Rutherford Learning Group, Inc

Improving the "Already Good Enough" School

Admin 2 — 2012-07-12T19:41:04Z

Tom Boulter, deputy head teacher at the Cherwell School in Oxford, England, was emphatic as he explained "It's all about the quality of instruction and how we can support and develop teachers!" Tom was sharing with a group of visitors, including me, what he and head teacher Paul James focused on as they lead the 1,200 student school of 5th - 12th graders. I was impressed... and surprised.

I was surprised because Cherwell is not your average public school. The school serves an affluent community just adjacent to Oxford University, one of the world's most prestigious educational institutions. Many students are PK's (professor's kids) and the place just oozes high academic expectations. As you might imagine, test scores at Cherwell are high and behavior problems are scarce. From my experience, Cherwell is just the type of school where "better teaching" might be pretty far down the list of concerns. I was sure someone would eventually say "Why fix it if it's not broken-and it's definitely not broken- just look at the scores." But I never heard that. In fact, I heard just the opposite. Tom Boulter again... "Even though our scores are high, we still think better teaching is our best strategy for improvement."

To their credit, Tom Boulter and Paul James didn't claim that everyone at Cherwell was on board with this idea. They described in much detail how hard it is to establish a school-wide focus on improved instruction in a school that outscores all the local competition. I think it's hard to be an instructional leader in a school that doesn't appear to need one. In some ways, I believe it's harder to lead a school from good to great than from bad to good. Cherwell reminds me of countless schools across America that have the same dilemma- high scores (at least relative to other local schools) and a resulting resistance to instructional improvement.

Here are three lessons I've learned from effective instructional leaders, at home and abroad, who find themselves in the "Cherwell dilemma." 1. Instead of focusing solely on scores relative to local schools, they benchmark against schools with similar circumstances. Perhaps Cherwell could compare themselves with a school down the street from Cambridge. 2. They shift the conversation away from "how good we are" to "how good could we be"? A compelling vision creates excitement and energy. Both are necessary for instructional improvement. 3. They emphasize the personal and professional benefits of increasing one's teaching skill... enjoyment, fulfillment, efficacy, prestige, success and the sense of meaningfulness that comes from performing a difficult task with skill and style!

Every school needs great instructional leadership- and especially schools who dare think they don't.

I Hope You Dance

Admin 2 — 2011-08-25T20:00:56Z

One part of my work that I especially enjoy is shadowing school administrators. Shadowing an administrator is like observing a teacher except they move around a lot. So you have to follow them- be their shadow. When I'm watching a great administrator at work- I mean when they're really on their game- it looks like a dance to me, a beautiful dance.

Let me explain. School administrators are busy. Even the least ambitious get up early, stay late, and juggle long to-do lists. Typical days include hundreds of interactions, many interruptions, and multiple sightings of Murphy's Law. This overwhelming work environment produces a predictable survival response. To make it, school administrators quickly become ruthless time managers. They learn to practice “educational triage,” optimizing their attention, energy, and resources to produce the most good for the most people in the least amount of time, being careful not to waste valuable time on questionable endeavors. It's a dance.

The steps to the dance flow through the administrator's mind and into action in the blink of an eye. Should I do this or that? Walk here or there? Should I linger a bit longer with this person or move on? It's an instinct, really- hard to teach but recognizable when you see it. And it happens fast- at the speed of school.

What if we could slow it all down and examine the step-by-step decisions and trace the actions back to the thoughts. What would we find? I think, in the minds of the best school administrators, there exists a hidden calculus that determines what they do and what they leave undone. Effect size is the language of this calculus. How much effect will this step produce? What about this step? The steps of the dance are determined by a series of quick, instinctive judgments of each possible step's effect size. At full speed, the dance is something to behold!

Here's the test… at the end of the day, a successful school administrator compares two lists: 1. Things I did today and 2. Things I didn't get to. If the effect size of the items on list 1 are higher than list 2, that's a good day of dancing.

I'm reminded of Lee Ann Womack's hit song- I hope you dance. The key lyric is “When you have the choice to sit it out or dance… I hope you dance.” Applause and heartfelt thanks to the many excellent school administrators who dance so well every day for the benefit of teachers and students. When you have the chance… I hope you dance!

Do You Like Your Teacher?

2011-08-17T02:57:03Z

Do You Like Your Teacher?

The Artisan Teacher — An Overview .pdf

2011-07-08T07:31:00Z

The Artisan Teacher — An Overview

The Case for Coaching .pdf

2011-07-06T08:07:00Z

The Case for Coaching


The Case for Coaching

Introductory Notes on Coaching Strategies Video Series

2011-07-06T05:39:00Z

Introductory Notes on Coaching Strategies

Coaching is a very specific professional development interaction that focuses on the individual talents of teachers. Just as a pitching coach in baseball selects promising pitchers and helps them perfect their skills through observation, feedback and modeling, instructional leaders need to develop the instructional skills of teachers through active coaching.

Instructional leaders such as principals, assistant principals, and district literacy coaches should be able to identify and tap into the specific areas where each teacher excels. Once these talents have been identified, talent then the ability to coach that talent becomes vital.

The purpose of this instructional series is to assist instructional leaders in this coaching process. Coaching is a skill, and just like any skill, it helps to have examples, or models. This instructional series presents three different strategies modeling how to interact with teachers in a coaching way: a positive reinforcement coaching session, an instructional coaching session, and a reflective planning session.

It includes seven separate coaching sessions recorded live using three cameras. The subjects are active teachers working elementary, middle and high school instructional levels. The videos were specifically recorded and edited to clearly show important body language, verbal content, and interaction between coach and teacher. The videos are divided into sub-titled sections noting the coaching principles demonstrated by the coach in each section.

Ideal coaching sessions last from twelve to eighteen minutes. The sessions recorded in these video are complete examples of an model session, and advisable for active instructional leadership development programs and refreshers.

The following videos from this series may be viewed and/or downloaded from this page:

Reflective Planning (Elementary School Teacher) – Catherine (17:16)

Reflective Planning (Middle School Teacher) – Nikki (17:25)

Reflective Planning (High School Teacher) – Jessica (13:20)

Positive Reinforcement (Elementary School Teacher) – Austin (13:15)

Positive Reinforcement (Middle School Teacher)—Sherry (15:36)

Instructional Coaching (Elementary School) – Jeff (14:09)

Instructional Coaching (Middle School) – Carmen (13:00)

Videos from Coaching Strategies for Educational Leaders #1

2011-07-04T06:10:45Z

To download video, click on "Document" link below.

Videos from Coaching Strategies for Educational Leaders #2

2011-07-03T05:17:00Z

To download this video, click on "Download" link below.

Videos from Coaching Strategies for Educational Leaders #3

2011-07-02T05:25:00Z

To download this video, please click on document link below.

Videos from Coaching Strategies for Educational Leaders #4

2011-07-01T05:27:00Z

To download this video, click on "document" below.