Chapter 11 stresses the importance of standards and the need to have a variety of people involved in creating and assessing the standards. As educators, we feel it is important to evoke standards in the schools, but at the same time we don’t feel it is appropriate to dismiss the individual freedom of students and teachers. Society will not function if all students learn the same material, and know the same facts. In education, it is imperative that administrators fight for the rights of the students while at the same time setting high expectations and standards that evolve around the ability of students. Testing and accountability need to be addressed, but the need for critical thinking and creativity are essential for all students to build, connect, and relate learned material. The ideal system would have the community, the students, and the faculty involved with the brainstorming process of which standards should “fit” for their school, as well as the state and national standards. Although, we call it “ideal,” it can be done with a strong vision, an abundance of communication, and the belief that all students can learn.
Question: As a principal how would you achieve this ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards?
I think it would be important for district superintendents and central office staff to provide leadership and structure in this process. Creating subject area committees of administrators, teachers, community members, parents, and students would be a good start. These committees would be able to deal with standards and assessments for each of the subject areas. This would allow for vertical allignment of curriculum as well.
I agree with Ryan that as a principal you must insure that all stakeholders are actively involved in standards for assessment. However, in reality, it is difficult to get all of these groups involved with school activities. Some community members and parents look upon this as the school’s and teacher’s problems and do not see why they should be involved. Many people are busy living their own lives and look at working with the school as an additional task on their limited free time. This is where a proactive principal with support from the superintendent and central office staff would prove to be exceedingly important, in developing methods to involve these groups. I think that reaching out to local community groups such as Ruritans, Lions clubs and the many other local clubs to build a base of support for the school from the community would go far in cementing the type or rapport needed. This is not to say that the other stakeholders, school staff and students, should be ignored, I simply feel that they are already more likely to be actively involved.
I definitely agree with both Ryan and Gary. Finding balance is sometimes hard. But it is so important to get as many people involved in the vision and knowing the purpose behind each activity, assignment, and communication with home. Teaching the community to have a team approach is a key to the success of the students.
I can see by experienced teachers in the blog that it is unprovable to get all of the stakeholders involved in creating standards. Yet I would hope that most of the stakeholders would naturally be inclined to contribute to forming standards that directly effect their community. Perhaps emphasizing the importance of their participation may boost interest and involvement. I still think it's unreasonable to expect a %100 attendance though.
I am fortunate to be going through this process with the guidance of our superintendent, Dr. Lee Brannon. He is wonderful with building bridges in the community in a most successful way. He has shared with me often the importance of incorporating community stakeholders in creating not just a "good" school system, but a great school system. As an administrator, I hope that I, too, can inspire community members to be a part of vision. I would do this through effective communication and by providing an inviting and inclusive atomosphere that brings diverse stakeholders to a shared belief that the school is the center of their community.
Terri, I like the fact that you have the feeling of the school being the center of the community. There is so much a school can offer a community, as well as the community offering back to the school. I think when the two work together, the students benefit much more as a group and as individuals.
I love the idea of having a base set of standards that each district could choose from. I think that by having that option that you would naturally have a more buy end approach from the community. Right now the speech is Yes, we are teaching to the test, but what is wrong with that. I think this chapter did a good job of answering that question. The same is not always the best. I read to my students Dr. Seuss's book, Hooray for Diffendoofor Day, about standardized test. It is amazing that a children's book can say so much. My favorite saying from the book is not to worry about taking test because, "we have taught you how to think" As a third grade teacher and hopefully a good moral leader I hope that I can say I have accomplished this much.
Terri's comments are inspiring. I, too, have worked with a principal in the past who made sure that in "big" decisions there was community involved. This takes concerted effort to know the players in the community and to also make sure there is adequate representation from the different demographic areas a school is located in, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Is it realistic to always do this? No. But it is realistic to have planning and decision making sessions over the summer with various groups you have recruited to assemble during the course of the school year. This can undoubtedly help give multiple perspective to changes and current policies while also creating ownership and bonding between the school and its stakeholders.
It is a monumental task for a principal to undertake. In order to do so, I think you would have to garner support from the top--the Superintendent would have to be on board and in support of the vision. With the focus on state and national standards, convincing persons in the upper leadership positions to allow you to refocus on critical thinking and creativity would be a huge hurdle. I think most of them believe, deep down inside, that doing so would be the best thing for the students and, ulimately result in better standards assessment results. I also believe that most are reluctant to take that risk. But, if they were to do so, I think support from other stakeholders, particularly parents, would be forthcoming. Many are already of that mindset but have been unable to pry school leaders away from the "SOL" ball and chain.
As a principal I would get all of the stakeholders involvement in deciding our own standards to go along with the state and national standards. It is important to keep the school's and the community's uniqueness in mind when developing these standards. All stakeholders need to be asked what they think is important for the children to learn so that they will succeed in the area in which they live. This will vary from region to region. Then an assessment needs to be made that tests these local standards.
I read all of these comments and think there are some really great ideas. District standards are a wonderful idea. All I seem to think about while reading is the lack of instructional involvement, other than handing down orders from the state, the central office and other higher-ups have in my school system. If they are working at instruction, I don't see much of it. I see where they work at scores, but that is only because it is state mandated. Most of our teachers do what they do because they are driven by CO for scores. Motivational tactics for instructional leadership and improvement aren't found often.
I agree with Chuck. I believe that not only would the support be forthcoming from the parents if we changed our focus from what often becomes basic recall of a set of isolated facts to one of critical thinking and creativity but that our stakeholders in business and higher education would be apt to become involved in the process of creating the standards. Which leads me to ask, if our vision includes providing instruction that results in life-long learners, wouldn't a more suitable method of assessment be formative as opposed to summative?
I agree with many of your comments. I think balance is always tricky, no matter what is trying to be balanced. But, I do believe that the community's involvement is very key to anything a school does. Mike's comments about emphasizing the importance of their role in the school's activities and processes would encourage more involvement from stakeholders. It would be ideal if they were naturally inclined to do so, but if not, it is our job as administrators to show them why it is important for them to be involved.
As a parent, I want my children to be prepared to face academic challenges in higher education. For this reason, there does need to be continuity with standards. However, I also believe that parents and the community at large should have input with the standards that our schools teach and assess. We are not meeting the needs of every student, nor are we meeting the needs of our communities.
I agree that it is important that we include the community in creating standards as we not only teach subject matter, but also what is takes to be an involved responsible citizen in the community. What better way to set the example than to include the community in the decision making process.
In an attempt to achieve the ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards I believe you have to give all an opportunity to have input in process. A good example of doing this would be to hold monthly advisory meetings with a group of each. For example, a monthly meeting with a group of students, a monthly meeting with a group of selected parents, and a monthly meeting with a group from the community. Through these advisory meetings necessary collaboration would have an opportunity to take place.
I agree with a number of comments that as a principal it would be hard to achieve such a lofty goal without the help and support of central office.
Realistically speaking, I feel that most school systems are focused more on keeping up with the ever-changing standards of the SOLs and NCLB and creating community standards are not a priority in the scheme of things. Maybe schools that are profficient in all areas could focus more on involving their community in creating standards, but continuous improvement is a part of the formula. It's hard to plan ahead when you're always playing catch up.
I agree that the community and the stakeholders should have input in the decision making of the standards for the students of their communities. I also think that it might be difficult for the stakeholders and community to get that involved given the fact that standardized testing is in place. I have always thought that standards should be regional and that the decisions for each region should be made by the different regions. I guess in a perfect world this issue would be rectified that way but in the world that we live in with accountability and all, we will just have to make the best of what we have thus far.
I would like to see local or regional standards implemented. However, I don't think this will be possible until all areas are reaching the state and federal mandates consistently. I agree with Paul that there should be community standards involving good citizenship, in addition to academic standards. Some school systems require students to have so much community service to earn a certain type of diploma. When accredidation is reached by all schools over a long period of time, I think local standards will be implemented. At that time it will be important to develop a committee of stakeholders, including community agencies, parents, school personnel, etc. to help develop these standards. Judy Willis
I think our high standards world has definitely made educators more cognizant of the imperative of student achievement. However, I'm not sure that all parents and students are equally aware of the importance of achieving high standards. To achieve this ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards, I think a principal would need to build strong relationships with all stakeholders, communicate this vision of high student achievement simultaneously to all stakeholders, and then with the help and invovlement of all groups, develop and implement plans that are unique to our school community while maintaining the state and federal standards. As parents and students begin to feel more ownership and stronger relationships among the school community members are formed, the committment to individual standards of student achivement will be realized.
Standards are sometimes tough to define, but even tougher to involved stakeholders, but it can be done, look at Terri's comments. We don't always have to reach 100% agreement, but we should always strive for consensus.
Hopefully, if you start by including all stakeholders (making them feel welcome and giving them a voice) from the beginning. It will be easier to work together on more difficult tasks, such as creating standards. Bringing all stakeholders "to the table" should be a top priority right from the beginning. I like the idea of monthly advisory meetings and including social standards too. With all stakeholders having a voice in how to prmote the success of every child, the school will have a greater chance of fulfilling the vision (or in this case...creating standards).
As we advance through the next twenty years of education we must include all stakeholders in the educational process, and it will happen. Time will be the factor because change will be the road block. The faster we go and the more passion we have about getting the community involved the better off we will be. Tapping into the community and parents is or should be the top priority. One thing that we will have to do as administrators is being more available than just 7:30-4:00. The majority of parents and community business’s that we serve work the same hours as school time. As new aspiring administrators we must be open and available at other times during the day and not take away from the instructional time period. When we get all the stakeholders involved, then our standards will be better understood by each and every person. Brad Haga
I agree with Judy in that local community and district goals will be less visible until school divisions achieve more sustained success rates on state and federal mandates. I, personally, have never heard of the community service component as a requirement for graduation but think that is a very reasonable requirement. School divisions should have more distinct voices in what substantiates a successful graduate.
I sometimes think that the administrative level is under so much pressure to meet the standards that they focus on working with the teachers since they are the link to meeting the goals. When this happens the parents are not included or made aware of the importance, they are just told what they should do. In order to make standards a success I agree with Terry that you need to include all stakeholders, you may not get the 100% but you will have included them.
To get stakeholders to collaborate, I would require weekly meeting with all faculty members. At these meetings, they would discuss how to work with the standards to ensure they are covered, but in a fun way. During evaluation, I would make sure that all stakeholders were doing their part.
It looks like many of us feel the standards are important, but we also want to make sure that there is input from a variety of stakeholders, as well as support from community and leader of the school system. To become life-long learners, it is important for local and state governments to work together when creating standards, but at the same time focus on the needs of students. In doing this, students will adhere to the national standards, as well as grow as individuals creating a stronger community, state, and nation. So, if we all continue our desire to become administrators, hopefully, we will have some input on how standards are created and implemented to our own school districts, which also means we will have similar ideas at regional and state meetings. Lastly, we all may have an impact on our state standards and how we involve others when developing and assessing standards.
I agree with most of classmates when they disucss the importance of involving all stakeholders in the creating of standards. Organizing committies of parents, community members and other stakeholders might be a start. Beginning with parents, principals would need to make them welcome in the school and feel they would have a vital role in developing and assessing the standards and all stakeholders would need to share the vision of the school and district.
Lots of good comments, but mine is personal. If we're going to determine what good the community and school relationship is to each other, we don't need to look any further than my system. About 10 years ago, my system decided to close several schools in the outer parts of the county. At the time, it was about money. Many people were upset and rightfully so. Now, it hurts even worse. We've redrawn the lines 2 times since then, and they need to be drawn again. One elementary school has over 500 kids and others have about half of that. Fair? Anyway, it's hard to address the community-based standards issue ( the one I know I'm supposed to be adressing!) when we can't even ID what community we belong to! It is frustrating to see what has happened in this community and I'm afraid it will only get worse before it gets better.
As a principal I would want the stakeholders involved in different aspects of the school. Having said that I'd start with the parents on my PTP or PTO board. Ask them to look at the data for the students who had to take the SOL. Ask them for ideas. If we make our stakeholders feel like they are important then they will be more likely to give input.
31 comments:
Chapter 11 stresses the importance of standards and the need to have a variety of people involved in creating and assessing the standards. As educators, we feel it is important to evoke standards in the schools, but at the same time we don’t feel it is appropriate to dismiss the individual freedom of students and teachers. Society will not function if all students learn the same material, and know the same facts. In education, it is imperative that administrators fight for the rights of the students while at the same time setting high expectations and standards that evolve around the ability of students. Testing and accountability need to be addressed, but the need for critical thinking and creativity are essential for all students to build, connect, and relate learned material. The ideal system would have the community, the students, and the faculty involved with the brainstorming process of which standards should “fit” for their school, as well as the state and national standards. Although, we call it “ideal,” it can be done with a strong vision, an abundance of communication, and the belief that all students can learn.
Question: As a principal how would you achieve this ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards?
I think it would be important for district superintendents and central office staff to provide leadership and structure in this process. Creating subject area committees of administrators, teachers, community members, parents, and students would be a good start. These committees would be able to deal with standards and assessments for each of the subject areas. This would allow for vertical allignment of curriculum as well.
I agree with Ryan that as a principal you must insure that all stakeholders are actively involved in standards for assessment. However, in reality, it is difficult to get all of these groups involved with school activities. Some community members and parents look upon this as the school’s and teacher’s problems and do not see why they should be involved. Many people are busy living their own lives and look at working with the school as an additional task on their limited free time. This is where a proactive principal with support from the superintendent and central office staff would prove to be exceedingly important, in developing methods to involve these groups. I think that reaching out to local community groups such as Ruritans, Lions clubs and the many other local clubs to build a base of support for the school from the community would go far in cementing the type or rapport needed. This is not to say that the other stakeholders, school staff and students, should be ignored, I simply feel that they are already more likely to be actively involved.
I definitely agree with both Ryan and Gary. Finding balance is sometimes hard. But it is so important to get as many people involved in the vision and knowing the purpose behind each activity, assignment, and communication with home. Teaching the community to have a team approach is a key to the success of the students.
I can see by experienced teachers in the blog that it is unprovable to get all of the stakeholders involved in creating standards. Yet I would hope that most of the stakeholders would naturally be inclined to contribute to forming standards that directly effect their community. Perhaps emphasizing the importance of their participation may boost interest and involvement. I still think it's unreasonable to expect a %100 attendance though.
Michael Southee
I am fortunate to be going through this process with the guidance of our superintendent, Dr. Lee Brannon. He is wonderful with building bridges in the community in a most successful way. He has shared with me often the importance of incorporating community stakeholders in creating not just a "good" school system, but a great school system. As an administrator, I hope that I, too, can inspire community members to be a part of vision. I would do this through effective communication and by providing an inviting and inclusive atomosphere that brings diverse stakeholders to a shared belief that the school is the center of their community.
Terri, I like the fact that you have the feeling of the school being the center of the community. There is so much a school can offer a community, as well as the community offering back to the school. I think when the two work together, the students benefit much more as a group and as individuals.
I love the idea of having a base set of standards that each district could choose from. I think that by having that option that you would naturally have a more buy end approach from the community. Right now the speech is Yes, we are teaching to the test, but what is wrong with that. I think this chapter did a good job of answering that question. The same is not always the best. I read to my students Dr. Seuss's book, Hooray for Diffendoofor Day, about standardized test. It is amazing that a children's book can say so much. My favorite saying from the book is not to worry about taking test because, "we have taught you how to think" As a third grade teacher and hopefully a good moral leader I hope that I can say I have accomplished this much.
Terri's comments are inspiring. I, too, have worked with a principal in the past who made sure that in "big" decisions there was community involved. This takes concerted effort to know the players in the community and to also make sure there is adequate representation from the different demographic areas a school is located in, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Is it realistic to always do this? No. But it is realistic to have planning and decision making sessions over the summer with various groups you have recruited to assemble during the course of the school year. This can undoubtedly help give multiple perspective to changes and current policies while also creating ownership and bonding between the school and its stakeholders.
Cheryl Burrell-Graves
It is a monumental task for a principal to undertake. In order to do so, I think you would have to garner support from the top--the Superintendent would have to be on board and in support of the vision. With the focus on state and national standards, convincing persons in the upper leadership positions to allow you to refocus on critical thinking and creativity would be a huge hurdle. I think most of them believe, deep down inside, that doing so would be the best thing for the students and, ulimately result in better standards assessment results. I also believe that most are reluctant to take that risk. But, if they were to do so, I think support from other stakeholders, particularly parents, would be forthcoming. Many are already of that mindset but have been unable to pry school leaders away from the "SOL" ball and chain.
As a principal I would get all of the stakeholders involvement in deciding our own standards to go along with the state and national standards. It is important to keep the school's and the community's uniqueness in mind when developing these standards. All stakeholders need to be asked what they think is important for the children to learn so that they will succeed in the area in which they live. This will vary from region to region. Then an assessment needs to be made that tests these local standards.
I read all of these comments and think there are some really great ideas. District standards are a wonderful idea. All I seem to think about while reading is the lack of instructional involvement, other than handing down orders from the state, the central office and other higher-ups have in my school system. If they are working at instruction, I don't see much of it. I see where they work at scores, but that is only because it is state mandated. Most of our teachers do what they do because they are driven by CO for scores. Motivational tactics for instructional leadership and improvement aren't found often.
I agree with Chuck. I believe that not only would the support be forthcoming from the parents if we changed our focus from what often becomes basic recall of a set of isolated facts to one of critical thinking and creativity but that our stakeholders in business and higher education would be apt to become involved in the process of creating the standards. Which leads me to ask, if our vision includes providing instruction that results in life-long learners, wouldn't a more suitable method of assessment be formative as opposed to summative?
I agree with many of your comments. I think balance is always tricky, no matter what is trying to be balanced. But, I do believe that the community's involvement is very key to anything a school does. Mike's comments about emphasizing the importance of their role in the school's activities and processes would encourage more involvement from stakeholders. It would be ideal if they were naturally inclined to do so, but if not, it is our job as administrators to show them why it is important for them to be involved.
As a parent, I want my children to be prepared to face academic challenges in higher education. For this reason, there does need to be continuity with standards. However, I also believe that parents and the community at large should have input with the standards that our schools teach and assess. We are not meeting the needs of every student, nor are we meeting the needs of our communities.
I agree that it is important that we include the community in creating standards as we not only teach subject matter, but also what is takes to be an involved responsible citizen in the community. What better way to set the example than to include the community in the decision making process.
In an attempt to achieve the ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards I believe you have to give all an opportunity to have input in process. A good example of doing this would be to hold monthly advisory meetings with a group of each. For example, a monthly meeting with a group of students, a monthly meeting with a group of selected parents, and a monthly meeting with a group from the community. Through these advisory meetings necessary collaboration would have an opportunity to take place.
BJ Lasley
I agree with a number of comments that as a principal it would be hard to achieve such a lofty goal without the help and support of central office.
Realistically speaking, I feel that most school systems are focused more on keeping up with the ever-changing standards of the SOLs and NCLB and creating community standards are not a priority in the scheme of things. Maybe schools that are profficient in all areas could focus more on involving their community in creating standards, but continuous improvement is a part of the formula. It's hard to plan ahead when you're always playing catch up.
I agree that the community and the stakeholders should have input in the decision making of the standards for the students of their communities. I also think that it might be difficult for the stakeholders and community to get that involved given the fact that standardized testing is in place. I have always thought that standards should be regional and that the decisions for each region should be made by the different regions. I guess in a perfect world this issue would be rectified that way but in the world that we live in with accountability and all, we will just have to make the best of what we have thus far.
I would like to see local or regional standards implemented. However, I don't think this will be possible until all areas are reaching the state and federal mandates consistently. I agree with Paul that there should be community standards involving good citizenship, in addition to academic standards. Some school systems require students to have so much community service to earn a certain type of diploma. When accredidation is reached by all schools over a long period of time, I think local standards will be implemented. At that time it will be important to develop a committee of stakeholders, including community agencies, parents, school personnel, etc. to help develop these standards.
Judy Willis
I think our high standards world has definitely made educators more cognizant of the imperative of student achievement. However, I'm not sure that all parents and students are equally aware of the importance of achieving high standards. To achieve this ideal of stakeholders collaborating to create standards, I think a principal would need to build strong relationships with all stakeholders, communicate this vision of high student achievement simultaneously to all stakeholders, and then with the help and invovlement of all groups, develop and implement plans that are unique to our school community while maintaining the state and federal standards. As parents and students begin to feel more ownership and stronger relationships among the school community members are formed, the committment to individual standards of student achivement will be realized.
Standards are sometimes tough to define, but even tougher to involved stakeholders, but it can be done, look at Terri's comments. We don't always have to reach 100% agreement, but we should always strive for consensus.
Hopefully, if you start by including all stakeholders (making them feel welcome and giving them a voice) from the beginning. It will be easier to work together on more difficult tasks, such as creating standards. Bringing all stakeholders "to the table" should be a top priority right from the beginning. I like the idea of monthly advisory meetings and including social standards too. With all stakeholders having a voice in how to prmote the success of every child, the school will have a greater chance of fulfilling the vision (or in this case...creating standards).
As we advance through the next twenty years of education we must include all stakeholders in the educational process, and it will happen. Time will be the factor because change will be the road block. The faster we go and the more passion we have about getting the community involved the better off we will be. Tapping into the community and parents is or should be the top priority. One thing that we will have to do as administrators is being more available than just 7:30-4:00. The majority of parents and community business’s that we serve work the same hours as school time. As new aspiring administrators we must be open and available at other times during the day and not take away from the instructional time period. When we get all the stakeholders involved, then our standards will be better understood by each and every person.
Brad Haga
I agree with Judy in that local community and district goals will be less visible until school divisions achieve more sustained success rates on state and federal mandates. I, personally, have never heard of the community service component as a requirement for graduation but think that is a very reasonable requirement. School divisions should have more distinct voices in what substantiates a successful graduate.
Amber Lam
I sometimes think that the administrative level is under so much pressure to meet the standards that they focus on working with the teachers since they are the link to meeting the goals. When this happens the parents are not included or made aware of the importance, they are just told what they should do. In order to make standards a success I agree with Terry that you need to include all stakeholders, you may not get the 100% but you will have included them.
To get stakeholders to collaborate, I would require weekly meeting with all faculty members. At these meetings, they would discuss how to work with the standards to ensure they are covered, but in a fun way. During evaluation, I would make sure that all stakeholders were doing their part.
It looks like many of us feel the standards are important, but we also want to make sure that there is input from a variety of stakeholders, as well as support from community and leader of the school system. To become life-long learners, it is important for local and state governments to work together when creating standards, but at the same time focus on the needs of students. In doing this, students will adhere to the national standards, as well as grow as individuals creating a stronger community, state, and nation. So, if we all continue our desire to become administrators, hopefully, we will have some input on how standards are created and implemented to our own school districts, which also means we will have similar ideas at regional and state meetings. Lastly, we all may have an impact on our state standards and how we involve others when developing and assessing standards.
I agree with most of classmates when they disucss the importance of involving all stakeholders in the creating of standards. Organizing committies of parents, community members and other stakeholders might be a start. Beginning with parents, principals would need to make them welcome in the school and feel they would have a vital role in developing and assessing the standards and all stakeholders would need to share the vision of the school and district.
Lots of good comments, but mine is personal. If we're going to determine what good the community and school relationship is to each other, we don't need to look any further than my system. About 10 years ago, my system decided to close several schools in the outer parts of the county. At the time, it was about money. Many people were upset and rightfully so. Now, it hurts even worse. We've redrawn the lines 2 times since then, and they need to be drawn again. One elementary school has over 500 kids and others have about half of that. Fair? Anyway, it's hard to address the community-based standards issue
( the one I know I'm supposed to be adressing!)
when we can't even ID what community we belong to! It is frustrating to see what has happened in this community and I'm afraid it will only get worse before it gets better.
As a principal I would want the stakeholders involved in different aspects of the school. Having said that I'd start with the parents on my PTP or PTO board. Ask them to look at the data for the students who had to take the SOL. Ask them for ideas. If we make our stakeholders feel like they are important then they will be more likely to give input.
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