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The
Transformative Leaders Roadmap to Facilitating School Excellence
and Progress
Up the Growth Pathway
By John Shindler
Updated 08/19 - To be published soon.
But for now - Feel free to read, site and share.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Section I: Building the Pathway
1. Introduction to
Transformative School Road Map
2. Exploring
the Climate X-Factor, the Achievement Correlation and the R-X-O sequence
3. Vertical Axis of the Road
Map: Building Intention and Function levels
4. Horizontal
Axis of the Road Map: Promoting Empowerment, POS and a Healthy Climate
5. The Roadmap: Putting
it all Together and Assessing Where you Are Currently
Section II: Moving up the Pathway
6. Building Trust and
Emphasizing Process Values
7. R-Promoting
Quality References and Vision Development
8. X-Improving Practice and Instructional Leadership
9. O-Effective use
of Outcomes and Meaningful Evidence-based Decision Making
10. Exploring
the Eight School Climate Dimensions
11. Moving up in
the Area of Classroom Management
12. Moving
up from lower levels: Building Intention, Capacity and Coherence
13. Moving
Up&Across from middle levels: Making the 2-to1 Left Hand Turn
14. Leader
Self-Reflection and Personal Growth Processing
Chapter 1: Introduction to
the Roadmap and the School Improvement Pathway
This
book is your guide to becoming a transformative leader and supporting your
schools process of growth. Within every school building lies the potential to
be a high performing vision-driven school- a transformative school. What is
commonly missing is a roadmap for actualizing that potential. In this book, we
offer a clear, research-based roadmap for how to understand the process of
school change, and a practical methodology for moving your school up to higher
levels on the roadmap. The benefits of that growth include improved performance,
but also assume higher levels of function and climate quality, as well as a
school that embodies a greater sense of ease, sanity and satisfaction.
Why Do We
Need a Roadmap?
First,
to initiate improvement, we to have a conceptual and operational understanding
of where we are currently. Without that knowledge we lack the able to
appreciate and define our current situation clearly. Second, we need a roadmap
to know where we are going. Where are we heading, and what do we mean when we
refer to concepts like better or improved or higher performing? If we cannot
define what we are about, or where we are going in tangible terms that can be
shared and understood by everyone, it will limit our ability to cultivate the
qualities of vision and trust- which are essential factors to
our growth.
The
school effectiveness roadmap laid out in the first portion of this book will
help illuminate the inner workings of schools and school change. Most readers
will find that being able to explore the anatomy of their school will be
empowering in and of itself. The following chapters will explain the practical
steps required to move from where one is, to the next level. For some readers
that may imply a starting point at a lower location on the roadmap and the need
to build a foundation of function and plant the seeds for future growth. For
other readers they may find the roadmap helpful in supporting their process of
going from good to great and breaking through to the next level. No matter
where your starting point, the roadmap will be a
useful aid in clarifying how to ascend to the next stage of growth along your
journey.
A Brief
History of Our Work at ASSC and the Origins of the Effectiveness Roadmap
Over
the course of the past 20 years my colleagues and I have explored what makes
schools effective. We began our journey by asking a basic question- what is the
most essential phenomenon within a school? What we concluded was that the X
factor was the schools climate- that basic quality that defines each school and
the totality of that which happens within it. We began our efforts as the
Alliance for the Study of School Climate (ASSC) with the goal of understanding
schools and helping educators. We then created the School Climate Assessment
Instrument (SCAI) and began to assess climate at schools using this very broad
and inclusive eight- dimension survey. Our goal was to provide a mirror for
schools so that they could better understand how they were performing in the
area of school climate. We were successful and content with this as our
function, but soon we found that the SCAI also predicted student achievement
(and other outcomes) almost perfectly – i.e., a 0.7 correlation (explained in
more detail in chapter 2). While at the time most school leaders were still
viewing social-emotional climate and academic achievement as separate, even
competing consideration, what our research was saying was that they both had
the same root – that basic X factor. Near the same time, we had developed a
classroom teacher style matrix that we used in our teacher and administrator
credential classes and in our school consulting to help make sense of the
different intentions and practices within classrooms. What we realized was that
the matrix provided an ideal topography for how the climate and achievement
data could be mapped and understood. When we combined the two, the essence of
the school effectiveness roadmap was born. Over the past decade or so we have
made revisions and validated it with data and experience. And we have been able
to see how powerful it can be as a means of prediction as well as explanation.
We have presented it all over the country, to various groups of educators and
the reaction has been the same – yes, that’s it! In addition, we have been
engaged with hundreds of schools in their improvement processes, and have
sought out transformative leaders, and studied what they did. What we have
found is that the process for moving up varies somewhat from one situation to
another, but the basic principles for affecting positive change will be
similar. Those common principles can be explained and operationalized into the
practical action that best activate a school’s potential. For some the roadmap
model may require a paradigm shift to appreciate, while for others it will
connect with their vision and values immediately. But in either
case, what we hear is that one’s appreciation of the roadmap as valid and
useful grows with emersion and use over time.
Figure 1.1 depicts the
broadest characterization of the school effectiveness roadmap. The more
productive, effective and desirable locations on the roadmap are defined by
higher levels of personal and collective function and empowerment. The vertical
axis represents a continuum of function and intention. Moving up on this axis will
imply creating more capacity, coherence, intention and efficiency. The
horizontal axis reflects a contrast between empowerment, connection and trust
versus control, competition and fear. Movement up typically implies a great
deal of intention, effort and the building of effective structures. Moving over
to the highest levels on the roadmap most often implies a shift in the mindset
guiding the school’s vision. We call that “making the left-hand turn.” And
without it, the function and performance levels of a school will be limited.
Using the
Roadmap and the Book – The Journey is the Destination
Throughout
the book as well as your process of school improvement it will be useful to
keep in mind that both the nature of the more desirable locations on the roadmap
and what it takes to progress there will be inter-related. When your school
ultimately demonstrates the values and practices defined by higher levels of
vision, trust and empowerment you will find yourself experiencing all the
benefits and outcomes that correspond to those higher locations along the
pathway. Concurrently, what it will require for that movement to have occurred
will be those same qualities. We teach and lead who we are. And who we are will
manifest ultimately as our performance level. So, in a very real sense the
nature of the journey is the experience of the destination and vice versa.
While
the school effectiveness roadmap is somewhat complex – it will take us the
first five chapters to fully build – when entirely
represented it provides a rather complete macro theoretical foundation as well
as an applied tool-box for unpacking the countless micro practical implications
required for leading your school in the process of meeting its full potential.
Moving Up
the Pathway
As
we will discuss throughout the book, within the overall roadmap, there is a
typical theoretical pathway of
phenomenon onto which most schools can be found. We do occasionally find
schools operating off that common pathway, but for reasons that will be explored
in more detail, most schools exist and/or move in the predictable pattern. And
yes, it is true that each school along with its teachers and leaders exists
within a physical and socio-cultural context that presents limits and
challenges, however the capacity for substantive growth up the pathway exist
within every school.
When we look at schools in general we find that there are
countless ways to stay about the same and/or perform at an acceptable level, yet only a very
narrow path to actualizing meaningful growth and improvement (that includes few
if any short-cuts, or quick fixes). This is true for individuals, teams,
companies, and schools. The process will be similar for all organisms. When we
look at any collective entity closely, we see that groups at different points
along the pathway are not only doing very different things, but they are trying
to do very different things. One’s location on the roadmap will be defined by
three inter-related variable 1) what we value, think and feel, which we will call references, 2) what we
do – our practices and actions, and what occurs as a result of what we do,
which we will call our outcomes.
We
have collected data from hundreds of schools over the past few years and
interviewed dozens of highly effective school leaders. What we have discovered
is that where the school is located geographically tells us much less about it
than where it is located on the effectiveness roadmap. The reason is that the
location of the values, practices and outcomes at any school will tend to be at
the same location on the school effectiveness roadmap. Therefore, given the
knowledge of either the common references/values, the common practices or the
common outcomes, the roadmap will be able to accurately predict the qualities
or rating or the other two factors. Certain climates produce certain
achievement levels, and certain practices produce certain kinds of climates.
And most telling of all will be the references/values that inform the practice.
So, moving up the pathway to higher levels on the roadmap implies consideration
for each of these three factors, and addressing each of them within the growth
process.
The starting point on our journey to becoming
more effective is to recognize that everything
is connected. “Everything” at the school includes all the actions, methods,
practices as well as all the thoughts, intentions, emotions, climate and
culture. Denial of this fact is responsible for a vast amount of wasted time,
money and effort, and why most school improvement efforts fail (Kotter, 1995, Fullan,
1993)). Often we hear leaders lament
that “we need to do something at this school to . . . “ This
seemingly proactive and well-intentioned sentiment is commendable. But it is
useful to recognize that we are doing
something at the school all day every day. While, sometimes it is useful to add
a strategy or program into the mix to promote a positive outcome, no strategy
can fix a fundamentally problematic context by itself. And more often than not
what we tend to find is that adding a series of add-ons into a school or
classroom results in rather mediocre results overall. If the values/references
within the context do not support the new practice it will be rejected or dissipate eventually. And if we survey teachers
and leaders in high and low climate and/or performance schools, we find that
they both work very hard all day, the difference is whether our effort feels
like it is moving us forward and making a difference or just coping and
treading water.
When
we examine what creates true improvement, higher levels of function and
high-quality outcomes, success is dependent on a series of complex but rather
explainable factors such as vision, trust, function, climate, and quality.
These concepts can appear abstract and elusive, but in this book, we will
operationalize them, and explore how to promote them as practical realities. An
especially critical quality indispensable to any effort toward meaningful
growth will be that of vision. Too often we attach the vision in an
organization to a person. Having leaders who possess visionary qualities will
be useful indeed, but the quality of vision can be created within any group.
Sustainable vision is an attitude, a set of practices and collectively moving
with confidence in a clear direction. Vision is part of the culture of great
schools, and something any school can cultivate.
While
the definition of school improvement today is dominated by the goal of raising
student achievement scores, and how we get there is often defined by a
“whatever it takes.” mentality, the fact is that how we get there is the key to obtaining and sustaining
higher levels of achievement. As a result of the external pressures to improve,
and the prevalence of heavy-handed external program “implementations,” we may
associate improvement and change with something unnatural and forced. But the
growth process, when approached with a sensitivity to how individuals and
groups function, can be rather satisfying and rewarding. And the fact is that
creating a healthy, functional and vision-driven school is more likely to
improve student achievement scores (as well as real student achievement by any
definition) than trying to attack student achievement scores directly, with
“programs.” The highest locations on the roadmap produce both high student
achievement as well as high student achievement scores, but they are also
defined by a healthy climate, an emotionally sane and satisfying environment,
meaningful learning and critical life lesson learning. There is no
compartmentalization or compromise necessary. Every move up the pathway is
innately more natural and enjoyable to those within the school. Figure 1.3
outlines some of the markers of successfully movement up the pathway.
Figure
1.3: Frequency of certain phenomenon within schools successfully moving up the
pathway
More |
Less |
Vision within the collective that clarifies our work |
Need for
telling, selling, bribing and coercing people to get them to perform well. |
Integrity of the efforts from leaders, teachers, staff and students in
a direction that leads to growth. |
Disconnected action from leaders, teachers,
staff and students that tends to add up the same old same old. |
Internal discovery of high-quality practice as a result of asking the
right questions and looking in the right places |
Need for administration
to externally implement things onto others that are resisted, ignored and/or
replaced later. |
A clear sense of the long-term and how today fits in. |
The feeling that coping and getting along
in the short term is all that one can handle in a typical day. |
A solid context (school and classroom climate and function levels) that
allows for qualities such as creativity, trust and innovation to emerge
naturally. |
School and
classroom environments that perpetually requires so much management and maintenance
that creativity and innovation are viewed as luxuries or fantasies. |
A pervasive feeling of movement, growth and winning. Something is being
built. |
A familiar feeling related to the need to
solve the same set of problems day in and day out. We are on a treadmill. |
Progression
of the Book Content
After
building the school effectiveness roadmap in chapters 2-5, in chapter six we
examine how to cultivate trust among the leadership, teachers/staff and
students within the school and the necessity to emphasize process values over
outcome values. While trust is often associated with a feeling, operationally,
trust in an organization will also require a clear sense that the ship is
heading toward a direction that makes sense, and policies are in place that
allow adults and students to feel a sense of confidence in the plan. In chapter
seven we explore how we can cultivate a guiding school vision and offer ideas
for supporting this quality within the school. As you become more familiar with
the roadmap, you will likely find that it functions well to as means of guiding
your vision toward your desired growth destination. In chapter eight, we
explore how to support and encourage great practices and how to act as an
expert instructional leader. While vision is the most essential catalyst, the
best indicator of success for any school will be the quality of the
instructional practices and the capacity of the school to function as a
professional learning community. In chapter nine, we examine strategic planning
and how to use data and assessment effectively.
We offer a vision-based process for strategic planning and how to use
data to recognize and solve real problems rather than symptoms. What our
research has shown is that when schools use a reactive logic {response solution
<- problem outcome} they tend to stay stuck in the middle of the pathway,
but when they use a vision-based logic {vision -> practice -> assessment
of efficacy} they are able to elevate their game to the higher levels of the
roadmap. In chapter ten we take each of
the eight dimensions of climate and examine their interdependence as well as
their independent contributions to the overall climate of the school. For each
dimension we offer guiding questions to support your school’s investigation and
processes of reflection. Often the most effective strategy for change is to
change the internal guiding questions we are using to inform our strategic as
well as daily actions.
Because
of the critical place of classroom management in the school improvement
process, an entire chapter (11) is devoted to how to move up the pathway in
this area. Basic factors related to a sound social contract, sanity promoting
policies, and clear, logical, and empowering practices make up a solid
foundation at any school. As schools seek to move up in this area, the task
will be to promote more student self-direction, community bonds, and social and
emotional growth within the individuals and the collective – in other words the
1-Style classroom Shindler, 2009). Given that all schools are currently at
different locations on the roadmap, the needs of leaders and schools will vary.
Each school will ultimately need to enter the improvement process at different
places therefore the next two chapters are devoted to schools starting at two
distinct location on the roadmap. Chapter twelve outlines the process of moving
a school from a lower performing location to higher levels of function, a more
positive climate and level of self-efficacy. The nature of this effort will be
defined by developing a sound school vision, building the capacity for
sustained growth, engaging in a process of self-evaluation with the goal of
clarifying the requisite intentions moving forward, ensuring coherence, and
encouraging sanity and efficiency so as to respect the needs of everyone in the
school. Chapter thirteen explains how to go from “good” to “great” - how a
school that is currently performing well by most standards can move up the
pathway and actualize more of its potential. While this trajectory requires a
potential paradigm shift toward more empowerment and activation of the human
capital, it implies a great many adjustments in practice from a move
teacher-centered, and top down structure, to a more student-centered, and
democratic structure. And for many schools, this transition will require as
much letting go of attitudes, practices and policies that define the
lower/middle levels as adding more transformational attitudes, practices and
policies.
The
Leader’s Journey
In
the final chapter the focus is you the leader and your personal journey of
vision setting and growth that will inevitably mirror the broader school
effort. Regardless of the location of your school, department, team, or
institution geographically or on the improvement roadmap, you will need to
cultivate your personal intention related to your role as a leader. This
chapter will support your process of self-reflection and growth. You may want
to read this chapter first. No matter your current mindset or the state of your
school, as you engage the process of reading this book and endeavoring to
facilitate the improvement at your school, you are encouraged to consider
adopting the following three basic personal values. They are:
1.
Willingness
to become an expert in the nature of the roadmap and the mechanics of the
change process. Much of it will resonate with your experience, and your
instinctual sense of how things work, but there will also be some areas where
your assumptions will be challenged, and it may imply the need to change your
thinking or your practices. Included in that willingness will be the need for
patience with yourself, others and the process. If you are looking for quick
fixed or clever strategies that you can use as short cuts to promoting
meaningful and systemic change you will not find many here. The effort here is
to support your growth as a real leader not someone who is posing as one.
2.
Commitment
to a department, a school, or a district, team, institution, etc. This will imply
time and a real concern for the well-being of those who you are entrusted to
work with and lead. It will require an attitude of service and an emergence of
your sense of your purpose as a leader.
3.
Openness
to cultivating a vision. Your success will be dependent on your ability to see
within the institution the highest good and nurturing a shared vision among the
collective. You will need to develop the personal skills, knowledge and
dispositions to inspire others to see a more functional, empowered, and
satisfying place that can emerge out of the current state of affairs.
Appreciate the reality of where folks are but hold the vision of their
potential as an even more accurate reality.
Within
each school is the potential for excellence. As leaders we need harness the
power of “yet.” We may not be where we could be yet, but we can tap into the
vision of what can be that brings hope and energy to our work and everyone at
the school. Change is a team effort. But if we look around, we see abundant
evidence that improvement will not happen without great leadership and a
quality roadmap. In the next chapter we will begin the process of building the
school effectiveness roadmap that will be your guide to taking your school
where you desire.
References
Fullan, M. (1993) Change
Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. The Falmer
Press.
Kotter,
J (1995) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review. March 1995, p. 59-67.
Shindler,
J. (2009) Transformative Classroom
Management. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.