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School Systems that Learn- Paul Ash
This document discusses strategies for improving school systems and overcoming limitations to change. It identifies six common limitations that prevent school systems from changing, such as laws/regulations, mindsets, standardization, isolation, narrow views of professional development, and separating teaching from learning. Simply adding more initiatives or firing underperformers will not close achievement gaps or increase capacity. Instead, the document advocates focusing on four drivers of change: building trust, collaboration in all directions, developing the capacity of all educators, and cultivating leaders at all levels. When these four factors are strongly present, it can catalyze improved professional practice, student performance, and continuous improvement.
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School Systems that Learn- Paul Ash
- 1. School Systems ThatLearn Improving Professional Practice, Overcoming Limitations, and Diffusing Innovation January 29, 2014 Paul B. Ash pash@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us 1
- 2. Think About… Why doachievement gaps exist even in well-funded school districts? 2
- 3. Think About… Why doachievement gaps exist even in well-funded school districts? It’s not possible to close them. The district needs to find “just the right initiatives.” The district has reached its maximum capacity. 3
- 4. Our Hypothesis… The districthas reached its maximum capacity. 4
- 5. Limitations to SchoolChange and Capacity Building 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Laws and regulations Mindsets and limiting beliefs Standardization (vs. differentiation) Isolation (as opposed to collaboration) A narrow view of professional development 6. Viewing teaching and student learning as separate acts
- 6. Strategies That WON’TClose Achievement Gaps OR Build Capacity • Fire all underperformers • Hire more outstanding teachers • Increase teacher evaluation
- 7. The 4 EffectiveDrivers of + Change • The Importance of Trust • Collaboration in All Directions • Capacity Building for All Educators • Leaders at All Levels 7
- 8. Synergy of theFour Drivers
- 9. Synergy When all fourdrivers are present at high levels, the system catalyzes an increase in educator capacity, professional practice, and student performance.
- 10. Overarching Theory When aschool system learns, continuous improvement enables educators to close achievement gaps and ensures that all students grow and develop as learners.
- 11. Appreciation of aSystem 11
- 12. Systems Approach “Every systemis perfectly designed to achieve exactly the results it gets”. Paul Batalden Dartmouth Medical School Director, Based on a quote from W. Edward Deming (1990) 12
- 13. The Importance ofTrust 13
- 14. Vulnerability Trust Patrick Lencioni “TheImportance of Trust” Video from World of Business Ideas http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gwj9bMLiV4E 14
- 15. Five Big Fears(Students) • • • • • Fear Of Making Mistakes Fear Of Looking Like A Fool Fear Of Having A Weakness Exposed Fear Of Not Being Liked Fear Of Failure 15
- 16. Six Big Fears(Educators) • • • • • • Fear Of Making Mistakes Fear That Errors Will Erase Prior Success Fear Of Having A Weakness Exposed Fear That Asking For Assistance Will Diminish Respect Fear Of Looking Like A Novice Fear of Conflict 16
- 17. Psychological Safety To gainthe power of collaboration and continuous learning, psychological safety is needed. 17
- 18. Signs of Psychological Safety* Educatorscan disagree with peers and authority figures, ask naïve questions, own up to mistakes, or present a minority view without fear of ridicule or marginalization. *Edmondson 18
- 19. In Your Experience… Whatpercentage of the teams that you have observed demonstrated signs of psychological safety? 19
- 20.
- 21. Research Professional development canhave a positive impact on student learning • Meiers & Ingvarson (2005) – Australia study • Supovitz (2001) • Garet et al (2001)
- 22. Traditional Model ofProfessional Development After school courses – Teachers select courses based on their individual needs, rather than choosing courses based on district/school needs. During school PD – Programs are usually no more than a few hours to a few days/year, and often not aligned with school or district goals.
- 23. A New SystemicModel of PD Five Streams that Improve Educator Capacity to Improve Student Learning: • Data Teams Analyze Student Work • Frequent Quality Feedback from Supervisors • External Sources of Knowledge • Internal Sources of Knowledge • Self-Reflection
- 25. 3 Qualities ofEffective PD • The district has clear learning goals for every student and growth mindset for all educators and students? • The district frequently assesses student progress toward their learning goals? • The school district has an ongoing system of professional learning for all educators that is designed to increase performance
- 26. Key Findings Successful programsinclude: • Avoiding narrow outcomes to easily measured topics • Opportunities for teacher reflection, collaboration, and building professional community • Focus on subject matter learning • 14 to 49 hours of learning time with follow-up, active learning, feedback, and collaboration
- 27. A New Model Highquality professional learning is coherent, consistent, systemic, and sustained.
- 28. Poll: Which interventionhas the largest effect size? Lowering pupil-teacher ratios Increasing teacher salaries Increasing teacher experience Increasing teacher education
- 29. Providing Adequate Funding Greenwald,Hedges, and Laine, 1996
- 30.
- 31. In Summary • Schoolsystems are designed not to change (6 limitations) • Just adding more and more initiatives will have limited impact on student learning • All systems have a maximum capacity 31
- 32. Four High-leverage Strategies Weincrease educator and student learning by: • Increasing Trust • Building individual and collective capacity • Building leadership at all levels • Collaborating in all directions 32