Failure Is NOT An Option

1. Failure Is NOT An Option 6 Principles for Making Student Success the ONLY Option Written By Alan M. Blankstein Book Review by Allison Bugge May 2014 Saint Peter’s University

2. About the Book Sustained Student Success: The fight against failure Content Structure Courageous Leaders Who are they? What are they like? Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s): An action plan for combating school failure

3. 10 Common Routes to School Failure • We don’t want to change. • You’re the leader, tell me what to do. • We have no time for this!

4. 10 Common Routes to School Failure 4 . Carrots and sticks don’t work. 5. Students must be tested and graded. 6. The mandates are in the way.

5. 10 Common Routes to School Failure 7. We like last year’s program better. 8. We don’t know what we need. 9. We can’t agree. 10. We’re waiting for the dream team.

6. Courageous Leadership Courageous Leadership Imperative (CLI): acting in accordance with one’s own values, beliefs, and mission – even in the face of fear, potential losses, or failure (31)

7. Courageous Leadership Foundations for Success • Begin with your core – ask questions! • Create organizational meaning • Maintain constancy and clarity of purpose • Confront the data and your fears • Build sustainable relationships

8. Action Plan: Effective PLC’s DuFour PLC Framework: Blankstein PLC Principles: Common mission, vision, values, and goals Ensuring achievement for all students: creating systems for prevention and intervention Collaborative teaming focused on teaching and learning Using data to guide decision making and continuous improvement Gaining active engagement from family and community Building sustainable leadership capacity • Shared mission, vision, values, and goals • Collective inquiry • Collaborative teams • Action orientation and experimentation • Continuous improvement • Results oriented

9. Effective PLC Principle 1 Common Mission, Values, and Goals A mission statement explains why you exist. Whereas the mission reminds us why we exist, a vision paints a picture of what we can become. Values are the attitudes and behaviors an organization embraces. Our goals are the short-term mini-targets that we aim for along the way.

10. Effective PLC Principle 2 Ensuring Achievement for All Students An effective improvement plan for all students in a school includes components of both prevention and intervention. Examples of strategies appropriate for an entire student body: Building relationships with students Systematically identifying and building on student strengths Meeting with students daily Having staff be visible and available Involving students in decision making Matching school structures to student needs and experiences

11. Effective PLC Principle 3 Collaborative Teaming Focused on Teaching for Learning Four types of school cultures: Individualistic, Balkanized, Contrived Collegiality, Collaborative “Collaboration among colleagues is a means to an end: enhancing teaching for learning. To accomplish this, team members work interdependently toward a common [SMART goal]… the school’s mission, vision, values, and goals provide context and direction for all team members.” (147)

12. Effective PLC Principle 4 Data-Based Decision Making for Continuous Improvement 7. Revise targeted skill area or implement revised strategy. Set a SMART Goal. Collect baseline data and create templates. 6. Refine your instructional strategy. Act Plan 5. Study assessment results to determine what did or did not work. 2. Select an instructional strategy and/or best practice to improve in your classroom Study Do 4. Use identified assessments to show the level of student improvement in skill/capability 3. Implement that strategy or strategies

13. Effective PLC Principle 5 Gaining Active Engagement from Family and Community Effective schools and PLC’s strive to draw family and community members in with the purpose of cultural understanding and involvement in school activities. “Successful schools devise a variety of plans and activities throughout the academic year for involving families, and they must make sure that the first communication between parent and school is not a call about bad behavior or poor academic performance.” (194)

14. Effective PLC Principle 6 Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity This principle emphasizes “the importance of continually developing the human resources of the school community so that success lasts well beyond the initial implementation of school improvement efforts.” Effective values of teacher leadership within a PLC: (REACH) Risk-taking Effectiveness Autonomy Collegiality Honor

15. Effective PLC Principles Overview • Common mission, vision, values, and goals • Ensuring achievement for all students: creating systems for prevention and intervention • Collaborative teaming focused on teaching and learning • Using data to guide decision making and continuous improvement • Gaining active engagement from family and community • Building sustainable leadership capacity Blankstein, Alan M. (2010). Failure is NOT an Option: 6 Principles for Making Student Success the ONLY Option. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.