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? 

How do your beliefs reflect your actions?

Last year when I was interviewing for my position as a turnaround principal, I was asked if there was anything that I was willing to be fired for (I am paraphrasing). My answer surprised me - although I certainly wouldn't want to be fired for my beliefs and I would certainly hope that we could come to an agreement about what was right for children, the bottom line for me is what I believe is right for children and I would not compromise for that. I would actually be okay if that meant I got fired for what was right for kids. I had colleagues who were shocked when I shared this with them. They had more of a "step in line and do what you are told" philosophy. Please do not get from this that I am a rebel or that I am disrespectful, but I am outspoken about what I believe in and I will work very hard to try and come to a place where we can connect all sides in order to move forward. I think that a turnaround leader has to go against the grain - you are often swimming upstream and quite often alone. You cannot have a pack mentality. But at the same time, you must clearly be able to connect to the vision and the work of the larger system. I call that "touching the box." I don't live inside "the box" where people wait to be told what to do, but I am not so far outside of "the box" that I cannot relate - I "touch the box." I think creatively, but I apply that creativity to the concepts that we are all working on.

This past week, we started a book talk using Debbie Miller's book Teaching with Intention. The first section focuses on defining beliefs and aligning practices. I loved this, because it gave us an opportunity to really think about what we believe in and give some reflection to the question of "why isn't it in place?" For me as a leader, I have to really think about what I need to do, in messaging, in scheduling, in resources, or in training to be able to give my talented teachers what they need to build the classrooms that support their beliefs. I have built a team of teachers who all have the belief structures and talent to move our students to the 85% proficiency that we are charged with achieving. They believe in the work and the students. As I came away from session one of our book talk, I was inspired again to hear them talk about how they want to create classroom structures that will support literacy and learning in a warm and inviting community. They are already thinking ahead to next year and what they will need to adjust in their thinking to make their beliefs match their learning environment. They inspire me. They push me. They challenge me to be a better leader. I have 800 students and 100 adults that need me to have my actions matching my beliefs every single day.

Debbie Miller challenges us to take stock of our classroom (in my case, my school) and write or draw about what we like or what's working and what bothers you most. She says it is powerful to ask a friend or a colleague to look at your space and give you feedback about "What do you know I value (based on what you see)?" "What do you know about my beliefs in teaching and learning based on what you see? What is the evidence? What do you know I believe about kids based on what you see?" (Miller, Debbie, Teaching with Intention, 2008, p. 30). What feedback do you think you would get? Would it align with your beliefs? If not, what is stopping you from changing it? If your actions or your learning environment do not match your beliefs, then change it. It's hard work, absolutely. But so is putting out the daily fires of having a system that doesn't connect.

Keeping the Momentum

It's May. For my school, that has meant a push to "gear up," rather than "gear down" toward the end of the school year. Gearing up means that we have two month to make a difference and push our students in a targeted area. Each team selected an area that they wanted to put extra time and effort into leveraging - knowing that the work that we do now will pay off for next year as well. One example of an area that we knew needed focus was writing. Our students have made progress (as evidenced by writing benchmark scores), but only about 25% of our students are proficient on writing benchmarks, and even fewer reflect proficiency on extended response questions on interim assessments (we use Achievement Network). As teams thought about this progress vs. proficiency issue, they made decisions about how they could "gear up" their efforts in writing and use more extended response prompts for their students, explicitly teach student friendly rubrics, and coach students through examining their work and the work of their peers against those rubrics. Even though those practices would have benefit our students more if used consistently throughout the school year, incorporating them now provides teachers with an opportunity to practice and refine a skill that they will need for the next school year. It also helps to shift students now to the expectations that they will live with in the fall.

This model, based on the work and the book, Rapid Results, by Robert Schaffer and Ron Ashkenas, and is used in business, non-profit, and education to identify a targeted area for improvement, determine effective strategies to impact change, implement the strategies in a short timeline, and analyze the data collected to determine if changes are required.

For a turnaround school, this format is key to success because it allows teachers to take ownership of an improvement area and puts the solutions and accountability in their lap. Feeling energized, even about the idea of challenging work, is essential to keeping the momentum going. We want - actually, we need - to see results from our work. Spinning our wheels will not get us where we need to be. We are encouraged by progress, but we are aiming for achievement. Freddie Mercury, the incredible lead singer of the band Queen, sang, "Don't stop me now!" That's the message for our turnaround school - we are just getting started and we are not going to stop!