Breaking Ranks II : Strategies for Leading High School Reform

1. Breaking Ranks II : Strategies for Leading High School Reform TM Welcome toBreaking Ranks IIBeginning the Conversation

2. Introductions • Your name and position. • A positive about Hanson Schools.

3. Goal To help ensure your continued success in serving each student well.

4. Systems “All organizations are perfectly designed to produce the results they get.” - Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

5. Breaking Ranks II 2004 1996

7. School Culture

8. Breaking Ranks II Organization • 7 Cornerstone Strategies help schools strategize about entry points for implementing recommendations. • 31 Recommendations indicate specific goals for improving student outcomes.  3 Core Areas Themes that cluster recommendations keep the big picture in focus.

9. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 1. Establish the essential learnings a student is required to master in order to graduate, and adjust the curriculum and teaching strategies to realize that goal.

10. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 2. Increase the quantity and improve the quality of interactions between students, teachers, and other school personnel by reducing the number of students for which any adult or group of adults is responsible.

11. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 3. Implement a comprehensive advisory program that ensures that each student has frequent and meaningful opportunities to plan and assess his or her academic and social progress with a faculty member.

12. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 4. Ensure that teachers use a variety of instructional strategies and assessments to accommodate individual learning styles.

13. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 5. Implement schedules flexible enough to accommodate teaching strategies consistent with the ways students learn most effectively and that allow for effective teacher teaming and lesson planning.

14. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 6. Institute structural leadership changes that allow for meaningful involvement in decision making by students, teachers, family members, and the community and that support effective communication with these groups.

15. Seven Cornerstone Strategies 7. Align the schoolwide comprehensive, ongoing professional development program and the individual Personal Learning Plans of staff members with the content knowledge and instructional strategies required to prepare students for graduation.

16. Collaborative LeadershipCore Area 1  Involve others in the change process through collaboration, review of data, and professional development.

17. Personalization Core Area 2 ♥Provide opportunities for students to build relationships with adults and peers, and between themselves and what they learn.

18. Curriculum, Instruction, & AssessmentCore Area 3 ►Build relationships between students and ideas ► Rigorous & Essential Learnings ► Student-centered ► Applied to real world ► Engaging

19. Why Break Ranks?

20. How well does your school serve each student?

21. The Moral Imperative • “We’ll compare our performance to any of the surrounding high schools.” • “That could never happen at our school.” • “We have some of the best test scores around.” • “Our school is above average in every standardized measure.” • “Our drop out rate is acceptable.”

22. Why Break Ranks? College Graduates by Age 26 Source: Tom Mortenson, Research Seminar on Public Policy Analysis of Opportunity for Post Secondary, 1997.

23. What Happens to Entering 9th Graders Four Years Later… 37 % Graduate from high school NOT college-ready 29 % Drop out of high school 34 % Graduate from high school college-ready Greene & Winters 2005

24. 2007 SD Graduation Rates

25. Hanson High School 2007 Graduation Rates

26. Even as some students are achieving less, the economy is demanding more from them. Jobs requiring a college degree are the fastest-growing sector of the economy Over a lifetime, a college graduate will earn nearly $1 million more than a high school dropout Why Break Ranks?

27. Why Break Ranks? The Job Market 50 Years Ago: • 20% Professional • 20% Skilled Labor • 60% Unskilled Labor

28. Why Break Ranks? Today’s Job Market: • 20% Professional • 65% Skilled • 15% Unskilled

29. Emerging Careers • Artificial Intelligence Technician • Automobile Fuel Cell Battery Technician • Cyrbarian • Image Consultant • Information Broker • Medical Diagnostic Imaging Technician • Neuromarketing Gary Marx. Ten Trends: Educating Children for Tomorrow’s World. 2003

30. ChangingLiteracy Demands • Between 1996 and 2006, the average literacy required for all American occupations is projected to rise by 14%. • The 25 fastest growing professions have far greater than average literacy demands. • The 25 fastest declining professions have lower than average literacy demands. Barton, P.E. (2000).

31. Rate of Change To achieve 25% penetration rate in U.S. homes … • Telephone – 35 years • Television – 26 years • Personal Computer – 16 years • Internet – 7 years • Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) – 3 years Willard Daggett: International Center for Leadership in Education, 2006

32. NCLB New era of accountability • Schools held to new standards • Required to reach all students

33. Why Break Ranks? “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Michelangelo

34. Collaborative LeadershipCore Area 1  Involve others in the change process through collaboration, review of data, and professional development.

35. What Does it Take? How did you get to be as good as you are?

36. Leadership “A leader is someone you willingly choose to follow to a place you would not go by yourself.” - Joel Barker

37. Leadership “Leadership is a reciprocal relationship between those who choose to lead and those who decide to follow.” - Kouzes & Posner

38. Leadership “Leadership focuses on the future, management focuses on the present.” - Joel Barker

39. Leadership and Teamwork “The fact that the captain of the ship can clearly see the port is of no use if the crew continues to paddle in a different direction.” ~ Author Unknown

40. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team • Absence of Trust • Fear of Conflict • Lack of Commitment • Avoidance of Accountability • Inattention to Results

41. Mastering Conflict Ideal Conflict Point Constructive Destructive Mean-Spirited Personal Attacks Artificial Harmony

42. The Abilene Paradox When groups take action that contradicts what the members of the group silently agree they want or need to do.

43. + + Skills Incentive + + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change CHANGE Vision

44. Confusion + + Incentive + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change + Vision Skills

45. Anxiety + + Incentive + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change + Vision Skills

46. RESISTANCE + + Incentive + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change + Vision Skills

47. WHAT’S IMPORTANT IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S IMPORTANT THEN EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT WHAT’S IMPORTANT THEN YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO DETERMINE IF EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT WHAT’S IMPORTANT? AND IN TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYBODY THEN YOU TRY TO DO EVERYTHING THEN PEOPLE EXPECT YOU TO DO EVERYTHING IF YOU TRY TO DO EVERYTHING Arthur Combs Teacher College Record 1978

48. FRUSTRATION + + Incentive + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change + Vision Skills

49. TREADMILL + + Incentive + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change + Vision Skills

50. + + Skills Incentive + + Resources Action Plan Managing Complex Change CHANGE Vision