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. 

Enriching collaboration

Collaboration. What does it look like in schools and how can you measure the results of that collaboration? This has been an underlying theme for us during year one of our turnaround plan. I believe that collaboration, much like creativity, needs some structure in order to thrive. All voices must be given the opportunity to contribute, to lead, to question, to push, and even to disagree in order for collaboration to be truly impactful and effective. I said to my colleague this week, "Politeness is poison to collaboration," and suggested that we might have t-shirts made with that phrase. What does that phrase mean to me as a leader and as a developer of teacher leaders? It means that everyone must feel that they are engaged in the direction of the dialogue, the development of ideas, and the evaluation of effective implementation in order for collaboration to work. If teachers feel that they can only share their true thoughts when they leave the room, it is not true collaboration.

Our enrichment partner (part of our extended learning time aspect of our turnaround plan) has been provided STEAM based instruction for our students daily while our classroom teachers leave the classroom for Collaborative Team Planning. In the beginning of the year, we operated without connectivity between enrichment and classroom curricula,even though we saw some beautiful products of the enrichment programming early on, we were missing the collaboration between our two systems. Throughout the year, we have engaged differently and more purposefully around planning collaborative units and projects. Our enrichment staff has willingly worked with teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators to see connections between the curriculum areas and develop lessons and units that build on and expand upon concepts taught in classrooms. As we have gotten better at collaboration, the work has become more meaningful to our students and to our teachers. As teachers have seen the multiple ways that creative thinking can enhance their content and curriculum, they have been encouraged to collaborate more with their enrichment partners and have found even more connections and ways to engage our students. 

We just finished a three day Celebration of the Arts this past week. It was amazing. Over three days, our students worked with a composer on a commissioned piece and presented the world-premiere of a work composed for our students, performed musical selections that aligned to the theme "I am the future," presented dance and instrumental performances, and hosted an Open House Living Museum for parents and families that included students reading stories they had written, dramatizing stories of kings, queens, fairy tales, pirate ships, and lost treasure, and created space ships, solar systems, and geodomes. This was the result of collaboration - between enrichment and classroom teachers, between school and community, and between students and teachers. This collaboration allowed our students to engage with the arts in ways that showed them who they are and who they can be. The arts can bring out the best in us and collaboration in the arts can unite a school community. Enjoy the images of our collaboration and the amazing things that our students created. It was so powerful to be a part of this collaboration (that's me - sitting at the piano). I am in awe of the things that great teachers can do with students when they are given the autonomy, mastery, and purpose to make great things happen.

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!