10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools

How do we take initiatives from goals to actions? (ASCD Arias)

Jeffrey Benson

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781416621324
• eBook ISBN: 9781416621355
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Whether they're the result of a mandate from on high, a crisis that needs addressing, or simply a desire for improvement, change initiatives are a constant in most every school. In this book, veteran teacher, administrator, and consultant Jeffrey Benson provides educators with a proven, practical, and broadly applicable system for implementing new practices methodically and effectively. Topics include * Identifying and communicating a clear and understandable vision of change;
* Ensuring that all voices in the school are heard and respected during the change process;
* Thoroughly and thoughtfully collecting, classifying, and analyzing data related to the change initiative; and
* Delegating responsibilities among staff and stakeholders. Replete with checklists, surveys, and worksheets, 10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools is a practical guide for educators determined to seamlessly weave new practices or procedures into the fabric of the school.

Introduction

In my work as a consultant and workshop presenter, I help schools and districts improve their program initiatives. Over the years, I’ve helped educators find ways to hold more effective IEP meetings, help staff work better as a team, increase the use of authentic assessments, use literature for developing social skills, and any number of other objectives. Unfortunately, even when teachers and administrators give me high marks, I find that any changes I may have helped to bring about are rarely robust and lasting. Although workshops and presentations provide schools with a common language, inspiration, and skills, these are too often adopted piecemeal and at random by educators who don’t have a set approach to implementing change. In the pages that follow, I offer a change model that can be successfully adapted to almost all program initiatives, so you don’t have to exert time and energy to reinvent the wheel with every new improvement campaign.

Reality is never as predictable as we might think. Formulas exist in the absence of emotions, uncertainties, and shifting forces. As a mentor of mine once put it, "Be nimble in your leadership." By the same token, I would encourage you to be nimble in adapting to your circumstances the model I offer here. Use it as a touchstone, not as a millstone. Remember that change is a process, not an event; it’s never completely "done." You will have many opportunities to identify and celebrate successes big and small. There will come a time when your change initiative is no longer the focus of your energies and resources—at which point you can begin the process of implementing another improvement campaign.

All administrators are middle managers, with authority over some people and under the scrutiny and authority of others—a reality that my model takes into account. I share the conventional wisdom that empowering staff and students benefits schools, and that a dynamic leadership team is critical to a school’s success. In the pages that follow, I use the pronoun "you" when referring to school leadership to mean a single administrator or a leadership team. The authority granted to you by the organizational hierarchy is an invaluable resource towards meeting your school’s mission. My change model should help you to use that authority thoroughly and wisely.

Step 1: Understand the Catalysts for Change

There are three general catalysts for school change:

1. Regulatory directives. These demands come every year. Some have very high stakes and must be accomplished in what seems like an unreasonably short time. Though you may be angry and overwhelmed, you are still responsible for rallying your team to do the work well.
2. A crisis that exposes a problem. A break-in reveals how poorly the school is secured each evening, your students’ subpar standardized test scores are published in the local newspaper, a group of prominent students cheat on an important exam: In each of these cases, everyone looks to you for direction.
3. A need or desire for improvement is identified. There are always elements of the school that can improve if given sustained attention, and stakeholders—leaders, teachers, students, parents, and members of the community—may bring a particular area into focus. You probably don’t have the time or the resources to improve everything at once, but sometimes conditions may allow you to choose one area for robust improvement.

Good school leadership requires you to prioritize opportunities for change.

Change is hard, and people vary in their capacity to handle it. They also vary in their perceptions of what risks are worth taking—though there are always risks to both leaving the status quo as it is and taking action to implement change. Risk raises fears, which can in turn distort an objective analysis of a given situation. The following questionnaire is intended to help you avoid such distortion and to ensure that you neither overlook areas in need of change or jump to fix areas that should not be a priority.

Risk-Assessment Questionnaire for Change

1. What category of change is under consideration?
   A. A regulatory directive
   B. A crisis
   C. A need for improvement
2. If you answered "C" above, who identified the need for improvement? How many people have expressed concern? To what degree do the number of people expressing concern and their levels of influence matter in deciding whether to take action?
3. What might happen if you choose not to invest in a large change initiative? Articulate a number of possibilities.
4. How likely is it that any of the possibilities you answered for the above question will happen? This is not a call for a deep mathematical analysis based on an extensive review of the available research. Consider the probability based on your available experience and expertise:
   A. Inevitable
   B. Very likely
   C. Moderately likely
   D. Unlikely
   E. Very unlikely
5. If one of the outcomes you listed were to happen, could the basic procedures that you’ve currently got in place handle the impact? If so, you might not need to invest the resources of a schoolwide change campaign.
6. Has the ground shifted at your school so that change is now required? If so, how much change do you think your school can tolerate?
7. What inspiring vision can drive the school change initiative? As an educator once told me, "Leaders are managers of optimism and inspiration." Risk, though often necessary, is something most educators prefer to avoid. Remember that a positive sense of the future sustains effort. Positive emotions drive change forward; negative ones land it in a ditch. Develop a positive vision of change and convey a sense of sincere emotional optimism. Put that vision into words and make it the headline of your change campaign.

Here is an example of how leaders might fill out the above questionnaire:

1. Answer: C. A need for improvement. We are examining whether to implement a school change initiative for our math program to improve outcomes. Five years ago, we set our sights on improving writing across the curriculum. By all accounts, our writing program is a success. Our math program, however, is not doing as well. The math department chair has stepped up to discuss this, and the leadership has noted the stagnant test scores the past three years.

2. Answer: The math team has some strong teachers and the department chair is a school leader, so their concerns should carry weight.

3. Answer: If we don’t achieve better math scores our self-confidence and sense of purpose will erode. When leaders don’t lead, people notice. Our math teachers might end up seeking employment elsewhere; there is a new charter school opening nearby, dedicated to math and science. Our school will be vulnerable to the loss of families who highly value math.

4. Answer: C. Moderately likely. The stagnant scores are not a crisis, but they should be on our radar. If the scores dip, public trust in our school will follow. Math teachers may not be likely to leave our school under current conditions, but the department chair has been approached by the local university, and it is possible that she would leave if she felt her concerns were being ignored. If she were to leave, the faculty would be weakened, and the community might begin to see the local charter school as a preferable alternative. Such a perception could cause us to lose significant number of our best students.

5. Answer: We would be able to manage any one of the possible outcomes if they happened in isolation, but in this case they’re intertwined.

6. Answer: The opening of the math-focused charter school nearby has clearly shifted the ground for us. We believe our school leaders should take action while problems are still manageable and not yet at a crisis level.

7. Answer: We have articulated our positive visions as follows: Our school will have an outstanding, universally praised math program that helps make our school the pride of the community!

Step 2: Clarify Positions and Interests

Ms. A. tells me that she’s angry because the new principal has asked her to move a pile of ragged boxes from the entrance to her class. She says it’s not a safety or fire hazard, she likes the boxes where they are, and she doesn’t think the principal should be micromanaging her. I suggest that she ask the principal what purpose he thinks moving the boxes will serve, and she agrees.

When Ms. A. meets the principal, he explains to her that the school is initiating a campaign to improve executive functioning—an issue dear to Ms. A.’s heart. He tells Ms. A. that he doesn’t think her pile of boxes conveys the right message, but he also apologizes for not explaining himself sooner.

"I share your goal of presenting an organized appearance," responds Ms. A. "I have a pretty Mexican blanket that would fit nicely over those boxes."

The principal says he thinks that’s a great solution. The boxes don’t end up moving, but the entrance to Ms. A.’s room now looks much better.

Positions vs. Interests

The language of positions and interests (Fischer & Uri, 1981) allows us to make sense of all school activity, but none more so than implementation of a change initiative. The principal’s request that Ms. A. move her boxes was a position—a specific strategy. When we present only our position but not our interests, we compromise the creativity and shared ownership essential to moving forward together as a community. By stating only his position, the principal set up a win-lose, my-way-or-the-highway conflict; it was only by articulating his interests—the elements that are driving his position—in this case a well-organized environment—that the principal was able to work with Ms. A. to craft options agreeable to both.

Schools are full of people who state their positions without making their interests known: a student asks to sit next to a friend, a teacher requests a schedule change, parents ask for their children to retake a test, the receptionist wants a new filing cabinet. All of these are positions, but what are the interests that individuals are trying to meet with their requests? You may not agree with the position—for example, you may not think the school can afford a new filing cabinet—but you may share the interests that the position is trying to meet (you also don’t want the receptionist to have to wrestle with a dysfunctional file drawer every day). Perhaps the solution is to ask the janitor to take 15 minutes to fix the drawer. But you can’t join in crafting more strategies without knowing the interests driving the initial requests.

Most significant interests in schools are shared: we all want students to learn, be resilient, and be good citizens. One reason many mission statements have little effect on outcomes is that educators don’t persistently refer back to them as though they reflect the school community’s deepest shared interests—and when they do reference them, it’s often to force a single strategy or position into action ("Because safety is one of our most cherished interests, everyone therefore must…"). Change initiatives are most likely to take root in organizations where people are consistently leading with their interests and inviting multiple stra...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Encore
• Pitfalls to Avoid
• References
• Related Resources
• About the Author
• Copyright