BrightStar Educators

“Are You Ready for a School Turnaround” by Dr. Rudy L Duran

2010-03-01T22:59:00.001-08:00

Before you can begin the process of a School Turnaround, you have to ask some questions that must be addressed.1. Have key members of your staff had a leadership role in shaping your school turnaround plan? 2. Has the planning team benefited significantly from unbiased outside support? 3. Has the process moved swiftly in order to meet a deadline, and has it been driven in part by clear criteria set by the state?4. Is your work supported by a lead turnaround partner that will help put your school in the best possible position to meet your student achievement goals? 5. Does your district or state provide you with a choice of support services tailored to meet the needs of a high-poverty setting and to your school’s priorities?6. Does administration have the authority to shape your school staff to so that you are best positioned to implement the plan? 7. Does the school have the ability to recruit: hiring and placement; freedom from seniority rules, bumping and force-placing; ability to adjust positions to suit student needs?8. Do the schools have the choice of removal: discretion to excess teachers who are not performing or are unwilling to participate fully in the turnaround plan for the school?9. Does the school have the ability to differentiate compensation, providing bonus incentives to attract high quality teachers and/or performance or responsibility-related pay?10. Do you, your turnaround partner, and your leadership team have the authority (and resources) to adjust your school’s schedule to suit the needs of your students and instructional approach?11. Do you and your turnaround leadership team have discretion over budget allocation to support your mission? 12. Is your turnaround plan sufficiently supported by extra funding and outside resources? 13. Are those resources sufficient to provide for substantial planning, collaboration, and training time for staff?14. Do you have the authority to adjust curriculum and programming to suit your school’s priorities and support the turnaround plan, within a larger framework of program-related decisions made by your district? 15. Are you free to make choices and respond to crises with a minimum of compliance-driven oversight?16. Do you have the authority to shape the way your school works by creating teacher leadership positions and differentiating responsibilities? 17. Will you and your leadership team be provided, as part of the turnaround plan, with professional development to increase your expertise in turnaround management?18. Do you currently have the technology, systems, and analysis expertise necessary to implement the frequent formative assessment and feedback that is central to increasing performance in high-risk populations?19. Do you feel that you have been provided with unambiguous expectations and clear measures of accountability to help you bring urgency to the work of turning around student performance at your school?

Change in Education by Dr. Rudy L Duran

2010-01-11T16:56:00.001-08:00

We are about to enter into a discussion about the most critical aspect of being a board member, superintendent, principal or the leader of any educational organization in the twenty first century. 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 ApproachInstead, we see “programs” that are packaged and repackaged to be “sold” on the open market for profit. 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 UsOne 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 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 probability that change in your schools are necessary. Leading ChangeThrough 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. 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.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 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 a short-term win. This is painful sometimes, but when the results start to take place the turn around 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-sustaining.Past Accomplishments1) Victoria, Texas is a multicultural town with high poverty. The San Antonio media had recently highlighted the middle school that I was assigned to as a hot spot for gangs. It was not performing well academically and all of the other problems compounded the situation. In my tenure there we were able to stop the gang activity on campus and raise test scores significantly. An example was the 40% increase in math scores for our African American males. (See Attached) 2) Clear Creek High School, a school set in a suburban district, it was steeped in a tradition of mediocrity. In my tenure we were able to change the dynamics of the culture and the results we were getting academically for all of our kids. We narrowed the performance gap between all populations and set it on the course it is on today, exemplary performance. Upon arriving at Clear Creek I was faced with the attitude from the staff that they were getting “pretty good results” and that they were satisfied with that level of achievement. They were also convinced that they could not do any better. When I left we had gone from our kids scoring in the 50-70 percent proficient range on all tests to scoring in the 88-94 percent proficient range in all testing categories. The continuous improvement processes we put in place during those years are still in place today. Why would you abandon success? 3) I came to the Dallas ISD with a major challenge. I was assigned a high school that was inner city and forty eight percent English as a Second Language population and 90% poverty. I was informed that in spite of the fact that they had a slight increase in testing scores the previous year, the staff anticipated horrible results for the current year because the students in the tested classes were much lower. We implemented the change in processes that I advocate in the school and had significant increases in test scores in every category and sub population but one and as much as 40% in some groups. Although I had to leave this assignment early due to a family crisis, we had set the foundation for change and improvement in the school and for several years after they continued to improve. 4) I entered the field of higher education with the idea that I could train others to do the things that I had been so successful at in the public schools. I was asked to rewrite the curriculum for the Educational Leadership program at the University of Central Arkansas. It was to be based on the ISLLC standards and to be performance based. We succeeded in this undertaking and taught cohorts of students based on performance modules vs. disjointed course work. Nearly every student we trained is a current practicing administrator. Those who are not yet administrators are not by choice. Although we were very successful, I missed the day-to-day challenges of the public schools and returned to become a superintendent. I had trained superintendents at the university and I realized that the quality of candidates was decreasing and that I could be more useful to children by serving as a superintendent.

No Matter Where We Serve!

2010-01-04T07:59:00.003-08:00

Each diverse population has inherent characteristics that need understanding. At one school I realized early on that there were issues with my staff regarding their treatment of certain ethnic groups. We were fifty percent Hispanic, thirty percent African American and twenty percent white. A consequence of this treatment was poor performance academically for a large portion of my students. We instituted a series of training sessions on the need to be culturally knowledgeable. It was amazing the success we had when our teachers realized they were responding to certain cultural differences in a negative fashion and were not really aware of it. As a result for example, we had a forty percent increase in the performance of our African American males in math in one year! This was the result of actively seeking a better understanding of these students needs and then addressing them in a positive fashion.However, there is misunderstanding sometime about what truly impacts academic performance the most. I used to battle my colleagues when they made statements like; “they have a high concentration of minorities so they are going to have low test scores.” This is simply a false statement! The determining factor for performance is not ethnicity it is poverty! It just so happens that many minority students are also in poverty. I can attest to the fact that white, black, or brown kids who are poor are going to perform poorly on standardized tests initially. At the same time, students, of any color, who are not poverty stricken, will perform about the same. The other major factor that impacts achievement of students is the educational level of their mother. This is logical since the mother does so much of the early nurturing of children. So are there any consequences to how we treat children of poverty vs. middle class? Absolutely! If you have not ever heard of or read anything by Ruby Payne, and you work with children in poverty, do so right away. There is a culture of poverty that pervades all ethnic groups that if you can get a handle on it in your school you will see much more success with these children. Children of poverty do not see things through the middle class lenses of understanding. They have a complete different set of values and if you expect them to conform to your values they will never succeed. One example that sticks out in my mind is the example regarding our values regarding paying bills. Have you ever noticed that even kids of poverty many times will have one hundred dollar shoes or a designer jacket? If not, look around and pay attention, it happens. How is it that they can have something like this but still not pay their bills? The reason is their parents do not see paying bills as a priority. Instead, they are interested in instant gratification and satisfying their personal desires. The last items they pay are bills. The result, they move from one rental complex to another when the rent comes due after stretching their time out to the limit before they are evicted.If you approach a child with that kind of mindset with a middle class value such as “paying your dues” to earn something they do not understand. Our response many times is to get frustrated with these students when they approach us with the poverty mind set. There are many other examples in Dr. Payne’s writing. The knowledge that she teaches will change the perspective of your staff if they want to be successful with poor kids in any neighborhood. It will also make you rethink some policies that have been the norm for many years. For example, let’s look at homework. Why do we give homework and is it a reasonable expectation for us to expect children of poverty to do homework? We assign homework with the expectation that the child takes it home and completes it there. Is this reasonable? How many homes of poverty have you been in? Where exactly are they to do this homework. They more than likely do not have a kitchen table as such and probably eat, when they eat at home, in the living area. Where are they going to find a “quiet” place to accomplish this task? It is more than likely impossible to find such a setting in a poverty home. And what kinds of assignments do we give? Are they assignments that are reasonable for us to expect these children to be able to succeed. An example that always comes to mind is the assignment where the teacher says; “ go home and get some magazines to cut out pictures of…” What magazines!? We set them up to fail because we have not taken into consideration the environment in which they live! We must have systems in place that recognize the cultural differences that exist in our populations. Then we need to make sure we are making allowances for those conditions. I am currently trying to get funding for a social worker. We have come to the point in time where it is necessary to try and meet all of the needs of our students whatever they may be. I had facilities on campus is Dallas that dealt with every social condition you can name. That is where we are today!

Hot Air and Blueberries

2010-01-02T19:58:00.001-08:00

A man in a hot air balloon was lost in southeast Missouri. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The woman replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 36 and 37 degrees north latitude and between 89 and 90 degrees west longitude." "You must be a science teacher," said the balloonist."I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?""Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information. The fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip."The woman shouted back, "You must be in management.""I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?""Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault."Much has been said in recent years about the challenges we face as educators. Many educators want to throw up when they hear the terminology associated with No child Left Behind. We sometimes feel that we are faced with a task that is insurmountable and that we will surely fail. The truth of the matter is, it shouldn’t matter to us if we do or don’t have NCLB. Our task as educators, and this includes all of the staff present here today, is to educate all of the children in our community.We must not allow anything to keep us from answering the call, and it is a “Calling.” Just anyone cannot do what we do. We are not just here to have a job. Schools are not built like other businesses to provide a job for us. We are here to serve the future generations of our great country and to make sure they are able to have a better life. It is the most important task in America and each one of you plays an important role in that task.We are past the point where the blame game is acceptable. Despite the fact that we are tempted to blame someone else for any sub par performances of our students, the bottom line must be, we will get the job done and will do “whatever it takes”. Failure is not an option!A very successful ice cream maker who was a vocal critic of public schools. He frequently alleged that, if he managed his business like the public schools were managed, he’d go broke instead of being very successful in the ice cream business. As the story went, during one of his speeches, a lady, stood up and calmly said, "It’s my understanding that you manage a company that makes very good ice cream." The owner replied, "Best ice cream in America!" The lady then said, "Is it rich and smooth?" He said, "Sixteen percent butter fat," "Premium ingredients!" "Premium ingredients?" she asked. "Super premium. Nothing but triple A quality," the owner said. Then she dropped the bomb. "Sir," she said, "When you’re standing on your receiving dock, and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?" Everyone got kind of quiet. The owner said, "I send them back." For the first time during the interchange, the lady, a teacher, got pretty loud. "That’s right, but we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all, every one. And that, sir, is why it is not a business. It is a school." You see, there are a lot of differences in children. The teacher was right. We don’t have the opportunity to send our blueberries back. The parents are sending us the very best they have. And despite appearances sometimes that some might not care, deep down most do. But what do we do with the children when we get them? We do not get the choice of whom we teach. Unlike those who home school or send their kids to private schools, we educate every child who comes through the door.So, let’s think about the children that come to us for a minute and how we’re going to get all of those children to perform their best. If we receive a shipment of blueberries and find that they are not quite ripe, not quite ready, what do we do with them? It’s not enough to say, "They aren’t ready." We can’t afford that. We have to ask the next question, which is, "How do we get them ready?" You see, we have to determine where each child is and meet him where he is, not try and make them “ice cream” grade somehow. You may have to add a little more sugar to some children or a little more love. You may have to give some a little more time to mature with personalized attention. Whatever it takes to help them succeed we must do! This is true on all of our campuses. It would be nice if the students who walk through the door are ready to be middle schoolers or high schoolers, but the reality is many times they are not. We cannot wring our hands and look to blame their past teachers, we must jump in and meet them where they are. And just like there are all different sizes and kinds of blueberries. Some are--juicy, good, and sweet. Others are different shapes with different consistencies. We have kids who are good and sweet; others who are challenged or challenging; so we must deal with them differently. You see, I really do think that blueberries and kids have some similarities. At some point, blueberries can get so bad that you throw them away. That’s where the similarities end. We can’t throw any student away. Remember, the parents are sending us their best. We’re going to work hard, make every effort to get all of those kids to meet our high expectations.Business and education models are different. But there are some things that can be learned from each. There’s a difference between selling blueberries and educating kids. All kids, like all blueberries, are not created equal. The challenge that we face, and that we must overcome, is to make sure that we understand those differences and deal with all those kids differently, just like the businessperson deals with the blueberries differently. This is today’s challenge of diversity that faces every school educator in this room. We can’t be flying around in hot air balloons looking for someone to blame. Just as the kids we get are the best their parents have to send us, we are the best those kids are going to get! The very life and future of our children is in your hands. Let’s not disappoint them!

The Blame Game

2009-12-30T22:22:00.001-08:00

When we as educators and parents run into a child that we have difficulty understanding or controlling, we tend to want to blame someone. It is easy for us to look for and find the reasons for a child’s behavior somewhere else. It never occurs to us that perhaps the way treat a child may have something to do with the child’s behavior. Many times educators over react to a child’s actions by putting expectations on the child that are impossible for the child to fulfill. Having said that, I will be the first to tell you that we should have high expectations for our children’s behavior. We should expect children to engage in their learning and to act in an acceptable fashion. I always tell a child that, when his behavior begins to affect the education of others, we will take whatever action is necessary to stop the behavior. We cannot let one child steal the education of another and that is exactly what happens when a teacher has to stop and deal with a behavior problem in class.On the other hand, sometimes parents do not want the child to have any responsibility for their actions. It is easy to believe that your child is always acting appropriately. After all, who wants to be the parent of a behavior problem child? Well, the reality is that sometimes even the best children will find themselves in a situation that is unacceptable and their ability to deal with it turns out to be inadequate. If that were not the case, we would have perfect children. The question is, how do we react to the behavior. Do we look to blame someone else?Teachers and parents alike make the same mistake. The mistake is to expect a child to be an adult with the same experiences and life skills. We want to assume that because a young child or teenager has been told something that they should now be able to perform it in the proper fashion automatically. And yet, watch the behavior of “adults” sometime and see how little we change even with life experience. For example, the next time you are in a meeting and someone is in front of the group talking, look around at the adults rudely talking while the person in front is speaking. If a child were to do the same in class or at home we would quickly rebuke them and tell them the behavior is unacceptable. So is it now acceptable as an adult?It is our responsibility as parents and teachers to remember that children are in various stages of development and they progress along that continuum at different speeds. We should not over react or under react. We need to make sure we look for causes of behavior other than the child is just “ornery” or “bad.” They are neither! They are young people trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in the world. They will wear clothes that will make you angry and they will listen to music that sounds like noise, but they are still the future. Have a little love and empathy. Remember we are all basically children with wrinkled skin. And surely, everyone is a Beatles fan right? No one is to blame!

Have the Rules Changed?

2009-12-30T00:32:00.000-08:00

How did we let some of our schools degenerate to the point of being labeled a

failure? Are our schools failing or have the rules changed? Why can’t our kids

perform at a level that is adequate for them to be successful in acquiring additional

education and a job? How can we as professional educators regain the vision that

we entered the profession with and get excited about the possibilities for our

students? These are all questions we will address in our training and facilitation.
Many would say that the problems we face are societal and that we cannot hope to

impact these kids who are coming from single parent homes and poor

surroundings. Of course this is a slap in the face of every person who has been

raised by a single parent and is doing quite well, or, the person who has overcome

their poverty through education and the application of hard work. Not to say that

the environments that our children come from will not have an impact on their

performance, it can, and in many cases is the driving force behind the failure that

many experience.

The point to be made however, is that what we do as educators can and will make

a difference if it is done correctly and in a fashion that changes the way we do

business. The vision that drives us will determine the outcomes in the long run. It

is a simple vision, “Our students will learn and we will accept nothing less.” How

we approach the education of our children does make a difference. There are

examples all over the country where students from poverty and single parent

homes perform very well academically. The question to be answered is, how do

we accomplish that here in our schools?

What Can We Do to Make Our Schools Work?

2009-12-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

What Can We Do to Make Our Schools Work?

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:

“There once was a pretty good student,

Who sat in a pretty good class

And was taught by a pretty good teacher,

Who always let pretty good pass.

He wasn’t terrific at reading,

He wasn’t a whiz-bang at math,

But for him, education was leading

Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn’t find school too exciting,

But he wanted to do pretty well,

And he did have some trouble with writing,

And nobody had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,

Pretty good was regarded as fine.

Five plus five didn’t always add up to 10,

A pretty good answer was nine.

The pretty good class that he sat in

Was part of a pretty good school.

And the student was not an exception,

On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to

Was there in a pretty good town.

And nobody there seemed to notice

He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student in fact was

Part of a pretty good mob.

And the first time he knew what he lacked was

When he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,

He discovered that life could be tough.

And he soon had a sneaky suspicion

Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story

Was part of a pretty good state,

Which has pretty good aspirations,

And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,

Pretty proud of the greatness it had,

Which learned much too late,

If you want to be great,

Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.”

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 themselves 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 actually 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 are able to 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-sustaining.