The culture norms
that have found to be most closely related to successful
school improvement initiatives have striking parallels
in mythology. In the great mythic stories, heroes and
heroines also join in partnership with others to achieve
the object of a quest, to bring stability back to a kingdom,
or to transform an empire.
1. COLLEGIALITY: Companions
along the heroic path help one another and sustain one
another in the quest.
2. EXPERIMENTATION:
The heroic system encourages its staff to try out new
solutions to problems and experiment with new ideas and
techniques.
3. HIGH EXPECTATIONS:
Just as the heroic system holds staff accountable for
high performance through purposeful evaluations , the
great mythic heroes and heroines always find themselves
accountable for voyages, tasks, and moral attributes
beyond what they initially think themselves capable.
4. TRUST and CONFIDENCE:
Throughout the heroic system, leaders empower school-based
staff members by encouraging independence and experimentation.
5. TANGIBLE SUPPORT:
The heroic system supports and sustains growth by providing
the time and resources for staff to develop and put into
operation the knowledge and skills required to promote
student achievement.
6. REACHING OUT to
the KNOWLEDGE BASE: Within the heroic system , knowledge
bases are readily available for staff to access information
concerning how students learn, research-based best practices,
and discipline-based innovations.
7 .APPRECIATION and
RECOGNITION: Virtually every great mythic quest culminates
in some form of final appreciation or recognition ceremony.
8. CARING, CELEBRATION,
and HUMOR: The heroic system encourages school-based staff
members to show their caring for one another and awareness
of significant events in each other’s lives, as well as
milestones in the life of the school.
9. INVOLVEMENT in
DECISION MAKING: Shared decision making is implicit in
the national movement toward school-based management
and in the work of researchers who promote teacher empowerment.
10. PROTECTION of
WHAT’S IMPORTANT: In the heroic system, people continually
try to protect the nonnegotiable requirements for effective
teaching and learning to occur. Educational leaders protect
teachers’ ability to have sufficient instructional and
planning time, professional development resources, and
access to suitable instructional materials.
11. TRADITIONS: Traditions
can narrow our focus and take us back (and sometimes backward)
to the seeming security of the known if we allow them
to run our thinking . The heroic system , however , regularly
plans new traditions- events that the staff and students
can see as refreshing, challenging , or a definite change
of pace; ultimately , these event can become a positive
part of the productive traditions of a heroic school or
system.
12. HONEST, OPEN
COMMUNICATION: The tradition of plain speaking is an intrinsic
part of the heroic system.
From: The Hero’s Journey
by John Brown and Cerylle Moffett.
A System
A system needs to
access itself . It needs to understand who it is, where
it is, what it believes, what it knows. These needs are
nourished by information . Information is one of the primary
conditions that spawns the organizations we see. If it
moves through a system freely , individuals learn and
change and their discoveries can be integrated by the
system. The system becomes both resilient and flexible
. But if information is restricted , held tightly in certain
regions, the system can neither learn nor respond.
Margaret Wheatly
Attendance, Attendance,
Attendance
If we want to continue to
get API increases and perhaps more money, we have got
to improve student attendance for terms C and D. If you
have any ideas on what tactics we can use to improve C
and D attendance please let me know. We have to make sure
our attendance stays up also.
Apparently, there are actual
monetary payoffs if we can improve again. There is room
for improvement in C and D.
The Immediate Future
What can we do right now
to improve our Stanford 9 scores? Look at the content
cluster summary analysis and see which clusters are the
problems. Focus on these clusters, especially ones with
more questions.
The department chairs should
have this information. If not, see Mrs. Dellepiane.
I know that the Stanford
9 test is not the ideal measure of what we do, but if
we can use it to improve English and math skills -- why
not?
The More Distant Future
With Digital High School,
Co-Nect, and the Small Learning Communities Grant, we
are going to be spending a lot of time and money on new
ideas and technology. So what? Why bother?
Lets have the goal that
in 4 years all of our Stanford 9 scores are at least 50%.
We can do this. Lets plan on matching the scores of CV
High in another 4 years.
How do we do this? Research
shows that schools that have school wide writing and reading
programs have good scores no matter what the ethnicity
and economic level of the students are. Also schools that
have collaborative teachers that regularly discuss the
educational needs of the school have high scores no matter
who the students are.
This is not brain surgery
or rocket science, its more important. We can do what
is necessary to improve VHHS even more than we have.
Lets do it!!
