Dialectical Journal

October 4, 2007

Green, R.L. &Etheridge, C.P. (2001). Collaborating to establish standards

and accountability: Lessons learned about systemic change. Education,

121(4), 821-829.

by: Molly Hammer

COLLECT / REFLECT / COMMENTS
Creative Tension:
“It appears that the lesson learned is that, when stakeholders can envision a positive difference between current conditions and a shared vision, they are likely to support change in order to acquire the perceived benefits to be derived from attaining the vision.” (p 824).
Built a Common Vision:
“The new leaders were visionary and through the use of persuasive and inclusive management styles, they built a common vision toward which everyone worked and common values upon which everyone operated.” (p 824).
Participation:
“To ensure meaningful and permanent systemic behavioral change, Goodlad (1994) and Frieri (1997) have long advocated dialogue among stakeholders’ groups. Patterns among the eight districts suggest that shared decision making is the mechanism through which dialogue occurred.” (p 825).
Risk Taking:
“A non-threatening culture, which enabled disagreements, mistakes, and even failures to occur without threat of punitive action, was established. Thus, risk taking was encouraged so people felt free to innovate, fail, and learn.” (p 825).
Consistency:
“Thus, new employees were oriented to the vision, goals, and behavioral expectations in the district.” (p 827).
School Based:
“Teachers identified the major focus and often provided the leadership for professional development activities.” (p 828).
“For meaningful change to occur in schools, the educators who work there must be intimately involved with the related decisions (Barth, 1990).” (p 829). / I really enjoyed reading this article because it was a study on how 11 school districts throughout the U.S. successfully made systemic changes to establish standards, assessment, and accountability measures by using processes involving collaboration/shared decision making, redefining roles, and empowering all stakeholders to bring about a positive change for student outcomes. After reading this article I wondered if our district values shared decision making among all stakeholders because as this article shows systemic change must be district wide and not just school wide.
I just read a newspaper article from the Henry Neighbor dated Thursday, September 20, 2007 where Jack Parish, Henry County’s Superintendent was named 1 of 4 finalists for the 2008 Georgia School Superintendent of the Year Award. He was nominated by the school board. Among the characteristics listed which qualify him for the award are: work ethic, ability to communicate with the community, familiarity with laws and policies, and common sense approach to school system decisions. It seems to me that all the characteristics listed above describe a leader who believes in a democratic style of leadership. So perhaps our district does value shared decision making but it hasn’t trickled down to our staff at our school because we have had so many turn-over’s recently with both the staff and administrators.
I think the major component we are missing at our school is the opportunity for dialogue. It would be nice if we could have several staff meetings set aside where all stakeholders (administrators, staff, support staff, Specialist, and parents) could talk about the vision of the district and the school and agree upon common values so everyone has ownership in setting goals to help us achieve better assessments and more accountability for improved student achievement. I think if people felt like they had ownership in decisions being made they would work harder to help achieve those goals. Perhaps we need to suggest this to our administrators?
I think this quote is very important because we try to teach our students to take risks with their learning and we help them understand that mistakes are necessary for increased leaning. However, I do not feel as if we are given permission to make mistakes, which is really too bad. A lot of innovative ideas can come out of taking risks, failing, and coming up with a better plan. It would be nice if we could experience that type of learning environment since we are life-long learners as well. What a great way to model for children!
I felt this quote was especially important because again, this is another area in which we fail at in our school. I think about the Positive Behavior Support plan we put in place 4 years ago. It was working for the students at our school; however, the past several years it became stagnate and did not have much impact on our students. Because of this we have moved on to a different program this year. I believe the program ceased working effectively because we had 2 years where we experienced a high turn-over rate in staff members. Each year as the new staff came on board we, as a school, failed to communicate the vision, goals, and behavioral expectations of the Positive Behavior Support plan; therefore, the majority of the staff was not even aware of its existence, let alone how to implement it. Had we trained people it would probably still be working effectively today.
I think we all agree with the last 2 quotes. Now, we need to collectively find a way to make it happen! I can’t wait to give the staff the survey we created so we can see how many other people want to be more involved with shared decision making at our school!