Input from John Green

John has graciously sent content for the book. I am sharing it with the group. Keep those cards and letters coming!

 

Thoughts for Field Guide

1) Change Process

Consider Noel Tichy's formula for change as a precursor to an implementation plan. Specifically,

D x V x I > R

D- Dissatisfaction

V- Vision

I- Inertia

R- Resistance

Tichy's formula is consistent with Kotter's 8-step process for organizational change and improvement. While simplistic to understand, significant complexity exists in effectively applying the concepts. The level of "dissatisfaction" with current results combined with the "vision" of where the school and school leadership would like to see results are important variables that should be considered prior to implementing and improvement strategy ("inertia"). Culture, expectations, habits, capacity, systemic leadership, etc. can all be components of "resistance."

2) Root Causes and appropriate intervention

Determining the intervention option that best aligns with actual root cause(s) of the impediments to student learning may be the most challenging element of the diagnostic process. Often, educators apply "training" or "staff development" opportunities for staff as the only response to improving results. This intervention is effective if lack of capacity is the root cause. The root cause could be the belief system of the staff, the culture of the organization, the motivation or inspiration of stakeholder groups to pursue excellence, ineffective processes, or simply insufficient resources for current improvement efforts.

3) Assumptions, Values, and Beliefs

As was discussed in earlier correspondence, the "what" and "how" of effective school improvement efforts are well reflected in the "standards" and "code of ethics." The following could serve as a catalyst for continuing discussion with regard to the "why" of the improvement efforts. Assumptions and Values lead to Beliefs which in turn govern actions. The following (in no particular order) are drawn from research and experiential reports and results.

a) The level of expectations for student achievement results is closely aligned with the degree to which adults believe that all students can learn and are willing to accept responsibility for that learning  (1980's effective school research, current PLC and collaborative practices)

b) The building principal is the logical assignment for the individual charged with the responsibility as the instructional leader of the  school.

c) Teachers and other individuals who work with students can, and do, have an impact on student performance.

d) Formative processes, monitoring for student learning, and connective relationships typically produce the highest gains in student learning when implemented effectively within classrooms.

e) Most challenges in performance can be attributed to local and systemic processes rather than human resources.

f) The more advanced in the organization a human resource issue exists, the more potential harm that can be done to the success of the organization.

g) Begin all diagnostics with an assumption of uncertainty to ensure the discovery of "blind spots." (Drucker)

h) Structured Peer to Peer networks is a sustainable framework for continuous improvement.

i) Leadership development and responsibility at the Board/Superintendent, Principal, Teacher, and Student levels provides an empowered environment for accountable results.

j) Assessment driven instructional practices generates a motivational context for improvement while interest based mentoring relationships forms an inspirational context for improvement.

k) A team approach and participatory structure for input will increase the likelihood of successful and sustainable implementation.

4) Focus on Systemic Factors

For the 3rd chapter of the Field Guide, consider these areas as part of the diagnostic process.

What is the quality of the student/teacher relationships within the school?

What is the leadership effectiveness at the Principal, Teacher, and Student levels?

What is the quality of the current local assessments used to determine student performance?

How coherent are the monitoring processes for student achievement among all stakeholder groups?

What is the current instructional improvement design?

What are the current budget and resource priorities?

Need your ideas!

OK, folks we need your input on how to address a portion of the third chapter, Focus on Systemic Factors. We are about to write about Intervention Selection – Studying and selecting the most suitable set of aligned performance interventions. In this chapter we have already covered Performance Analysis - Gathering formal and informal data to help those you are guiding to uncover multiple perspectives about a problem or opportunity and all the performance drivers or barriers to reaching performance targets, and Cause Analysis – Investigating and finding the true reasons for underperformance, problems or delay in reaching higher levels of performance.

We want your help to develop some categories (Think of Judy's Families of Interventions but for Education) and then the types of interventions that fit in each of those categories, so that a novice could follow the process in the book and correctly determine the types of interventions best suited to address the performance gaps identified. 

What are the categories from your point of  view? 

Did you get it?

I set you up to get the blog feeds for the CSIS expert group. Did you get the first posting?

Welcome CSIS Experts

If you have been invited to this group, you are among a very small group of experts in school improvement who have been extended the opportunity by ISPI to earn your CSIS by contributing to the School Improvement Field Guide: Facilitating Success. (You do still have to pay your fee as I have explained to most of you, but you do not have to do the part of the application that is the documentation of yourwork.)

Many of you have already started contributing via mail so I thought I would put this into a blog so you could see what everyone else is saying and contributing. If you do not have the CSIS standards, please go to www.ISPI.org  and choose the Certification tab and then choose CSIS. You can download the application and handbook with the standards from there.

First a shout out to Georgia Evans who has done excellent work in helping get the Intro and Chapter 1 to the publisher for review, and to Penny Smith who has contributed to the self assessments and other content. Janie Fields has allowed me to vacuum her brain regularly, and John Green is taking the lead on our Values development as well as other contributions.

John reviewed the draft we sent to the publisher and came up with a brilliant insight: We are addressing the "what" with the CSIS standards and the "how" with the info and tools in the Field Guide, but we have failed to address the "why" or  the values in which the work of school improvement and transformation is grounded. We asked John to take the lead in working with all of you to create a set of values for school improvement specialists. If he chooses to do so, look for a posting by John asking you for input.

Penny made this comment about a query I made about how school improvement which focuses on systemic factors should model 21st century teaching and learning: She told me, "Yes, this makes perfect sense. Application of skills and problem-based learning is a critical component to 21st Century Learning. This is compatible to the concept that there are many ways to solve problems and divergent thinking should be encouraged as opposed to discouraged. By considering multiple strategies for solving problems, students learn to validate their learning and display efficacy as they develop skills that transfer across content areas."

How do get those you are guiding to explore systemic factors in the work, workers and workplace? How do you get them to set performance targets beyond the gaps in current performance (as measured by state tests) that the data show and shoot for students not only exceeding standards but demonstrating fluency in 21st Century Skills? How do you model this in your facilitation? I know one of you who is amazing at that -- so Thomas Van Soelen, weigh in here!

Phyllis Edwards emphasized this with her district on Tuesday as the year kicked off. She has broken the bonds of her folks teaching to the tests and given them the freedom to take risks. Phyllis, let's hear your thoughts on that! How did you do that?

I had a fabulous morning interviewing Buster Evans the stellar sup in tech savvy Forsyth County. If you are not following their journey, you are missing something big! Buster, you said getting people to focus on the changes needed to create 21st Century Schools was your biggest challenge. How are you facilitating that change with groups? 

General John Fryer you brought Duvall County back from the brink and made it a world class district with emphasis on global competition. How did you get people to see beyond the gaps in student performance with others around the world and to see what had to change among the adults who impacted the students' performance?

And last but not least, we are reaching out to Vicki Denmark who is VP of Innovation at Advanc-Ed (SACS-CASI to most of us in the SE). (She has the first couple of chapters under review.) Vicki is refining a school improvement model based on the acquired knowledge of Advanc-Ed and experts like you. Vicki, you are neck deep in this work codifying a model. What do you think?

If I left anyone out, chalk it up to my age and forgetfulness. I am sure I have your name in a safe place, but I forgot where that safe place is! My phone charger, half my favorite swim suit, a black cocktail dress, our can opener and a pie plate are with it. (There probably is a story behind that, but I forgot that, too.)

This book allows us to wed all of Judy's enormous expertise in Performance Consulting with your in the trenches school-based experience. John has helped us see that we have a unique opportunity to offer up a set of values for this unique craft and profession that supports the standards and code of ethics (also in the Handbook).

OK folks, we need your brains!! Let us all hear from you!