Homework+for+Feb.+24

Dear Colleagues……. I hope that this short note finds you all well and moving along. On February 24, we have a training called "Developing Evidence-Based and Shared Decision-Making". Jon Supovitz and I do that session. Jon is the Director of CPRE (Center for Policy Research and Evaluation) at Penn and is an Associate Professor in the educational leadership area and head of the Evidence-Based Leadership Strand of work here. He will be contacting you next week with a small assignment before our session. I have attached and will describe my assignment below. I am requesting that you read the attached case…..a real case from a public school and identify the decisions that the two principals make in the case as a team. You should feel free to discuss the case before our session and think about why the title of the case is "Contrast". An important leadership skill that our training will focus on is when and how to involve others in decisions…and the ability to select the appropriate decision-making process for each each situation that involves a decision. My hope is that you will come to the session familiar with the case so that what you learn about when and how can be applied in the session. If you have any questions about this, do email me and I'll be happy to answer them. One other discussion point that I would like you to do as a team before the session is to think about successful and unsuccessful decisions that you have made as a team. If you can discuss one of each before you come, what you learn in the session will be helpful to your analysis and understanding of why they were successful or unsuccessful. If your team hasn't made many decisions together, don't worry and omit this part of the assignment. If I haven't been to see you yet…..I'm coming. As with you, the snow has been most difficult. You have my warmest regards and I look forward to seeing you very soon.

**Contrast **

“. . . We want innovation this year! That’s what our new superintendent wants. Of course, I go right along with him. Talk with each other. Then get together and try out some new ideas.”

Jim Ryan, the new junior high principal, was making his introductory remarks at the first faculty meeting during the fall in-service period. Though this was Mr. Ryan’s first year with the Open Plains Schools, he had lived in the district for some time while teaching in a nearby district. After 13 years of teaching, he had completed his first year as the elementary principal in the neighboring district last spring. He was well liked and was anticipating a smooth second year when he was induced to apply for the job of Open Plains Junior High principal, vacated in July.

Having accepted the job less than a month before, Mr. Ryan was now addressing his faculty of 17 teachers. Five of these teachers were new to Open Plains and four were teaching for the first time at the junior high level. It was a higher turnover than he would have had in his old district, but then, his old district wasn’t within commuting distance of College Place with its supply of student and university wives.

Jim Ryan’s first comments to his staff had been a challenge. He concluded by saying, “And don’t worry; as long as you’re right, I’ll support you. No one is going to make life miserable for you while I’m around.”

**Early Staff Relations **

School opened. The first faculty meeting was devoted to housekeeping details. At the second meeting, Mr. Ryan distributed the thick teacher evaluation forms sent out by the district office for the principal’s visits to classrooms. These drew heated criticisms from several teachers. Mr. Ryan attempted to defend the forms. He also indicated that he had no choice as to whether to use them or not. Many teachers left the meeting upset about the use and effect of the forms.

Later, teachers complained to each other about reports of the evaluation conferences held by Mr. Ryan after his classroom visits. These conferences were depicted as largely “telling sessions” during which Mr. Ryan passed on his own experience of his interpretation of “the experts.” Teachers seemed to feel that, in general, it was “hard to get to the core” of their differences with Mr. Ryan.

Subsequent meetings produced more tensions. Mr. Ryan had the usual agenda of school business. Participation in discussion was not high. Meetings sometimes dragged on until well after the board’s established “quitting time.” Sometimes questions were relegated to a committee before all who wanted to had a chance to express themselves. Discussions of importance to the group were cut off now and then. One time, when a few teachers opened the question of a problem which the teaching schedule had created for them, Mr. Ryan first suggested that they do the scheduling themselves if they thought they could do better, but then asked them to “take my word for it, there’s a reason.” Another time a question concerning the feasibility of establishing a chairman in each subject area was dismissed as a complication. The possibility of using an empty classroom as a teacher workroom and the location of a beginning professional library collection was rejected because the room might need to be used for classes in the future.

Even more distressing than not succeeding in exploring matters of concern to them was the fear that issues were being disposed of before being clearly understood. Summations by Mr. Ryan often left the group confused. As one teacher phrased it, “Instead of getting to the point, Mr. Ryan widens the circumference.” In one case, the faculty voted on a controversial athletic eligibility policy. It was sent to the board for review and approved. It was not until the staff attempted to set up the machinery for implementing the written policy that it was discovered that the staff had interpreted the policy in at least three different ways when voting on it.

**The “Discipline Problem” **

It was just as difficult to learn what transpired in “the office” as it was to clarify the proceedings of the faculty meetings. Matters sent to the office often were never resolved, at least to the knowledge and/or satisfaction of the teacher. More than one had complained of notes, requisitions, and other materials being lost in the office. Even the efficient school secretary, Mrs. Olson, couldn’t locate all of the items that had allegedly entered Mr. Ryan’s office.

Students sent to the office for poor conduct in the classroom began to return grinning. The word got around that “he just talks to you for a long time and tells you he knows you can do better.” Two or three of the men felt it necessary to keep paddles handy and occasionally resorted to them. Only one teacher expressed complete confidence in classroom control.

A few teachers viewed the “discipline problem” as a symptom of general frustration from a large part of the student body that felt they could not influence decisions made about them. Mr. Ryan characterized the Student Council, though “sponsored” by the office of the principal, as reluctant to take on the problems of student behavior. Some students reported that the student body saw the council as “teachers’ helpers” who did not really care what the students thought.

Discussion of behavior problems continued in faculty meetings. Teachers experimented with classroom techniques, but sometimes complained that they were getting little effective backing from the office. Mr. Ryan had initiated work details as disciplinary measures, but since they were supervised by custodial staff that had other responsibilities, students eventually learned to regard them as play periods. They could figure out ingenious ways to disturb classes and annoy teachers while supposedly carrying out their chores. Teachers were seldom informed of these arrangements so some students also learned they could lie about having seen the principal with only a small chance that the teacher would have time to go to the office to check up on the story. Since chances were good that Mr. Ryan would be too busy to see them during the class period when the conflict occurred, they could often simply go on to the next class and concoct a story for their reappearance in class the next day.

The seventh grade class was especially troublesome. A few parents commented that this class had never been controlled by any of their teachers; other felt that ability grouping or the new teachers and/or the new principal were to blame for the failure of this group to make a transition to junior high standards and work habits. The grapevine reported that the superintendent was receiving telephone calls from parents about discipline in the junior high; especially among the seventh graders. Suddenly one afternoon, Mr. Ryan collected the seventh graders in the multipurpose room and sent their teachers off for a “coffee break.” The mystery of what was said in the meeting was never solved. Students later described the meeting as a “reading of the rules”, but seemed confused about the reason for or purpose of the meeting. Many said they couldn’t hear Mr. Ryan. The general situation did not change appreciably after the meeting.

**<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif';">Crisis Brings Change **

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Just three days before Christmas vacation, a tragedy engulfed the school. Mr. Ryan was injured in a head-on highway accident. A rumor that he was paralyzed from the waist down spread rapidly. It was finally learned that surgery had been performed on injuries to both legs, and although it was expected to be a slow and painful process, Mr. Ryan would recover.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In an atmosphere of shock and concern, staff and students continued their work. Curt Moran, a young third year social studies teacher and half-time counselor, was asked to take on the job of acting principal. Mr. Moran, who was past president of the local teachers’ association, was liked and respected by both students and staff. He moved into the principal’s office amid a spirit of cooperation engendered by both his personal qualities and the high involvement the staff felt in meeting the crisis.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A special teachers’ meeting on “discipline” had been called by Mr. Ryan for the day of the accident. Mr. Moran and the teachers felt that Mr. Ryan would wish them to continue with the business at hand, so the meeting was held as scheduled. Mr. Moran’s approach was to throw the meeting open to “brain-storming”, leaving the discussion and action on suggestions for the next meeting. Participation was good. Nearly every teacher made at least one suggestion. There was cohesiveness as well as vigor about that meeting which caused many teachers to comment optimistically about their efforts as they left. Since Mr. Moran had asked one person of the group to serve as rotating secretary, he was able to place a summary of the suggested solutions in the teachers’ hands before vacation.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The news after vacation was that although he was recovering as well as could be expected, Mr. Ryan would be in the hospital for a while longer and then would be in a wheelchair at home for another indefinite period of time. Mr. Moran was authorized to find substitutes for his teaching and coaching duties.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Mr. Moran’s first disciplinary action as acting principal was taken during the first week after vacation. It involved the controversial issue of what types of shirttails could be word outside the pants. Mr. Ryan had been insistent that teachers enforce the handbook policy that shirts with tails (defined by him as those “covering the fanny”) must be tucked in. When he had brought this question to the faculty for a vote, the handbook policy had been approved by a narrow plurality—hardly the “consensus” for which he had asked. Mr. Moran was one of the teachers who did not like the rule because he felt it unnecessarily infringed on student choice and thus cost too much in student-teacher relations. But he also felt that since the original handbook dress code had been drawn up by the student government, students should abide by the code as long as it was on the books. When three ninth grade boys were brought to his office for violating the code, Mr. Moran explained his belief that the appropriate action when one disagreed with the rule was to attempt to change it—in this case, through petition to the Student Council—and that until such time as they succeeded in doing so, they had the choice of complying with the school regulations or staying at home until a conference with them and their parents indicated they were willing to do so.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Only one of the boys felt that he could not comply with the rule and he was taken home by Mr. Moran. The boy’s father appeared the next morning, irate because the boy had been given the choice of staying at home. He said the school should make the boy comply and threatened to go to the school board with the issue. However, when the boy decided to comply with the rule and return to school, the father dropped the matter.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After his informal suspension, teachers agreed that although troublemakers did not cease making problems altogether, fewer students carried their disruptive behavior to the point of being sent to the principal’s office. Only one other boy was suspended during Mr. Moran’s tenure—for bullying younger boys in the halls.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Teachers and students noted a new type of organization about the administration of school business. At the first teachers’ meeting after vacation, action was taken on one of the brainstorming suggestions for cutting down on tardiness. The new system was reported to students and effected immediately. Teachers received summaries of staff meetings and other communications through a new weekly staff bulletin. Communications from the office were punched for retaining in a notebook provided for each teacher. Requests and notes sent to the office received quick, personally-typed responses completed with indications of copies sent to others involved.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In faculty meetings, teachers exchanged ideas freely. Mr. Moran responded to the group’s reactions in a manner which made it possible for him to summarize and bring discussions to appropriate conclusions without many overtime sessions. One teacher expressed surprise on the improvement. She had thought Mr. Moran “too philosophical to get anything done.”

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Mr. Moran was an active temporary administrator who supported teacher and student involvement. During January and February, a number of projects under discussion early in the year were enacted. Among them were the sponsoring of a paperback book sale, selling milk at noon (there was no lunch program), establishing a system of departmental chairmen, and turning the empty classroom into a teacher workroom and library.

**<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif';">The Acting Principal’s Staff Relations **

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">During this time, Mr. Moran was making classroom visits. The comments heard after his follow-up of these visits indicated that the teachers were leaving them buoyed up and more, rather than less, enthusiastic. When Mr. Moran did make suggestions, they were within a framework of an obvious confidence in the teacher’s competence and apparently had the effect of increasing the teacher’s own confidence.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">He spent a number of sessions with three new seventh grade “D” and “E” group teachers. All of these teachers had stated that they got little concrete help from Mr. Ryan’s visits. Mr. Coleman, a farmer now in his first year of teaching, had been dejected by Mr. Ryan’s statement about an experiment he had decided was working well with his “E” group: “That kind of teaching went out with the covered wagon. I don’t want to see any more of it.” Mr. Levine was angered when Mr. Ryan had told him, “I even had to write your lesson plans for you.” Mr. Levine’s reaction had been that the lesson plans, which he had never used, had been forced on him. Mrs. Rasmussen though Mr. Ryan had jeopardized her authority in the classroom by the manner in which he used the intercom and called her from the room and then had failed to give direct disciplinary action when she resorted to sending students to the office. Later, when parents called, she didn’t think Mr. Ryan had given her enough support.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When visiting these teachers, Mr. Moran found a number of activities to recommend. The teachers became noticeable more optimistic. It was the home economics teacher who commented that, “Curt had been good for John (Levine). He is so much more relaxed.” Mr. Coleman and Mrs. Rasmussen were enthusiastically experimenting again–individually and with team teaching.

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Toward the end of February, Mr. Ryan sent word that he would be returning soon. The teachers were delighted that he was recovering more rapidly than expected. At the same time they realized, guiltily, that they wished Curt could stay in the principal’s job. Each said he liked Mr. Ryan, but all agreed “Things are going too well now.”

<span style="font-family: 'Optima','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">One teacher was more explicit, “I’ve felt that Curt was working **__with__** me. For the first few months of this fall, I was spending half my time fighting the office.”