Lead a Turnaround Campaign

How well do you promote your vision and the purpose of your school turnaround? I never envisioned that being a principal would involve quite so much PR as I am involved in. The messaging and branding of your vision are critical to the success of your turnaround plan.

Public Impact has summarized the key competencies of turnaround leaders and this is their synopsis of leading a turnaround campaign:

• Communicate a positive vision: Turnaround leaders start their turnaround campaign by communicating a clear picture of success and its benefits. This motivates others to contribute their discretionary effort.  
• Gain support of key influencers: Turnaround leaders gain support of trusted influencers among the staff and community, then work through these people to influence others. 
• Silence critics with speedy success: Turnaround leaders use early wins not just for success in their own right, but to cast vocal naysayers as champions of failure. This reduces leader time spent on “politics” and increases time spent managing for results.
• Help staff personally feel problems: Turnaround leaders use various tactics to help staff empathize with—or “put themselves in the shoes of”—those whom they serve, to truly feel the problems that the status quo causes and feel motivated to change. (from http://publicimpact.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Turnaround_Leader_Actions-Public_Impact.pdf)

Messaging and branding are key concepts in school turnaround. As we move toward full implementation of a community school model, creating a sense of welcoming for parents, families, and the community is key to our messaging and our branding. If parents do not feel welcome, they will not use the school as a resource and it will ultimately have a negative impact on their child's education. Our turnaround campaign has had to include professional development, practice sessions with scenarios, direct conversations, and targeted feedback for anyone in our staff who comes in to contact with our parents, families, and the community in order to ensure that we are all on the same message and that our "brand" says "welcoming" to our community.

Another key component of branding is the use of social media. How well are you utilizing social media to promote and maintain your messaging and branding of your vision? Is your vision clear in what you post, how you post, and to whom you post things on social media? We can all learn from Nike or McDonald's when thinking about branding and messaging - we have to think like those major players when we are branding our school turnaround. Clear, consistent messaging is as important to school turnaround as it is to business leaders.

In this time of social media, it is important to consider that you are your brand. As the turnaround leader, there is very little separation between you and your vision for your school. Consider that in posting, commenting, and sharing things on social media. While everyone does deserve a degree of privacy, posting on social media allows what was once private to be public, and that should be considered as you build, market, and support you brand and your vision. 

#Bragging

Sometimes it is important to step back and recognize that the work you are doing is having an impact. We are in the process of implementing a Community School model in my elementary school. While it is an incredible amount of work to organize and implement, it is work that is very much needed in my school community. An article by Julie McMahon that was published in the Syracuse Post-Standard last week, highlights the work that we are doing as a school to support our school community (read the full article here). It has helped to raise awareness in the greater Syracuse community regarding the significant level of need - both in terms of basic needs and academic supports.

I am overcome with appreciation for the many people who have shown interest in the work we are doing at my school. How humbling it is to realize that other people recognize the value of the work you are doing! I also continue to be in awe of the people who are on my team. They take the idea of relentless commitment to serving our school community to the next level. When we think about what is necessary in school turnaround, having the right people on your team is absolutely number one in changing the trajectory of a school.

The next steps for us in implementing a community school model are exciting and there is much for us to learn. I am proud to be surrounded by so many talented and dedicated educators and to be supported by a community that can envision how schools can make a difference in the lives of our students and their families.

The When, Why, and How of Making a Mid-Course Correction

One of the biggest criticisms of school reform is that there is too much change, too fast, and it becomes impossible to manage (read more here). I have even blogged about it in previous posts (http://turnaroundschool.blogspot.com/2015/08/detour.html, http://turnaroundschool.blogspot.com/2015/03/managing-vision.html, http://turnaroundschool.blogspot.com/2015/02/leading-people-not-just-leading-change.html). So, I know that making a mid-course correction (aka change) needs to be for the right reasons and must be managed and marketed well.

This week, I have been grappling with making two shifts in the way we do business in my school. One has to do with assessment, and the other has to do with instructional coaching. School culture is an interesting thing, because it can become established and normed with or without direct leadership. Sometimes the messages that we send as a leader can be interpreted differently and we can end up with a result that does not match our intent. It is so important for us as leaders to continually check to make sure that what we say is really what we mean and that what we mean is really being heard (I refer to this as "inspect what you expect"). Without continual discourse, questioning, and observation/feedback, educators quickly fall into the dreaded cycle of "That's The Way We've Always Done It." Even in a turnaround school, where the goals, targets, initiatives, and observation/feedback are clearly outlined and continually referred to, people's perceptions can be a powerful ingredient of TTWWADI. This is why we have to carefully decide when, why, and how we should make adjustments to our plan.

My first possible course correction of the week had to do with assessment, data collection, our building targets, and our requirements to State Ed. through our receivership status. Clearly, not something small with little impact. The short story is that our shifts in curriculum at Kindergarten and 1st Grade (we are using Core Knowledge or CKLA) no longer clearly aligns with the use of Running Records to track student growth and progress in reading. However, all of our data points and targets that are reported to the district and the state are based on Running Records. So, that's the why of a course correction - my teachers were feeling like they were over assessing our children and not getting the kind of accurate data that really aligned to and informed their practice. The when was clear, too - now. We just finished our 2nd round of Running Records and the gaps were clear, the teachers could clearly articulate the need for change and my instructional coach, Instructional Leadership Team, and I all agreed. Let's shift our practice. So then there's the how. In a change like this, there are several layers to be considered. First, the teachers. Does everyone fully understand the change that we are making and how/when will we check in on this understanding and implementation? Second, the students. We have built a strong culture of goal setting and students and parents both understand what level they are on with a letter from their Running Records (see below).

Traditional Fountas and Pinnell chart for Running Records with Lexile conversion

We had to have a clear vision of how we would shift this for students and families in order to help them understand the why and the how of our adjustment. Third, I had the data reporting piece. All of our targets that are reported to State Ed. require Running Records as an indicator, so for this school-year, I have to continue to use that as a metric, and although I can certainly explain why our percentages look like they are not moving based on the new information and new data, I need to continue to have that data point as a reference. So, we decided to create a conversion from CKLA to Running Records that will allow for our own internal tracking along the Running Records target and will allow teachers to just use the CKLA data as an assessment tool. That buys us some time with the ability to publicly change the targets and market them to students/parents/families. The next step - following up to see if what we decided is in practice - is on me and my instructional coach (which actually leads to my second big adjustment of the week!).

The second big decision was around instructional coaching. The practice of instructional coaching throughout my district has become less classroom based with observation and feedback and more focused on delivering professional development/leading team meetings/ and intense coaching/feedback cycles that are very time consuming and require heavy documentation. My challenge was to increase the amount of time that coaches are able to be in classrooms by removing their perceived barriers and adjusting my weekly check-ins with them so that I can "inspect what I expect." So, the why was clear - we are not going to see the kinds of results in student achievement that we need without continual feedback and rehearsal in instructional delivery and the coaches need to be in classrooms in order to make that happen. The when of making this change requires building capacity and clarifying the vision with multiple stakeholders. It also requires shifting some responsibilities that coaches previously held to members of my administrative team, so the when for us is over the next two weeks. The how is largely on me because so much of the visioning and checking in will be on me. My plan is to have several face to face meetings with the coaches, my vice-principals, and the teachers who will be part of phase one of the coaching plan in order to discuss the shifts and to accompany that with a written plan. I also need to have some release of expectations from Central Office so that my coaches can feel like they are able to focus primarily on classroom coaching and that their level of documentation for those coaching cycles will be at the building level. This means that for the next several weeks, this needs to be a priority for me as well and I need to purposefully build time into my schedule to "inspect what I expect."

Mid-course corrections can and should happen. A turnaround leader should be constantly aware of what is working and what is not working in his/her building. In order to keep the momentum and keep people's trust in your vision and leadership high, it is essential to think through how these mid-course corrections will be implemented and why. A strong turnaround leader has to be able to say "no" when there is a directive from above that does not align with the work of the turnaround plan and also has to be able to advocate for differentiation in leadership support - one size definitely does not fit all in school turnaround. As a turnaround leader, it is critical that we are always one step ahead and have a clear vision of where we are headed so that we can handle mid-course corrections as a natural part of moving our staff, our students, and our school from under-achieving to highly achieving.

Why Year 2 is Harder

I am a school leader who is turning around a failing school. Year one was challenging. We had to start from scratch with new staff, a new vision, an extended school day, and building a culture of academic achievement and consistent expectations where one did not exist. Year one was definitely challenging. Year two is just plain hard.

In the first year of school turnaround, everything felt like growth and improvement. We were coming from pretty much the absolute bottom in terms of student behavior and academic achievement. Providing consistent structures, routines, and expectations was difficult to implement, but not difficult to conceptualize. Establishing targets for grade level achievement required stretching, but we were also honest about where we were starting from, so our targets were ambitious but realistic. We were focused on progress. 

We are now in receivership and year two feels like the stakes are higher. We are no longer able to focus on progress alone - we have to focus on proficiency. We do not have time to waste on figuring it out. We need to have immediate responses that will ensure student progress. Feedback must result in immediate course corrections. New professional learning must be implemented into new practice. Teams must be able to collaborate, share ideas, support one another, and problem solve. As a leader, I must make difficult choices that sometimes make people aggravated because I must prioritize what is needed in my building above other things that may be happening throughout the district. This is lonely work. There is often no one else who can understand the pressures of being a turnaround leader. 

Here are some of my thoughts about keeping your head above water in year two:

• Know your focus areas and be strong about saying no to things that do not support your focus. Our three focus areas for year two are Writing, Culture and Climate, and English as a New Language supports. Even our Receivership Recommendations align with these three focus areas so that all of the work we are engaged in moves our focus areas forward.
• Use data wisely. Sometimes it feels like we are drowning in data. A wise leader will only ask for data collection when it is going to be used to inform instruction. What is the point of collecting data that does not inform your instruction? 
• The other part of using data wisely is expecting that your teachers know their data and their students. That means that you as the leader need to know the data of students in your teachers' classrooms. You should be able to walk the walk and talk the talk. You cannot expect your teachers to know how to use the data if you do not know the data and how it should be informing their instruction.
• Ask for help and be clear about what it is you need help with. Plenty of people will offer to help, but you must stay focused on what you really need. An example of this is how I have shifted my consultant support. In year one, we focused a good amount on leadership and coaching support - and that made sense because I was building a team and an infrastructure. In year two, I have asked for some of that support to shift and I am looking at building and empowering some of the promising practice in my building with video coaching and building a repository of effective practice as well as coaching for my enrichment program in the areas of curriculum development and alignment. 
• Message what you mean. As a turnaround leader, there is no time for inconsistent messaging. That includes every single person in the system - from the front desk to the custodian to the teaching assistant to the parents. This can be particularly frustrating and requires that you "inspect what you expect" in terms of newsletters, conversations, and interactions. 
• Appreciate your team. There is no way that this work is accomplished by a single leader - although the role of the leader cannot be underscored in turning around a school. Your team - your leadership team, your support staff, your teaching staff, and everyone in the system is working tirelessly to move student achievement. It can be very frustrating to feel like you are working so hard and someone (namely you) keeps telling you that it isn't good enough (or that is the message that is heard). Acknowledge how hard your teams are working and find ways to keep their heart and soul in it. I am always working to push myself in this area, but I try to acknowledge personally several people a week for the work that they are doing, I try to write several thank you notes each week to acknowledge contributions, we have random "Our Teachers ROCK" experiences where we do something fun for teachers, we end every meeting with "Appreciations" so that there is public appreciation for others, and I try to let me staff know in multiple ways that I completely have their back (even when I am asking them to grow). 
• Know when to let go. You have to recharge. There is no one who can sustain this pace forever. In year one, I gained a significant amount of weight, I got mono, and I had no balance. In year two, I am just as driven, however, I am having to be much more realistic about what I can humanly sustain. I am eating healthier, walking and running, going to bed earlier, and even going on dates with my husband because I am not a superhero. I couldn't do any of this work without my husband, my sister, and my amazing leadership team supporting me. 

Year two is definitely harder. In year one, I didn't even know what I didn't know. Now, I am painfully aware of how far we are from where we need to be. But, I believe in backwards planning and I see clearly where we need to be at the end of this school year. I am diligent in ensuring that we will get there and I have a dedicated team who shares the vision. Wishing for a magic wand will not make it happen, so we must focus on where we can make the most progress and eliminate things that are not helping in order to arrive where we need to be. Destination: Achievement!

Instructional Rounds

Developing a culture that is open to feedback and reflection is essential to a turnaround school. One of the key strategies that I implemented when I began as a Turnaround Principal was Instructional Rounds. There are different names - Teacher Rounds, Rounds, teachers observing teachers, or classroom walk-throughs. Whatever you call them, the idea is similar to how doctors observe practice and use those observations to reflect and grow on their own practice.

In the book, Instructional Rounds in Education by City, Elmore, Fiarman, and Teitel, the author's outline the importance of peers observing other instructional practices, sharing feedback, and reflecting on their own instruction. This practice is powerful - and provides both observers and practitioners the opportunity to reflect on instructional practices and next steps.

I knew that I wanted to embed the concepts of rounds into the vision at Dr. Weeks, but I needed to accommodate the time that we had available, the size of our staff, and the desire to involve everyone instead of just a few teachers. I ended up creating a model within our collaborative team planning time (50 minutes daily) where teachers would meet for a pre-brief on an identified topic, observe in a classroom for 10-15 minutes, and then de-brief with the practitioner using a "warm feedback/cool feedback" protocol. We tweaked the routine as we moved forward, but the commitment to the rounds remained consistent. The teachers express regularly how powerful this tool has become for them - they have been able to increase their collaboration across grade level teams, they have become more comfortable asking for support with practice, and they have become more reflective about what they see in their own rooms and in the rooms of their peers. It never fails that I have an experience where I get goosebumps when I am facilitating rounds because there is some moment where that "a-ha" happens and you can watch the impact of this process in action.

This week, we did instructional rounds around writing - which is our instructional focus area. We spent two days observing writing practice across all content areas and in every grade level. One of the most powerful experiences was in a 5th grade mathematics classroom. In this classroom, students were working (and they were working hard!) on complex tasks by using the read, write, and draw strategies. The teacher was using over the shoulder conferencing with students as they worked independently. When a student expressed that they were stuck, the teacher asked questions to try and help the student become "unstuck" without giving the answers, and even shared exemplar student work with comments to encourage student thinking. The teacher took a picture of one student's work (not the student with the most complete response or the best writing) and put it immediately on the smart board. The student explained her thinking and then the other students coached her and asked her questions to move the exemplar student forward in her thinking. I was so excited that other teachers were able to experience this high level instruction. It is usually just administrators that get to observe this kind of excellence of both teacher practice and student achievement, but by using the rounds process, we had many teachers now able to participate in the process of observing and reflecting on how we define effective teaching.

The commitment to rounds is part of the vision that I have for our turnaround school - one with a truly collaborative teacher culture and where students are are academically challenged and supported. The time that we give to instructional rounds is scheduled in the calendar and maintained as a priority. If you can implement instructional rounds in any capacity, I strongly believe that it could be a gamechanger for you in terms of turning around your school culture and raising the level of instruction in classrooms.

Here are some great inspirations from our instructional rounds that might inspire you to take that first step.

Musings of a Turnaround Leader

It's August 1. The countdown to a new school year begins. There are so many theories about what makes a successful turnaround school. Is it a longer school day? Is it magnet schools? Is it charter schools? Is it eliminating unions? Is it technology? Is it investing in early childhood education? How do we replicate the work that has been done in other schools successfully? What is the magic bullet that we can say, "do this, and you will improve teaching and learning in your school?"

There isn't a magic bullet. There isn't a "one size fits all answer." If we knew the answer, we wouldn't be where we are in the first place. I do not believe that any teacher actually sets out to do harm to children - to rob them of their future through apathy and low expectations. That happens through a series of complex decisions over time. And as hard as it is to hear, we have been holding children back from reaching their full potential.

I am not an expert in turnaround schools. I just happen to be extremely passionate about turning around the school where I live, and as such, I have a few ideas about what makes a turnaround school actually turn around. The degree to which we experience success - we will save defining that for another post - but let's look at the indicators of culture/climate (this includes safety), academic achievement (both local and state assessment measures), and teacher turnover. My thoughts are not research-based and I didn't have a consultant track data for me. My thoughts on what makes a school turn around are based on my experiences in my building. Yours may be different. That's what makes this work so challenging.

• The leader has a clear vision and everyone - from the secretaries to the parents to the teachers to the children themselves - knows what the vision is and what it means. (Ours is "Every child. Every day. College and career ready. We connect what we are doing to that vision. If we are doing what every child needs, each and every day, then we are making sure that they will have the skills they need for college or career).
• The vision connects to targeted goals and those goals are rooted in data. I asked everyone what they wanted to see by the end of year one and then we backwards planned to make sure we had what was necessary to get there. So, if the number one thing was improved behavior and school culture throughout the building (and it was), what did we need to do in September, in October, in January, to make sure that we got there? We did a similar exercise for year two. Culture and climate is still number one - even though it is definitely better, we know that we have work to do to really provide what every child needs every day in terms of behavioral support and intervention.
• School-wide systems are clear, modeled, practiced, and reinforced. Everyone in the system has agency in holding the expectation high on no more than 5 do's and don'ts. (For us, we had to take a firm stance on being in the hallway without a pass based on the previous culture within the building. Everyone has to uphold that simple expectation and if someone forgets, we must all agree to remind them).
• The right people have to be on the bus. While a leader cannot hire the way to achievement, having key staff members who can move the vision forward is essential. There is no more important work for a leader than hiring and retaining the right people. That being said, if you don't have the right people, you need to take steps to fix it as soon as possible. Your staff is your classroom as a turnaround leader. They are everything. Develop, support, encourage, and build capacity - but if that doesn't get you where you need to be - do not be afraid of making necessary change.
• Acknowledge that your team is amazing regularly and in a variety of ways. Build their capacity for leadership. Show off their skills. Brag on them. Know them - like really know them - and what they are able to bring out of kids. My teachers are absolutely amazing. I am in awe of the way they push, challenge, love, question, and give so much each and every day. When I hear a kindergarten teacher asking a student to support a claim with evidence from the text or hear 2nd grade students conferring about their work with depth and understanding or watch a veteran teacher give up lunch or planning to conference with a student - I know that I have something very special. 
• Celebrate your successes. We challenged our students to read 10,000 hours to support our shift to a culture of readers. We actually thought that they would be able to do that easily - 800 kids - we thought the hours would really add up quickly! By March, we were only at 5,000 hours. Rather than continuing to say "come on and read!," we celebrated the 5,000 hours that they had accomplished by letting students with the most hours throw pie in my face. The kids loved it and it really motivated them to keep working hard. There is always more we can do - celebrate the growth and be specific about what we need to do next to get to the next level.
• Turning around a school is a bit like starting a business and it is better to know that going in. This school will become your family and the children are your children. My own family, and the families of my team, are regularly at school and they know the children and their successes. It's exhausting. It's draining. And it's so rewarding to know that you are making a difference in the lives of so many.
  
  

Expectations, Part 2

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the power that expectations have on students and student achievement. This post should, perhaps, come with a warning label because it focuses on the expectations that we, as leaders, have on our teachers and what that means for the future of education. If you are not 100% committed to building successful teams, implementing the instructional practices necessary to ensure student achievement, and doing whatever it takes to turn your school around, then you should move from this post to something that is a little more warm and fuzzy.

I was discussing the implementation of interim assessments with some colleagues and one principal asked me how I got my teachers to go along with the data analysis and development of re-teaching plans based on the data. I was perplexed by the question and I explained that my teachers were excited about the work because it provided them with clear data about student progress and mastery of standards. I had told my team (have I told you lately how amazing they are?) that we were using interim assessments and that it was part of the work we were doing and they were on board. My colleagues responded by saying that they could not do that. I was perplexed - shocked, even. Even though I understand that not every building is in turnaround and has the same level of panic regarding moving students toward achievement, I still believe that leaders set the expectations for great teachers to do great things with students.

So, who sets the expectations? Do we, as leaders, set the expectations for our teachers and give them the appropriate supports and training to rise to the occasion? Or do we let our teachers set the expectations based on what they are comfortable bringing to the table? If we continue thinking about the power of teachers in setting high expectations for student achievement and we take that to the next level, it falls to leaders to set high expectations for teachers and follow through with making sure that teachers rise to those expectations. To quote Linda Cliatt-Wayman, turnaround leader and passionate change agent, "If you're going to lead, lead." Leaders cannot make excuses about having high expectations. Leaders must make hard choices, give difficult feedback, and build enough trust with their teams that they can believe in their own power to change. We must be the voices of belief, assurance, and vision - we cannot allow for doubt, complacency, or habit to prevent us from insisting on the work that must be implemented for the success of our students.

What kind of leader are you? Are you that cage-busting leader who doesn't say no to what needs to be done and empowers the same thing from your teachers? Or are you playing it safe - letting the fears of those you're leading stop you from making the necessary changes that will ensure student success? Being a turnaround leader means that you do not have the luxury of time in making the necessary changes that will ensure student achievement. It means that you must be brave - each and every day. Turnaround leader Linda Cliatt-Wayman is inspirational as she talks about the power of a leader to impact change. In her words, "If you're going to lead, lead." What are you going to do?

Click here to view video on mobile device

Expectations

We all think that we have high expectations. But how do we know? How do we know if our expectations are too high, or if they are not high enough? Can our expectations define the success or failure of our students?

There is plenty of research to support just that - that our expectations actually define the success or failure of our students. From as early as 1968, research has told us that there is a direct connection between teacher expectations and student achievement. The Pygmalian Effect (Douglas, 1964; Mackler, 1969) outlines the connection between teacher expectations and student performance. It is possible for teachers to limit student performance based on their expectations of what they think students can do. That is pretty powerful to consider. If we can limit student performance with our expectations, then we can also improve it.

As we come to the end of our first year in turnaround, expectations are very much on my mind. What if we are where we are because adults let students define our expectations instead of having high expectations for student performance that we were intent to see achieved? It is essential for us to have high expectations for our students and to put scaffolds and supports in place that will ensure our students' success. If we, as practitioners, do not know how to get our students to the level of achievement that they must reach, then we need to continue reading, learning, reflecting, and practicing to develop our skill set and push them forward.

Before this year, the students set the expectations based on what they were able to achieve. It wasn't that the teachers didn't have expectations, it was that there was no consistent expectations and no accountability for those expectations. We set purposeful targets - like 85% of Kindergarten students will be on instructional D by the end of the school year - and continually reviewed our data to make sure that we were going to hit the mark. We listed the students by their data and reviewed their individual progress according to the targets. This approach forced our teachers to re-think their expectations and push our students to higher levels of achievement than had been defined before. Having these clearly defined expectations was necessary in order to ensure high expectations for student achievement. 

We must believe in our students and what they can achieve and we must do absolutely everything we can to ensure their success. For our students, that means that we have to do whatever it takes to ensure that they read on grade level. High expectations - for both ourselves and our students. It is what must deliver each and every day in order to make sure that we provide our children with the future they deserve. 

Determining Priorities

Do you ever feel like everything is a priority? I know when I make a to-do list, it seems like everything has the same level of panic attached to it. In our first year as a turnaround school, it felt like everything needed to be fixed, so our plate was really full. Our "official" focus areas were climate and culture and writing, but as we began the school year, we realized that there was no culture of learning - students did not know what the habits of good readers were, what their reading levels were, or how to set goals for improvement. We also had to focus on using data to drive our instruction, which took a considerable amount of time and attention. There was other work that needed to be done to support collaboration, writing, effective strategies to align to the teaching and learning rubric, analyzing student work, and unpacking standards. Despite our best efforts, everything felt like a priority.

So, it's June and my staff has done everything that has been asked of them, but they are tired. Lesson learned. Reign it in! Yes, it all needs to be done, but no, it doesn't all need to be done in a matter of months. So for year two, our focus areas are, well, more focused. We will continue with an instructional focus area on writing - with a more refined and defined goal of short response (first half of the year) and extended responses (second half of the year) - which will better align with the growth areas necessary for us to hit our targets. Our climate and culture goal will continue with a refined focus on individual behavior plans and protocols for individual student supports. Our school-wide priority, which will impact everyone in the building, is on English as a New Language. We have a high percentage of ENL (English as a New Language) students (22%) and we will not come anywhere near our target of 85% proficiency if we do not change the way we teach. We all have to become ENL teachers in order for us make the growth that we need to reach our targets. That one priority will require shifting our practice, our service delivery model, our beliefs, and our instructional delivery. It will require us asking questions of everything that we plan and honestly reflecting on whether or not what we are teaching is getting us the results we are looking for.

Backing off from feeling like everything is equally important is difficult because the pressure to achieve the goals is very real and the time is short in which to change our trajectory. It can also be difficult because there are district expectations in addition to our own building goals and targets. Here are some of the ways that we are going to hone in our focus for year two:

• Map out what we did during each month of year one and identify what aligns with our priority areas (Climate and Culture, Writing, and ENL) for year two. Those are the activities and things that will continue to have time, attention, and resources for year two.
• Just say no - when initiatives, ideas, pilots, or proposals do not align to our priorities, we have to say no. My instructional coaches know that if something doesn't align to our priorities, we will not spend our time, attention, or resources on it.
• Ask ourselves how everything aligns. If it doesn't support the priority areas, we won't invest our time, attention, or resources. 
• Continually reflect - always ask ourselves "so what?" in terms of how the work we are doing is moving us forward in our priority areas. 
• Assess. We have to assess student progress, parent understanding and engagement with our priority areas, staff, and achievement based on the work we are doing in our priority areas. We must have regular assessment in order to make mid-course corrections and ensure progress in our priority areas.

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)

Click here to view on mobile device

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!

Enriching Learning

There is ever-increasing pressure for us to provide children with greater mastery of skills at a younger age. Parents expose their children to lessons and activities; we send our children to camps to provide them with experiences that make them "well-rounded;" and schools feel more and more pressure to increase the amount of content and levels of proficiency for children.

In urban schools, this can present a significant challenge - according to the NAEP reading test data, an average of 85% of urban students do not perform at the "proficient" level in reading  http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf . My school is actually above that average - our baseline data for our turnaround is a 2% proficiency in ELA and Math. You read that correctly - 98% of our students are NOT proficient. The data shows that this puts them at a higher drop-out risk and an increased risk of living a life in poverty. And that does not even address the concerns that impact our community or our overall society and economy.

If our students are so far behind in reading and math, it may seem counter-intuitive to invest significant time and financial commitment to providing enrichment opportunities in the arts. We have, however, made a commitment to providing daily enrichment activities for the 800 students in our turnaround school. Our students are involved in 50 minutes daily of enrichment activities in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). That includes 2D and 3D arts, design and architecture, poetry, dance, leadership development and social skills, photography, drama, and creative thinking.  According to multiple longitudinal studies by the National Endowment for the Arts, students who are considered "at-risk" are more likely to finish high school if they are engaged in arts education. Involvement in the arts and STEM fields increases background knowledge, builds a greater understanding of how our world works, develops vocabulary, and leads to greater curiosity and questioning. In Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future, he speaks about the importance of creative thinking in moving the future of American society and the economy. To summarize, we need to make sure that the next generations of Americans are curious, can think outside of the box, and can see the endless possibilities of the imagination. Enriching the curriculum with the arts provides that for our children.

This week in enrichment, our Kindergarten students did sink/float experiments with boats that they made out of a variety of materials in the pool (integration between PE, Science, arts, and engineering); our 4th grade students experienced ink rolling with a steam roller at a local university (arts, college and career readiness); and 3rd and 5th grade students worked in collaborative groups to build the tallest structure (engineering, design, architecture, cooperative learning); and 5th grade students planned to begin a Community Garden project that will involve work with a neighborhood community center and the construction of benches and a mosaic. While we are assessed on our growth in state assessments, particularly in ELA and Math, enrichment adds soul and dimension to the lives of our children every day.

It is said that when Winston Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts during WWII, he refused and replied, "then what are we fighting for?" The arts are often the first thing to be eliminated from schools. In a turnaround school, it would be easy to increase time only for academics. We are fortunate to be able to enrich the lives of our children while we are working to improve their academic achievement. Adding enrichment to our day increases the value of the lives of our children - and that is what ultimately matters.

The Floor and The Ceiling

I was working with some brilliant people this week from The Highlander Institute who really challenged my thinking (which I totally love!). We were discussing standards and the way that teachers approach the standards and I was expressing that I felt that we were not pushing our higher students enough to really achieve at high levels. The response was eye opening. Are we looking at the standards as a floor or a ceiling? Wow! That was it! That summed up what I have been thinking about our approach to our higher students. When we look at the standards as a ceiling, our high students reach that ceiling and we, as practitioners, do not know necessarily what to do next or if we will have permission to do something that is outside of the standards, so we don't push too hard. If we shift our thinking and those standards become the floor - the baseline that we reach from - the possibilities are endless for us in terms of the ways we extend our students in their thinking and understanding.

What does it take for me as a practitioner to shift from the ceiling to the floor approach? I have to be able to go much deeper in my understanding of the standards and what they represent. I also have to have the autonomy (and the courage) to be able to pull away from "the script" and become more creative in my approach to the competencies in the standards. So, it goes back to having autonomy, mastery, and purpose in my work in order to feel confident enough to come "out of the box" and meet the needs of all of my students - including my higher students (Thanks, Daniel Pink!).

I am challenging myself and my teachers to re-think the way that we educate for the future. We are looking into blended approaches and more digital entry points for our students. It is scary to think about teaching reaching to children in a different way than we are used to. Blended classrooms do not look like traditional classrooms. But if we are standing on the floor and reaching up, rather than always hitting the ceiling, we have to take the risk. Our students have unlimited access to technology outside of school and the options are changing daily. When we think about the skills that our students will need in their futures - collaboration skills, the ability to access information quickly, being able to adapt to change, and communication skills - these are all embedded in a blended learning approach. Are we actually holding our students back because we are not comfortable with different approaches as adults?

 Click here to watch video on mobile device
As we move forward and change the way we think about what school should look like, we are in brand new territory. This takes courage, vision, and confidence - it may not work on our first attempt. But aren't we trying to teach our children those same things? Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a mind, once stretched by a new idea, can never return to its original dimensions. This is exactly what a turnaround school needs more of.

Balance

It seems that having balance would be an oxymoron for a turnaround leader - the amount of work that needs to be done and the pressure to meet goals and targets can be all consuming. Without balance between the work and "real life," there is a very real concern that both ends will begin to unravel. Real life has a way of forcing balance - it might be an illness, a relationship, a family situation, a friend in need, or the passing of someone important to you that brings you back to seeing that the work must be balanced with a level of focus on "real life" that matches the focus on the work.

What are the roles that you play in your life? I am a wife, a mother to two teenage boys, a sister, a daughter, a turnaround principal, a friend, a learner, a boss, an employee, a musician, a creative thinker, and a manager. Balancing these roles is challenging because each of them requires so much energy - emotional, creative, and physical. When I am too focused on the role of being a turnaround leader, the other parts of my life - like wife or mother - start to unravel and I am forced to adjust my time. Right now, both of my teenage sons are struggling in school and not maintaining their grades. I have been sick for three weeks and my relationship with my husband has been strained. My house is a mess and I have not taken any time for myself in weeks or months. We are coming off of a site review at school and it has been physically and emotionally draining for me as a leader and for my staff, who is working incredibly hard as well.

So, if the question here is "do we need to be superheros in order to turn our schools around?" The answer is no, but there are some things that we need to do in order to find balance. Here are some things that I find important to keeping things in check and moving the work forward:

• Use lists to keep track of deadlines and things that must be done - include things that must be delegated, can be done quickly, or just pop in to your head in order to capture the big picture. Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you cross things off your list!
• Delegate. When delegating to team members or teacher leaders, be clear in your expectations and deadlines for tasks so that what has been delegated doesn't become an additional headache when the deadline is not met. Make the deadline for completion well ahead of the deadline for submission so that there is time for revision.
• Ask for help. Know who on your team can help with things that need to be done but don't necessarily require your personal involvement. Things like flyers, notices, robo-calls, letters can often be generated by someone else on your team.
• Have clear expectations. This may seem like it is unnecessary, but no one can read your mind and being clear at the onset will save you headache in the long run. The other part of clear expectations is to give actionable feedback so when your expectations are not being met, they can be by providing clear, specific, and actionable feedback. This applies to tasks, instruction, classroom management, or anything related to successfully turning around a school. If you are not clear as a leader, no one around you will know how to move forward. 
• Set goals and targets. Where do you expect to be in 3 years? After year 1? After the first 90 days? Share your goals with your staff and get their input and involvement. The goals and targets will feel ambitious, but the more everyone is on board and can pace their own progress against the goals and targets, the more likely it will be that you will get there. When I began as a turnaround principal, I set goals and targets for the first 90 days. The first work that we did as an SLT was to articulate what we expected to see after the first 3 months, half-way through the first year, and by the end of year one of our turnaround plan. This was powerful work, and now that we are planning for year two, we are able to build on the initial goals and can better plan for how we will continue to grow in year two.
• Take time to support those around you. If you are feeling stressed and overworked, your team is likely feeling stressed and overworked. Find time to celebrate the people around you and the work that they are doing. 
• Walk away. There is always work to be done. Know when you can leave it and when you need to take it home with you. It will be there tomorrow, so prioritize what must be done in the time that you have to do it.
• Make time for friends and family. However it looks in your world, make time to be with the people you love. I have made Sunday the day that I work with my kids on their homework and try to cook ahead some meals for the week. Weeknights are fast paced and often feel like more of a check in than real quality time, but Sundays we are able to spend the time it takes to re-connect. This works for me, but you need to know what will work for you.
• Take care of yourself. I am awful at this, but I recognize the importance of it. This is an area I definitely need to improve in.
• Thank people. Thank your family for their support. Recognize your team for all of the hard work that they are doing. Write notes, send emails, give shout-outs at meetings, include appreciations on every agenda, thank parents for supporting their children, thank your students for the hard work that they are doing - create a culture of positivity and optimism by purposefully recognizing the efforts of individuals in moving the team forward. 
• Give yourself a break. You are not a superhero. Know when you need to put it in low gear. (Yeah, I need to work on this, too.)

For more resources on finding balance and helpful strategies, check out this resource on the Wheel of Life ( http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_93.htm ). And no matter what, keep calm and #turnaround.

 

Leading People - Not Just Leading Change

While leading change and leading transition, we can lose sight of the fact that we are leading people. All of the initiatives, all of the targets and goals, all of the pressure to achieve in a turnaround school can cause a leader to lose sight of what people need in terms of support.

In the book, Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute, we are challenged to look at the ways that we, as leaders, see ourselves as in charge or more right than those we are leading. Sometimes when we are "in the box" we forget that leadership is more about serving others. Personally, I am about the work. Having an intense work ethic does not preclude caring about the people involved in the work. However, when you are "in the box" you can tell yourself that you are right in the way you communicate about the work that needs to be done. Forgetting to think about what the people involved in the work need in order to feel supported and cared about is a huge mis-step in managing transition and change in a turnaround school.

Reflecting on leadership as service to others helps us to be mindful of what the people involved in change need - even when it does not align with our own personality or personal needs. Getting "out of the box" and seeing people as people, rather than employees, is necessary as people manage the transitions and changes involved in turning around a school.

Knowing and understanding that the work of supporting change means supporting the people through the change is a shift in thinking for a turnaround leader. We sign up for leading a turnaround school because we have the vision to see the end result. We know and understand that shifting our practice, using data, and a deep commitment to the vision can be the vehicle through which we move a school from failing to achieving. But that only builds a foundation. We cannot hire and fire our way to achievement. We must commit to developing, caring for, and supporting the people who are in the midst of the change and transition in order to move the work forward. Supporting the work means supporting the people who are in the work - even when what they need is different than what you may need as a leader. Knowing what your people need is essential for a turnaround leader.

A Strong Sense of Community

The power of community is in the sense of shared purpose and support within a group of individuals with common experiences. A strong sense of community allows us to support and challenge one another both as people and as professionals as we pursue our common vision.

How do we develop a true sense of community in our school and in our classrooms? What strategies are most effective in helping our students see their role in the greater community? How can we promote a sense of belonging and purpose to our young people so that we are truly making a difference? Sometimes in times of crisis, we see the need for community and we feel the power that having a sense of community can bring. We can build that sense of community within our classrooms and our school in order to help our students be more compassionate as people and more focused as learners. Morning Meeting is a powerful tool in creating a sense of community. Using the power of the community circle to create a safe place where students have mutual respect for one another and have the ability to share who they really are is critical to teaching students to value and respect one another within the learning community. I regularly used community circle in my classroom – as a beginning to our day to set the tone of our work, as a problem-solving meeting if things were not going well, as a reflection on our learning and our work together, or as a fun way to engage with one another in our learning. There is great value in the circle within our learning communities. Here is another powerful article that stresses the importance of building community within the classroom through purposeful and explicit expectations and the development of a set of norms for how we will work and live together in our learning community. http://www.edutopia.org/envision-schools-learning-community-respect

Schools who develop a sense of community are able to withstand any challenge. That sense of belonging, safety, and support within a school learning community makes it a safe place for staff or students to be real people within the challenge of the work. There is power in knowing that we are here to support one another and to care for one another – and there is strength in our common vision and purpose that brings us together. Community supports us as we continue to push forward and continue to focus on the work we are engaged in. Community pushes us to have rigorous lessons, high expectations, and opportunities for students to think deeply about the work we are engaged in. Community reminds us that collaborative teams are different than collegial teams and pushes one another in our thinking and in our expectations for student work. Being a part of a community that shares in a common vision, a common belief, and a common commitment to the work is unique and does not happen without purposeful development and leadership. If you are fortunate enough to be a part of a community that shares a common vision and belief, values reflection and growth, and develops the best thinking and practice in its learners, then you are fortunate, indeed.