Spring Capstone Paper

In order to shape and sustain a positive school culture in which all learners are challenged and supported as they engage in high-level math, science, and STEM teaching and learning, it’s important to believe that everyone in the school community, not only students, “will learn most effectively in an atmosphere where they feel safe and do not fear being ridiculed or humiliated, in which they’re challenged and assisted to meet realistic goals, in which they feel teachers genuinely care about them and respect their individuality, in which learning is seen as an exciting adventure rather than a drudgery. It is within such an atmosphere that resiliency and hope are reinforced” (Brooks, 1999, p. 65). This belief that schools are centers of resiliency, hope, and growth for all learners is an essential component of a positive culture that fosters the ongoing learning of both educators and students through high-quality professional development and high-level learning. In order for this positive culture of ongoing learning to be sustained and successful, it requires the creation of systemic supports for teachers and staff (and students) so that they are able to maximize student learning.

In Pamela Mendels’ 2012 article “The Effective Principal”, she asks a question that is akin to the Holy Grail of school leadership: “What exactly is it that effective principals do that ripples through classrooms and boosts learning, especially in failing schools?” (p. 55) Research points to five common practices which, when interwoven into the culture of a school, are particularly relevant to effective school leadership and increased student achievement.

I. Vision

A schoolwide vision of academic success for all students is the first practice described by Mendels, a vision based on high levels of learning and high expectations in all subjects. For this practice to be successful, the principal must be explicit in her vision of high achievement, making clear that the vision for a school where all can learn is not optional. One of the most essential beliefs to carry as an educator is the belief that EVERYONE can learn, grow, evolve, and adapt. In a video from the “Inside Mathematics” series from the Noyce Foundation, an eighth grade teacher named Patty summarized this mindset succinctly: “You have to believe that every student can learn”. Understanding the process of change in order to improve student achievement is crucial. If the mindset exists that some students can’t be reached, that mindset needs to shift to a growth mindset. All members of the school community must believe that all students can learn, and a culture of support needs to be established and maintained in the school (and every classroom) to make that happen. For this practice to be successful, the principal must be explicit in her vision of high achievement, making clear that the vision for a school where all can learn is not optional. Schools must become places in which “all adults and children are supported to continue growing, learning, developing, and thriving” (Drago-Severson, 2004, p, 71).

II. Culture

Mendels’ second practice essential to school leadership is the creation of a climate that is “hospitable to education in order that safety, a cooperative spirit, and other foundations of fruitful interaction prevail” (2012, p. 55). It is important for the leader of a school to create a culture where teachers and students feel psychologically safe. This requires the creation of systemic supports for teachers and staff (and students) so that they are able to maximize student learning.

A culture which supports all learners (educators as well as students) embraces diversity, and it is important to cultivate a staff that strives to understand cultivate an equity mindset- not just an equality mindset. A school culture that respects diversity develops a common language and engages in difficult conversations in an intentional and structured manner, taking the opportunity to practice skills of understanding and talking about diversity within their small, safe community.

In a city like Philadelphia, one of the “difficult conversations” that schools have to engage in as a community surrounds racial literacy. According to Howard Stevenson, “racial literacy is the ability to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful social interactions. The teaching of racial literacy skills protects students from the threat of internalizing negative stereotypes that undermine academic critical thinking, engagement, identity, and achievement” (2014, p. 4). Unresolved “racially stressful social interactions” have significantly negative effects on health, academic, and social well-being, and “the stark absence of racial literacy and competence to process and resolve these issues is also a missing element in strategies to close the achievement gap” (Stevenson, 2014, p. 4).

Encouraging diversity within a community doesn’t mean throwing out the community’s existing structures and beliefs as if they don’t matter. Developing a diverse culture, when done successfully, involves respecting the existing culture of the school while using the understanding of that school’s culture to help it evolve into a manifestation of the leader’s mission and vision. “To be successful at culture building, school leaders need to give attention to the informal, subtle, and symbolic aspects of school life” (Sergiovanni, 2007, p. 146). Diversity doesn’t just mean appreciating people from a different culture- it can manifest as general respect for how the school operated in the past, with specific traditions and norms. Showing sensitivity to a building’s existing culture, and recognition of these differences can go a long way to getting buy in for change. In fact, when school leaders have been able to ignite progressive reform despite bureaucratic red tape, “many principals’ own vision of student learning has adapted to community needs and student interests” (Rousmaniere, 2013, p. 8), so cultural shifts do not have to flow only from the vision of the leader. Over time, a shared vision emerges as the leader and culture work together.

Discussion and confrontation of issues directly via dialogue is to be encouraged, and professional development training on dialogue skills for school staff should be a component of each year’s opening activities. In this model, educators are given tools to work through issues without preventing the students from accessing high quality instruction in a safe, positive climate. According to Robert Evans in The Human Side of School Change, “In school leadership the prevailing bias is toward avoiding any potentially serious conflict (and thus most forms of resistance to change). School leaders generally prefer to minimize friction and discord, overlooking them when they can, finessing and fudging them when they can't” (1996, Kindle Locations 3359-3360).

Collaboration among educators is another crucial component of a positive climate that is hospitable to education. “Under conditions of collaboration, there is more likely to develop a norm of continuous professional growth, stimulated and guided by the sense of a compelling mission” (Leithwood, 2001, p. 35).

Teacher coaching, in particular, needs to be viewed as a community effort- struggling teachers and distinguished teachers should all be sharing practices and working to grow together. If collaboration is considered a valuable strategy for students, it can be equally, if not more valuable, for teachers.

Clear communication and expectations across all platforms, for both adults and students, needs to be noted as an explicit norm so that everyone is aware of the consistent expectations for how members of a school community communicate and collaborate. With this framework and background, learning communities are free to collaborate both outside and within their existing learning communities, while ensuring that consistencies in collaboration provide the strongest facilitation for fostering a culture of continuous learning. “...it’s through conversations and hands-on work that the magic happens in professional learning. That’s where teachers challenge one another’s thinking and find better ways to reach students.” (Scott, 2014, p.75)

An effective leader must make sure that all participants are aware of the role he/she is expected to fulfill. For example, in order to balance Millennial enthusiasm with Baby Boomer levelheadedness, “schools need to ensure that all participants in learning communities are grounded by a set of protocols. Millennials may feel as if protocols are slowing down the team process, but protocols may be necessary to ensure that older teachers allow beginning teachers to fully participate in discussions” Richardson, 2011, p. 18).

III. Cultivating Leadership in Others

“Working together as a cohort rather than as individuals, teacher leaders can build a new collaborative culture. Such a culture would have the capacity to support the diverse leadership approaches and configurations necessary to “reculture” a school (Fullan, 1995, as cited in Lieberman & Miller, 2004, p. 25). When teachers are developed as leaders with a mission and vision aligned with the principal, staff is more engaged and committed to the leader’s vision and mission. Shifts in leadership of this nature, although disconcerting, do not result in a loss for principals or students: “researchers found that principals do not lose influence as teachers gain influence” (Mendels, 2012, p. 56).

IV. Improving Instruction

Effective leaders, in their never-ending quest to improve instruction, “take advantage of the collaborative culture they work to create in their schools” (Mendels, 2012, p. 56), and use data to drive professional development needs for teachers- much in the way teachers use data to determine the instructional needs of their students. Although the principal is the instructional leader of the overall community, educators, like students, have a greater level of motivation when they “feel they are heard and respected, and they feel they have some control over what is transpiring in school milieu” (Brooks, 1999, p. 70).

Adult learners have unique needs, and planning for professional development must be respectful and accommodating in order to foster a culture of diversity as previously discussed. “Novice staff developers often do not understand that adult learners have unique needs. Adults must see an immediate application for what they are experiencing and it must be relevant in their world” (Rhoton, 2006, p. 132). It is extremely important to meet the teachers’ needs as learners when creating and implementing professional learning opportunities. Professional development, while aligned with student performance needs, must also be both engaging and relevant, and the concept of flipped learning is a strategy effective with adult learners as well as children. “Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight and Arfstrom define flipped learning as “the use of digital technologies to shift direct instruction outside of the group learning space to the individual learning space.” The goal of this approach to professional learning is to provide teachers the time they need to understand the new content (such as a key strategy) on their own, leaving the face-to-face time to focus on collaboration, discussion, activities, and analysis of the content” (Scott, 2014, p. 1).

Effective professional development is more than just a seminar on a new teaching technique or fad. “Professional development planning is always the result of a need for change. It can be designed to improve existing practices or to establish new ones, but it involves change nonetheless” (Rhoton, 2006, p. 140).

The issue of creating opportunities for effective and impactful professional development for educators is not just the problem of individual school leaders- it is a larger, more systemic problem with teacher preparation programs across the United States. “To provide educators with professional development offerings that affect student learning, districts must think about creating a system of training that is job-embedded and ongoing. Districts must begin to think of teachers and school leaders as classroom researchers who use their daily practice to learn about their students and to identify what works best for these students. To do this, these educators must be given guidance and support in understanding the basic concepts of evidence-centered instruction” (Rhoton, 2006, p.111).

V. The DATA

Why is such importance given to creating a culture in which students engage in high-level math and science learning? Research has found “an empirical link between school leadership and student achievement” (Mendels, 2012, p. 54). Education has evolved into a highly data driven field of social science, and strong school leaders must be fluent in translating data into action for increasing student achievement as well as increased teacher effectiveness.

Data on math instruction shows many implications for increased student achievement. “Findings from a number of additional studies, summarized in Brophy and Good (1986), reinforce the following claim: mathematics teaching that facilitates skill efficiency is rapidly paced, includes modeling by the teacher with many teacher-directed, product type of questions, and displays a smooth transition from demonstration to substantial amounts of error-free practice. The teacher plays a central role in organizing, pacing, and presenting information to meet well-defined learning goals” (Hiebert, 2007, p.2). The importance of looking at data from multiple sources (research, student assessments, etc.) in order to see the implications for increased student achievement. It’s important for the principal be fluent with this information in order to recommend instructional changes or identify what works and why. “To support teacher quality in mathematics and science, we should design powerful, content specific staff development that is data-driven and evaluated, and is based on using ideas that work and knowing how educators learn” (Rhoton, 2006, p 128).

Robert Marzano’s research on math stresses the importance and efficacy of a “guaranteed and viable curriculum”- proving that with a guaranteed and viable curriculum, student achievement is most impacted by the composite of time and OTL. OTL is “Opportunity to Learn” and it has “the strongest relationship with student achievement of all school-level factors identified” (Marzano, 2003, p.22).

Effective school leadership in which the leader shapes and sustains a positive school culture where all learners are challenged and supported as they engage in high-level math, science, and STEM teaching and learning is the result of a vision that demonstrates how “leadership supportive of adult development makes schools better places of learning for children and youth” (Drago-Severson, 2004, p.71). When there is an emphasis on adult learning and mastery, data shows a positive impact on student achievement. To quote President John F. Kennedy, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.

Citations

Brooks, R. (1999). “Creating a Positive School Climate: Strategies for Fostering Self-Esteem, Motivation and Resilience.” In Cohen, J. (Ed.) Educating Minds and Hearts. Teachers College Press.

Drago-Severson, E. (2004). Helping New Teachers Learn, Leadership for Adult Growth and Development. Corwin Press.

Evans, R. (2009). The Human Side of School Change: Reform, Resistance, and the Real-Life Problems of Innovation. Jossey-Bass.

Gates, Bill. (May 8, 2013). Teachers need real feedback [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_teachers_need_real_feedback/up-next

Heibert, James, et.al. (1997). Making Sense: Teaching and Learning Mathematics with Understanding. Heinemann. pp. 1 – 27.

Leithwood, K., Aitken, R., and Jantzi, D. (2001). Making Schools Smarter. CA: Corwin Press.

Lieberman, A. and Miller, L. (2004). Teacher Leadership. Jossey-Bass.

Marzano, R. (2003). What Works in Schools? Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Mendels, P. (2012, February) “The Effective Principal.” The Learning Professional/JSD. (33)1. p. 54-58.

Noyce Foundation (2012). Inside Mathematics. Videos. Online at: http://insidemathematics.org/index.php/mathematical - content - standard

Rhoton, J. & Shane, P. (2006). Teaching Science in the 21st Century. NASTA Press.

Richardson, J. (May, 2011). “Tune In to What the New Generation of Teachers Can Do.” Phi Delta Kappan. pp. 14-19.

Rousmaniere, K. (2013, November) “The Principal: The Most Misunderstood Person in All of Education.” The Atlantic. Online adaptation.

Scott, P. G. (2014). “Flipping the Flip.” Educational Leadership. 71(8), pp. 73 - 75.

Sergiovanni, T. (2007) “The Lifeworld of Leadership.” Rethinking Leadership. Corwin Press. pp. 145-151.

Stevenson, H. (2014). Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference. Teachers College Press.