Rutherford Learning Group continually
certifies new presenters with best-in-class
educator development programs. If you
have a specific topic you wish addressed
at your school, please contact us.

The Efficacy Effect

Class size, television viewing rates, socioeconomic factors, size of the parent’s vocabulary, the number of print publications in the home, all of these factors, and many more, have a direct impact on the achievement of students. Teacher efficacy is, however, the “elephant among mice,” when it comes to improving student achievement. Today’s keynote presentation examines the three elements of teacher efficacy.

Program Accountability and Effect Size

Schools and districts continue programs year after year without regard to the program‘s effect size – sometimes without even knowing the program’s effect size. “Best of Class” schools/districts regularly measure each program’s effect size, investing more in those that produce large, positive results and redeploying human and material resources from programs with a negative (or even a small positive) effect size: This session provides strategies for school leaders to measure program effect size, to re-deploy human and material resources from low effect size programs, and to create cultures that support rapid “fast to market” program innovations and changes that keep effect sizes large and positive.

Reading and Shaping School Culture

In this session, educators will gain a clearer understanding of the nature and power of school culture by identifying, describing, and analyzing unusually powerful non-school organizational cultures. They will demonstrate the ability to understand, read, and assess the current classroom and school culture by applying specific culture assessment criteria. Participants will understand the “elements” which have, over time, shaped the current culture and design culture re-shaping strategies using these “elements of culture.”
LCS Principles of Learning which Enhance Classroom Culture

In his “Creating the Learning Centered School” series, Mike Rutherford identifies four principles of learning which enhance classroom culture. This session will focus on those four: Enriched Environments, Neural Downshifting, Success, and Performance Feedback. Participants will be able to directly apply these principles in the classroom to impact learner attention, effort, persistence and achievement.

 
Building True Community Inside Schools

Anyone who has reached adulthood has, at some time, experienced the high-performance work design called true community. Perhaps it was an athletic team, the cast of a theatrical performance, a church or civic group, a fraternity or sorority, or just a close group of friend-colleagues that, usually for a short time, reached this highest level of group cohesiveness…true community. The results are impressive. Heightened awareness, effortless communication, boundless energy, heightened focus and extended persistence are but a few of the characteristics of a group that has reached true community. This session will examine the phenomenon of true community, make the case for its place in school organizations, and describe the practical steps to its creation and maintenance.

Designing and Leading Change

One of the insightful principles from systems theory is: “Every system (school) is perfectly designed to deliver exactly the results it is now delivering.” To obtain different results, a re-design of the system is necessary. Improvement requires change. Perhaps one of the most succinct definitions of “leader” is simply “one who designs and leads change.” This program, “Designing and Leading Change,” examines several useful tools and structures for processing human experience. The skillful application of these process tools supports a school’s or districts efforts to successfully change and improve.

Six Big Ideas

Teachers apply hundreds of techniques to teach well and reach all their students. Over the ages, however, a handful of teaching principles has emerged as not just good ideas, but BIG IDEAS--reliable modes of organizing and delivering instruction to produce higher levels of success and achievement. When teachers master these critical few skills, students in all subgroups perform better. Then, when innovations such as brain science are applied in tandem with these powerful classics, student learning is even further accelerated.
Knowing Your Customer: The Nature and Development of the Middle Level Child

Some of the most significant changes in life are experienced during the middle level years. These years are difficult, at times, as young people try to make sense of the overlapping worlds of childhood and adolescence. In this interactive workshop, Mike Rutherford reviews the unique physical, emotional, social, and intellectual characteristics of the middle school child. Rather than thinking of middle school as “high school for short people”, Mike promotes developmentally appropriate instructional practice for eleven to fifteen year olds.

How Successful School Leaders Think Differently

One insight we have gained over 25 years in educational leadership training is this:  Successful school leaders THINK differently than others.  As I’ve observed, questioned, shadowed, and studied their ways, time and again, they demonstrate surprisingly DIFFERENT patterns of thought.  

This topic will examines 5 surprising thought patterns of the most successful school leaders.

  1. They think less about others and more about themselves.  They are tough
    self-critics, yet not egotistical.        
  2. They think less about what to do and more about what. not to do.  They
    “just say no” to activities they don’t enjoy or don’t do well, and get away with it!
  3. They think less about what they know and more about what they don't know.
    They often have epiphanies and “learning spurts” late in their careers.  
  4. They think less like an audience and more like an actor .  They accept and embrace the spiritual dimensions of their role.  
  5. They think less about what is visible and more about what is invisible. 
    They focus on developing culture, climate, community, and efficacy.     

Participants will gain an understanding of the science behind each pattern, link the pattern to specific leadership actions, and assess their own thought patterns against these compelling benchmarks. 

For more information about On-site Training, please contact Suzanne Ward toll-free at 1-877-225-0568 or suzanne@rutherfordlg.com
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