Lou Glazer: Designing Equitable Schools Incorporating the 6Cs

Dr. Robert Maxfield and Dr. Suzanne Klein welcome their guest Dr. Mag Gardner, Senior Global Capacity Building Facilitator for New Pedagogies for Deep Learning and the featured speaker at the fall EdCON22, hosted by the Galileo Institute. Her background experience includes: secondary school teacher, principal, superintendent, and work at the Ministry in different settings around Ontario, and a little bit of work in England.  Dr. Gardner noted, “Probably the most profound experience I had was leading deep learning in one of the districts in Ontario.  It was such a magical experience that I've been able to join the global team of New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (N.P.D.L.) and help to generate the enthusiasm and the work around the world.”

Reflecting upon the impact of the pandemic, Dr. Klein referenced one of the N.P.D.L. papers entitled, “Defying Pandemic Gravity”.  Dr. Gardner explained, “The pandemic presented some daunting complexities that are still constraining our schools and the pandemic made it really difficult to build capacity and advance learning for both kids and for staff…we asked ourselves, how can we support staff, so they can refocus that precious energy on student learning, and what was it that educators needed to jump start deep learning. So, our suggestion was really simple: to focus on the needs of staff, to build learning, capacity and culture in small deliberate moves.”

“The key words in that paper were all verbs like: dignify, gratify, simplify, clarify, amplify, and it just speaks to our own bias at N.P.D.L. (New Pedagogies for Deep Learning) where we have a bias towards action. So, for us, doing nothing was not an option. We advocated for just inching forward and investing in relationships and looking for the good that was all around us, knowing that change happens in those small micro moments. You know those little gestures, the small tweaks, the tiny moves like the moments of courage and love that snowball into life informing significance. And so really, that's what that paper was all about.” 

Dr. Gardner encourages educators "to think six and four, which partners the six global competencies: character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking, with the four elements of learning design: learning partnerships, pedagogical practices, learning environment and leveraging digital. The four elements provide a simple framework, where teachers can return to designing learning that's responsive to the students’ strengths and their needs and their interests, and that stimulates students, minds and their hearts. So when we look at the four elements: learning partnerships, learning environments, leveraging digital, pedagogical practices, we're talking about well-known strategies that engage learners and also stimulate thinking.”

Learning partnerships

“How we create partnerships between and among students, relationships with teachers, with families and with the wider community. There's so much knowledge that a teacher can't be expected to know everything, but should be invited to draw in lots of expertise within the classroom, inviting student voice and their perspective. Students’ rich and robust experiences can contribute to the whole learning opportunity. This is really about relationships, relationships, relationships when we're talking about learning partnerships.”

Learning environments

“We're talking about the third teacher (the physical environment) and creating lots of flexible, inviting, welcoming spaces, but what do we do with the culture, that invisible environment? How does it foster that sense of safety and the sense of belonging? Do students feel as though they are significant, that their presence and their involvement in the class matters? What we're talking about is the learning environment, the physical space; it’s that learning community, that climate and culture that enables students to flourish.” 

Leveraging digital

“How do we leverage digital so it accelerates our knowledge and our understanding? Is there a way of using digital to go beyond those classroom walls and cultivate opportunities for collaboration and for creativity? Digital needs to be an accelerator, generating something new in the classroom; learning that couldn't be created without it.”

Pedagogical practices

“Teachers have well proven pedagogical practices to engage students, to really tap those six global competencies. It's important to acknowledge that there is good work happening everywhere. We're not asking teachers to throw all those good practices away, but rather think about how those other three elements can be incorporated into pedagogical practices to amplify innovation and to bring learning to a whole new level, and think about what's one next thing that they could do to move towards a much more fulfilling deep learning framework."

Dr. Gardner emphasized that “it is critical that teachers really understand who the students in front of them are, not the ones they taught five years ago, but the ones right now. What do they care about? What peaks their curiosity? We're talking taking the first step inviting authentic student voice, and actualizing the belief that students can contribute as change makers. And that's the way to begin to move and shift from a talking culture to a listening and coaching culture, enabling teachers to ‘defront their classroom' giving students navigational control.”

“We’re suggesting that deep learning is as important for the adult as it is for the students. Actually, the adults need to be able to exercise those six global competencies. The adults need to be able to pursue what interests them. They need to be able to exercise their strengths, and they need to be able to come together collaboratively to problem solve.”

When asked how teacher leaders and administrators start this journey, Dr. Gardner advised, “We always say begin with the coalition of the eager. Who are the teachers in your schools, who already are showing passion for this kind of work? They are courageous; they're willing to take a few risks. They want to work with each other. They want to build those connections with a global community. Start with them because they are going to learn so much together, and they will teach the school a lot about what is possible.”

Addressing concerns about low enrollment in teacher preparation programs, Dr. Gardner proposed that “we need to do a much better global marketing job. This is the best profession in the world, and it is a profession that prepares all professions, making an incredible impact on today’s society and also tomorrow’s society. There is no such thing as ‘just a teacher’; you change the world. We need to move to a space where we regenerate a real pride in the profession. We provide opportunities for professional rigor with each other, that important validation of our profession, so that people feel as though they can make a difference, that they can problem solve, that they can be creative, that they can again exert all those six competencies.We have to be optimistic about the future and we have to create conditions where teachers can thrive again. And so that's up to us.”

Dr. Gardner concluded the podcast speaking about two huge challenges: equity and well-being, which are priorities within our schools right now. “We need to create some deliberate opportunities and conditions for not only healing but for flourishing for every student. I would suggest that some initiatives such as school-wide assemblies on anti-racism, while checking a box on a school improvement plan, may not have an impact on all students. A yoga class addressing well-being may not respond to students’ needs, nor equip students with the meta-condition to manage their well-being independently. While they have good intentions, they may inadvertently work against the efforts to improve well-being and equity.”

“We can no longer tinker our way toward transformation. It's up to us as leaderful educators to intentionally create spaces where students can thrive, where equity and well-being are embedded, where equity and well-being are baked into our classroom communities and normalized in our day-to-day practice.  What we're learning in our deep learning work from our knowledge building partnership from around the world is that when classes are engaged in deep learning, it serves all of our kids, and especially those kids who are traditionally under served. It has a way of leveling the playing field and inviting all students to demonstrate their abilities in a range of ways. Students who struggled with well-being issues begin to feel empowered. Students who didn’t have a voice are now feeling as though they can exert themselves within the classroom. We know that deep learning is not only about drawing connections with what we learn, but it's about making connections with whom we learn, and making connections about how we learn, and all these connections open up hope for students. It builds a sense of individual and collective efficacy, and it changes their trajectories. We need to get at equity and well-being and deep learning is a great way to authentically get there.”

Gardner, Mag, et.al. “Defying Pandemic Gravity: How to Jumpstart Deep Learning in your School”, New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, Deep Learning in Action Series, Issue 04, March 2022.   

https://bit.ly/DefGravNP22                          

Also, here is a link to our Deep Learning Lab brochure. I forgot to mention that this is a great way for people to dip their toe into Deep Learning.   

https://deep-learning.global/DLL23/

After experiencing incredible challenges during the pandemic, schools are returning to in-person learning. Podcasts for Leaderful Schools hosts, Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein, invite their guest Will Richardson, co-founder of the Big Questions Institute, to reflect on the pivotal question of what’s worth teaching and learning, and how to promote learning so we can live up to the promise of American public education.

“It really is about not going back to school, but going back to creating environments where learning happens really deeply.” Will Richardson pointed out “the distinctions between learning loss and schooling loss; let’s get back to learning versus let’s get back to school; and not just going back and doing things a bit better, but doing things different. We’re helping schools, teams and communities build capacity to engage in conversations around different not just better, which is a shift in the way we talk about schools and education traditionally.” 

What is a coherent definition of learning? “The first step is you have to have some coherence as to how you define what learning is, and how it happens, and what the conditions are that are required for that. And the honest truth is that a lot of schools are still incoherent about that.”

“If you don't have a coherent, shared, lived definition of learning, then kids are in ‘incoherence’. They're going from classroom to classroom, having to figure out what every teacher means when they say to learn something. There isn't a coherent narrative or this thread or through line in their experience where everyone is building on the same understanding of how learning happens and what it needs to look like in classrooms.”

What contributes to learning? “We're starting to realize that a lot of what we do in schools really is not supportive of the way humans learn. Putting kids into age-grouped classrooms is not a great condition for learning, nor is limiting them to fifty or sixty, or eighty-minute time sessions, one subject at a time. That's not how we learn in the real world. None of those are conditions for really great learning to happen.”

“The type of learning that we want to see our kids do in classrooms is problem-based, question-based and meaningful. I think a lot more schools are trying to figure out how to create situations where kids can do more agentic learning where they have more agency, more choice, and more real freedom to pursue what they want to learn on their own terms.  Adults in the room fill in and support, question and probe, and do all those things that deepen that experience for them. I think that we're seeing a lot more opportunities for kids to really go in their own direction.”

“What we are seeing now are schools popping up on the edges that are really different and going about things very differently. They’re basically leaving the traditional systems, narratives and practices behind and going grade-less. They're not organizing by age. It really is about deep student-driven, project-based inquiry-based learning, with teachers more as supports. “

“Teachers may be up against a whole bunch of obstacles when it comes to moving into those types of pedagogies and those types of learning environments, because there is no coherent vision for what they want it to look like as a school, as a community. I don't think they've had the conversations.”

What do leadership teams need to do? “One of the most important jobs for leadership teams right now is to figure out a capacity building strategy for the community to understand a different narrative, a different story about the experience of school for their kids.  How are kids going to thrive in the future if they continue to live the current story?"

“Helping to create a different narrative or story is something we have to embed in our practice on a regular basis as school leaders, teachers and people in school.It's things like exhibitions of student work during the year or the community open exhibitions where kids are showing the types of interesting learning that they're doing, and describing it and talking about why it matters to them.”

“There is another layer to this that gets even more complicated, but is equally urgent. It’s not just about our kids in our schools; it’s about the world now. How do we all see ourselves as a part of the much larger kind of living system that is on this planet that is under duress right now?  I know a lot of people have a struggle even having that conversation in the community.” 

Should schools be places for the private or public good? “Schools have to be places now for literally the public community good, where we frame our work in the context that says we are part of a much larger system here. It can't be about ‘me’; it has to be about ‘we’.  It really has to change in terms of what we teach, how we teach it, the experiences we provide for kids, and the conversations we have in an ongoing way with the people in our communities.”

“We are facing a lot of challenges right now in the world. We’re not going to solve them without education. We can mitigate the challenging hardships and really contribute to the solutions if we think about education differently.”

What are two books you recommend to school leaders? “The first one is Who do we choose to be? by Margaret Wheatley, which is the powerful question she asks leaders.  How do we lead in our communities at a time of very, very deep difficulty, being good human beings and interacting with one another with a spirit of joy and hope but understanding that the larger problems may be unsolvable?”

“The second book is Education in a Time Between Worlds by Zachary Stein. His thesis is that we are in a ‘world system transition’. For education this brings up an almost unimaginable design challenge in terms of how we create an education for humanity at a moment of huge, huge shift.”

“Meg's book is about how we take this particular moment and make the best of it.  Zak's book is how we take this particular moment and aspire to something that really is different, and then begin to think about pathways to getting there.”

What is the design challenge for schools?   “We're helping schools move away from strategic planning to strategic design instead. How do we create the skills, literacy and disposition of designers, when we have conversations around schools, our practice and our environment?”

“So, if we're in this ‘world system transition’ and if we have this design challenge, then can we transport ourselves into the future to look into schools and see what are the things that are happening there that are good or bad, but then actually create artifacts and bring them back into the present?”

“As powerful as a story and narrative is when it comes to thinking differently or changing the script, even more powerful is actually holding an artifact in your hand and thinking about it. How do we get there, if it's something that we want to have happen? How is our work in the present getting us toward this kind of aspirational future?”

Final thoughts:

“I think that leaders have to engage in radical truth telling right now.  I think that we have to just be deeply honest about what's working and what’s not working in schools, in the context of how we understand learning and human beings, and acknowledge those things.”

“It requires a truthful assessment about the state of schools today, as well as thinking about potential opportunities for students and teachers and learners in communities in a world where we continue to see an explosion of ways that we can connect, create and access teachers and information in interesting and fascinating ways.”

“Engage students, teachers, parents, community members in these ongoing conversations.  Bring people together in groups and ask questions like: what is learning, what success means right now for this community. Be transparent about those conversations, and really try to use them as ways of building capacity in their communities.”

References:   https://bigquestions.institute/bqi-new-homepage/

Stein, Zachary, Education in a  Time Between Worlds Essays on the Future of  Schools, Technology and Society,  San Francisco, California, Bright Alliance, March 1, 2019.

Wheatley, Margaret, Who Do We Choose to Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, Oakland, California, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, June 9, 2017.

Podcast for Leaderful Schools, previous episode with Will Richardson, October, 2021

https://podcast-for-leaderful-schools.simplecast.com/episodes/epic-design-challenge-for-schools

Woven throughout the podcast conversation with Mary Kay Gallagher, Superintendent of Northville Public Schools, is her inherent belief in the tremendous importance of collective work and shared leadership. She was hired in Northville as the Early Childhood Program Coordinator in 1985, and has held various district leadership positions, becoming Superintendent in 2011. 

Her leadership journey 

Mary Kay Gallagher was hired to begin a pilot early childhood program, "adding a full-day childcare program, along with expanding our after school programs, and involved in K-2 curriculum development.” As Moraine Elementary School Principal, she noted it was “a great opportunity to build leadership capacity across our teachers and students and become a National School of Character as a result of shared leadership.” As  Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services, Mary Kay Gallagher “had the opportunity to move our district goals more in the direction of alignment with learning communities and Rick DuFour’s work, which continues to be a foundation.”  She noted as superintendent, “moving the district goal setting processes to focus on learning and growth mindset, in a five-year cycle so that long term continuous goal setting really centered around our vision and purpose” is a point of pride.

A culture of learning, leadership and the focus on learner voice and agency

“I think over the course of time in Northville, the growth in our culture of learning and leadership has been really instrumental, along with that focus on learner voice and agency which research bears out to be critical.  Our vision work in moving to build on a tradition of excellence along with that whole idea of opening a world of possibilities for and with our students is something that I’m really proud of, our work collectively.”

“Northville has had a longstanding commitment to a multi-tiered system of support (M.T.S.S.) providing intervention and support: bringing students together through peer pals, peer links and our unified teams. We've had the great fortune to have a center-based special education program as a part of our Northville community and that's been a strength of ours, in terms of bringing different learners together and building on each other's strengths... We have marginalized students that we need to continue to give thought to and the greater work that we have to do in fostering inclusive school communities."

In 1997, Northville was one of the founding members of the Galileo Teacher Leadership Consortium. “Galileo impacted Northville Schools through its work on leadership and Linda Lambert’s building leadership capacity. One of the big principles was making sure we had our Galileo leaders on our school improvement teams and that whole idea of building shared vision.  Utilizing a D.C.I. Chart (Decision Maker, Consulted, and Informed), we surveyed our staff on their preferred participation in decision making.  Those pieces really became part of our school community, our work on intrinsic motivation, student voice, and how you engage teachers in supporting our kids in their learning. The work with Stephen Covey continues to be a driving force.” This reference is  to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and maturity continuum from dependence to independence to interdependence.

Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools affirm the role of shared leadership and student voice

“All six of our elementary schools are Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools and have adopted that framework. Why I think that's so powerful is it addresses what our teachers are doing. There's that teacher lighthouse team and teacher feedback, our student leaders, and then that family connection. That framework involves everyone and also connects academic goals to the social-emotional learning goals.”

Leadership at all levels  and voice in the organization

“I think that leadership capacity work rises to the district level because you're really taking a look at how your principals have a voice in what's happening in your district, and then at the building level, teachers are involved in looking at their sphere of influence and taking a look at where they have impact, and that idea of leading from everywhere in your organization. It's not about your title; it's about your action.” 

"As I have applied that to the role of the superintendent, it certainly gets more challenging because you have more voices in your ears. You're answering to your community, you're answering to seven individual board members, so there's a lot of variables in the mix. But if you can build systems where that voice is a part of your process, I think that's tremendous.  I also think the more recent work on teachers as facilitators, leaders as facilitators, Carolyn McKanders’ work, has been very impactful in terms of having protocols, norms you set up and processes for bringing divergent voices together and still being able to move the work. 

During the myriad of challenge so the pandemic, "people either felt left out of decision making or felt like their voices weren't heard.  As we come back together I’m trying to figure out those systems that allow you to continue to have the voices and have the right people at the table and make sure you have structures in place for hearing voices. Do that in ways that are effective in terms of moving on decisions a little more quickly...Then set up systems for feedback loops and monitoring and adjusting. 

Collaborating and capitalizing on collective expertise

“We, as a profession, need to continue to move forward on how we collaborate and work together, and how we share that work with our students because we can't be reinventing the wheel in every classroom… We've made some tremendous growth with technology expanding access to content area experts,  connecting with kids across the world, and  finding new ways to gather and support one another... our kids have the opportunity of all these global connections, but they also have the impact of the weight of worry and concern for an entire globe on their shoulders too. “

“We have to capitalize on the collective expertise because we have seen firsthand and more extensively the impact of trauma on learning. We need knowledgeable folks; we need to work together. We definitely have to make sure our teachers, our professionals, our counselors, social workers, mental health providers, all have the tool sets and the materials and equipment and opportunities to impact our kids. We really need as a society to make that investment in the future of our world.”

Advice for aspiring leaders: Create a shared vision and coherence by listening. 

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. - African Proverb

“Leading a school district isn't about your personal vision, it is about shared vision and coherence and you only get there by listening.  When you are listening and having conversation, you have to be very thoughtful about facilitation and be mindful of what you say and what you do…The greatest thing that you do as leaders in the thoughtful work is gather folks together. I have had the great fortune to connect with other superintendents.  We've move away from the idea of mentorship just across our team, so I think you need to have those thought partners.”

I think the thing about leadership is we all have egos and you can't do this work without having some strength and fortitude and commitment to your values. You do have to check your ego at the door because this is about the work, it's about the kids. It's about our collective work. It's not about you or getting that title of superintendent, it's about our collective work."

Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, 30th Anniversary Edition, May 19, 2020.

DuFour, Richard, DuFour, Rebecca, & Eaker, Robert, Revisiting Professional Leading Communities at Work, Solution Tree, Tenth Anniversary Edition, January, 2008.

Lambert, Linda, Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development; 59843 Edition, Alexandria, Virginia, July 1, 2003.

Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein continue their conversation on the impact of the pandemic, what has happened to schools, and how schools could improve going forward with their guest Lori Higgins, the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. Prior to joining Chalkbeat, she was an education writer for the Detroit Free Press from 2000 to 2018.  She also served as an education writer and the assistant metro editor for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, in Wisconsin.  

What is Chalkbeat?   https://www.chalkbeat.org/

Chalkbeat is a national nonprofit news organization with bureaus in eight cities, including Detroit, committed to covering the efforts to improve schools for all children.  The impact of education on children is evident at the local community level.  According to Lori Higgins, “There is very little reporting about what's happening at the local school level, or the local district level. At Chalkbeat we want to fill in those gaps that exist in news coverage. It is just so important that we show editors and publishers that this is a very important topic. When it's not covered, it's just not good for our communities.”

“We also highlight education reporting all over the state so it gives our readers a chance to see the issues beyond metro Detroit that are pretty common to what they're experiencing, or they may find that there's some unique thing that some district in Grand Rapids or somewhere else in the state is doing. So, there is a link at the bottom of our web page where you can sign up for our newsletter.”  

Chalkbeat’s Mission

“We are very much driven by this idea that every child deserves a quality education.  We are all about our mission, which is to write about the inequities in education… As journalists we’re taught to always be objective but pushing for this is just so vital; pushing forward, not in an advocacy way but in an educational way: highlighting the inequities, highlighting the solutions, highlighting what's being done to address them. When it's in the public eye, there's more of an opportunity or more of a chance that the people in charge: the lawmakers, the policymakers, will listen and do something about it.”

Partnerships

“We do a lot of partnerships with other media, so our story sometimes shows up on other media websites. The Detroit Free Press picks up our writing on a regular basis; Bridge does as well. We actually share a reporter with Bridge Michigan. Right now we're partnering with the Detroit Free Press and Bridge Michigan to cover how districts are spending the COVID relief money. We have a meeting today with our partners just sort of collaborating and thinking about what people want to know about how this money is being spent, and how this money is making a difference for only their own kids but kids in their community because obviously, not everybody has a kid in school, but everybody cares about schools. This is kind of a massive effort on our part, and that collaboration makes for richer reporting, richer stories, stronger stories, and we're not constantly duplicating efforts.”

New York Times Sunday Review co-published an article by three Chalkbeat staff  

Kalyn Belsha, Melanie Asmar, and Lori Higgins wrote the article “As schools try to recover, COVID’s toll lingers: ‘We haven’t seen fine, ever’ ”. When they observed classrooms and talked with teachers, the authors noted, “America's schools remain fragile as teachers catch their breath after the latest wave of Covid cases, many are teetering between cautious optimism and lingering exhaustion.” When asked about this quote Lori Higgins explained, “The past few years have been tough on everyone, particularly teachers. We are coming out of a period where COVID cases are down, and people feel a little more optimistic. There's still this fragility in the education system that we have to address… while COVID may be declining, it's still there and the lasting effects of it are just enormous.  We'll be dealing with the effects academically, emotionally, and socially for years to come, and I don't know that we're ready for that. I don't know that we've talked enough in public about how long it’s really going to take to recover from the pandemic.”

“At Chalkbeat we themed this year ‘the comeback year’… but we questioned if this was really going to be a recovery year because we were still dealing with COVID outbreaks, and then we got hit with staff shortages and schools dealing with the challenge of how do we keep operating in-person, every day when we have this many staff out. ”

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/3/19/22983067/COVID-schools-toll-remote-teachers-students-absences-learning-loss-graduation-rates                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Addressing the impact of the pandemic                                                                                                                                            

Although she was reluctant to recommend anything, Lori Higgins shared some personal observations. “I think we're starting to see an emphasis on addressing the mental health challenges that have risen up, and let's be honest these issues predated the pandemic.  Schools were dealing with more and more of these issues, and I think the pandemic only exacerbated it. I do think that there's a common, or bipartisan push to address the mental health challenges.”

“I think we're going to see a lot some emphasis on how do we improve online instruction. I think that there are parents who found online learning to be the best way for their kids to learn. Districts will have to figure out how to address the needs of those kids who do want to work; learn online so that they are getting a quality education.”

ESSER Funds and School Finance

“I think that there will be a lot of scrutiny into how districts are spending the COVID relief money and how effective they are at using the money to address the needs of students and staff.  I think there's going to be a side argument here about changing the funding system in Michigan, ensuring that the students who need it the most are getting additional funding. And I think there will be an attempt to look at the money that comes in from COVID and say this is the kind of money that we need; this is where funding should be. But I also think that they're going to have to be accountable; they're going to have to use this money effectively for lawmakers to say schools do need more money.  They're going to want to see some outcomes.”

Teacher Recruitment and Retention

“The governor wants to invest a lot of money recruiting and retaining teachers. She wants to provide bonuses for teachers and other school staff. People will still continue retiring, and we’ll still have a difficult time enticing people to go into teaching. I think we'll see lawmakers and policymakers looking at more or at broader initiatives. We're seeing more districts with Grow Your Own programs. Detroit just started a program last year where they took support staff through a summer program and then they entered the classroom in the fall.”

“It's going to take people at all levels addressing this, but I think the one thing that lawmakers may not necessarily address that maybe should be addressed is the morale issue. There's a reason people are leaving, and there are reasons that people are not going into teaching. When I look at the system, it seems like this is something that has to be addressed in order to really solve this issue. There’s just a huge morale issue.”

Lori Higgins’s personal story  

“I had a grant a couple of years ago to do a big project about career and technical education and it's been stalled because of the pandemic…C.T.E (Career and Technical Education) is such a hands-on type of program and so I'm getting back to that project right now… I'm really excited about how C.T.E. can make a difference for a lot of kids.  I graduated from a vocational high school. It prepared me to be a secretary which I did not want to do, but there are so many advantages to coming out of a program like that, that I just value so much.”

“I started college thinking that I wanted to be an accountant, even though I was really terrible at math. I was fortunate to have a roommate who was a journalism major. Going out with her on an assignment to cover a city council meeting was exciting because I always loved to write…educate the community and to potentially make a difference. I quickly changed my major and have not looked back since. I have been part of education journalism for pretty much my entire career. I was driven in part by growing up in a family full of educators: my mother was a teacher, three of her sisters were teachers, aunts, uncles; so many people in my family were teachers. I just remember sitting around at family gatherings and just listening as they talked about some of the challenges and some of the joys of teaching…So when I got into covering education in Manhattan, Kansas, it just felt natural. I think that education is the best beat at any news organization.”

Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein continue the series of conversations with educational leaders about the issues facing public schools, emerging from the pandemic. Their guest, Dr. Chris Delgado, reflects on his experience completing his first year as Superintendent of Farmington Public Schools, having spent more than a decade as Deputy Superintendent in the Walled Lake Consolidated Schools.

The Fit

“Farmington has always had a very special place in my heart.  I've  looked  at Farmington as very reminiscent of my wonderfully diverse childhood growing up in the city of Southfield. I’ve always kept my eye on Farmington and when the opportunity arose, I threw my hat in the ring and was fortunate enough to be given the position. In my interview, I  articulated my desire to finish my career in Farmington and commit fully to the community to make a difference in the lives of children in this community, and to support families.” The diversity of the districts in which Dr. Delgado previously held positions enables him to navigate different worlds and to help bring people together, was another facet that made him an attractive candidate for this superintendency.

Building Relationships

Dr. Delgado noted with pride being able to live into “the vision of the superintendent that I wanted to be and envisioned being. It's very rewarding to get to know so many people personally, not only in schools but in the community. I've been able to be in schools, in every classroom and supporting children and supporting families, and really showing my commitment to everyone in the organization. In my first state of the city speech with over a hundred community members in attendance, I knew almost every individual and organization. In a very short time, we've really been able to establish some pretty solid relationships, both in the community, in the schools, and in the community at broad and so that's very satisfying for me."

Reflections on his first year

"I actually haven't been surprised by anything procedurally or managerially, and I attribute that to my time as a deputy superintendent, where essentially I ran the day-to-day operations of the entire district. Because I had so much experience as a deputy superintendent, leading others, implementing systems, collaborating with a board, with the community, that aspect of the job has made for a very smooth transition.”

“I am surprised at how difficult it's been for me to find a balance in how to contribute when people are asking for my ideas and help, and needing them to develop as well in the same way that I was given the opportunity to develop as a deputy. I have a lot of knowledge and expertise that I want to offer to people but the art of leadership is very tricky in trying to listen more and be silent, and not introduce my ideas and allow people to develop their own ideas.”  

“One of the challenges and the things that keep me up at night is the whole dynamic of social media in our lives and the amount of falsehoods and vitriol that can happen very quickly on social media, the judgment out in the community over a school issue without the context. Things are taken out of context and it starts to gain some traction on social media. The damage control is something that you really have to work hard to get out ahead of so that's a unique challenge for modern administrators in general, but certainly a first superintendent.”

Distributing Leadership

“In my first leadership team meeting, I talked about the theoretical framework behind distributed leadership and shared a clip from Dr. Alma Harris, talking about the difference between delegation and distributed leadership. Distributed leadership starts with the belief in other people and a belief that other people have something to contribute. Your status, whether you're a teacher, paraprofessional, secretary, or assistant principal, is irrelevant to leaderful schools. You can distribute leadership by tapping into the expertise and the interest of people and then supporting them.”

“Distributed leadership is modeled in strategic planning work or other committee work. When you as a parent or a teacher or a secretary can contribute in a meaningful way, where your ideas are valued and they turn into action steps or action plans, then you're more committed organizationally. We have five overarching goals, eight subcommittees, and over a hundred community members including teachers, parents, paras, custodians, and secretaries, on these committees working towards our vision and our profile of a learner in Farmington Public Schools.”

Re-imagining Education

“We have a board of education goal for innovation in education. Our vision for what we call our RVPR (Remote and Virtual Program) includes: flexibility of things like hybrid classes in the future; rethinking how we do high school; FLEX and hybrid schedules. We're maintaining our K-12 virtual program as well as a remote program; one being a live synchronous daily schedule and then asynchronous ‘learn at your own pace’ for those learners in those subjects where they may be able to pursue that on their own. When given the options students may choose to do an asynchronous class for history or an English class, but for some of the hard sciences, like math and science, prefer a synchronous model.”

“There's no reason that we can't rethink education and now that we have the skill set, the ability, the infrastructure with the Chromebooks and the technology, we can really start to re-imagine this. That's exactly what our strategic plan in Farmington is doing, rethinking that. A board of education subcommittee exploring pupil accounting flexibility met with state officials on how we might be able to provide flexibility to get us away from the 1098 hours that we all had to fit the box in. So we're very excited about those possibilities and we're better instructionally I think, having gone through the pandemic. We have a broader and deeper skill set.”

Recruitment and Retainment

“I think that some of the efforts that we've heard from the state as well as on regional level on loan forgiveness could be a huge incentive in young people being able to go into the public professions.

I think we need to do our best to re-change that narrative to promote to young people that it's a wonderful profession, a wonderful career. We should encourage teacher leaders to look at administrative leadership because we need good people in every single position along the chain.”

“If you look at the research on incentives and merit pay, salary alone doesn't validate people; it's recognition, acknowledgment, involvement in their organization, and being able to contribute in a meaningful way. At every school and district building, Dr. Delgado met face-to-face with staff to learn about their experience and asked the question, why would anyone want to work in Farmington Public Schools, and why would you want to stay here? That feedback will be shared with the Assistant Superintendent of Talent Development to talk about recruitment and retainment.”

Advice to aspiring superintendents

 “The first piece of advice I would give them is to experience central office before you jump into a superintendency. It's not that you can't come from a building level leadership and go to a superintendency, but the value you will gain from being in central office from being able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the board of education, to have kind of a broader 10,000 or 50,000-foot view, to make connections with the community members; you will better understand the position before you assume the position.”

“Second, research the districts that you think match your skill set. How do your skill set and experience align with what you know about the district that you're applying to? Your fit is so very important. Research the philosophy of the district, and the individual perspectives of the board members. Before I applied for Farmington I watched hours of board meetings to understand who the people are, where their hearts were, where their minds were. Pick a district where you think you can make a meaningful contribution. Just don't run quickly to the role.”

Personal testimony to the power of public education

“My wife and I are both first-generation college students. Our parents were wonderful blue-collar workers and didn't have the opportunity to go to college. When we moved into our home we took our dining room and made it into the office. Around all four walls, we have hung not only our diplomas but also our children's diplomas. Ever since they were little kids in order to walk to the kitchen they had to come through this office. In as little as one generation we changed the narrative from poverty to opportunity and the perspective about not just university pursuits but post-secondary pursuits. So public education changed our lives and changed the trajectory of our children's lives. That's why I think it's so important for people to go into this field as teachers, as leaders, and as superintendents. I wanted to share that story just to highlight the power in my mind and in my heart of public education.”

Dr. Gerald Hill engages in a rich conversation with Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein, reflecting on his district leadership experiences, guiding principles and vision for re-imagining teaching and learning. Drawing upon a wealth of experience as an educational leader and insight as a forward thinker, Dr. Hill shares his perspective and advice for current district leaders offering eight essential guideposts:

1.School Finance

“Try to be as transparent as possible, so everybody knows what we have, where it is and how we utilize the resources that we have. One of the things I’m most proud of is that we have corrected the district’s financial situation going from less than a 1% fund balance when I started, to about a 19% fund balance this year…It is so critical to have the finances right, because the resources enable us to set goals and priorities.” 

2. School Board Relations 

“Superintendents need to have a really good working relationship with their boards of education and that's a lot easier said than done. As superintendent, share your vision with your board and bring them along, developing a set of operating principles. Have the board make the same commitment to work toward the goals. If board members change, you have a new dynamic; but  that communication is a constant.” 

3. Staff Relations

“If I am leaving any kind of  legacy here, it's that everybody has a seat at the table. All voices are heard and all opinions and perspectives are respected. The teacher leaders, the principals, the superintendent, the school board; we're in this together…As a team we will make it work or not work.  Once we start splintering then we're already losing; we're losing that edge to be creative and innovative on behalf of the students that we serve.  We can have conversations around the difficult issues but it’s student-centered and student-based.”

4. Organized Abandonment  

“With the pandemic we learned that we don't need some of our traditional practices. This gave us an opportunity for organized abandonment…We need a new playbook. I think if we allow ourselves and our teachers and parents to develop and design environments that are conducive to the best possibilities and choices for students at any age, that we would be surprised with what they came up with.”

5.  Flexible Thinking

“In terms of teaching and learning, no one strategy works best for every student; we need to be flexible in our thinking of how we deliver instruction...We have teachers doing some really creative work and they aren't that inhibited by pre-conceived boundaries. It needs to be the sky's the limit, and we need to create that feeling of safety and security and risk-taking at the central office level, the school board, and superintendent.” 

6. Student Learning Environments

“High schools need to look more like community colleges where students are coming and going, working in large groups, small groups, focused areas, and teachers are there as facilitators and advisors. We need more flexibility in the schedule to get students into the community with internships, and build more community partnerships as ways for young people to experience what's out there.”

“Middle school should be a time of exploration. We're building a new middle school, designed for integrated communities of learning. Students will be working as collaborative teams; grades six, seven and eight together with a cadre of teachers, in more of a STEAM kind of environment school-wide, with different pathways.”

“Our primary schools and our intermediate schools need to be rich in literacy across the board and numeracy. Let’s take advantage of kids discovering their passions with more active learning situations. I would like to see a blurring of the grades.” 

7. Graduate students with the Four C’s

“We developed a portrait of a graduate with the Four C’s. We want students to be: great communicators in writing, speech and through technology; collaborative problem solvers, working in collaborative groups; contributors not only to their classrooms and their schools, but to society and the world; critical and creative thinkers.”

8. Support current and future educators

“Young people coming into education have to have an understanding what their role is; have a firm understanding of what their goals are; have a support group that they can rely on and have discussions with; have some time for personal reflection; and be able to sort through the issues and not overreact, and feel you have the answer to everything…In West Bloomfield we have a richly diverse student body and I love the more recent grants available for growing your own future educators.” 

Final words of advice

“First of all, my advice to a new or newer superintendent (or district leader) would be to seek out somebody that you know and trust as a mentor or executive coach. You need to have a space where you can bounce ideas off somebody, have the conversation not necessarily to come away with the right answer, but to come away with what the options are. As you're getting into the profession, you need to submerge yourself and really learn as fast as you can, but you also need to have balance in your life with time for family and your own personal well-being.”

“Never lose that spirit of curiosity that you see in kindergarten students when they come into school for the first time, and never lose sight of the fact that we are here for them…Education is a privilege to be a part of; it's an honor to be a part of.” 

One of the more important things for democracy is to have an educated society. We have to keep in mind why we're here and what we do is important to not only the learners, but to society as a whole.”

Podcast for Leaderful Schools has had a series of conversations with influential people talking about how schooling has been affected by the pandemic, how we're coping with it, and how we hope to be coming out of it. Today's guest is Dr. William Pearson, Director of the Office of Partnership Districts in the Michigan Department of Education (M.D.E.). The Michigan Department of Education is the state’s administrative office that supervises education across the state.

Dr. Pearson proudly continues a family tradition as educators. To achieve his goal of becoming a superintendent, Dr. Pearson ensured he had both teaching and administrative experience at the elementary and secondary level. His career continued as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in South Lyon and then superintendent there for 20 years. “I left South Lyon, actually retired but still kept on being a superintendent.  The best move I ever made was to accept a position in Mount Clemens, in Macomb County, for two years where I was able to work with a high poverty district and we made some marked turnaround efforts. I was a superintendent at St. John's for a little bit, and then I worked for Munetrix, which is a data analytics company for a few months.” He had a chance conversation with Sheila Alles, who was Interim State Superintendent at the time, and offered to help out high poverty districts, resulting in his current position as Director of the Office of Partnership Schools for M.D.E. “When I was hired in December of 2018, I was also named the State School Reform Officer. There was only one in the State and the Legislature removed that position, so I remained the Director of Partnership Districts, and we currently are working with 26 districts around the state and 98 schools.”

Dr. Pearson provided historic context for his position. “In 2017-2018 Dr. Whiston, the previous state superintendent, decided that instead of trying to close schools, a new concept called partnership districts would be formed where M.D.E. would work with a district that had schools or a private school with a score in the bottom 5% of schools in Michigan. They began to have index scores from zero to 100 points that you would attain. Schools are identified based on their growth and proficiency rates which are 63% of the index score, with additional percentages added for English learner progress, graduation rate, and school quality and student success. Other categories which add percentages to the score are: K-8 access to media specialists, K-8 access to arts and P.E., the number of advanced classes for students in high school, and the post-secondary enrollment in some type of university or some type of college. All those percentages and numbers are input and the bottom 5% of the schools become C.S.I. (Comprehensive Support and Improvement).  Once labeled C.S.I. you qualify to become a partnership school that includes P.S.A (Private School Academies), or a partnership district (with several C.S.I. schools). With approximately 830 districts in the state of Michigan at the current time, we have 26 districts with a partnership agreement and 98 schools.”

“The agreements are supposed to be three years in length. Within the partnership agreement there are benchmarks to attain in 18 months, which is halfway through the agreement, and there are three year goals to meet. There are goals that are based on proficiency or growth and benchmarks, and there are goals that are based on what percent you want to decrease the number of kids chronically absent for example, or what systems you need to put in place in your districts or what type of school improvement planning needs to be put in place to help a district become better equipped to meet the needs of students and get out of the bottom 5%. With COVID, the U.S. Department of Education gave us two years of accountability waivers which extended the partnership agreements to four or five years, depending upon if they started in 2017 or 2018. This spring everybody believes there won't be any more waivers and the students are going to be assessed in M-STEP and S.A.T., so we will identify new schools this fall for round four.  We'll have new schools and new districts that we will be working with new three-year partnership agreements.”

Dr. Pearson noted, “There will be some schools and districts that will be re-identified and we're putting a new system in place with more intense support. A liaison from our office is assigned to that district to work closely with the district on systems that they need to put in place, interpreting data, changing systems for providing technical assistance.  The state budget has awarded the Office of Partnership Districts $6 million each year that we approve and disseminate to districts, based on their needs and their plans to use the money. In terms of support, there's money involved and we have a liaison that works specifically with them.  There are other offices within the Michigan Department of Education that we can also work with and dovetail into making the partnership district meet its goals at the end of three years.” 

Dr. Klein inquired about additional supports for teachers beyond the partnership work that is currently in place, citing communication from Dr. Michael Rice, State Superintendent, to certain members of the State legislature outlining opportunities to support educators in what in Michigan has become an impactful teacher shortage. Governor Whitmer suggested in her State of the State and budget messages that there be attention paid to that. When you think about the work that the M.D.E. is doing and the recommendations they're making, how is it proposed that the shortage of educators be addressed?

Dr. Pearson expressed his optimism, “I know Dr. Rice work diligently with the governor's office and with legislators trying to put a plan together that would help not only retain teachers, but get high school seniors and college freshman to enter the educational field. The governor’s budget includes retention bonuses for teachers, which I believe go from $2,000 a year for the next two years, $2,300 in 2024, and$4,000 in 2025, to continue to work in their current district. There is a plan to create Michigan Educator Fellowships, enabling student teachers to be paid $15.00 per hour while they student teach. There's money out there to entice high school seniors and college freshmen to go into the educational field. They are going to offer $10,000 to help out future educators that are going to school, if they provide two years of service for each year they would receive the money, to continue to go through the educational programs and come out and become a teacher somewhere in our state. There's a lot of money that is proposed to the legislature to provide dollars for future teachers and to retain staff, so the goal is to produce 10,000 plus more educators each year with this particular recommended budget from the governor. Additionally the governor’s recommendation is a $435 per student increase in state funding, which is a base amount of $9,135 and that is a significant increase. 

Asked how might he respond to the teaching and learning in the classroom that has been disrupted in a variety of ways over the last few years, Dr. Pearson replied, “I would push the acceleration versus the remediation aspect. Work with the kids at the grade level they are, looking at the course content and standards that are in front of them. Teach those standards and accelerate the students as much as possible without really reverting back to a lot of remediation. I think there's some value to maybe having some remote learning for some kids. My personal opinion is students and children need to be in front of the teacher face-to-face, so they can work more closely with the professional and the needs of the individual students can be met wherever they are, whatever place they come from.”

Dr. Maxfield suggested Dr. Pearson once again don the hat of a superintendent and share his advice with new and aspiring superintendents. “I would say always when you're making decisions, what's good for kids, what's good for your district,  not necessarily what's good for specific adults or adults. Always keep the kids in mind when decisions are made, whether you're building principal or whether you're in central office, specifically when you're a superintendent. Never lie to people. You can’t fool people. Don’t give them false hope. You don't give hope when there's an aspect or a topic that there's no hope for.  You don't tell people, yeah well, maybe, when there is no hope that it's going to occur; you tell them straight on. Be visible and keep working and talking with everyone.”

When asked about teacher leaders, Dr. Pearson continued the thread of leadership lessons. “You have to learn how to listen to people. When you listen to people it doesn't mean you're always going to agree, but you have to listen to what people are saying. People have to perceive that you are an open individual who will take what your colleagues are telling you. You have to be well versed in what's out there in terms of research. We do a much better job teaching kids, assessing kids, and figuring out what's good for kids in the classroom. We have a school improvement planning that was never there when I started.  We look at different points of a particular school and classrooms on how can we improve. I think leaders have to continue to meld all that into their daily activities as they work with individuals.”

Dr. David Dulio, Professor of Political Science at Oakland University and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement, is often asked by local and state media to comment on how to best address contentious issues and work through community concerns.  In this podcast, he provides perspective to the polarized political environment, explains how government representatives at all levels define their roles relative to the salience of the issue to their constituents, and recommends to school leaders the three behaviors that build trust with constituents. He advises increased transparency in process and information when responding to a potentially divisive educational issue.

Dr. Dulio offers insight into the origin of the Center for Civic Engagement.  “I arrived at Oakland University in 2002 from Washington D.C., where I did graduate work at American University and worked on Capitol Hill for about a year as a Congressional Fellow, through a fellowship program with the American Political Science Association. When I was a graduate student I watched my mentor, James Thurber, at American University create the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, bringing people together to talk about important issues.  When I got to Oakland University I continued on the trajectory of a normal academic, but always had in the back of my mind that I’d like to start something like that. Fast forward 15 years, the idea of a Center on Civic Engagement fit with the University’s strategic goal and mission. What really drove the creation of the Center which launched in 2018 was recognizing that people don't know much about how their government system works in the United States, and more importantly, the clear indication and evidence that Americans can't talk to each other anymore. ” 

“Polarization is one of the buzzwords today and the use of it is becoming greater, when in fact divisions in American politics are nothing new. Take the example of presidential job approval and we can see major division in terms of how people view presidents as far back as the 1960's; even John Kennedy saw some great polarization during his presidency. A lot of people think that it's just Trump that created this great divide in how people view the president. Certainly, Trump was polarizing and was someone who saw very divergent views of his job as president. Towards the end of his time in office, only 7% of Democrats had a favorable view of his job approval, whereas about 85% of Republicans did.  And that might seem jarring, however, at the end of Barack Obama's time in office; he was only in the low teens in job approval among Republicans and had over 90% job approval from Democrats. The one time we see some more general agreements about the job the president's doing was Jimmy Carter, who had low approval ratings from everybody. When the president's doing well among one group of partisans, it’s not often that we see him doing well among the other group of partisans.  A more important point is that disagreement, that divergence is long-lasting.”

“Polarization in terms of schools occurs because it's become a salient issue. Some data from Gallup at the end of last year showed nationally only 1% of Americans mentioned education as the most important issue the country was facing. As folks think about masking in schools, vaccine requirements, the school board issues, maybe it bubbles up a little more.  However when that issue becomes very, very salient and when it becomes relevant to their lives in a very pointed way, it becomes a huge issue.  Whether parents should have a say in what children learn in school galvanized and crystallized the issue of education for a lot of Virginians. It changed that gubernatorial race between Terry McAuliffe (D) and Glenn Youngkin (R), and it changed policymaking in Virginia in a lot of ways.”

How does this apply to local schools and school boards? Dr. Dulio explained, “Every school district is an elected government and school boards are the governmental entity representing the people.  There are two dominant models for how people perceive their job as representatives. One is the delegate model of representation, where somebody who is a representative acts as if his or her constituents are present. The constituents are simply delegating the authority to cast a vote or make a decision, rather than empowering the representative to do something other than what the constituents want.  The second model is the trustee model, where the representative may listen to constituents’ views, but they will use their own talents, opinions, competencies, beliefs, to decide what to do and how to vote.  Whether we have a delegate or representative model depends upon the individual representative and how they see their job; the issue; and here is where we get back to the issue of education, the context surrounding the issue; and how important it is to the constituents.  How important or how relevant it is at the time will depend or will dictate in some cases how a representative will look at that issue.”

How does a person who is in a school classroom, a principal's office, or central office, respond to these different models when you think about engaging a community with diverse interests and opinions? Dr. Dulio expounded on the point about saliency. “If things are going well or if times are good, a school board member or somebody who works for the district, may approach things as a trustee because they see no reason to do otherwise, and importantly the public might also see it that way, and they're okay with that. If things start to become more salient where more members of the public are thinking about it, they may change their expectation for that representative, whether it's an elected school board member or for a superintendent or a principal where they are now demanding, ‘You work for me. You better listen to what we think. You better listen to our input’.  If somebody has been approaching their role as a trustee the shift in that expectation can be jarring, taking them off guard. It might cause some of the biggest problems, where they’re now forced to think about their job very, very differently and even some of the decisions they make.”

For superintendents and school leaders, Dr. Dulio presented strategies for building trust, referencing Dr. Richard Fenno’s seminal study and subsequent book, Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. “Dr. Fenno convinced a handful of U.S. House Members to let him follow them around, observing their behavior. He called this method of research 'soaking and poking', soaking it all in and poking around. He noticed that the most important aspect of the home style of a Member of Congress was how a Member presents themselves to their constituents. Fenno argued that the most important aspect of the presentation of self is trust. Members have to build trust with his or her constituents and they do that by focusing on three things: qualification, identification, and empathy.   First, do you have the competencies, the skills, the requisite what it takes to do the job?  Second, do you have a connection with the folks?  The connection might be wearing the right T-shirt with the high school mascot on it or having a connection to one of the sports teams or one of the clubs. Third, do you understand the needs of the constituents?”

“Achieving these three things for a superintendent or a school board member will help immunize them against the pressures they’re feeling today.”  Dr. Maxfield pointed out that not every superintendent has the luxury of having built up that history of empathy or history of identification.  What can they do beyond understanding these qualities which are so vital? Dr. Dulio answered, “Beyond that, one key thing for me is being as transparent as you can in two ways: in your processes and in the information that you have. If something is starting to bubble up, share more information because if you don’t, given the Internet and given how good some folks have gotten at F.O.I. requests, someone will find out. If they find it out before you share it, you're on the defensive and you've lost control of the message. While there are some things that shouldn't be made public, folks should show a good faith effort to be open with the public and say, here’s what we're thinking."

“The vast majority of time folks in a school district are probably going to let the professionals: the superintendents, the principals, do their thing.  But if something that's really important bubbles up and gets on the public's radar, that's going to change. They're not going to be able to operate as they would in normal times because they are going to have people asking questions, seeking information, looking for answers to questions about what's going on in school, and what are you doing with my kids. If school leaders are just more prepared for that to come, they're in a better position to respond. It can be a sudden change and sort of jerky reactions where they've gone from everyone letting us do our thing, to beating down the door.”

The final advice: “Along with continuing to build trust in the community, it is important to put systems in place with transparency and vehicles for two-way communication as part of the culture of the community and the organization’s relationship to it.  As school leaders, planning during the best of times serves you in the more challenging times”. 

Dr. David Dulio    ddulio@oakland.edu

Center for Civic Engagement    https://oakland.edu/polisci/cce/

Fenno, Richard F., Home Style: House Members in Their Districts, Little & Brown, 1978.

Dr. Bob Maxfield and Dr. Suzanne Klein welcome Jay Westover, Chief Learning Officer at Innovate Ed and author of Districts on the Move, the subject of a multi-session book study conducted with educational leaders in southeast Michigan, sponsored by the Galileo Institute at Oakland University.   

Jay Westover’s educational background followed a similar pattern to most administrators: classroom teacher, assistant principal, and principal. “I was lucky enough in my first principalship to meet Rick DuFour with whom I became good friends.  My career continued at the district office and then in California, the County Office focusing on leadership development; keeping that idea of how we improve schools from Rick's DuFour’s vantage point. In about 2000, I noticed that most of the school improvement work wasn't sustainable, so I left my job and started InnovateEd, and was lucky enough to find another mentor, Michael Fullan, about 2013. The book, Districts on the Move, was something that emanated from working in partnership with Michael, and what we found was how to make coherence happen in action.” 

“The idea of coherence or systems thinking is really using collaborative inquiry, which is how you seek out solutions in a way in which you really don't know an answer, to shape that coherent path of improvement. The key has to be district leaders with principals and teachers working together to find solutions, not only for their schools but for their district.”

“We found there are four key drivers that connect Fullan's work on coherence. The first key driver is clarity of focus. Using the analogy of a pendulum scale to determine the weight of a rock using pebbles, you need to work together to calculate it, work together to figure out how to move it, and keep working at it. So how do we work collaboratively to create movement or have an impact? The second driver, shared leadership, requires a very strong communication and collaboration model in order to share the vision and priorities to take action. The third driver is the idea of collective expertise or collaborative inquiry, but I think of it as more like improvement cycles. You know you can go all the way back to Bryk’s work, thinking about a short cycle of four to six weeks of inquiry; what's the problem, what's the solution, let's figure it out, what have we learned, and how do we keep moving in an agile manner? And that last driver which I think is most important, you have to have a feedback loop. If you want continuous improvement maybe every six to nine weeks, you have to come back together and as a system figure out: what's working, what's not working, and how you overcome problems of practice? I would say if you want to build coherence and be a systems thinker, you have to be very intentional in how you transform climate, shape culture, and build capacity to create coherence, and the end game has to be equity.  That's got to be in the forefront and it's got to be your long-term focus.”

Jay Westover observed, “a lot of times in school districts, schools are doing good work in isolation and not necessarily in partnership with each other or with district leaders. We have to move away from an isolated model of schools improving by themselves into more of a network structure. I think that concept probably goes back to the idea of a community of practice. So if a district has nine schools they may be grouped into three groups of three, to work together on a problem of practice with a district liaison supporting them. Then they come back together throughout the year to learn across functionally.”

To establish communities of practice within and across districts, “we have to be open to partner and establish broader networks among school districts, especially if there’re areas which we all feel are important. We call that big idea collective impact; how you collectively try to find impact versus individually? If we can create that internal network of the districts, we can really accelerate change and improvements. I've talked to superintendents that said that they feel they've accelerated for example, math improvement by three to four years just by co-learning with others that might be already ahead of them.” When responding to overcoming individual school identity,the difference in talent distribution, and competition between schools and districts, Jay Westover clarified “part of that comes down to what's the purpose? Simon Sinek, we know The Golden Circle, talks about ‘the Why, the How and the What’. I think what you may have described is ‘the What’, where we feel good about our outcomes, about certain practices, but that moral imperative happens to be student equity or equitable growth. So some of those successful districts aren't seeing equal gains for all kids and John Hattie really pushes that idea. If we can find common ground which is how do we achieve equitable growth in student learning, then it becomes an issue bigger than ourselves individually, and we're moving towards something that is collectively important.”

In the splinter between management versus leadership for time, energy and commitment, “if you're doing management you're really attending to urgent demands, if you're doing leadership you’re attending to important things. If you go back to the book Districts on the Move, the reason why we put the rubrics in the back is because when you actually look at those four key drivers you start to see if you really have clarity of focus. Chris McChesney in his book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, said that internationally only 15% of individuals in any organization know the priorities. Well, the problem is when you start to attend to the urgent demands and you don't know your key priorities, everyone's going in a different direction. I think the idea of calibrating against something common like a rubric, being reflective about what's in place, what's not in place, really, really is important or else everyone else's opinion's right.”

Jay Westover’s advice to new leaders, “I think I would come into the job with a very strong collaborative inquiry mindset and I would shape some very key questions to get my organization to focus in on and identify some of those priorities. Therefore, we can shift away from the urgency of current demands into the importance that really's connected to sustainable improvement.”

Jay Westover commented on what he saw as some of the unique challenges that have surfaced in the last year and a half. “If you strip away the logistics that are connected to COVID, and whether it's the social-emotional or safety issues, I think what we have unveiled as the most significant problem in education in the  United States is its variability. I mean we now really see that there is variability in student learning. I think the real dilemma is how to overcome variability. My new book coming out in March, Schools on the Move, is a little bit more of a school-level look at the question, how do you overcome variability? In this work we're looking at it just a little differently; it's about climate, culture, capacity, and coherence. How do we develop leaders who are able to navigate change and reduce variability? I'm not saying it's easy, but we have to begin to really pay attention to some of these causations of variability in learning and begin to recognize that some of our systems, practices, processes, culture are at the root of it and support our schools to figure out how to overcome it, not individually but with district leaders leading the charge of what's at the root cause of the variability and how do we reduce it in a way in which it's going to lead to better growth in student learning.”

“I would suggest to reduce variability you have to have an inquiry cycle in your school or district. And the first step is to analyze the evidence; figure out what's the problem of practice; what's getting in the way of student learning. Then design some improvement strategies that are going to overcome it and how do you know if they're working. Implement, be agile, make adjustments, and then come back and figure out what works best, why, and move forward more intelligently. What I’m noticing is the urgent demands are preventing school districts from leading from an inquiry stance to figure out how to navigate change and improvements. We have to figure out how to get space and create opportunity for that because the management is taking over the leadership, unfortunately.”

For Schools on the Move, Jay worked with the Long Beach United School District, “recognized as I think number four in the world, and Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent, with an unprecedented eighteen years as the longest-serving urban superintendent in America.   In writing the book with Chris, we “merged the pragmatic voice of the superintendent and district leaders and principals, ‘as boots on the ground’, with not necessarily theory but more research from studying. I just want to reinforce that we've tried to figure out what's the solution for the current challenge. If you visualize a simple square divided into four boxes. In the center is the idea of collaborative inquiry, so we're collaboratively inquiring about what should our focus be; we're collaboratively inquiring to develop that really strong shared leadership of how we're going to overcome that challenge. We’re inquiring about how to build expertise, you know to figure out how to be successful and then inquiry implies we have an improvement process. If you could take the big tenets of Districts on the Move and try to get it down to the simplest nuggets, the starting point’s going to be collaborative inquiry.”

website: https://innovateed.com/

Westover, Jay, Districts on the Move: Leading a Coherent System of Continuous Improvement, Thousand Oaks, CA., Corwin; 1st edition, September 17, 2019.

Westover, Jay,  and Christopher Steinhauser,  Schools on the Move: Leading Coherence for Equitable Growth, Thousands Oaks, CA., Corwin, Release date March 2022

Fullan, Michael & Quinn, J., Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts and systems, Thousand Oaks, CA., Corwin, 2016.

McChesney, Chris, et.al. The 4 Disciples of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals,  Free Press; 1st edition April 1, 2012

Vicki Wilson, the principal of the Monroe Elementary School in the Wyandotte, Michigan School District, and author of Lead with Instructional Rounds: Creating a Culture of Professional Learning, shares her views on why and how and when you use instructional rounds to both create a culture for learning, as well as support the teachers' learning.

Vicki Wilson recounted some of the experiences that shaped her approach as a school administrator and very passionate advocate for learning for both children and adults. As a fourth grade teacher, “I wasn't expecting the depth of the relationship that I had with students as individuals, but also that you have just with your class as a whole and the community that you build and the culture that you build. So that was the first thing that shaped me, is that realizing that it's so much more than sharing content with kids so that they learn it but it is about community and culture and family and getting to know each other."

The second experience Vicki Wilson recalled was as a principal in a school where she had been working previously. She visited the classrooms of teachers she knew and with whom she had taught and using a wider lens, “I realized that as I went into everybody's classroom I saw strengths that I did not know that they had and that changed me and shaped me dramatically. And I started to think about how can we leverage these strengths that are in classrooms.”

Moving beyond her walls and community and becoming an educational leader was the third experience that came later in her career as a principal. She became more connected, "reaching out beyond her district and joining the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals’ Association (MEMSPA) state association and building a professional learning network, getting active on Twitter and eventually writing a book."

The instructional rounds approach that staff took at Monroe Elementary School was to examine different research and best practices. “The research out of Harvard supporting ten minute visits with reflection and debriefing was a structure that felt good to us.  We also like the work that Marzano discusses to be reflective educators, using the opportunities to observe colleagues to reflect on the practices you have in your classroom and think about them. Are you getting the impact that you want out of the class, out of those techniques that you're learning? Lastly we just wanted to strengthen our culture, so we looked at the research out of Gallup about strength-based employee feedback and how that contributes to greater gains. So, we made sure that we were very positive in the way we go about instructional rounds, and we talk about the positive impact that we're seeing with our kids.”

“We define it like this: instructional rounds is a process for educators, in small collaborative groups, to observe their colleagues teaching while reflecting on their own practices, followed by dialogue about the effective instruction and the impact on learning. I do believe that when adults learn more, students learn more also, and that was one piece that was really important. Are we growing ourselves as adults and knowing that there are strengths in all these other classrooms, how can we take that opportunity to do that? I don't believe we learn to our potential when we're in isolation as teachers, so how do we break down that isolation so that we can learn more?”

“To create a culture for learning for students and the adults in the school, it has to be safe for the adults to jump in and do it. You’ve got to put so much into the safety piece so that everyone can apply and compare and reflect and learn and process. It's really important for the leader to be involved in this work whether the leader's the facilitator or not. The principal needs to participate in the professional learning with their teachers and that in itself has an effect size of point eight four.“ 

“Teachers going on the rounds are in a deep reflective mind. They're walking in, they're observing, they're thinking about what they do with their students, and they're looking at what this person's doing. They're thinking about what we've learned about for best practices, rigor, and student success. As facilitator, my job is to step out with this group of teachers to talk about teaching and learning. I pose two strong reflective questions that will create some dialogue and discussion around the best practices we saw, the way the teacher executed it, that work that was positive and the impact that was having on the students. The teacher whose classroom we observed will get their feedback later.Upon completion of the rounds the staff that observed classrooms will write a note card to each of the teachers that we visited that validates a practice that they used with some very specific positive details and what we took away from it. The host teachers will receive five-six note cards in their mailbox that give them specific feedback on their instruction.”

"The gain for teachers is you're going to be able to see what someone else is doing and then take those very best ideas and make yourself better. What they'll find out later though, just beyond getting in someone's classroom is they're going to have such good dialogue with other colleagues in their building, it will strengthen their relationship. And they're going to see strengths of people that they didn't know that they had, so your culture is going to grow through this model."

In assessing the challenges to instructional rounds, Vicki Wilson indicated, “probably the biggest obstacle is a teacher evaluation process. It has to be presented as something completely different and separate, to the point where I hold different things in my hand when I go in during instructional rounds versus what I do when I go in for an evaluation or an observation. Obstacles to the process can be addressed with clearly communicated boundaries and guidelines, with genuine validation for teacher participation, and practices that are transparent and consistent.”

Turning to the impact of the pandemic, the challenges it revealed, and how it played out in her school, the thing that stood out so drastically to Vicki Wilson were the inequities and the obstacles students faced to get what they needed in order to learn. She identified “the important pandemic lesson learned was how do we make sure that we have equity in access and what students are given to be able to do the learning they need to do.” While change and progress in education moving at a snail’s pace has been frustrating for her, in terms of the pandemic’s impact, “I think probably the exciting piece of it is that it forced us to start to innovate and start making some changes, and start looking outside of the box. Last and I hope this comes out of the pandemic, I think what's really important is it forces us to look at our priorities in education and where we're investing our time and investing our resources. So I wish and I hope that we might look at some of the other obstacles that are preventing us from doing the true authentic work of teaching and learning for kids and for adults.”

Vicki Wilson’s ideal teacher preparation program would reflect a partnership between colleges of education and strong or model schools to be connected more deeply to the school experience and setting. “You learn your content in your college class and then you can go in and look at that instruction happening and then start to see the art of that content being delivered and how does that teacher engage those students around that content, I think that would be so powerful. When I have student teachers in the building they always go on instructional rounds with us. They learn so much from that experience and being a part of the conversation with veteran and mentor teachers. Beyond the content that's happening in their college classroom or observing in their assigned teacher's classroom is that dialogue piece with other educators after looking at learning.” 

Dr. Suzanne Klein confirmed that is the model in the Oakland University Teacher Education Program. “The students are in a partner district, and they work with a cluster of teachers. The professor goes to the school for their instruction and it gives the students an opportunity to do just what Vicki Wilson suggested, see the real teaching and learning in action, make the instructional rounds, invite some of the teachers in as guest speakers, and it makes it so much more relevant, real and impactful for the students in the program.”

Finally, Vicki Wilson’s advice for a new principal is to “find a strong mentor that you can talk to, and be authentic and real with. Also don't think that you have to know it all. Ask for help don't drown, don't let yourself drown. If you've been treading water even one minute ask for help, because nobody expects you to have this mastered and know what you're doing right now and especially in a pandemic. I also recommend joining your state association; MEMSPA's the one I'm in, MASSP, whatever level you're in but join a state organization, because besides the networking and the connections you make, they also provide legal assistance that you may need and that's just important to protect yourself.  And then I would just say get connected, whether through Facebook or Twitter. There are a lot of really good groups or principal communities that are really supportive. So get support within your district but also stretch beyond there with that social media or a state association.”

https://www.vickiwilson.org/

Wilson, Vicki, Lead with Instructional Rounds: Creating a Culture of Professional Learning, Dave Burgess Consulting, Incorporated, May 21, 2020.