Friday, July 29, 2011

Beyond Mission Statements: Finding Integrity between Word & Action




Our school has a well crafted mission and vision statement.  It would make any school or organization proud.  It provides us with the strategic direction (in word) that we need.  But I've had a growing question lately:  Do our actions match what we say? In other words, “What are we doing and why are we doing it”? 

Linked to this idea of mission and vision statements is the idea of "culture".
“Culture is the underground stream of norms, values, beliefs, traditions and rituals that has built up over time as people work together, solve problems and confront challenges.” (Deal, 1993) 
As the principal I see myself as the guardian of the school’s culture.  One of my favorite researchers on this topic is Edgar Schein.  In his research he identifies three levels of organizational or school culture: the artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions. 

According to Schein, a school’s artifacts are those things that are easy to observe but more difficult to decipher (e.g. trophy cases, pictures, classrooms, etc).  Artifacts can be ambiguous and are often dependant on the observer’s reference point (Schein, 2004).  Schein goes further and states that to find a deeper level of understanding of a culture one must move to identifying the espoused values of a school (e.g. all children can learn, safe and caring community, etc).  The values themselves fall on a variety of levels.  At the outset, a culture’s values might not be shared knowledge; they must be tested over time (Schein, 2004).  Once a group’s values are reinforced through such things as problem solving, stories, traditions, and celebration than those values can become basic assumptions

Schein argues that these assumptions are the root of an organization’s culture and are so strongly held that any behavior based on a different premise in inconceivable (Schein, 2004).  These basic assumptions, according to Schein, are at the core of understanding organizational culture.  Good or bad, these assumptions are so entrenched in the group that, at times, it can be the cause of the distortion, or rationalization of certain realities.  As such, the challenge for leaders is to identify the assumptions of a culture, assess them and come up with coping strategies to deal with the anxiety when you try to change them.  

2011-2012 Getting off of the right foot

To start the 2011-2012 school year, we will be asking  ourselves some important questions related to our shared sense of purpose contained within our school culture.  For us to be more successful as a school we need to ask ourselves  - are our stated values and visible artifacts congruent with what we believe and do – across all stakeholder groups?  Put another way - does our "talk" match our "walk"?

To accomplish this, we will have to test whether or not our stated values are being matched by the actions of our stakeholders – in this case, the professional teaching staff of the school.

The following is a sample of some of the espoused values at our school and some guiding questions to test our underlying assumptions: 

Value
We educate the whole child. 
Testing underlying assumptions:  
How is teaching and learning conducted in the classroom?  How much differentiation is happening?  Is technology being embraced?
How do we assess and grade our students?  
Are learning opportunities extended beyond the classroom?
What extra-curricular activities do we provide our students?

Value
All children can learn.
Testing underlying assumptions  
Do our actions affirm our belief that all kids can learn?  Does our assessment and grading reflect this?  What does success look like for students?
Do you follow the pyramid of intervention effectively and consistently?
Do we understand the different ways that students learn?  (Brain based learning)
Do our school polices related to such things as admission, discipline, grading & reporting align with this stated value?
Who is control of the learning in the classroom?  What will an observer see when walking thru classes?  Who is doing the talking?  How are students being engaged?

Value
“Jesus is the reason for our school”
Testing underlying assumptions
How does this translate across the curriculum?  
Do our school policies match this value statement?

Value
Parents as primary educators and partners
Testing underlying assumptions
How and what do we communicate to our parents? 
Are parents given enough voice?   

Value
Working and learning in community
Testing underlying assumptions
How is teaching and learning conducted in the classroom? 
How is our PLC time being used?
What does collegiality look like?
How do we treat each other?
How do we celebrate together?

I am looking forward to leading the staff in this important process (before school starts) of finding integrity between our words and actions. 

This process is critically important in order for us to sustain a positive school culture - where there is a shared sense of purpose, where there are underlying norms of collegiality, where there is a focus on improvement, where student accomplishments are celebrated, where there is teacher innovation, where we encourage parental involvement, where meaningful traditions are maintained and where learning is surrounded with integrity, joy and humour. 

Any suggestions or comments that could assist in us finding greater “alignment” would be gratefully welcomed!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Videos as Professional Learning Prompts

In preparation for our two day staff gathering  at the end of August I have been working on a some presentation material  Here are some videos I have found that I'll be sharing with my staff as learning prompts.  As I've shared in a previous post, these prompts will be used to "kick start" a new professional learning initiative at our school next year.  Thought I'd share with my PLN as well:

On Personalized Learning:



On the importance of understanding technology as teachers (technology integration)




Literacy Instruction



Brain Based Learning 


Motivating Students




Grading/Assessment Best Practice



Would be interested to hearing about any more videos people may want to share....

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Rethinking Provincial Exams

At St. Patrick Regional the Administration team and some staff feel the need to share our concerns about the seeming futility of the Gr. 12 optional exams and the Gr. 10 and 11 mandatory exams. After five years of experiencing these exams in our school, we feel that is time to generate and gather feedback on the efficacy of these exams from high schools across the province. We invite you to read and comment on the following concerns and conclusions. 

Grade 12 Optional Provincial Exams

Based on our experience, students consider the following with regards to sitting Provincial exams:
  • A very small percentage (often less than 5%) of students choose to write these exams 
  • Students must achieve 86% or better in 3 exams in order to win the Provincial Scholarship. (This idea is abandoned when one exam does not go well) 
  • Students sit exams in order to improve a school grade. (Students abandon this idea when they do not do well in school final or they realize that colleges and universities do not consider provincial results. Besides the results which are posted in early August are too late for effective course selection!) 
  • Students do not sit the exam for “the experience”. 
Problems:
  • Schools schedule teachers to supervise exams, a coordinator to organize, monitor and expedite exams and a space to sit exams. These resources are extremely underused. 
  • The considerable expense involved in generating exams, shipping and handling, marking and reporting is questionable. 
  • Multiple days of learning is sacrificed for exams for a handful of students. 
Some Ideas:
  • Abandon the exams 
Or
  • Reinstate compulsory exams for academic courses (universities and colleges no longer use these results for admission) 
Or
  • Provide e-exams at the Grade 12 level which are administered and graded in-school 
Or
  • Develop one mandatory “exit” exam for each student in the Province that can be written in a student’s Gr. 11 or Gr. 12 year. The exam would be used to determine a student’s overall skills related to various literacy competencies. The exit exam should embrace the ideals of Personalized Learning whereby the “content” area of the exam would be based on student interest and choice. (E.g. Students could produce a piece on non-fiction writing on the exam on a topic of their choice) 
Grade 10 and 11 Exams

Some observations:
  • The Science 10 exam is a catch-all for all students- learning disabled and gifted students sit the same exam. The exam is content heavy. 
  • The English 10 exam is a catch all for all students - learning disabled and gifted students sit the same exam. The exam is loose and subjective. Only multiple-choice is marked by ministry. 
  • Foundations and Pre-Calculus Math 10 is a catch-all for all those students who wish to have credit that transfers to post-secondary leaning. 
  • Social 11 exam forces teachers to stress content over literacy and skills and only multiple choices is marked by ministry. 
Problems:
  • Students tend to believe that the objective mark from the exam is more authentic than the personalized mark generated through the year. 
  • Students lose confidence in core disciplines at the Grade 10 level. This is particularly true of students who have special learning needs (e.g. The children of new Canadians for whom English is not their mother tongue). These students need the extra two years to master culture and literacy. 
Resolution:
  • Abandon exams and allow schools to focus on literacy and skills in core disciplines from which they will generate independent, personalized exams. 
Or
  • Provide differentiated e-exams at the Grade 10/11 level which are administered and graded in-school 
Or
  • Exit exam at the Gr. 12 level will provide standardized data. 
We believe that the time has come to do a rethink surrounding how and if we deliver Provincial Exams in the Province.

Would like to hear other thoughts as well….

G. Donnici
P. Nannery
J. Bevacqua