4. UPrep Mission Statement
“Establish an all-boys school in the City of Rochester with an
engaging learning environment and informed practices that
are effective for young men. (UPrep) will ensure that students
in Grades 7-12 graduate from high school with knowledge,
skills, character and dispositions that meet and exceed New
York State Learning Standards. Through individualized
learning, substantive content, daily advisory, and continuous
relationship building, students will master higher order
thinking skills, productive life skills and develop the quest for
learning needed for success in higher education and future
employment in the global marketplace.”
5. Crew
• Substitution for typical Homeroom
• Character development
• Interaction
• Communication
• Team-building
6. In The Beginning
• Expeditionary learning provided the training
and curriculum to be executed in Crew
• Providing staff development periodically
• Monitor and provide feedback to teachers
about their Crews
7. UPrep Strives for Excellence and
Growth
“A culture of learning, growing and succeeding each and
every day-”
- Principal, Joseph Munno
8. Enrollment Grows
2010
• 60
students
• ~10
teachers
2011
• 110
students
• ~20
teachers
2012
• 160
students
• ~30
teachers
2013
• 210
students
• ~40
teachers
In four years UPrep has increased enrollment by nearly 350%
and employs about 40 faculty and staff.
9. Need for Change
• Staff development becomes repetitive
• Lessons are not in tune with urban students
• UPrep drops EL
• Carries on Squad in-house
11. Why Did Squad Fail?
• Vision
• Buy-in
• Communication
• Monitoring of change
12. Inconsistent Communication and
Delivery
• As the school grew, leadership failed to
communicate effectively to staff and students
– Communication is Poor
– Vision and mission unclear
– lack of student and staff involvement in new
school traditions and policies
– Lack of follow through by change leaders
– Lack of change management
13. Things to consider
• Collaborative Vision
• Establish a committee
• Monitor Change
• Celebration
• Communicate (a lot!)
Editor's Notes
Welcome to University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men
Uprep is currently in its fourth year of operation in Rochester, NY. It houses 7th through 11th grade in two different schools and will expand to 12th grade in 2014.
Along with its board of trustees,Uprep’s charter was initiated by President Joseph Munno, and Director of Academics, Jay Costanza. Together the two men have nearly 70 years of experience in education, mainly with RCSD.
The latter half of Uprep’s mission statement states “Through individualized learning, substantive content, daily advisory, and continuous relationship building, students will master higher order thinking skills, productive life skills and develop the quest for learning needed for success in higher education and future employment in the global marketplace”
To support growth through continuous relationship building, Uprep leaders began an initiative called Crew. It would substitute the typical homeroom found in schools across the country with a class founded on character development student to student interaction, public speaking and communication using a team-building approach.
Crew was a program that was written by Expeditionary Learning. A company that works with schools to provide classroom and curriculum support. Crew was designed and trademarked by EL. They provide staff development to the teachers once a month. In the beginning, Uprep intended for their teachers to participate and follow the design EL had set forth.
With a strong focus on innovation and excellence, UPREPvision has allowed the school to blossom and thrive. The school’s reputation as a safe, caring environment generated by high quality and effective instructional practice soon forced the school to place many applicants on a waiting list.
Enrollment grew to, or above, capacity at each grade level and with each year the staff grew as well. Communication, which in the Entrepenurial stage of this school was not given much thought, needed to be given careful consideration in order implement change. Specifically clear and timely communication from the administration down.
By the middle of the second year of operation, staff had found a repetition in the Staff Developments and arouse a resistance to squad as a waste of time. It was not meeting the needs of the students. Administration listened to its staff and dropped the EL version of Crew, and upon the vote of students, simply renamed it Squad.
The change was expected to take place over night. In fact the only difference between Squad and Crew is the name. At first the plans were written by another newly-hired staff member who did not take much time to introduce himself to students or staff alike. Obviously, he was not able to gain buy in either. There was not a sense of cohesion and Squad, to this current day, is merely a homeroom. Lessons for Squad have not been submitted to faculty in months, and Squad has been left by the wayside.
Changing from Crew to Squad first lacked a clear vision. Teacher’s were still questioning the importance of the lessons being written for the new squad program. When teacher’s did not buy-in, the students did not. Frustrated teachers spoke of their dislike amongst themselves which soldified, perhaps unintentionally, a strong resistance to squad activities. A lack of monitoring and time investment from the top down further reinforced that squad was not important. If teachers ceased to teach the lessons, no consequences came of their actions.
During the Entrepreneurial Stage, not much emphasis was given to communicating effectively or confronting resistance, for that matter, because there were not many employees to communicate to. If a vision was lost in communication, it could simply be restated to the one or few who “missed it” without much time or effort lost. Also, not much foresight or reflection is placed into the process of a change. Within an organization such as UPrep where growth happened so fast; where it was once ok to make spur of the moment changes, a vision may now become unclear and unchecked and will hinder execution (for example consistency of school-wide discipline within the classroom, or the adopted lesson format).
The change leaders at Uprep should use their teachers as a source of information to create a vision for the direction of squad. If the teachers do not buy in, neither will the students. A staff member should be hired who dedicated solely to building an authentic squad culture with authentic lessons, a direction, and who can create measurable outcomes along with a committee that represents the teachers. Communicate wins and progress to students and teachers through multiple outlets and celebrate squad achievement. Finally, communication of expectations, progress, and feedback should be a constant with time dedicated for faculty to attend meetings only about Squad.
