TeacherDrivenChange

The Additive Approach to School Change

A key to successful school change maybe linked to asking the right questions. Are we framing questions correctly and are they based on the right assumptions? Should we rethink the tactics, strategies, and interventions we use? Is there a possibility that we are looking in the wrong places? Can we utilize resources differently? Are we seeking advice from the best people? By examining these questions we may begin to determine if we have or have not selected the correct pathway to school change. In addition, we also need to be mindful of the assumptions that underpin our questions. Are they based on deficits? Are we looking to cast blame on a particular individual or stakeholder group? Are we attempting to scapegoat a specific group out of convenience or frustration? In other words, instead of jumping quickly to solutions, perhaps we should consider an approach that builds on what is working – not one that attacks the individuals and groups who are ultimately responsible for making things work in our local school-communities.

One approach – strength-based thinking – is seldom considered at any level of the school change process. From the statehouse to the schoolhouse, school change issues are generally framed around deficits, weaknesses, and problems. By focusing on deficits we actually subtract or limit the overall power and influence of school-community stakeholders. Individuals see their power and influence reduced as they are functionally diminished by externally imposed standards that may have little or no linkage to what is actually taking place in their school. For example, just image how teachers feel when one day their school is deemed to be a California Distinguished School and the next day determined to be inferior and dysfunctional. Can any reasonable person believe that teachers and other school-community stakeholders are not diminished by such an external determination?

On the other hand, imagine a school setting where teachers and other school-community stakeholders are asked to describe their most positive experiences when working with students. What made their experiences productive and exciting? What did they learn from these experiences? How can these positive experiences be transferred and spread throughout the school-community? Regardless of the focus, when we use affirmative questioning techniques to acquire data we are more likely to increase individual commitment and support for school change. The strength-based approach is an additive process in which individual strengths and experiences are added together in integrative ways to produce energy, excitement and passion for school change.

Strength-based interventions are based on the assumption that our schools are filled with untold talents and strengths. Stakeholders are not viewed as individuals to be regulated and controlled, but rather as people with the necessary wisdom and experience to be innovative and creative. From a strength-based perspective our school-communities are not something to be externally directed and manipulated, but rather should be viewed as ends unto themselves. From a strength-based approach, school communities can lead the change process through self-organizing activities grounded in stakeholder talents and assets for the greater good.

Reducing High School Dropouts

Reducing high school dropouts is a system-wide problem that cannot be resolved by any single decision, initiative, rule or regulation. Nor, will we resolve the dropout problem by looking for villains or heroes. What is required is a strength-based approach that encourages school community initiatives to identify the (1) values, beliefs, and attitudes (culture), (2) behaviors and practices, and (3) affirmative experiences and skills that encourage student retention and graduation rates. By focusing on strengths, endless possibilities are revealed; allowing school community stakeholders to move beyond traditional approaches to increasing student retention and graduation rates.

Guiding principles to reducing high school dropouts

• Personal responsibility and accountability emphasizing the importance of parents and families 
• A strength-based approach emphasizing the assets that reside within our school communities 
• A unified approach emphasizing cultural factors that drive a successful teaching and learning environment while respecting the individual values and beliefs of all members of the school community 
• An inclusive approach that insures the full participation of all school community stakeholders 
• A strength-based approach emphasizing: (1) Behaviors and practices, (2) values, beliefs, and attitudes, and (3) individual talents 
• An innovative and entrepreneurial approach tailored to the needs and interests of the school community 

Key components to reducing high school dropouts

Behaviors and Practices - Focusing on the behaviors and practices of students that are actually staying in school. Discover what their parents, family and friends are doing to support them. We spend too much time studying students that dropout. As a result, we have become experts on the dropout problem but have very little knowledge about why students stay in school and graduate. Develop interventions and action plans that emphasize behaviors and practices with less emphasis on information and data collection.

School Community Strengths - Valuing the strengths of each of our communities, parents, and families. While it is very easy to criticize and point fingers, it is not very productive and does not resolve the dropout problem. Very few individuals and groups respond favorably to criticism and people respond even less to statistics that place them in an unfavorable light. What is needed is a serious inquiry into the great work taking place that encourages students to stay in school and graduate. What are the expert parenting skills taking place in our African American and Latino communities (demographic groups with the highest percentage of student dropouts) that are keeping our students in school? We need to use this knowledge in the form of community information programs in collaboration with other community-based organizations. This positive and strength-based information can act as a foundation for building programs to support student retention and graduation rates. Finding fault with people does little to build a collaborative and cooperative strategy.

Strength-Based Values that Support Student Graduation Rates - Discovering strength-based values, beliefs, and attitudes in our students, parents, families and communities. Reports and data collection efforts that criticize various individuals and groups tend to be counterproductive. This is especially true if individuals believe that their culture or belief system is being challenged. It makes much more sense to identify how belief systems are working to support and improve a situation – in this case keep our students in school. A locally driven investigation of how student, family and community values, beliefs, and attitudes support student retention and graduation rates is more likely to lead to success. The Cultural Change Institute working with the IFT can be helpful to any community interested in focusing on the strengths of their belief systems and how they are helping students remain in school.

Community Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summit - Appreciating the strengths, talents and wisdom of our school communities by organizing and holding a school Community Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summit for increasing student retention and graduation rates. An AI Summit is the intervention of choice when the task requires high levels of participation and cooperation. The ratio of monologue to dialogue during a Summit is about 10% monologue to 90% dialogue among participants. There are no formal leadership presentations. Everyone who attends comes with an equal voice. There is not a separate leadership group who gets the 2-hour briefing while everyone else attends the full meeting. All stakeholders attend the meeting and are mixed into discussions that bridge boundaries. The AI Summit is a high participation, full voice process.

Many reform efforts to reduce high school dropouts are in competition with one another. An Appreciative Inquiry Summit serves as an umbrella process for integrating multiple change initiatives. As a philosophy and methodology the AI Summit provides a set of principles and practices that when enacted can enhance broad-based community participation and hence commitment to change. If we are to reduce high school dropouts, for example, we must develop a phased process weaving new ways of relating and working throughout the entire school community. With this in mind, the AI Summit serves as an integrating process by putting order, discipline, and personal accountability into the change process.

Through the AI Summit, the IFT brings a new approach to reducing high school dropouts by focusing and appreciating the strengths, talents and wisdom of our school community, rather than seeing our students and school community as a problem to be solved or fixed.

Teacher Driven Change - Recognizing the importance of teachers in driving the school change process is critical to the success of any change initiative; especially reducing high school dropouts. The IFT has special expertise when working with teachers, both the challenges and opportunities.

Introducing Appreciative Inquiry

Meet David Cooperrider, the founder of Appreciative Inquiry. When David Cooperrider was a doctoral candidate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, he was conducting research into organizational behavior with the Cleveland Clinic. David observed that when interviews focused on the problems at the clinic, his subjects' energy decreased and they felt demoralized. When the interviews focused on what was working, they exhibited increased energy and enthusiasm for their work. (See the video below)

Cooperrider also noticed the same impact on those conducting the interviews. When the focus was on problems, the result of the inquiry was a vicious circle spiraling downward. When the focus was on what's working and what's valuable, the result was a virtuous circle spiraling upward. When I do good I feel good; when I feel good, I do good. Contact the CTA IFT if you would like to learn more about Appreciative Inquiry and how it can be used in the schools.

Moving from Theory to Practice: The Algebra Project

CTA Region 2 (Sacramento) is taking an active role to close the achievement mathematics gap. CTA staff, leaders, and members are working with the community in support of The Algebra Project. The Algebra Project emphasizes algebraic reasoning in the elementary grades in order to prepare students for middle grade mathematics and Algebra I by the 8^th grade. The overarching goal of the Algebra Project is to prepare students for college preparatory mathematics in high school, and the mathematical knowledge required for college entrance, success in college courses, and citizenship in the Information Age. Working with renowned mathematicians across the country, this teacher driven initiative is designed to develop site-specific professional development workshops for teachers, periodic follow-up workshops, and classroom instructional evaluations. Other goals/programs of the Algebra Project are to work with higher education and research institutions to develop effective teacher professional development, new teacher training, and teacher certification programs.

A Successful Pathway to School Change

A key learning from the CTA IFT High School Outreach Program is that school change is much more complicated than originally thought. Through conversations, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and surveys, the CTA IFT discovered that the challenges facing teachers and other stakeholders, regardless of how they are framed, are not easily discernable in traditional terms. Teachers (as well as administrators, students and parents) are not likely to respond in a favorable way when: (1) change initiatives are formatted around deficit terms and problems, (2) change initiatives are driven by external rules and regulations, (3) change initiatives assume best practices can be generally applied to every teaching and learning condition, and (4) change initiatives that encourage the reliance on others (outside the school/district) for success.

As long as teachers, students, parents and administrators are part of a school reform program that focuses on problems and weaknesses, it is not likely that change will be sustained. In addition, change efforts grounded in deficits tend to increase frustration, anger, and alienation. Instead, teachers, with other school community stakeholders should focus on what works and past successes. Here are a few questions that are more likely to create a successful pathway to school change and improvement:

(1) What are the great things happening in our districts, schools, classrooms and communities? (2) What are the great things that teachers, students, administrators and parents are doing right now? (3) What has worked really well in our districts, schools, and classrooms? (4) What has been your most rewarding experience in the teaching and learning process? (5) When is the teaching and learning process most productive for students? (6) What do you consider to be the most effective teaching and learning environment? (6) What have been your most positive experience(s) in the school change process?

The answers to these questions provide a solid foundation for building a school specific change initiative that is both supported and tailored to what stakeholders believe will be most successful. Too often, teachers are either constrained by the forces around them or their own perceived limitations to drive the school change process. School structures, practices, and procedures too often create an environment that limits teacher creativity. Only when the CTA IFT began to consider a strength-based approach did we begin to see teachers, students, and parents take a proactive, affirmative approach to planning and the school change process. Through strength-based thinking, teachers with other school community stakeholders were more energized to participate in the change process. While this new sense of renewal was not verified by scientific research or analyzed through traditional psychometric models, it is clear that the CTA IFT is on the right track based on the conversations and stories told by teachers, students, and parents.

These conclusions have not been reached in either an arbitrary or capricious manner. Rather, they are based on the data the CTA IFT received directly from students, parents, and teachers. From strength-based interviews the CTA IFT heard the wonderful stories from successful African American and Latino students and their parents. From their stories the CTA IFT identified factors that drive a foundation for school success – factors that can be applied throughout our school communities and classrooms. The CTA IFT believes that it is time to place aside the elitism of positivistic, mechanistic thinking and replace it with it good old fashion common sense. Instead of spending untold sums of money on reports that simply collect dust, the CTA IFT believes it makes more sense to ask teachers, administrators, students and their parents about their most positive school and educational experiences: when the teaching and learning process is most successful and when they felt their best in school and the classroom. Using this as a foundation for school improvement, it is more likely that we can encourage and sustain a successful pathway to school change.