1. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
ALAN BLANKSTEIN
H E A T H E R P R E S TO N
U N I V E R S I T Y O F N O R T H T E X A S
2. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
• Education isn’t about grades and graduation rates
• It’s about “saving lives”
• Cost of failing is a price too high too pay
• Loss of human capital
• Strong public education system equals strong
democracy
• Six principles to apply when “failure is not an option”
3. FOUR CHECKPOINTS
• Understanding purpose
• Creating a courageous leadership team
• Avoiding obstacles
• Establishing a foundation of trust
4. PURPOSE
• Direct trade-off between education and prison
population
• “develop a collective will and capacity for higher
levels of student success than previously imagined”
• Public education is competing for diminishing
resources
5. A COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP TEAM
• Critical strategy for PLC success
• Courage may be innate but can also be
developed
• Build an understanding for the need to act
• Need to act can overcome fear of action
6. AVOID OBSTACLES
• Many of the obstacles schools face have been
faced and dealt with before
• Knowing the obstacles ahead of time can help one
prepare
• Most obstacles involve negative attitudes
• A culture of fear and cynicism
• May be more difficult to implement at high school
level
7. FOUNDATION OF TRUST
• Trust begins with the adults in the building
• Positive relationship will spread to teachers,
students, parents
• With individuals: listen first, find common ground,
over communicate, and confront inappropriate
behaviors
• As a faculty, create a fail-free zone: eliminate
blame, clarify expectations, engage staff on a
volunteer basis
8. SIX PRINCIPLES
• Common mission, vision, values, and goals
• Achievement for all students through
preventions and interventions
• Collaborative teaming focused on teaching
for learning
• Data-based decision making for continuous
improvement
• Active engagement from family and
community
• Sustainable leadership capacity
9. PRINCIPLE ONE
• Establishing common mission, vision, values, and
goals
• Long-term: mission, vision, and values
• Mission - “bedrock of school’s daily activities and
policies”
• Vision – “a picture of what we can become”
• Short-term: goals
10. PRINCIPLE TWO
• Ensuring achievement for all students – systems for
prevention and intervention
• Reasons why teachers do not take “direct
responsibility for the learning of each of their
students”
1. Do not believe all students can learn
2. Feel inadequately equipped to help all students
3. Belief new reforms aren’t worth pursuing
11. PRINCIPLE THREE
• Collaborative Teaming focused on teaching for
learning
• Poor cultures for collaborative teaming:
individualistic, balkanized, contrived congeniality
• Establish collaborative culture
• Form teams around teachers who share students or
problems
12. PRINCIPLE FOUR
• Data-based decision making for continuous
improvement
• Three questions to keep in mind:
• What data should be collected?
• How should data be used?
• Who should be involved?
13. PRINCIPLE FIVE
• Gaining active engagement from family and
community
• “it is clear that the proper support and involvement
of students’ families and the community at large is
fundamental to student achievement in schools.”
• School should function as community hub
• Consistent approach in one principle can often
“spread to other areas as well”
14. PRINCIPLE SIX
• Building sustainable leadership capacity
• Shared responsibility - No one can do it all
• Often entails shedding traditional views about
leadership
• Leadership is build through processes, routines, and
habits
• Sustainable leadership leads to sustainability
15. TAKEAWAYS
• Implementation is key
• Implementation works best after four checkpoints
• Many early indicators
• Ultimate outcome – student achievement
• Every school faces different challenges, but not
unique
