From Silos to Systems

Reframing Schools for Success

Sally B. Kilgore, Karen J. Reynolds

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781412973083
• eBook ISBN: 9781452296272
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

"Educators and policymakers need to add to their toolbox for implementing reform this outstanding new book by Kilgore and Reynolds. It is rare to find such a well-written volume that explains how to reorganize schools into more effective enterprises using clear examples grounded in rich scientific studies. For those faced with how to make things happen and work smarter, this excellent book delivers on both."
—Barbara Schneider
John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University

Transform your school?s culture from the inside out

You?re stunned by the increase in student absenteeism this year and wonder what is causing it. There may be multiple factors, but few administrators have the luxury of investigating them all. From Silos to Systems provides specific application steps for engaging all staff in a systematic approach to dealing with the various causes of schoolwide problems. School leaders who have used this approach find numerous benefits:

• Teachers have a way for their voices to be heard.
• Principals spend less time trying to integrate all the concerns of various advisory groups.
• Strong cross-cutting ties that spur collaboration emerge among teachers.
• Educators realize more dramatic results from their efforts.

The book also includes current research on developing a positive school climate, improving professional learning opportunities, utilizing data analysis to identify and resolve instructional and behavior issues, and the effective use of technology in schools.

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Section II

Each chapter in this second section focuses on one of the six core issues usually addressed by an action team. Each provides a brief overview of the research that can inform the choice of objectives and activities as well as guidance on the initial steps action teams should take to get started.

Both the guiding coalition and action teams need persons to assume three roles: chair, timekeeper, and recorder. We suggest having cochairs, especially at the action team level. Having cochairs helps to ensure continuity of meetings when one of the cochairs is absent, provides two people to help plan meetings, and spreads the responsibility of leadership more broadly across the school. The action team chair is responsible for developing the agenda of each meeting, presenting proposals and planning documents to the guiding coalition, monitoring the progress of activities, and ensuring that the team takes time to celebrate accomplishments—big and small.

The timekeeper is responsible for ensuring that agenda items are addressed within the time allotted for them, giving a heads-up to fellow team members when they need to bring closure to one topic and move to another. At the beginning of the meeting, members assign the amount of time they need to devote to each topic. The timekeeper helps team members keep track of time, but as issues emerge, the team may choose to alter the plan by reducing the amount of time devoted to other topics or arranging for an additional meeting. Sometimes the chair chooses to perform the role of timekeeper.

The recorder develops a written record of a meeting, including any new responsibilities assumed by members of the team and makes certain that all team members receive a copy of the record within a week of a meeting.

When teams first get started, they usually find it necessary to meet biweekly. As things begin to move, the meetings may be limited to once a month, with some activity occurring outside of meetings.

Below, we provide additional details on the ways the guiding coalition and action teams should be formed, the responsibilities of both, how a guiding coalition interfaces with action teams, how one should assign members to an action team, and the steps all action teams take in getting started.

THE GUIDING COALITION

A principal should make the initial selection of the members of the school’s guiding coalition following the general principles outlined in Chapter 2: varied experience and expertise, leaders from various parts of the organization as well as informal networks of teachers. The principal selects a chairperson for the guiding coalition. The chairperson is responsible for developing the agenda for each meeting in consultation with the principal and assigning the roles of recorder and timekeeper for each meeting. An agenda should be available to coalition members a week prior to their meetings.

Establishing a shared goal for all action teams: Gaining leverage requires that all action teams direct their efforts toward the same goal. Using assessment, attendance, and climate data, the guiding coalition recommends a common goal. For example, if reading performance is consistently weak, the guiding coalition may wish to review subscale scores to see if there is a particular area that is critically problematic for all grade levels. Sometimes the issue is not evident on a subscale, but related to reading particular types of documents, such as technical versus fiction. The goal may focus on an issue that is undermining student learning, such as high absentee rates among students. High-performing schools may see that their needs are not in a specific subject area, but rather in the low performance of one or more subgroups. Goals may have that level of specificity as long as the team can anticipate how each action team can contribute to that goal.

Determining indicators of success: The guiding coalition establishes the indicators that will be used to monitor schoolwide progress. Trend level data is important in establishing a target, as are comparisons with district and state data. Previous rates of progress on interim assessments are especially useful. Selecting subscale performance indicators will increase the likelihood of realizing an improvement.

Over the long term, the Data Analysis Action Team will support the guiding coalition in securing data for determining goals and monitoring progress—making certain that charts or graphs are available to both analyze problems and establish indicators of success. If the data team has yet to be formed prior to the initial meeting of the guiding coalition, the principal should recruit a few staff members likely to become members of the Data Analysis Action Team to assist in collecting or preparing the data. The initial meeting of the guiding coalition is largely a waste of time without such data.

Coordinating and monitoring action teamwork: The guiding coalition is responsible for ensuring that each action team’s objectives focus on the shared goal, complement the work of other teams, and progress in a timely manner. Oftentimes, action teams encounter road blocks that may require some adjustments to their strategy, and the guiding coalition serves as a resource in resolving those problems.

Members of the guiding coalition hold a unique position in the life of a school. They, along with the principal, have an understanding of how various activities fit together, how they collectively address an important goal, and how they link to the larger vision the school has for its future. As such, they must be advocates for the future and help their colleagues continue to see the big picture.

Action teams propose year-long objectives aligned with the general goal, and the guiding coalition should be prepared to review them quickly and simultaneously. A prompt review is critical; action team momentum is lost when the team waits too long to begin planning. Looking at the proposals simultaneously allows the guiding coalition to look for synergy and points of collaboration for each.

The guiding coalition should review proposed objectives with these considerations and questions in mind:

1. Evidence: Research supports the link between the proposed objective and the school goal.
2. Alignment: Taken collectively, do action team objectives complement each other and lack redundancy?
3. Leverage: Is the expected impact worth the effort involved?
4. Coordination: Should other action teams be involved?

After the proposals are approved, each action team develops an activity plan to reach its objective. Again, the guiding coalition reviews them. The plans should be reviewed with the following considerations:

1. Are planned activities clearly linked to the objective?
2. Are there any missing action steps?
3. Is timeline compatible with other events in the school?
4. Are recommended team collaborations appropriate and specific?

Occasionally, as a school undergoes a radical transformation, either through difficulties in its own performance or through changes in policies or expectations, a guiding coalition may need to assist with reformulating a school’s vision or help consider what types of changes educators should expect with the pending changes. Action teams should be an integral part of assessing what changes will need to be made and how best to implement them. Oftentimes educators have no control or input over what will happen, but they do have control over how it will happen.

The guiding coalition’s cycle of activities should follow that of school improvement planning. Over the long term, the cycle begins at the end of the school year: after receiving annual assessment data, the guiding coalition reviews accomplishments and identifies a new or revised goal that will guide the future work of action teams. The other major markers in the cycle of activities include a mid-course review of action team work and then, at the end of the year, a time for reflecting on accomplishments, assessing, and celebrating the effectiveness of the school’s effort.

ACTION TEAMS

Membership

Making good use of systems thinking requires that administrators devote careful attention to the composition of each action team. This is the only nonnegotiable. If one is careless with the composition, reframing the organization will be just a nice idea whose potential will not be realized.

Teams should be formed on the basis of

• teacher preferences for action team;
• representation of all subjects and special areas;
• diverse thinking styles; and
• diversity of experience, ethnicity, and gender.

Teacher preferences for action team: Staff should be working on issues of interest to them. Ask each staff member to identify—in rank order—the three team issues they would like to address. Inform people in advance that every effort will be made to put them on a team of their choosing, but all of the factors mentioned previously will be used to develop the teams. Rarely does everyone become a member of the action team that is their first choice. However, each staff member is usually able to serve on one of his or her top three choices. Staff need to know in advance that they may not get their first choice.

If for some reason it is not possible for a person to become a member of one of his or her three choices, a principal should talk with the person individually and explain the situation. Sometimes a staff person has a special skill or leadership ability that leads a principal to assign that person to a team he or she did not choose. Publishing a team membership list without explanation for either of these situations can create misunderstandings that are difficult to resolve.

While it is important for teachers to have some choice, the effectiveness of each action team hinges on the diversity of its members. Teams achieve their maximum impact when they are diverse and representative of all parts of the school.

Representation of all subjects and special areas: To ensure that needed information is readily available to action teams and that timely communication flows throughout the system, each action team must be comprised of members representing all sectors of the system. Each grade, content area, the arts, special education, guidance, and administration should be represented on each action team.

Diverse thinking styles: Groups with the best problem-solving capacity have members with diverse thinking and problem solving styles. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Kiersey Temperament Sorter provide good indicators of an individual’s preferred approach to solving problems. Individuals may complete the online questionnaire inventory without charge. Provide staff with an explanation of the meaning of their resulting “type,” how it will be used in the formation of action teams, how it improves the quality of solutions, and how it is used for developing highly functioning groups.

Diversity of experience, ethnicity, and gender: These also add to the richness of the problem-solving process and should be taken into consideration when establishing the teams.

Assigning Team Members

Considerable time and frustration can be eliminated by making an individual index card, or, preferably, a Post-it Note, for each staff member. It should include the staff member’s name, team preferences, grade level, subject area, and temperament type. If you have a relatively small staff, you may make one large chart with action teams listed as the columns and subject area (if this is a middle or high school) or grade level (if this is an elementary school) as rows. If you have a large staff, it is best to create a chart for each action team, using subject area as the columns and temperament type as the rows.

Building each team requires an iterative process:

1. Begin by giving every staff member his or her first preference—place each Post-It Note in the appropriate position on the chart.
2. Make adjustments for subject area (or in elementary schools, for grade level). Which teams lack representation from which areas? Begin working with second preferences to redistribute memberships, ensuring that all areas are represented on each team.
3. Check to see the balance of the MBTI or Kiersey temperaments represented in each action team. Fill the missing temperaments by making adjustments among staff who chose that action team as a second choice, then third.
4. Review teams for balance. In addition to ensuring that all teams have members from all subject areas and grade levels, administrators should ensure a diversity in experience, gender, and ethnicity.

Action Team Responsibilities

All action teams share responsibility for the following:

1. Working toward a common goal of improving students’ learning and well-being through collaboration and shared leadership.
2. Becoming “experts” in the action team’s topic area by
   • collecting and sharing information and data about current conditions in the action team’s area, and
   • suggesting improvements within the action team’s area that are based on an understanding of the needs of students and staff, well-developed theory, current literature and research, and other appropriate sources of best practice.
3. Ensuring that interdependencies among team efforts are taken into account by
   • understanding the roles and responsibilities of other teams;
   • taking advantage of opportunities for shared work with other action teams that is coordinated to avoid redundancy and looking for synergistic approaches leading to working smarter, not harder; and
   • recommending actions to the guiding coalition for coordination and review to ensure feasibility and likelihood of advancing school goals.
4. Communicating goals, objectives, and accomplishments to the entire school community.
5. Developing and executing plans and quickly sharing problems as they emerge with the guiding coalition.

Specific action team responsibilities include the following:

School culture and climate: Focuses on aspects of a school’s culture most likely to undermine the quality of education available to students: health, safety, belonging, and esteem of students, faculty, and staff of a school.

Data analysis: Supports the guiding coalition and action teams in securing and analyzing existing data, helps the coalition and action teams collect new data relevant to their goals and objectives, and develops expertise in accessing data that can support professional learning communities.

Family and community partnerships: Helps identify and support effective ways for pa...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Section I
• Section II
• References
• Index