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Creating Great Schools

Creating Great Schools. Phillip C. Schlechty. Phillip c. schlechty. Serves as an adviser to many school districts in Canada and the United States. The creator of some of the nation’s most innovative professional development programs for educators.

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Creating Great Schools

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  1. Creating Great Schools Phillip C. Schlechty

  2. Phillip c. schlechty • Serves as an adviser to many school districts in Canada and the United States. • The creator of some of the nation’s most innovative professional development programs for educators. • Recipient of the American Federation of Teachers Quest Citation and the American Educational Research Association’s Professional Service Award • Businesses and schools find his perspective useful and understandable.

  3. Phillip C. Schlechty One of the most sought after speakers on school reform.

  4. Schools VS. communities • While students should be the main focus of the system and things should be centered around their needs, they should also be held accountable for their end of the two way street of education. • In all of these situations, students must be  viewed as customers who should be engaged not simply compliant.

  5. Schools VS. communities • In order for students to be able to achieve the goals set for them parents and schools should both be involved in a equal way.  • If one has more responsibility than the other, one relationship will suffer.  A student who has the school investing in them more than the parent can potentially suffer academically because s/he does not have the support at home to counter the support s/he receives at school. 

  6. Schools VS. communities • Parents must be held accountable by school and the society at large to give the child opportunities to complete the engaging work the school has provided and provide any supplemental resources needed to complete the work or seek out organizations that can provide these supplements. • It is all a repeated cycle that must continue for it to work properly and if any part fails, the others suffer.

  7. Creating Great Schools • For all students to be expected to be able to perform at high levels, students must be engaged in their schooling. • In order for today’s educational system to function the way it should, it is expected to create learning environments where all students can succeed, students need to be actively engaged in their learning. • Engagement and learning are two totally different ideas. • Students must also be interested in the activity to for it to be considered engagement.

  8. Creating Great Schools • Teachers, parents, principals etc. cannot expect the school system as a whole to produce the results we want if we do not have a system in place capable of producing those results. “Plan with the end in mind” • Today’s schools are not totally wrong in their approach, but they are outdated in comparison to the outcome desired by the school systems as a whole. • Schlechtydoes suggest that change may be disruptive depending on how much change is needed.

  9. Creating Great Schools • Norms will also need to be adjusted as the school system is changing. • They need to focus on “continuous improvement” not just “mastery.” • The difference between the two is that focusing on mastery suggests an endpoint which will stop/ impede any future growth and discourage a constant desire to raise and reach the next level.

  10. Recruitment and Induction Systems • Key part of implementing change is recruiting and inducting new employees in the organizational culture. • Even if school is in dire need of teachers, the selection of these is those who mold the future of the country. • In order to have an effective induction system there must be a vision and goals that are actively set and pursued.

  11. Recruitment and Induction Systems “It would seem therefore that the beginning as well as the end of an effective system of induction is the creation of a clearly system of believes to guide action and a well understood sense of purpose and direction among those employed in the school.”

  12. Recruitment and Induction Systems • Recruitment is the beginning of induction and the process must be effective if the system of induction and the system itself is to be effective. • New teachers must learn the conventions of the system they will be working in and should also be given a wise mentor.

  13. Knowledge transmission System • Schlechty Outlines 4 types of categories • Technical – Knowledge about the way the job is done • Moral – anchored in the past, anchored in sacred or semi-sacred documents. • Aesthetic – linked with moral knowledge about norms in the system. • Conventional – “The way things are done” unique to the environment.

  14. Knowledge transmission System • Schools are knowledge systems, Efforts based systems on things deeper than simply technical knowledge and test scores. • Students learn best when things are individualized to them based on students’ context. • Context should be studied as a major contributing factor to how things occur and do not occur in school systems.

  15. Knowledge Transmission system • Teacher Programs are an effective preparation for classroom life, though not always the best. • These programs add onto already busy teacher schedules. • Teachers need to view themselves as leaders. • Teachers need to embody the concept of lifelong learning if they are to guide students on that journey.

  16. Power and Authority System • Power is a result of one’s position in authority ( the principal of a school) • Influence is related to one’s personal and relational qualities (a teacher looked to for advice and respected in the community) • For systemic change to occur in schools, those in authoritative roles (Central Office of a school system) must belief in the systemic change and have a moral commitment to it.

  17. Power and Authority System • If central office does not support systemic change, it will not occur because: • 1. Employees are specialists in central office and control resources over much of the district. • 2. The resources are strictly controlled and pre-allocated through the budget. • 3. It threatens their ability to exert influence over critical resources.

  18. The Evaluation System • Evaluations • must be of moral, technical, or rational authority • must be credible, valid, and reliable • Types of Evaluation Standards • Practice based standards – statements about what is expected and required • Preachment-based standards – parents, teachers, principal, etc. have access to student achievement data

  19. The Directional system • Moving schools from the emphasis on attendance and compliance to focus on attention and commitment.

  20. Establishing and Maintaining direction • Competing Loyalties- the tendency of individuals inside an organization to develop loyalties to projects, programs and sub units within the organization • Goal Clarity- involves more than clear statements about intentions. • Goal Consensus- matter of agreement and matter of gaining individual commitments • Goal Displacement –operational goals (doing things right) replaces substantive goals (doing the right thing).

  21. Effort • Coordinating effort requires people to do what is needed when it is needed. That they understand the way of doing things and means of enforcing the method and avoiding serious deviations. • Includes a great deal of horizontal and vertical communication • Communication between superordinate and subordinates as well as peers.

  22. What is Structural Lag? • Structural lag has to do with the tendency for rules, roles and relationships to get out of synchronization with beliefs, values and commitments, thereby pushing and pulling the school in competing directions at the same time. • Preventing structural lag requires great effort from leaders. • Changes must happen not only within the school but the community. The norms and morals must be changed and recognized

  23. Defines the resources and activities that the school controls or attempts to control. Also the relationships between the school and individuals

  24. Boundary Extensiveness • Range of activities and resources over which an organization attempts to exercise control or use influence and with the level of the detail it gives to these concern. • Schools vary from boundary extensiveness, classes are different and they can afford different rights, duties, and privileges of membership to those different classes.

  25. Boundary Permeability • Permeability relates to the ability of outside groups to influence the inside groups. • The boundary systems deals with what the school/school system perceives to have or has control over in the lives of its students, parents, teachers, community members

  26. Maintenance and Invasion • The boundary systems deals with what the school system perceives to have or has control over in the lives of its students, parents, teachers, community members. • Schlechty suggests that “what is needed is a redefinition of the boundary positions of both parents and students”. • This redefinition must honor the fact that parents have a special position in the gathering of school life. It must also recognize that students have obligations to the school just as the school and teachers have obligations to the students.

  27. New Norms, values & Directions • In order to achieve systemic change, one must categorize organizations according to values served and the type of functions. • Categories of organizations: • Expressive Organizations • Instrumental Organizations

  28. Expressive Organizations • Organizations in which the primary intent is to satisfy the needs of members • In this type of organization, technology has very little to do with the impact of the changes to be brought forth. • Expressive functions involve nurturing or providing opportunities for affiliation and are almost totally dependent on the moral commitments of members and the relationships among them.

  29. Instrumental Organizations • Organizations in which the intent is to pursue some set rationalized goals, produce products, or provide services valued by persons and groups external to the organization. • In instrumental organizations, technology is the heart and soul of change and innovation. • Instrumental functions include producing a product or service for the benefit of others.

  30. New Norms, values & Directions • Overall, in order for the school system to provide high quality academic experiences, expressive and instrumental organizations will need to be intertwined along with the home, school, and community.

  31. Kendra Atkinson Kim Hancock Melissa Huffhines Sandra Kaiser Caroline Sullins Matt Reilly Presented by:

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