PART I:

Sustainability and Leadership: The Fox and the Hedgehog

Scaling Up Comprehensive Professional Development

September 20, 2010Facilitator: Jillian PattisonEducational Program ConsultantKansas Dept of Education

“Effective school leaders are key to large-scale, sustainable education reform” (Fullan, 2002, p. 16).

“…must be attuned to the big picture, a sophisticated conceptual thinker who transforms the organization through people and teams” (Fullan, 2001).

The Cultural Change Principal (Fullan, 2002)

1.Developing the social environment

2.Learning in context

3.Cultivating leaders at many levels (and ensuring leadership succession)

4.Enhancing the teaching profession

Key components of sustainability (Fullan, 2002)

How do effective leaders create a culture of sustained change?

Discussion question:

You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it’s your job to get it going. You have to decide where you're going, how you're going to get there, and who's going with you. Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.

In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap . . . and others don't. New York: Harper-Collins.

It starts with the “who”

Picture two animals: a fox and a hedgehog. Which are you? An ancient Greek parable distinguishes between foxes, which know many small things, and hedgehogs, which know one big thing. All good-to-great leaders, it turns out, are hedgehogs. They know how to simplify a complex world into a single, organizing idea—the kind of basic principle that unifies, organizes, and guides all decisions. That’s not to say hedgehogs are simplistic. Like great thinkers, who take complexities and boil them down into simple, yet profound, ideas (Adam Smith and the invisible hand, Darwin and evolution), leaders of good-to-great companies develop a Hedgehog Concept that is simple but that reflects penetrating insight and deep understanding.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap . . . and others don't. New York: Harper-Collins.

Fox or hedgehog?

“It is like holding a handful of sand. When a program begins the leader has all of the sand and as the program evolves more and more sand is distributed to the members until all have an equal share. The leader then assumes a role in the group.”

Joe Jacobs

Assistant Principal, Wellington HS

Wellington, KS

From a principal’s perspective…

1.How do you address the problem of administrative and staff changes?

2.How do you maintain the vision and commitment?

Adelman, H.S. & Taylor, L. (2003). On sustainability of project innovations as systemic change. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 14(1) 1‐25.

Sustaining systemic change (Adelman & Taylor (2003).

• Publicize an information indicating the value and wisdom of the program in

• Get the message out in a way that can influence key decision makers

• Collaborate with the district leadership and the school board

• Establish a steering group• Focus on organizational restructuring and

reframing roles and functions of staff• CAPACITY BUILDING

Adelman, H.S. & Taylor, L. (2003). On sustainability of project innovations as systemic change. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 14(1) 1‐25.

Keys to sustaining school-based programs:

MTSS is a coherent continuum of evidence based, system-wide practices to support a rapid response to academic and behavioral needs, with frequent data-based monitoring for instructional decision-making to empower each Kansas student to achieve to high standards.

Kansas and the MTSS Framework

• Formal leadership teams exist at all levels (e.g., district, building, and site) and include representation

• Each leadership team is known throughout the district/community and meets regularly to address learner academic and behavioral success in an integrated manner.

• The roles and responsibilities of each leadership team member are clearly identified and agreed upon by the team as a whole.

• The leadership team regularly engages in formal problem solving using district/building/site level data which is supported by an agile data/software system that provides frequent and up‐to‐date reports that allow data-based decision making to occur for addressing both academics and behavior. Data are shared with district, building and community.

• The leadership team uses data and input from staff and community collaborators to determine professional development needs. The team plans and supports professional development for developing expertise specific to both academic and behavior to meet the needs of learners at each tier of support.

• A communication plan that provides information and data on a formal and frequent basis is developed and utilized to communicate with district, building and community collaborators about MTSS.

Components of MTSS Leadership and Empowerment:

Rogers, R.W., Wellins, R.S., & Conner, D.R. (2002) White Paper – The power of realization, from http://www.ddiworld.com/research/publications.asp

 Adelman, H.S. & Taylor, L. (2003). On sustainability of project innovations as systemic change. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation , 14(1) 1‐25.

 Gersten, R., Chard, D., & Baker, S. (2000). Factors enhancing sustained use of research‐based instructional practices. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33(5) 445‐457.

 Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (1980). Improving inservice training: The messages of research. Educational Leadership, 37, 379‐385.

 Office of Special Education Programs Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. (2004). School‐wide positive behavior support implementers’ blueprint and self‐assessment. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon.

 Bernhardt, V. L. (1998). Data analysis for comprehensive school improvement . Larchmont, NY Eye on Education.

 Holcomb, E. L. (1999). Getting excited about data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

 Johnson, R. S. (2002). Using data to close the achievement gap: How to measure equity in our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

 Lewis, T.J., Sugai, G. (1999, February). Effective behavior support: A systems approach to proactive schoolwide management. Focus on Exceptional Children, 31(6).

 Noyce, P., Perda, D., & Traver, R., (2000). Creating data‐driven schools. Educational Leadership, 57, 52‐56.

 Rafoth, M.A. & Foriska, T. (2006). Administrator Participation in Promoting Effective Problem‐Solving Teams. Remedial and Special Education, 27(3), 130‐135.

 Schmoker, M. (1996). Results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

References for MTSS :

All Systems Go (Fullan, 2010)

The focus: What realistically can be done?

One big idea:Resolute leadership

It means…building the “guiding coalition”