The Key Work of School Boards

I have to admit, when this book first arrived, I was a little disappointed.  It was thin, and it looked like a workbook that my children bring home.  You know, the ones filled with mindless repetitive math facts, that you figure out the concept of after the first 4 problems and then look down and see have to do 46 more.  But, as I read it, I found it to be filled with practical information as well as with an innovative edge that said, "let's stop doing things the same way we always have."  Because it was a fairly quick and easy read I may be the only "geek" in class that read more than the required chapters, but found them to be quite informative.  Still, I will try to stay focused here on chapter 12 and the discussion of Continuous Improvement. 


Continuous Improvement is something that I brought to my last school, Ridgeway Elementary School, when we began our journey of developing a Professional Learning Community model that we set as a vision after reading , "Whatever it Takes," by DuFour, Eaker, DuFour & Karhanek.  We (the RES staff and I) had determined that we would begin to look at all of our practices to see what we could do to improve learning at our school.  Nothing was sacred.  We were forced to use the "Board Approved" curriculum, but we began to view it as more of a resource than the holy bible that must be quoted word for word.  We read books on best practice from various well respected education researchers and authors.  We went on site visits to schools that were seen as successful and that had test scores to back up these claims of success.  I was very enthused to see my staff take hold of the continuous improvement strategy and really embrace it.  

We caught some grief from staff and leadership at the other buildings because we were bucking some long established practices, but our test scores and parent feedback was hard to argue.  As we began to implement an RTI program into our daily practice we began to see even better results.  The two elementary staffs came together to put in some fantastic intervention programs and practices that included a tool for data warehousing and progress monitoring.  We decided we were ready to be one of the first schools in the state to qualify a student under the RTI model for a Specific Learning Disability (SLD).  We weren't sure if this was something to be proud of or if we were ready to do it, but the fact was we had tried several different interventions with this student, and checked the fidelity ( I often refer to that word as the "F" word that we should not utter, but for different reasons) of those interventions, and found that we had done all we could without altering the program so much that the student would need modifications in line with special education if we provided interventions any more intense than we already were providing.  We went for it.  The student has found more success in the Special Education program and more importantly is enjoying school much more and will be less likely to drop out of school in the future.  Again we found success.  Not in the same old practices that we had utilized for years, but in the question everything approach we had taken.  Even after trying 4 different interventions with the same child, the team would ask, "are we sure we are meeting with him as often as we agreed? Do we need to meet more? Are we sure this intervention is the best one for him?"  This attention to detail and repeated review of data meant that this student would not fall between the cracks and created a path that meant success for the future students entering the RTI program.  Our successes were adding up.  

My frustration that I feel with larger scale Continuous Improvement efforts has been that they have thus far been all talk and no action.  I have worked with 3 districts now that talked about CI efforts and how strategic planning will make a difference, and that this process will guide us as we move forward in this ever changing milieu of education.  I am now starting with my fourth district and I am once again hopeful that we will utilize a continuous improvement model, but do more than just talk about it, create a pretty plan, and then continue to practice strategies and procedures that have been in place for years, because they are familiar, easy and not upsetting to anyone.  This is the "Rut"   that I see most public schools stuck in.  The rut that many administrators do not want to climb out of for fear that things will change back to the old way, that staff will be upset with the needed changes, or that the tremendous effort that  will be needed to learn and follow through with the needed changes.  The Key Work of School Boards (TKWSB) shares how we may need to ask ourselves if the comfort of our routine is driving out your responsibility to think and plan.  "Routines unchecked become ruts" (p.77).  The idea that truly rung home with me was the note that stated, "In fact, our tendency to cling to what has worked is often what blinds us to the present and the future, and leaves us bewildered about what to do in the face of new realities," (p77).  This is the reality that I have seen in far too many districts, and even in my own.  I have hopes that the Common Core State Standards & the Next Generation Assessments can help change this, but I also think it is a shame that an accountability mandate is the only way to get some districts to move forward, and what is worse is that they attach ignorant practices such as value added and high stakes testing to these otherwise well intentioned initiatives.  






As I have stated above, I have sat in on many School Board meetings, in up to 4 different districts now and have seen little progress on talk and plans of continuous improvements.  Each has required a strategic plan (usually about a 5 year plan) and each has required yearly goals of each administrator and school building.  What I haven't yet witnessed is serious discussion about practices, curriculum, buildings, technology, or the various other factors and resources that affect the educational environment within a school district.  I have seen these discussions take place in my school (although truly only in my most recent building) and I have seen progress made there, but even the changes we would like to have made, we slowed or halted when goals or practices reached a level of change that needed district support to progress.  I guess I would like to see education begin to take more of a science approach to things.  Everything is an experiment.  We try new things.  We experiment with the idea.  We test the hypothesis.  If it fails......then it fails, and we figure out what we need to change to make it work the next time.  No punishment.  No threat of job loss.  Just the time and support needed to go back to the drawing board, create a new plan, and experiment again.  Then when you find success.......start to question what you are doing.  Did it work well for everyone?  If not, why not?  And we start again.  


I am now working in a small rural district.  It is made up of 6 different towns that were too small to support their own districts, and most of the community members are fairly conservative and do not have a great deal of access or familiarity with technology.  While I have been impressed with the technology purchases they have made within their schools (SMARTBoards, Doc Cameras, iPads), I do have some concerns over limited budgets that have forced them to use inferior servers (Novell systems- argh!).  Well, speed isn't everything.  Again, is this a district that talks the talk, but when it comes time to walk the talk.....well, do we stumble and trip.  Or worse, do we step back in fear of tripping.  I am awaiting my first School Board meeting in my new district and I hope to have a better sense of things then.  Wish me luck.


hopeful................!