Leading To Learn

I am sumarizing the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy Leading for Learning framework and its related Sourcebook to assess what Alameda can do to accomplish "Student Success -Whatever It Takes" in the AUSD Strategic Plan for 2003-2008.

Each action area is broken down into sections:

Acting Strategically and Sharing Leadership

Framework Summary

Underlying ideas

Leading for learning strategically involving devising courses of action that use existing policies, support activities, management structures and leadership resources to create improved learning opportunities for students, teachers and the system.

To be “strategic”, leaders’ actions must first align with the focus on learning that leaders have established. Second, they are sensitive to the local context to the most critical learning issues that arise. Third, they exploit opportunities that present an opening for change and afford the possibility of maximum leverage over the situation.

Strategic action by this definition implies a sharing of leadership among different kinds of staff. Therefore, the definition of a leader changes to someone who takes on the leadership responsibility, (some in formal positions of authority, some not) to address related aspects of a commonly held learning improvement agenda. For addition discussion about the role a "leader", see this Rugter's Study Leaders in Education.

Finally, strategic, distributed action is most likely to influence learning itself when it stimulates and supports activities that have a direct relationship with learning and teaching. A full stream of activities is referred to as a “pathway to learning”. There are four pathways:

1. pathways focused on content, assessment and accountability
2. pathways focused on learners and learner support
3. pathways focused on the workplace and system
4. pathways focused on professionals and their practice

Process and challenges

To fashion strategies for exerting specific influence on student, professional or system learning raises questions for leaders regarding to where to start, who exercises initiative and how initiative is shared between schools and district.

Reflective Questions

1. Where do leaders have the greatest leverage in each of the most promising areas of improvement? Who else can exert leverage in these areas?
2. Given current conditions and resources, which pathways in our district offer the best opportunities for influencing teaching and learning?
3. How is leadership shared in our district? How is it shared between the schools and our district?
4. Who leads (or can be encouraged to lead) and how can their leadership be supported?
5. How can leaders connect with work along different pathways to reinforce our learning improvement agenda?

Strategic Plan Review

The entire strategic plan outlines courses of action to create improved learning opportunities. More specifically, the goals from the strategic plan can be matched to one of the four pathways mentioned above.

1. pathways focused on content, assessment and accountability

GOAL #1: Curricular Coherence & Effectve Practices

GOAL #4: Assessment (Formative, Incremental Testing for Diagnostic Purposes)

2. pathways focused on learners and learner support

GOAL #5: At-Risk Students

GOAL #6: High School Graduation

GOAL #7: Limited English Proficient Students

GOAL #8: Early Child Education

GOAL #9: Student Involvement and Engagement

GOAL #11: Vocational,Career, and Adult Education

3. pathways focused on the workplace and system

GOAL #10: Safe Schools

GOAL AREA #12: Communications and Community Engagement

4. pathways focused on professionals and their practice

GOAL #2: Staff Development

GOAL #3: Staff Recruitment, Assignment and Retention

Base on extensive research, teacher expectations play a sigificant role in student achievement outcomes.

In Spring, 2006, the new superintendent was introduced to the ExCEL program used by Hesperia Unified School District. This program uses early assessment and intensive intervention to achive significant learning improvements in all populations.

Joanne Rooney

As principal of an elementary school, I was determined to enforce the long-standing rule of “no gum chewing.” The faculty had clearly spelled out consequences for violating this honored regulation and we consistently enforced them. The second offense incurred an additional penalty, and on the third we called the parents. We simply did not tolerate gum chewing.

We maintained careful records of chewers and spelled out the evils of gum. When we found wads stuck to the undersides of desks and obstructing the drains of drinking fountains, we ratcheted up our pursuit of offenders. But our efforts were of no avail. Defeated, we regrouped to analyze the point of it all. After collective reflection, we concluded that our many hours spent as chewing-gum police had little purpose other than to demonstrate who was in charge.

As we remembered what was truly central to our work, the rationale for the chewing-gum rule faded. We began to pick our battles more wisely, judging their importance by their effect on learning. If an atmosphere of learning is to prevail, rules must be clearly understood, consistently promulgated, and justly implemented. After much thought, the faculty chose to focus on five rules outlining a code of behavior in harmony with our work as educators, not prison guards. We posted these rules, simple but reflective of our deepest beliefs, in every classroom:

• Show respect for all people in the school community.
• Keep hands, feet, and all other objects to ourselves.
• Finish classwork and all homework.
• Read.
• Learn as much as we are able.

This list was narrowed through good-faith debate about wording, number of rules needed, and what observing these rules would look like in practice. This conversation led to rich dialogue about what teachers really cared about for students. Some teachers were less comfortable than others with the simplicity of the rules, but few disagreed with their broad intent. Everyone appreciated the consistency. Staff members found it easier to address the behavior of students from other teachers' classrooms. The mentality of “your kids/my kids” morphed into one of “our kids.”

Something more significant happened as teachers spent less time deciding on rules and complex consequences: The more seriously we attended to the matter of successful student engagement in learning, the less we needed to address rule-breaking and consequences. When students' daily experiences in the classroom were positive and successful, misbehavior became less of an issue.

An unintended side benefit to clarifying guidelines for respectful student behavior was our exploration of how these guidelines applied equally to us as adults. For example, asking students to respect differences called on staff members, also, to actively understand opinions other than our own—an extraordinarily difficult commitment. Requiring students to finish classwork obligated teachers to plan lessons and assessments more carefully. Making reading a required behavior for students prompted us to form a weekly faculty book group. We realized that discipline went far beyond the student world.

Some kids, of course, challenged us at every turn. At times we still called parents, reprimanded inappropriate behavior, and suspended students from class. Neither we nor the students focused on these exceptions, however. The contest of who would “win” died a slow but welcome death.

I invite readers to examine their own chewing-gum battles. What topics dominate conversations and official communication in your school? Do they focus on rule-making and enforcing, or on kids and learning? If your school culture spotlights student conformity more brightly than the joy and importance of learning, it may be time to dramatically refocus that spotlight.

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Last modified: July 2, 2003

Disclaimer: This website is the sole responsibility of Mike McMahon. It does not represent any official opinions, statement of facts or positions of the Alameda Unified School District. Its sole purpose is to disseminate information to interested individuals in the Alameda community.