This document outlines strategies for creating sustainable change in schools through effective leadership, collaboration, and clear mission and vision statements. It emphasizes the importance of establishing a common purpose, fostering collective teacher efficacy, and regularly evaluating policies to align with the mission. To achieve success, it suggests involving all stakeholders in creating mission and vision statements and celebrating achievements aligned with organizational goals.

1. Creating Sustainable
Systematic School Change
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D.
Virginia State University
whozien@vsu.edu
Based on the Book: Why Failure Is Not An Option

2. Principle 1:
Common Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
CHAPTER 5

3. “It takes more than toughness to keep going when the going gets tough.
It’s vital that you find purpose and significance in what you do.”
- Kouzes and Posner, 2010

4. • Teachers working collaboratively with the principal lead to the
greatest gains for students (Brown, Choi & Herman, 2011) and the
guiding force for effective collaboration is the leadership team.

5. • The key insight that has emerged in recent years is that for leaders to be
successful, leadership is essential. Creating a high-performing team that is
able to shape school culture and guide improvement in instruction is the key
to sustainable student success.
• This approach:
 Builds collective teacher efficacy
 Enhances performance in math and literacy
Team Building

6.  Eliminates a sense of isolation and “brings out the energy that exists
naturally within people”
 Fully engages staff and students who move from compliance to collective
commitment
 Spreads the responsibility of leadership to a team that is better able to lead
the enterprise than any one person
 Saves money on external, off-the shelf “solutions”, replacing them with
solutions generated from the internal capacity to take on virtually any
challenge
Colloboration

7. Clarifying Culture
• “Culture” is best understood as “the way things are done around
here.”

8. Developing the Leadership Team
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Represent the entire school building community
Constitute itself
Create meaningful protocols
Align its focus with SMART goals for the organization and choose a starting
point
Determine the process and framework for action
Choose tools and align them with the focus and framework
Create engagement reentry plans
Return, report, and refine the new learning as it becomes the norm

9. The 21st Century Mission
• A mission statement should be created and published as a means of
giving those involved with the organization a clear understanding of
its purpose for existence.

10. What a Good Mission Looks Like
• The best mission statements are clear about why the organization
exists and what will be done to ensure that the purpose is met. The
mission statement serves the organization by providing specifics
about
1. What do we want to do?
2. How will we know if we are succeeding?
3. What will we do to ensure success?

11. Effective Mission Statements
Traditional Mission Statements…
Effective Mission Statements…
Are vague or generic
Are clear
Say all kids can learn
Are specific (what exactly are students
supposed to learn?)
Do not define learning
Are measurable (how do we know
students have learned?)
Do not address the possibility of
failure
Provide for failure (how do we respond
when students don’t learn?)

12. Ways to Collaboratively Create a Mission
Statement
1.
2.
3.
4.
Assemble a task force
Collect the views of each stakeholder group
Small-group work
A “snowball” method

13. Sustaining Success
• Display the mission statement prominently within the school in places where
the school presents itself to the public
• Make sure the mission is cited as a guide whenever staff meets to set goals,
plan programs, make decisions, or discuss problems.
• Coach teacher leaders in using the mission as a guiding force in their team
meetings

14. • Frequently evaluate the school’s policies and procedures to ensure their
adherence to the mission.
• Schedule time to familiarize new staff and students with the mission.
• Respond quickly and correctly to any and all failures to act in accordance
with the school’s mission.
• Formally review and update your mission every four to five years, or sooner,
in the case of fundamental shifts in educational demands.

15. The Vision
• The capacity to imagine and articulate exciting future possibilities is
the defining competence of leaders.
Kouzes and Posner, 2010

16. What Good Vision Statements Look Like
Traditional Vision Statements…
Effective Vision Statements…
Are vague or unimaginable
Are realistic, clear, and compelling
Are created by a select group
Have broad-based buy in
State hope and wishes
Describe intended change
Are soon forgotten
Guide action

17. Eight Ways for an Organization to Arrive at a
Vision
Method
Definition
Advantage
Disadvantage
Inherit a
vision
Use what’s
already there
There is no need
to go through the
periodic,
introspective
turmoil of
crafting a vision
The vision was engraved in
the granite of the past,
whereas faculty come from
the present and the students
must be prepared for the
future.
Explicate a
vision
Make overt
what has been
covert by
putting it in
writing.
The vision is
comfortable,
genuine, and
already existing.
This doesn’t ask, “What
would we like to be doing
in the future?” Waking a
sleeping baby often causes
noise- we uncover what we
don’t want to hear.

18. Method
Definition
Advantage
Disadvantage
Refine a
Vision
Take inventory of
past practice, present
aspirations, and tune
up for the 21st century
The vision is
pragmatic; it has
something in it for
everyone
This can become an
exercise in putting
new patches on a
defective tire.
Buy a
Vision
Use one from a
“model”
Most are rich,
coherent, and
fundamentally
different from business
as usual; those who
don’t like it can
“shoot” at the creator
rather than each other.
Looking outside
reinforces the belief
that those inside are
unable to get their
own house in order,
perpetuating a
sense of
helplessness

19. Method
Definition
Advantage
Disadvantage
Inflict a
Vision
A person or
office outside the
school supplies
the vision
It can come quickly
and be uniformly
and impressively
portrayed
throughout the
district
Teachers and
principals are gifted
and talented at
offering superficial
compliance to an
imposed ideology
while at the same time
thwarting it
Hire a
Vision
When things
aren’t going well,
get a new
principal with a
better vision
Change in
leadership may
bring a change in
culture
The principal’s vision
equals the school’s
vision, which sustains
the paternalistic
feeling that “This is
the principal’s vision,
not ours.”

20. Method
Definition
Advantage
Disadvantage
Homogenize a
Vision
Invite major constituencies to
reveal their personal mission;
common elements become the
school’s mission.
There is little in the
final vision that is not
in the vision of each
contributor; little is
unfamiliar or
threatening.
People feel there is much for
their personal vision that is not in
the school vision and so lose
interest; the least common
denominator excludes out-of-thebox thinking (often the fresh,
innovative, and most promising
ideas of a few individuals)
Grow a Vision
Members of the school
community devise a process
for examining their school,
and then create together a
vision that provides a
profound sense of purpose
each of its members. The
collective vision emerges
from the personal visions of
each member.
It enlists and reflects
not the common
thinking, but the best
thinking, beliefs,
ideals, and ideas of the
entire school
community.
It is time-consuming; individuals
must dig deep to come to grips
with personal vision.

21. • The following information must be gathered in preparation for creating a
vision:
1. Relevant information about the school or district
2. Research on school culture
3. Research on characteristics of high-performing schools and districts
4. Research on school change and reculturing
5. An honest assessment of the current conditions in the school or district
Creating Vision

22. The Values: What Are They?
• Values are the attitudes and behaviors an organization embraces;
they represent commitments we make regarding how we will behave
on a daily basis in order to become the school we want to be.

23. Successful Statement of Values…
• …touches on the most pertinent, pervasive principles shared by a
school’s stakeholders
• …a statement of values that captures only core beliefs must be
relatively brief
• …the values of a school articulate what “we will” do and how “we
will” behave

24. 1.
2.
3.
4.
Few in number
Direct and simply stated
Focused on behaviors, not beliefs; and
Linked to the vision statement
Effective Values Are

25. The Goals
• We must replace complex, long-term plans with simpler plans that
focus on actual teaching lessons and units created in true “learning
communities” that promote team-based, short-term thought and
action. (Shmoker, 2004)

26. • …provide a detailed, short-term orientation for us in relation to our
vision;
• … identify priorities and establish a timeline for our process of
change;
• …break our long, winding journey toward school improvement into
manageable, measurable steps
• … provide intermittent reinforcement for our efforts and provide us
with feedback on our progress toward the larger vision
• …provide a detailed, short-term orientation for us in relation to our
vision
• …establish accountability for stakeholders, ensuring that what needs
to happen actually does happen
Goals

27. Implementation Guidelines
• SMART Goals are…
 SPECIFIC And STRATEGIC
 MEASURABLE
 ATTAINABLE
 RESULTS-ORIENTED
 TIME-BOUND

28. Celebrating Successes
Guidelines for Celebrating Success:
•Take steps that help assure the celebrations are deemed fair
•Tie celebrations explicitly to organizational vision, values, and goals
•Design celebrations that are attainable by all staff members
•For formal celebrations, communicate in advance the likely outcomes for success
•Make the celebration widely accessible

29. • Arrange for both formal and informal celebrations
• Do not use celebrations to make direct or indirect comparisons between
high-and-low-achieving staff members
• Be specific about the nature of the successes
• Use stories and be human
• Build sustainability and community into the celebratory process by allowing
staff and students to eventually take it over

30. • What is the process involved in building a leadership
team?
• List the steps that you will incorporate so as to ensure a
shared vision of your organization.
• What successes will you celebrate in your organization?
• How do you plan on celebrating successes in your
organization?
Discussion Questions

31. • Blankstein, Alan M. (2004). Failure Is Not an Option:
Six Principles That Advance Student Achievement in
Highly Effective Schools. Thousand Oaks, Calif. :
Corwin.
References