How One Teacher Made a Difference
Here’s a story about Roger Briggs who began teaching physics as a 25 year old in 1976 in Boulder, Colorado.
At the outset, a persistent thought kept coming to Briggs “Our schools could be so much better.”
Briggs became Science Department Chair and realised that although he wasn’t principal or district superintendent, that he could at least focus on turning his own department into an area of greatness.
As he said “I rejected the idea of being just a member of the ‘worker class’, accepting good as good enough. I couldn’t change the whole system but I could change our own 14-person science department.”
As Jim Collins recounts, he began the same way all good leaders begin “First get the right people on the bus”.
Given the low level of pay and incentives, Briggs had to rely on finding people who shared his dream of greatness.
With the Teachers Union the way it was, Briggs focused on getting the right people on the bus, instead of getting the wrong people off it.
Two examples of the way he did this were:
1. Reverting 3 year tenure from an almost automatic “Yes” to the default of ‘No, you won’t get tenure unless you have proven that you have earned it through good performances.
2. When one of the department’s good teachers came up for tenure, Briggs decided against it. As Briggs said, “He was a good teacher but not a great one. And I just felt we couldn’t accept merely good for our department.” Shortly after a spectacular young teacher became available and joined the department. As Briggs Said “Had we tenured the other teacher, we’d have a good person in the seat, whereas we now have a great one.”
In recounting this story, Jim Collins in Good to Great and the Social Sectors points out 3 lessons for all school leaders:
1. You can build a pocket of greatness in the middle of an organisation without executive power
2. Start by focusing on the First Who principle – do whatever you can to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.
3. Use early assessment mechanism and rigorously employ them.
Now, the important question - what can you do to build a pocket of greatness in your area of responsibility?
PS I’ve said it in an earlier post but I’ll repeat. Collins book is an important read for all school leaders.
What’s the Measure of a Great School?
One of the mistakes that organisations in the social sector commonly make is measuring their greatness based just on quantifiable outputs (eg student results) or, worse still, on inputs (eg budgets).
Think about your own school or school district for the moment and ask yourself these questions.
1. Are you clear on your measures for success?
2. Are these measure appropriate relative to your mission or purpose?
3. Do you consistently focus on those measures and assess your progress?
The confusion arises because, in contrast to the business sector, the outcomes are not fully easily measurable. Of course, its easy to measure student results but when it comes to focusing on the child’s overall development - well, not so easy.
But as Jim Collins says in Good to Great and the Social Sector:
“…separate inputs from outputs, and hold yourself accountable for progress in outputs, even if those outputs defy measurement…To throw your hands up and say “But we cannot measure performance in the social sectors the way you can in business” is simply lack of discipline. All indicators are flawed, whether qualitative or quantitative. Test scores are flawed, mammograms are flawed. crime data are flawed….What matters is not finding the perfect indicator but settling upon a consistent and intelligent method of assessing your output results, and then tracking your trajectory with rigour. What do you mean by great performance? Have you established a baseline? Are you improving? If not, why not? How can you improve even faster towards your audacious goals?”
And don’t be afraid to involve staff, parents and students in identifying and setting these goals.
Here’s one Australian school that has taken a small step in the right direction (and is refreshingly willing to publicly admit that they have room for improvement).
PS If you are wondering if there is a link between our name (Great Schools Australia) and Collins books, the answer is yes and no. No in the sense that we did not derive our name fom his work. Yes in the sense that, with a couple of exceptions, we like much of what he has to say. I highly recommend Collins books for school and school district leaders.
Student Engagement
I have previously mentioned the classic text for school and school district leaders, Future Search in School District Change — Connection, Community and Results.
One area that the book focuses on is student engagement. Three case studies are talked about.
- In Santa Monica, California School District, student voices were heard, student leadership was acknowledged, and the issue of equity and equality for all students shifted in a positive direction. Students took it upon themselves to focus on closing the achievement gap.
- In the Novato, California, School District students were involved in creating and sustaining a safe, just and respectful learning environment after racial incidents tore at the school community.
- In the Lester B. Pearson School District, Montréal, students formed a council that has become an official consultative group to the school board while another group is busy helping create a flexible timetabling for the high school.
More on each of these case studies will be covered in future posts.
Finding Common Ground in Schools and School Districts
In an earlier post, we referred to the idea of finding common ground amongst school and school district communities -– and the concern that this can cause leaders who cannot guarantee what other stakeholders (eg staff, parents and students) will say.
Here is what one lot of case studies found were commonly the common ground areas in school districts:
- Student-centred curriculum
- Meeting the needs of all children
- School community partnerships
- Abundant resources
- Technology — expansion and integration
- High-quality staff
- Safe schools
- Readiness to learn — access to early childhood education
In our experience, similar issues also form the focus of common ground at the school level, although we would add in Faith/Values for those schools who have a focus on same.
It may seem strange, but when other stakeholders are engaged in the appropriate manner, people put aside their own individual prejudices and concerns and arrive at common ground which is readily agreed by school and school district leadership.
Growing School Community Partnerships — Some Case Studies
I previously mentioned the book Future Search in School District Change -– Connection, Community and Results.
One of the foci of the case studies in that book is School Community Partnerships including:
- In the North Platte, New England School District, the community agreed to focus on “schools as centres”. The participants mobilised the community, established the program, and received over $1.5 million in federal and foundation grants.
- In Deauville, Illinois, stakeholders built community collaborations to support quality education and succeeding in passing a school referendum that had previously failed.
- In both Sander Gabriel, California School District and Minneapolis, Minnesota School District with the community focused on health care with the belief that healthy students make good learners. Both districts built coalitions with the local government, health-care professionals and local hospitals to increase health services to students and their families.
We will feature each of these case studies in future posts, but if you want to find out more now, get the book.
Future Search in School District Change — Connection, Community and Results
I mentioned in an earlier post Michael Fullan’s description of 16 case studies as being “exciting and inspiring”.
Well, these case studies are contained in the book Future Search in School District Change — Connection, Community and Results.
The case studies are focused on 12 school districts and 4 nondistrict educational contexts that related to school districts (ie North Montgomery County Technical Career Centre, Franklin Count Ohio, The University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and Kansas State Department of Education).
Although focused mainly on school districts, exactly the same approach applies to schools — and in my opinion this book should be required reading for all school and school district leaders.
We will bring you more on these case studies in future posts, but for the moment it’s worth noting that they all resulted in cultural change and school district community-building.
P.S. A special consultant to the book was Professor Nancy Aronson, who is also a special consultant working with Great Schools Australia. More on Nancy and her work with GSA.
School Parent Partnerships
I remember in the late 1990s being the President of the Parents & Friends Association at St Anthony’s Marsfield (in Sydney) and hearing all the talk about School Parent Partnerships.
At the time, St Anthony’s had a wonderful school community and the school parents were heavily involved in fundraising, tuckshop, education support, and other activities.
But I always thought, There must be a greater role that the parents can have in the actual decision-making within the school. After all, the answers to the education and development of our children is something that lies not just with the school executive but also the staff, parents and, subject to their age, the children themselves.
At the time, I had not discovered the approach called Future Search, which enables this to happen through a large group meeting or conference of what is called the ‘whole system’, ie a cross section of both relevant stakeholder groups and demographics.
OK, I have to confess a possible bias here — the Future Search approach is the main product of GSA.
But I can honestly say that I don’t know of a better approach.
That’s why a Sydney-based secondary school district professional called it “excellent”, a Sydney-based school principal described it as “outstanding”; a University CEO called it ‘”fantastic”, and a US-based primary school principal called it “powerful”.
In referring to 16 case studies on the use of the approach in North America, global education expert, Professor Michael Fullan used the words “exciting and inspiring”.
Like all interventions, there needs to be some starting point or need within the school. This can include any systemic issue including
- school cultural reform
- school strategic planning
- implementing an existing strategic plan
- change in your school
- school teaching and learning
- creating a school vision
- creating a healthy school, and
- building school community
In the meantime, here’s how to find out more about this approach.
Integral Education
The emerging approach for how everything exists was uncovered by leading philosopher Ken Wilber. He coined the term ‘Integral Theory’ to refer to the theory which integrated all other theories and practices.
It is an approach which can be applied to any field of human endeavour including Integral Business, Integral Medicine, Integral Politics –- and, of course, Integral Education.
For a starting point to better understanding this theory, read A Theory of Everything by Ken Wilber.
Although we don’t call it that, the work of Great Schools Australia is largely based on Integral Theory.
Welcome to the Great Schools Australia Blog
It is with great pleasure that I make this first post on what will become a valuable resource for school leaders, teachers and parents.
Consistent with our purpose, the aim of this blog is to:
“Enhance the quality of lives of the children and youth of Australia through creating great schools.”
On a personal note, what has driven me to create Great Schools Australia is my love of our children and our country. The main work of GSA is based on an approach called Future Search, and for those ready for it, I honestly don’t know of a better way to effect change in any organisation or community (including schools and school districts).
Over time we hope to bring you great tips, tools and strategies on school culture, school change, school communities, school strategic planning, school meetings and more.
If you would like to receive ongoing posts from this blog, subscribe to our feed.
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School Parents
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Case Studies
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Testimonials
“I can now honestly say that I have never seen such an approach produce such positive outcomes, goodwill and energy.”
– Deidre Anderson, CEO, U@MQ, Macquarie University
“An exciting and inspiring approach to tackling deeper systems transformation.”
– Professor Michael Fullan
“The Future Search conference encouraged me to take risks. When I heard about TIMMS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study), I went back to my colleagues and said, “I think we can do something with this. We finished 1st in Science and 6th in Maths.”
– Pat Franzen, Science Teacher, Naperville Community School District
“These exemplary principles for facilitating group process have helped us create the space where individuals can take responsibility for their own learning and act upon the decisions they make.”
– Deborah B Reeve EdD, Deputy Executive Director, National Association of Elementary School Principals
"The average scores for youth apprenticeship students went up 200 points on the Statewide standardised tests and enrolments increased by 300%. Today there is a waiting list!"
– Mike Erwin, Principal, North Montgomery County Technical Career School
“I was very impressed with the Future Search approach and have used aspects of it in my own school.”
– Richard Morgan, Principal, The Pittwater House Schools