LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT

Leadership Challenge Assignment

Lois Little

University of New England

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (Lau-tzu, n.d.), and step into it I have! I have just accepted a new position within my school, CMHS, to lead and facilitate the transformation of our high school into a Professional Learning Community. I have been an advocate for doing so since I began working on my MSEd. in Educational Leadership in the summer of 2011. I am excited to accept this challenge, because I very much embrace the concept of the PLC and believe that done right, schools that are truly established and functioning as PLCs are excellent places of learning where students come first and everyone is united toward that end (DuFour, DuFour and Eaker, 2008). However, I know that this will not be an easy task and I am well aware that I will face numerous challenges in the months to come as I strive to move CMHS toward this goal.

The data regarding the impact of successful PLC implementation is clear (DuFour, et. al., 2008). Done well, the collaborative opportunities and frequent dialogue between faculty members that PLCs require provide for a learning environment that strives for excellence and challenges for students, and everyone subscribes to the underlying mantra of the PLC that excellent schools do whatever it takes (DuFour, et.al., 2008).

A Brief History:

It was sometime in the late fall of 2007, when the entire teaching staff suddenly, and without explanation found copies of the book, On Common Ground (DuFour, 2005) in their mailboxes, with a memo from the principal that simply said Read it. Having received no explanation for this directive, the staff balked, and most of the staff refused to read the book. Over the next several months there were attempted book discussions held during faculty meetings, but the participation was abysmal, the

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT vision was never articulated, the leader was ineffective and not surprisingly, the PLC never got off the ground.

I am fortunate that I have worked at this school for the past twenty one years because I have seen many and various initiatives come and go, and am very familiar with the response of the staff to both the initiatives and the leadership that imposed them. I am intimately familiar with the culture of the school, and the various personalities that work within our system. Most significantly, I was here the last time someone tried to create PLCs at CMHS and I know what a debacle that was.

Collection of Data:

I will begin my tenure in this position by scheduling individual discussion time with each of the high school teachers to inquire of them collaboration between faculty / accommodations for students / obstacles to the same that they now believe are in place. In doing so, I will be exhibiting ISLLC Standard # 4 (Green, 2009). This will give me a baseline to measure the readiness of each faculty member to move toward working together as PLC. Once completed I will present the results during a faculty meeting to show where we have gaps, overlaps, obstacles and opportunities to work together more. Then, I will begin to address the concept of a PLC.

I will be very honest with the faculty and assure them that I do remember that we tried this before but I will assuage their immediate eye rolling and sense of here we go again by addressing all that was done incorrectly the last time the subject of the PLC was broached. I truly will be able to empathize with them, which is not a surprise given that I have a dynamic supportive leadership style (Glanz, 2002). To begin with, I will facilitate a discussion with the faculty regarding what exactly a PLC is, how it is supposed to work, and what the results of a properly functioning PLC can be. I believe I have a major advantage in this aspect of my new job because I was one of the eye rolling nay-sayers last time,

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT and I have come to realize that with proper background, solid information and a well-structured program for inception, we can do this, and do it well. Having now been exposed to what a PLC really is and how it is supposed to be done, I believe I can convince the veteran staff to take another look at PLCs without bias.

Professional Development:

The next thing that will be absolutely essential to the achievement of this goal will be professional development for the entire high school staff regarding PLCs. I will make available to them a plethora of websites to check out, but will also arrange to have every staff member sent to a multi-day workshop regarding the implementation and functioning of a PLC. (I am so passionate about this portion of my job that I insisted upon the monies being available for this training as a condition of my acceptance of the position!) I will attend each training with each group and by doing so will be able to learn alongside the faculty and measure the pulse and feedback from each member of the faculty as we proceed. I will also devote several portions of the in-service days to the participation of the faculty in webinars that are available from a variety of sources. After each of these professional development opportunities, the faculty will meet, de-brief, discuss and assess what they like and dont like about PLCs so far. They will have a chance to give feedback and suggestions to help shape what PLCs will look like in our school. It will also be at this point that I will arrange to have teams of the faculty go to visit schools where the PLC is fully developed and see a PLC in action. They will have a chance to ask questions of staff members and discuss openly the pros and cons of the PLC, the difficulties in getting a PLC established, and the thoughts of the host schools staff as to the impact of the PLC on the students, and on the teachers. All of the professional development will help me address ISLLC standard # 5 (Green, 2009).

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT Beginning Baby Steps:

After the first year of professional development, discussion and exploration is complete, I will have the high school faculty ready to begin dabbling with PLCs. We will structure, together, collaboration time for the teachers of grades 9 and 10, and then another group for teachers of grades 11 and 12. I am opting to combine the collaborations into 9/10 and 11/12 to begin, because we are such a small school. With a total high school student population of under 90, this will be a way to see if the grouping this way is manageable.

We will start by deciding on one goal for the PLC to have each collaborative team working on. For example, if they decide to focus on increasing text complexity work in their PLC, then every teacher of every student in that group will share ideas, suggestions and thoughts about how that can be accomplished. We will meet once a week to begin. At the next session, the teachers will discuss what they did for text complexity and how it was met by the students. Struggling students will be identified. Students who need more advanced challenges will be identified, and the collaborative team will discuss and share ideas and develop a unified strategy for how to work with these students over the course of the next week. We will continue this process meeting weekly for the first semester of the new school year. During that time I will be checking in with each team, monitoring their progress, allaying their fears and reminding them that this is a multi-stage process, and that no one expects us to get it all exactly right the first time out of the gate. I will be their cheerleader but also working and learning right along beside them as we begin to bring our vision into focus. By moving through these baby steps I will be addressing ISLLC standards # 1, 2 3 and 4 (Green, 2009).

Challenges:

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT This is a veteran staff, and quite frankly, many of the staff members do not care for one another, both personally and professionally. One staff member called his colleagues unprofessional morons at a faculty meeting within the past year. Many of the staff are also parents of students and have issues with various faculty members regarding the success of their children in those classes. There is a very hostile environment in the school between the union and the non-union members which has been a part of the culture at CMHS for as long as I have been there, but has become very pronounced in the past six years. Some members of the high school staff are completely resistant to collegial conversation and shun any and all opportunities for the same, whether or not they are mandated. Some are so firmly entrenched in their ways that they automatically get their hackles up when something new is introduced. Several members of the faculty are within five years of retirement and want simply to see out their last few years in what they view as peace and quiet. Some members of the faculty are new and ready to embrace change and have been already indoctrinated in such things as collaboration and differentiated instruction and are resentful of the veteran teachers always being negative ad standing in the way of what they feel would be progress. Indeed, this will not be easy! Dealing with these issues will surely be a test for me as I strive to meet ISLLC standard # 6 (Green, 2009).

My challenge will be to set the tone that regardless of how one feels personally, we, as a faculty, have to professional job to do which will require people to speak and work together. For too long the culture of the school has allowed these factions that exist to fester and isolate, and I need to find a way to bridge the chasms that exist. I plan to do this by being open and honest with the staff and by not ignoring the fact that these preconditions exist. If we can talk about the proverbial white elephant in the room at the onset, perhaps we can all forget it is there. I will also carefully and conscientiously model the behavior that I expect, helping everyone to learn and grow professionally as we strive to make CMHS a better place for our students. I will work with the administration to report on the willingness and cooperation of staff members with this project in the evaluative process. The challenges

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT are many, but I believe that by addressing them from the outset and setting the tone that nothing less than professional integrity is expected, and by modeling the same, we will begin to change the tune of the staff (DePree, 2004) and get them to willingly engage with their fellow faculty members. No one will ask them all to be best friends, but amiable, professional, cooperative colleagues will be the standard.

Timeline:

The following timeline is an estimate for planning purposes, and may be adjusted as necessary when deemed appropriate.

March 2012 May 2012: Conduct one on one interviews with staff June 2012: Present findings/data from interviews, define PLC, provide vision of our future and outline the process at end of year in-service days.

June 2012-Aug2012: Web presence regarding PLC conversations. This will be achieved via blogs, hot links to pertinent readings, websites, and commentary, social networking. Professional development credit will be awarded for those who participate and document their hours

September 2012 May 2013: All faculty will be sent to multi-day training workshops in small groups throughout the school year. Visitations to schools with fully functioning PLCs will also occur during this year. Web presence and commentary continues. Part of each of all seven inservice days will be devoted to discussion of what is being learned, feedback, questions, brainstorming. Professional development credit will be awarded.

June2013 Aug 2013: All faculty will read Revisiting Professional Learning Communities by DuFour, DuFour and Eaker, with online discussion, feedback and networking. Professional development credit will be awarded.

September 2013 January 2014: Implement Baby Steps as outlined above. Use in-service days to obtain feedback, discuss what works and what doesnt, pacing, etc.

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT January 2014 June 2014: Baby steps continue as faculty readiness to add more to PLC collaborative groups is assessed. Identify the obstacles if there be any, identify and extol the successes. Daily school schedule will be adjusted to allow for daily meeting of the PLC.

I believe that by carefully and completely following this plan for the implementation of a PLC environment at CMHS, we will ultimately see a happier staff, higher achieving students, and create a school that others will come to visit one day. It will not be easy; change never is. There will be opposition; there always is. I firmly believe that with the right leadership and plan in place, even the hesitant will come around. Indeed, a journey of a thousand miles does begin with a single step; Let us begin!

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT

REFERENCES

DePree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York: Currency. DuFour, R. (2005). On common ground: the power of professional learning communities. Bloomington, Ind.: Solution Tree.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN.: Solution Tree.

Glanz, J. (2002). Finding your leadership style: a guide for educators. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Green, R. L. (2009). Practicing the art of leadership: a problem-based approach to implementing the ISLLC standards (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Lau-tzu, n.d. Quotation #24004 from classic quotes. Retrieved on February 10, 2012 from www.quotationspage.com/quote/24004.html