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What's
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| What Should Learning Communities Talk About? |
| by Joseph Aguerrebere |
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| A vitally important mission of schooling is to prepare students for a global economy, a “flat world,” in the words of Thomas Friedman, in which the resources to compete are in the hands of the more educated, creative, and innovative (Friedman, 2005). Individuals with complementary skill sets, when brought together in collaborative groups, are the wellspring of new ideas. |
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"Educators must model the new environment in which their students will live and work. Educators must move from teaching as an isolated, individual activity to a group orientation." |
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What does this mean for schools? Educators must model the new environment in which their students will live and work. Educators must move from teaching as an isolated, individual activity to a group orientation. Peter Senge’s work for over 25 years has been devoted to developing learning communities—that is, developing the capacity to collaborate in order to accomplish changes that would be impossible to achieve individually.
Creating a culture of trust is one prerequisite for a learning community. Another is choosing the right structure. Who sets the learning community’s agenda matters. One point of view suggests that the learning community collectively sets its agenda. If a particular topic of focus is mandated by someone outside the group, it is doomed to fail, so the argument goes. Another point of view suggests that if left to their own devices, learning communities will focus on issues that are safe, less risky, and inconsequential, evolving into emotional support groups that promote self-esteem but fall short on changing teacher practices that result in greater student learning. This view suggests that the topics should be determined and tied to specific learning goals and objectives developed by the school and district. Read more |
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Joseph Aguerrebere, Ed.D, is President and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (www.nbpts.org) in Arlington, Virginia. His education career includes serving as a classroom teacher, school and central-office administrator, and professor of educational administration at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Prior to joining NBPTS, he was Deputy Director at the Ford Foundation in New York where he supported systemic initiatives to improve the effectiveness of professional educators. |
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Join
an upcoming Failure Is Not an Option®:
Courageous Leadership for School Success
event! |
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| In This Issue |
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The Soul of Educational Leadership Book Package |
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| Get the complete set... |
The new Soul of Educational Leadership series - edited by Alan Blankstein, Paul Houston and Robert Cole - contains the latest information by top authors world-wide on timely topics such as Engaging Every Learner and Sustaining Professional Learning Communities.
Get the entire set and save more than 10%. |
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| Every Voice Matters in Professional Learning Communities |
| by Cathy Owens |
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| Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) must be comprised of teacher leaders and school administrators who work collaboratively not only to develop a school improvement plan but also to determine which specific actions are necessary to implement the plan and bring it into reality. Collaboration is how PLCs fill in the blanks between where their school is and where they want it to be, thus closing the implementation gap.
Generating Buy-In from Staff Begins with Conversation
In order to create a structure for this kind of collaborative planning, administrators must be able to generate buy-in from staff for needed change. Generating buy-in is a critical step toward demonstrating instructional leadership. Leaders must take deliberate actions to ensure that all teachers are able to
articulate the purpose and value of PLCs, engage in effective professional
learning on a daily basis, and generate evidence that their ongoing adult
learning transfers into classroom practice. Read more
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Cathy R. Owens, NBCT, is Director of Educational Partnerships for TeachFirst, Inc. (www.teachfirst.com). Formerly, Director of Learning for the National Staff Development Council (NSDC.org), as well as Director of Professional Development and Teacher Networks for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS.org), Cathy is a well-regarded expert in professional learning for school administrators, staff developers, and teacher leaders. A consummate speaker and author, she is a regular presenter at professional conferences and writes articles for leading education journals. |
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The Core of Courageous Leadership Is Commitment to Student Success
by Alan Blankstein
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"At the core of courageous leadership in schools is not only belief in the success of all students, but a resounding commitment to it."
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At the core of courageous leadership in schools is not only belief in the success of all students, but a resounding commitment to it (Blankstein, 2004, 2007). One of the greatest complaints students share about teachers is the feeling that some teachers are not committed to their success (Grossman & Ancess, 2004; Ogbu, 2003; Zanger, 1993). This is particularly true of low-performing and traditionally disenfranchised student populations (Ferguson, 2002; Ogbu, 2003; Steele, 1999), where many students have been given up on, again and again. As a result, these students expect to be given up on and are slow to trust anything to the contrary.
Courageous classroom leaders understand this and refuse to give up on their students. Likewise, courageous school and district leaders help their communities to commit collectively and unequivocally to the success of all students. Developing sustainable relationships that serve all students is one of the toughest parts of courageous leadership. Many members of school communities have a traditional, zero-sum, win-lose way of thinking: “If your child gets into Advanced Placement classes, then how does that affect my child’s chances?” or “If all students can take AP classes, then how does that dilute the quality of classes for my child?” Read more |
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Alan Blankstein is Founder and President of the HOPE
Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated
to supporting educational leaders over time in creating school
cultures where failure is not an option for any student.
Alan is author of the best-selling book Failure Is Not
an Option®: Six Principles That Guide
Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, which
has been awarded “Book of the Year” by the National
Staff Development Council. Currently, Alan is Senior Editor
along with Paul Houston of the eight-volume The Soul of
Educational Leadership series. |
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| Commentaries on Leadership: |
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by Dennis Sparks |
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"[T]here is evidence that schools are well served by one-page plans that are clearly focused and simple enough that every participant in the process understands his or her role in executing the plan."
- Douglas Reeves |
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I believe that well-conceptualized improvement plans stretch schools and the individuals who work and learn in them. Such plans provide compelling purposes, focus organizational energy, and are expressed in simple, concise, and clear language. Too often, however, district and school plans overwhelm and confuse principals and teachers rather than guide and motivate day-to-day improvements in teaching and learning.
Strong plans stretch teachers and administrators beyond their comfort zones. Strong plans require that the school community make difficult decisions about which “sacred cows” will be sacrificed because they no longer serve students. And strong plans are expressed in ways that are easily understood by those most affected by them. As a result of this clarity, principals, teachers, and students will be able to explain in concrete, specific language the school’s overarching goals and how the actions they are taking that day, and even in a particular lesson, serve those purposes. Without such clarity in the minds of those most affected, system and school plans will have little effect on day-to-day classroom life.
Prepare an “I believe” statement about the characteristics of school improvement plans that lead to continuous improvements in teaching and learning. After writing your statement, share it with colleagues to better understanding your own views and those of others. To promote learning and to counter the debate and defensiveness that often occur when individuals advocate the “truth” of their points of view, I encourage you to offer your belief in the spirit of mutual inquiry with a genuine openness to being influenced by others.
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Dennis Sparks is emeritus executive director of the National Staff Development Council (nsdc.org) and serves as a "thinking partner" to leadership teams of education organizations. He is the author of the best-selling book Leading For Results (corwinpress.com), and his Leading Through Learning essays are co-published by NSDC and Phi Delta Kappa International (pdkintl.org/publications/leading.htm). He can be reached at dennis.sparks@comcast.net. |
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Failure Is Not an Option® 3 |
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Effective Assessment for
Effective Learning: |
Seven Instructional Principles for Guiding Student Achievement
Featuring: Jay McTighe, Carol Ann Tomlinson, Alan Blankstein, Ken O'Connor, Larry Bell, Michael Fullan, Linda Darling-Hammond, Ernest Morrell and school practitioners from two high-performing school districts
This fall, the HOPE Foundation will be releasing Effective Assessment for Effective Learning, a collaborative effort involving renowned researchers and practitioners in our field. This series demonstrates how schools in two high-performing, diverse school districts use well-designed classroom assessments and grading practices to provide specific, personalized and timely information to guide both teaching and learning. As a result, teachers, students and other school stakeholders have become better informed, more engaged and motivated and successful in enhancing the performance of their learning community. Read more |
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Where There
Is HOPE, Failure Is Not an Option® |
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Copyright © 2008 by The
HOPE Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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