principal is not the leader of school instructional reform, but the principal supports teachers reform efforts through giving them the resources they need to be successful. 

When wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park they had such an impact on the ecosystem that in the end, the flow of the rivers changed. In the same way, starting with cultural before the strategy is like introducing wolves into your organization. Culture change lays the groundwork for the real organizational changed need for school reform. Without it, the real wolves in your organization will devour whatever new strategy you introduce. Either bring the wolves, or the wolves will eat you for breakfast.

You get what you go for

You get what you go for, and you go for what you can see.

I don’t think that is a famous quote, but it should be. In the world of education often time the teacher can only see what is right in front of them, their students. They see their personalities, efforts, and challenges. They see them come in each, sometimes ready to be their amazing selves, and other times distracted by their lives outside of your class.

All this to say, the leaders of these teachers can do a lot to help their teams see more: See deeper, see fuller and get a vision for where they want to go. What the teacher can’t see on their own, data can help bring to light. Before you stop reading and think this is all about looking at the numbers, be reminded that data is much more than numbers.

• The dictionary definition of data is facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis. Synonyms: facts, figures, statistics, details, particulars, specifics, information, intelligence, material, input.

With that definition, it is clear that data can mean a lot of things. It is a teacher looking at turn-in rates for assignments and seeing which type of projects cause the greatest engagement. It is looking at students opinions about what is happening in class or their changing attitude about the subject being taught. It can be looking at writing grades over the year to look for growth or declining results. Data takes on many different forms, but they are all informative.

So what does it take to create a data-informed learning environment? I would put forth three questions that can help shape the creation of this type of environment that Datnow and Park (2014) laid out in their book Data-Driven Leadership:

• Can every teacher be a part of an Improvement Community within their grade level or department? The Improvement Community collaborates regularly as part of a continuous improvement cycle: Goals are set, plans are made, data is collected and reviewed, goals are evaluated and new plans are made, thus the cycle continues.
• Where is the time where these Improvement Communities can meet regularly to collaborate?
• What protocols will you use to structure the collaboration time around data review within the framework of the improvement cycle?

The move towards a data-informed learning environment takes time to develop, but as a school leader who wants to see student growth and engaged in the learning process, the effort is worth the journey. Data removes the veil that sometimes hides the truth from teachers in their own class. Sometimes this truth is uncomfortable to take in. With the right protocols in place, teachers can find safety in inviting review and feedback of their practice and discover they are not alone in their challenges and their colleagues are willing to journey with them together towards growth and improvement as an educator.

You get what you go for, and you go for what you can see. Leaders, how can you help your people see what they are missing?

How to move an Elephant

Have you ever tried to move an elephant? Most of us have not, but I am sure we can imagine that it would be no easy task. It will definitely be a little more challenging than moving my kids. If my kids are being stubborn, I can just pick them up and take them to where they need to go. But even with kids, if I am asking them to do something, a task they do not want to do, I am not able to force them to act. If their will is set against the task, then it is near impossible to get them to act. Those with kids can relate to this, and if you are an elephant trainer then my first example works for you.

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”

                                                                                                        -Niccolo Machiavellie, The Prince

Creating change in any organization is a challenge, especially by a new leader. Often a leader is brought in for a purpose of making changes, but because to the “enmity of those who would profit by the preservation of the old institution,” the new leader has an uphill battle in initiating from the get-go.

As a growing leader, learning theory and putting it into practice, there are a few theories and practices worth considering in ones attempt to move their elephant.

• James Burns Transformational Leadership Theory: What stands out to me in this approach is the focus on creating the shared vision with all the stakeholders in a school or organization. It is about creating allies with “those who would profit by the preservation of the old institution.”
• Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory: There is an unfreezing process that occurs where the “old institution” is disrupted in a way where the need to change becomes evident and there begins to grow a desire to make the change rather than the change being done to them.
• Chris Argyis’ Single- and Double-Loop Learning: Within this process, there is a focus on looking at the culture that is in place, the governing principals within the “old institution” that would work against a change initiative, even one with the best of intentions.

So how do you move your elephant? Well, it starts with understanding why the elephant might like where he is and not want to move. Then it may involve helping your elephant get uncomfortable staying where they are. You help your elephant see what would be available to them if they decide to move, giving them a reason to move. Not one of these practices may move your elephant, and all of them may not do so either. With patience, resilience, and stick-to-it-ness, these practices can work to get most reasonable elephants to take some steps on their own.