A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Role of Leadership in Sustaining School Reform: Voices From the Field - July 1996

Knowledge and Daring

Experience teaches that sustaining reform requires both knowledge and willingness to take risks. Effective leaders develop the foundation of information, understanding, and skill that underpins successful change. They make the last step into the unknown as safe and well researched as it can be. They speak of risk taking in the context of developing solid information about issues of adoption and adaptation. They speak of research, observations, discussion groups, training, education, or other active cultivation of knowledge and skills as the foundation of innovation and the source of actual power to change things. They refer to using mentors or other advisors or arranging for mentors for others.

Making All Learning Meaningful

Vision is the anchor of all decision making. My story centers on the school's effort to change the lunchroom. Teachers had been complaining about discipline problems at lunch, and they suggested, as a remedy, handing out stickers and stars for good behavior. I had to steer them away from this superficial decision, because our school vision is to make very activity a meaningful learning experience. The teachers agreed to rethink the lunchroom issue, and they formed a committee to do so. The first thing they did was go to the lunchroom to gather more information. They decided that one of the main problems was that the lunchroom was "ugly and an unpleasant place to eat." The committee decided to turn the lunchroom into a "restaurant," and to let students figure out how. They thought that once they provided students with meaningful learning in a meaningful context, behavior and learning would improve.

The staff decided to take the worst class, in terms of behavior, and ask them to tackle this project. Their goal was to prove that student motivation would increase and that these "problem students" could become involved students if they were exposed to meaningful learning. Community members were also called in to join the effort. Teachers, students, and community members met, broke into groups, and chose "Italy" as a theme for their restaurant. The students began the process of turning their lunchroom into an Italian restaurant. They studied Italian history, art, decor, cooking, architecture, and language. They used budgeting and other math skills in comparison shopping to buy tablecloths at a bargain price. The project quickly spread to other grade levels and soon the whole school was involved in lunchroom reform projects. Before the grand opening, the students conducted classroom presentations at each grade level on "restaurant behavior"--behavior traits that they as a group had come up with.

The main lesson of this experience was that the school vision was always at the center of the reform effort. I helped steer teachers toward the vision and supported student ownership of the project.

One California award-winner gave this advice:

You have to collect research and information and create your own plan, based on the skills of staff, community, and school. You have to look at all of it and ask,How do the pieces fit together? and implement some sort of plan.

Asked how the faculty might describe them, one of the administrators responded, "My staff would say that I make them very uncomfortable, because I ask hard questions that force them to stretch beyond what they have already done." Another in the group added a positive spin to that thought: "They see me as someone who creates opportunities for professional development and collaboration."

Everyone spoke of risk taking, and their ideas called to one Georgian's mind a comment attributed to hockey player Wayne Gretsky: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." A participant from California summed it up with a comment that "risk taking involves making strategic moves."

Discussions addressed three general aspects of knowledge and daring:

Increasing their own knowledge base. Innovators who endure make a strong and public commitment to advancing their own professional knowledge and skill, observed the forum participants. According to a principal from Florida, the first step in a new undertaking is conducting a "developmental assessment: knowing where you are and determining your goal and how long it will take to get it done." Reading professional journals and books is part of the regular process of learning, but real pros also use their practice to inform a theoretical rationale that is a career-long work-in-progress. Personal history can be another valuable resource, a California veteran reminds us:

Who you are is a result of experiences--including adversity. What you learn helps you become better all the time--it's an evolving process. It's why, when you make a mistake, you admit it, so the staff can see that you're a learner too.

In short, leadership "preparation" is never complete.

Those whose leadership sustains reform bring their understanding of the issues and evidence germane to teaching and learning as a resource to the school. A new middle school principal with a distinguished record of professional accomplishment confessed, "For me, the change happened when I began to immerse myself in all the new learning theory. My behavioristic background had to go out the window. I could dump it, and I was free. . ." Good leaders are open to innovation, but they retain a firm grasp on what is known to be true about the effectiveness of various practices. They have a general sense of the diversity of students' needs, and many are technologically adept as well. In addition to being the "lead learners," they are often highly regarded instructional experts.

Familiarity with the different kinds of assessment that certify a school's health is another strength of enduring school leaders. They have a sound, basic understanding of student assessment in general and of the local assessment practices in particular. One principal who had sold her multilingual community on the value of using portfolios and other "authentic" ways to demonstrate learning discovered a mind-boggling challenge: "I had to learn enough about assessment to report achievement in a different way than CTBS [Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills]." It was more easily said than done, she found, but worth the cost in the long term. Innovators who stay the course know how to collect and analyze data relevant to school programs. They ensure that teacher assessment is fair and helpful, whatever system is in place. Finally, good leaders know how to assess their own performance and do so regularly.

Learning Together About Assessment

In 1990, during my second year as a principal at Ben Franklin, an ongoing concern of the staff resurfaced. Over the year, despite a variety of programs and efforts, the students at Ben were always at the low end of the scale when CTBS scores were published. Although they usually demonstrated significant growth, the scores remained below average. Teachers kept asking, "What can we do to show that kids are learning?"

One day a friend of mine said, "The teachers at your school do some wonderful things. Have you considered having students keep portfolios?" This spark of an idea set me researching and discussing possibilities with teachers.

I began finding out about portfolios and assessments and searching for model of instruction at the school that would fit into this model. On a staff development day in March, we discussed teacher concerns about assessment and demonstration of achievement. Teachers looked at research articles about alternative assessment and discussed the issues. Several teachers from different grades and content areas presented types of existing work that could be foundations for portfolios (focussing on what was important for all students). After further discussion, each teacher was asked to comment in writing and orally how they felt about the idea: Would they be willing to try it? What were their concerns and needs? I promised that we would not do this unless everyone agreed.

Surprise! They did. We began creating student portfolios in September of 1990. The process included:

This is now our fifth year of a highly fulfilling project that is actively supported by staff, students, and parents. It still takes ongoing information gathering, encouragement, professional development, and revision.

Helping others to acquire reform-related knowledge and skills. Although they hold themselves accountable for keeping their knowledge on the cutting edge, effective leaders also invest in capacity-building activities for the rest of the faculty. "I am a gatherer of resources for the staff," said a Los Angeles leader fresh from a ceremony in Washington, where the president himself laid on the laurels. "I know it's hard for teachers to reconcile that what they've been doing wasn't okay," said another. "Even if we believe that we can improve, it's hard for them to pull it off. Staff development is important."

In Kentucky the state reform program provided a challenge to immediate action while providing some support for faculty growth. Leaders there viewed active learning as the foundation of change as evidenced in the words of three participants:

When we first started, everyone was interested in primary school, so we studied and found the answer.

We're in the first year, and the staff want to go everywhere. The curriculum committee wanted to work out details, but first they needed to know the big picture.

[The plan] allowed us to visit other places, pick the good ideas, choose among options. The key was in recognizing our need to see these things in action.

A California dreamer heading a successful innovation said, "Professionalization of the school culture was key. Older teachers did not think much about practice [in our school]." Seasoned practitioners may well have settled into a set of routines that made some sense under the old regime and dealt effectively with idiosyncracies of that system. It may sometimes be harder to win their cooperation for change. Many participants viewed mentoring and peer coaching as essential ingredients of reform. They described the importance of intellectual honesty and mutual respect. Faculty meetings, drop-in visits, and even hallway encounters became venues for discussion of the value of ideas and strategies and the results of experimentation.

Participants did not think that capacity-building should be a strictly spare-time exercise or solely focused on academics. They found ways to integrate it into regular working hours and to include opportunities to learn the ropes of new roles and responsibilities as well as curriculum and instruction. They cultivated restructuring plans that provided for teacher learning. They depended on the expertise of faculty in various areas. They arranged for peer observation in school and off-campus. They stimulated development of teacher leadership skills and supported teacher research.

This work on their own learning and that of the faculty was the only foundation strong enough to safeguard school progress in the midst of change, in the view of the forum participants. Knowledge and skill served as the safety nets when leaders and their faculties stepped boldly into new educational frontiers.

Taking risks, breaking new ground. "True grit" might be the best way to characterize what powers those first steps toward reform. Despite preparation and partnerships, vision and commitment, participants said that moving past the traditional, safe--sometimes plodding--ways of doing school takes energy and courage. In the first days of change, innovators bask in the glow of limelight and often benefit from the contributions of outsiders who support the new regime. After the first flush of victory, though, keeping on takes a different kind of courage, and the daily grind once again becomes a force of inertia to be overcome. The risk taking of implementation happens in baby steps; done well, they may add up to a rewarding journey into new realms; done badly, they inevitably circle back to the way things used to be.

A Virginia leader spoke about the need to frame risks carefully to keep the possible negative impact of experiments to a minimum: "You have to be able to fail, but you also have to have significant successes at the beginning. I refer to them as short-leash successes. You need to have constructed experiences that are, in a sense, risk free." That is, good leaders may create a climate of experimentation that produces "safe zones" where early attempts to try new approaches have every support necessary for success. Furthermore, another Virginian added, prudence helps: "I plot what I'm going to do. I take intelligent risks. I make sure that I don't have too much change at once. If the teachers aren't ready, then I'll back off."

A Californian reminded the participants that "The school's culture and climate influence willingness to take risks . . . a good leader cultivates a climate of experimentation. "The theme of adding to the professional knowledge base permeated discussions of risk taking. "This isn't just about process; it's also about outcomes," said a principal from Virginia. "You have to show people data in order to convince them to stay the course."

Voicing the opinion of one discussion group whose members claimed to be iconoclasts, despite their power suits and impeccably orthodox credentials, one participant said, "We have some victories, but we break a lot of rules." What appears to be the case is that they know the system well--the school itself, the district, and the community. This knowledge enables them to judge pretty well what rules and expectations can be challenged, which strategies are the right ones to mount the challenge, and when to persist in the face of resistance.
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