What are the next steps?

June. It's an incredibly busy time of the school year. Trying to wrap up at the same time you are trying to envision the next steps is challenging. Where is the balance between leadership and management when there are so many details that seem to need your attention? As we hear district priorities and next steps, are we able to go deeper in our understanding of new initiatives so that we can own them in our messaging? We must, as school leaders, force ourselves to step back to our original vision for our school and not get swept up in the the daily responses and minutiae. What was your vision for this school year last July?

My vision for my school as I began as the turnaround leader, was to create a culture of learning based on high expectations and effective instructional practices - no easy task since we were coming from 2% achievement and a culture of apathy. To make the kind of gains in achievement that I envisioned, I had to map out what we needed to see in terms of administrative actions and evidence of impact, teacher actions and evidence of impact, and student actions and evidence of impact at opening, October, January, and by the end of the year. Now that we are at the end of the year, I have to analyze our progress while visioning for next year. Not an easy task. It becomes something like solving a complicated puzzle.

So, what are the next steps to get us from a culture of learning to a culture of achievement? We have to reach 85% proficiency on state assessments within three years - no easy task - so what are the priorities that will get us there? How do we determine what is most important? What if there is a disconnect between district and building initiatives? These are the questions that have driven the work that we have been doing for the past several months. We have gotten feedback from our staff, from our consultants, from the district, and from our data as we looked closely at our progress and our goals. 

Jim Collins, author of From Good to Great, talks about the Flywheel Effect and the Doom Loop. As turnaround leaders, we must ensure that we are focused on the flywheel and not allow competing or fleeting initiatives to blur our vision. We must remain singularly focused on our vision of good to great so the Doom Loop does not overtake our work. For me, in June, that means building time into my schedule where there seems like there is no time to get back to visioning. I have to be able to pull myself out of the daily details and see things from 10,000 feet in order to see what the next steps and ultimate goals are. I have to make sure I have some protected time to be proactive in my thinking rather than reactive in my responses. (http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html)

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Our priority for year two of our turnaround plan is ENL (English as a New Language). We have a high population of ENL students (approximately 22%) and our disaggregated data shows that 90% of our ENL students cannot score above a level 1 on state assessments. Simply put, we cannot reach our target of 85% proficiency without moving our ENL population. For year two, we must all become ENL teachers. Our flywheel is turning. We have made gains in year one. As a leader, it is my responsibility to make sure that the flywheel keeps turning as we add in an additional priority - that new information or new learning does not cause our momentum to stop. That's why we need to spend time visioning and mapping out what we see at important check points during the process. Without that, we are too susceptible to whatever someone else believes is the priority. Even as we are finishing one school year and reflecting on the progress we have made, can you see where you want to be at the end of next school year? What will you need to do to keep that flywheel turning and move from good to great in your school?