As Educators maybe we have finally arrived where we should have been for a long time. We have arrived at the point where we realize that doing it the “same way we have always done it” will not get us where we need to go. Unfortunately, many outside influences have brought us to this point, but maybe we should be thankful we finally got here. For whatever reason, we have come to the realization that we cannot rest on our laurels because our laurels have become second rate. We are competing in a global economy, and we are falling behind because many of us have either refused to change or just don’t know what else we can do to make education better in our schools. Most of us have been serious about “improving” our schools for the sake of our future generations, but have not found the solutions we need to truly “turn things around.” Charles Osgood wrote a poem several years ago that reminds me of where we are today. It goes like this:
In many cases, we are like the lobster that has been placed in the pot to cook before the fire is turned on. It sits there unconcerned and oblivious to the fact that very soon he will be the main course on someone’s plate. When the heat is turned on, he finally realizes what is happening, and it is too late. The same thing has happened too many of us in education. We did not get bad overnight. The accountability efforts of the day have just highlighted what has happened over time. In many instances, we have been stuck in the 1950’s hoping that somehow if we just pushed harder we could get where we needed to go. As a result, many faculties and administrators are working very hard and getting very little in return. The problem with turning an educational institution around is that it is so multi-faceted and complex, and there are no “miracle programs” that will solve the problem. It is like all the “miracle” diets I have tried over the years, none of them work because ultimately I return to the “bad habits” and “practices” that got me where I am today. If someone brings you a “program”, that will solve all your problems, run the other way. While there certainly are proven “practices” that are researched based and have worked in other places, they realistically cannot be guaranteed to work in your school. The reason that many efforts at “school improvement” or “restructuring” have not been successful is that educators attempt to take an “existing culture” and fit it into an “improvement” or “restructuring” model that does not address the fundamental flaws of that particular “educational culture.” At the same time, there are few who have figured out how to put theory into practice in a fashion that will change the “culture” of an entire educational organization. In other words, the issue becomes in simple terms, “how do we make the rubber meet the road” in our schools on a daily basis? So, how do I make this model work in our “educational culture?” We bought this program or that model now how do we make it work for us, with our kids, and our parents and our resources? The reality is it may help a little, but long term continuous growth will not likely take place unless we completely change the daily “educational culture.”
More importantly, many people mistake a discussion about “educational culture” with a discussion about “ethnic culture.” Even though there will always be an indirect connection between the two, we are not talking about the same thing. There are “ethnic, cultural” environments that will have an impact on the “educational culture,” but an “ethnic culture” does not determine whether an “educational culture” will succeed or fail. For example, middle class African American students perform at the same level as middle-class Anglo-American students when subjected to the same “educational culture.” This is a proven fact, not a theory. It certainly does, however, behoove educators to be cognizant of “ethnic, cultural” nuances of the children they teach and the differences that students bring with them into class every day. In most instances, their life experiences are nowhere near the same as the teacher who teaches them which creates conflicts and sometimes insurmountable issues.
It is even more important, however, for educators to be aware and address the “economic, cultural” differences of their students since those differences will impact a student the most. It does not matter what ethnic background a student comes from; it is their economic background that makes the biggest difference. Many educators are unaware that the economically challenged students that they teach do not share any of the thought processes that they use. As a result, when we set expectations based on “our” life experiences and expect our poor students to respond we get very little in response. It is important for teachers to understand that poor children need adult “connections” to be made before they will respond to what the teacher has to say. Many times we instead want to focus on the students’ “responsibility” to be self-disciplined so they can learn what they are teaching. The result, the conditions we face today, poor academic performance.
Another tested observation is the fact that the successful implementation of “programs” is difficult to transfer from one educational institution to the next because most of the time their “educational cultures” do not match. Instead, we have to establish a “culture” of educational “practices” that translate into “measurable student learning.” Those then become, “the way we do things around here.” There certainly are a variety of “programs” and “philosophies” that have a research basis that are significant enough in their scope to make measurable “improvements” in many places. The key is to know how to implement those in a fashion that will ensure long term success in any school or school system.
For several years, I studied and taught “organizational theory” and how to positively impact any organization with various leadership theories. However, until I figured out how to make it happen in the real world that knowledge was useless. It was not until I had the opportunity to lead an organization and to impact it in a positive fashion that I was able to make theory and research mean something. It is the same for all of us as educators. Until we can see “results” and know that what we are doing is making a difference in the lives of children, we doubt and mistrust what the latest “educational flavor” of the day may be.
Our job as turnaround specialists is to assist schools and school systems to be successful in changing a school’s “educational culture” to one that will “always” be successful. The educational culture must be designed to be naturally adaptive, results oriented, and continuously improving. Without positive measurable results, the system is useless!
So Where Do We Begin and Do We Need Change?
We have developed a set of “rubrics” to help schools and school systems determine how to completely analyze your current “educational culture” to see what is working and what is not. Believe it or not, in some cases you may have something in place that has worked. Things that work do not necessarily need replacing or eliminated if they truly can show “evidence” that they are viable. Our first step is to completely analyze your school or schools to determine if you want to change into a viable educational institution.
Do We Need Change?
The question that we must ask ourselves is, do we need change? Change in education has always been with us. The difference is the way we go about change in this modern era of education. The day when we can make decisions about change based on the latest greatest flavor is past. Do you mean that we need a valid reason for change? Absolutely! The problem we see with much of the change that we see in education today is that it is based on poor data or no data at all. We constantly hear the notion that we have seen this or that before in education. Well that may or may not be a valid observation. We certainly see things that are at least related to one another many times. This may be in part because the fundamental principles that govern how we learn have not changed. We do occasionally discover a better way to get the results we want, but the founding principles of learning stay the same. Only research in areas surrounding the study of the “brain” function do we occasionally find something new.
The Program Approach
Instead, we see “programs” that are packaged and repackaged to be “sold” on the open market. The number of fliers that I receive on a daily basis is phenomenal, each promising the solution to all of our problems. So, do we need change? Yes! We need change because we are not getting the results in many educational institutions because we practice things that have never been effective, just tolerated. For example, when you study the research concerning the way most people learn, you will find that very few learn by “auditory” methods. And yet, you can go into most of the secondary classrooms today and still find teachers “lecturing” using the “sage on the stage” techniques of the nineteen fifties. Students who do not learn well through auditory methods will be struggling and students who do will be succeeding. The others who do well are able to read texts or have informal discussions with classmates that allow them to survive. Those who have none of these resources will fail.
Schools all over the country buy programs every day, as we try and patch the system we have in place called, education. If we do recognize a genuine problem, we look around for a program that will fix it! How has that worked for us!? It has not worked and yet we continue to try this approach. Even though “some” programs do have some initial success, most of the time there is no “follow through” and before long we are looking for the next flavor. It has created a very cynical teaching staff in many instances and caused them to be very skeptical. So in essence the “program” approach has failed and will continue to fail as long as it is used in its current form.
Systemic Change
So, what do we do? We need to make “systemic” change in our organizations. What do I mean when I say systemic change? Well, first of all we have to recognize the fact that our schools are “cultures” that operate on a set of norms every day. In other words, we have a “way” we do things around here. This “way” is the “culture” that has evolved over time. For example, if a student is tardy, there is a “way” that we deal with that. If a teacher is incompetent, there is a “way” that we deal with that. If we change the curriculum, there is a “way” we do that. All of these processes and responses roll into what we call a system. There are other components in any system, but that is not my focus for this discussion. We want to look at the need for change and how we can cause that to happen in a positive fashion.
Change is something that happens in every successful organization in the world that is continuously getting better. This is true in business, education, religion or politics. Change must take place or the organization is standing still and it will ultimately pass away. Businesses who refuse to change find themselves lapped by the competition. An example would be the American car industry in the seventies and eighties. Detroit was so sure they would never be bested that they refused to change. Along come the Japanese, who by the way, used the processes of an American by the name of Deming to do it, and produce a better car product than the Americans. The result, the American cars we drive today are ten times better than they were back then! Why, because they had to change or be put out of business.
No One Can Replace Us
One of the problems we face in education is the fact that we know there is no one who can replace us. So, we resist change because we do not see the need since there is no one who can do what we do. It was not until recent years; in this age of accountability that we have been pressured to examine what we are really doing and whether or not we are making the grade. As leaders in education, we must face the fact that we must get better at what we are doing for the sake of our society.
No longer can we face change kicking screaming hoping that it will go away. With someone looking over our shoulders, rightly or wrongly, we know that we must make every effort to get better. The results around the country have been excellent in some places and not so good in others. Inevitably as someone associated with education, you are going to be faced with the possibility, and high probabilities that change in your schools are necessary.
Leading Change
Through my studies and experiences I have spent a significant amount of time searching for the best way to lead change because I am driven to be the best. I will not accept second rate for any institution that I am associated with. The education business is too important to the lives that we touch to be anything but the best. In my studies I’ve adapted the eight principles of change that are put forth by John Kotter, change author, to fit my use in the real world:
First, There has to be a sense of urgency. Educators need a reason to change! If you can establish a reason for change, it becomes much easier to bring the staff on board. You do this by looking at data and identifying problems that exist in your school. Once you have discovered these reasons together, then you can move the organization forward.
Second, you need to put your learning teams together. This is where your discussions regarding learning communities come into play. Establish teams to address specific components of a problem or individual problems. As educators these teams must be “empowered” to make decisions and proposals that will be acted upon.
Third, you need to lead in the establishment of a vision that is more than words on a piece of paper. What will schools look like when you are finished and what will the results be academically when it is all said and done? What will be the strategies used to get where you want to go. This is where your leadership will be so important!
Fourth, communicate, communicate, communicate, and communicate some more! Constantly repeat the vision! Keep it before the staff, kids, parents, and community. Paste it on the walls! Put it on the billboard! Put it in the paper! Say something about it every time you meet!
Fifth, Look for ways to tear down barriers! If the answer is no at a higher level, try somewhere else. Make sure you do not take no for an answer until you have talked to the person who really can make the decision. Do not be stopped by bureaucrats! If the final answer is no from the top, reload and work around the barrier. Get grants; ask the community, whatever it takes to get the job done!
Sixth, Create ways to have short term wins. I always push very hard when I first enter an organization to create short-term wins. This is painful sometimes, but when the results start to take place the turnaround in attitudes is phenomenal!
Seventh, when you start getting the short-term gains, let them create the groundwork for future change. Make them a part of the school culture. Make the expectation that you will get better become a part of the way you do business in your school. You will do whatever it takes to get the job done!
Eighth, reinforce the culture in a way that will sustain the systemic processes no matter who is in the driver seat. Schools that I have worked with to develop this continuous improvement culture have never returned to the way it was before I came. Once the culture is created and reinforced by the leadership it becomes self-sustainin
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