Recently I was asked a few questions about my thoughts in relation to student success, the changing landscape of schooling and bringing together multiple stakeholders effectively. After writing my responses to these questions I thought that they may benefit for others to have access- perhaps to create a DIALOGUE or sharing of effective practices. Currently in the world it feels that we are failing our students and not providing opportunities to really dig in to our society issues. When reading the headlines I wonder about the impact of the current events on our students and future generations- it feels that the world’s countries continue to build thicker walls between one another and not engage in effective dialogue for how to help one another and how to help our planet collectively.
Several years ago there were initiatives to have dialogue, open discussions as part of the learning process. When I started my last school we adopted the Ojai Community Circle practice which provided students and staff a way to have input, share and inquire about one another or issues addressing them. We also had a restorative justice approach to deal with situations where there were perpetrators negatively affecting either other students or the campus. Crucial is to have ways to have this dialogue and look at instances not judge humans.
That said below are the questions I was asked and my responses. Please do share your thoughts, inputs and expertise.
Question 1: Can you share an instance from your most recent role where you made a significant impact on student success or well-being?
Case study 1: Meet Liz- a 38 year old teaching assistant for the last 8 years, single parent living in a foreign country wishing to become a teacher.
In the UK the government opened an apprenticeship program to help schools recruit teachers and train their own staff to become qualified teachers in partnership with accredited programs. As program manager for teacher training I partnered with Oxford Brookes University to offer the Foundation in Education Program to start this pathway. The program provided learners with on the job training and connected their practice with the required assessment making it feasible for teaching assistants who are driven to achieve their bachelor’s degree in three years.
Liz and five other teaching assistants from other schools pioneered this course and have now graduated with their degrees and have been placed in local schools as full fledge teachers.
This opportunity was made available as a result of me keeping tuned in regarding government policy that can impact education; my positive relationship with the university to collaborate; my foot work to advertise our program and visit local schools where teaching assistants are and seeking growth opportunities.
The impact: changed the lives of the teaching assistants and increased their earnings by three times, helped schools with the teacher recruitment and overall set positive role models in schools impacting 100s of students’ lives.
Case study 2:
Transforming a secondary school program to meet 21st Century Needs.
Working with CTL Academy we went from a traditional US program that offers AP courses to one that includes:
- Project Based Learning co-facilitated by all secondary teachers
- Regular Mindfulness Practice
- Dedicated time for gratitudes
- Dedicated time for self-directed learning
- Offering a dual enrollment program with Arizona State University
- Advanced the transcript system in partnership with Mastery Transcript Consortium to align evidence to competencies reported by learners verified by teachers
- Growing an online school program to serve students around the world
- The impact of the changes made to the program includes improving the quality of teaching and exposing students to more global oriented activities and experiences. The changes have deepened the context of the student experience overall improving their university applications. This year, 2023-24 we will know the true impact in the Spring when we have the results of university acceptance offers.
Question 2: In your opinion, how is the landscape of student success changing in today’s educational environment, particularly with the rise of online and hybrid learning modalities?
How we in education measure student success needs to change and broaden especially in light of the variety of different learning opportunities and what is needed for success in this 21st Century. Currently the measurement systems are static with a few outliers making a difference i.e. Mastery Transcript Consortium, and Big Picture Schools in Australia.
The educational environment itself has not changed dramatically when we look at what is actually being offered- many of the online and hybrid modalities are continuing with a more traditional curriculum to meet the graduation criteria set by universities. When universities demonstrate an interest in acknowledging different skills and build these into the application process then secondary education will be forced to change. A few have done this such as London Interdisciplinary School and Minerva University. Most have not with some understanding as it is a big undertaking and will impact the current student profile.
Where we need to go is to dismiss some of the criteria for university entry requirements and introduce more organic ways of demonstrating desired skills. This revised approach needs to take into account the use of AI and how learners are interested in making the world a better place or having an impact in their communities. When universities show a sincere interest in this and the skills required to solve challenging problems schools will change their program design. Until then work with Mastery Transcript Consortium gives schools an outlet to demonstrate their students’ competencies in areas that are not addressed by academic grades.
Question 3: Describe a situation where you had to bring together multiple stakeholders (faculty, administration, students, etc.) to drive a unified student success initiative. What approach did you take?
Personally I have two examples that come to mind. The most recent was in Oxford, UK where I served as a Program Manager for Teacher Training and Development. In this role I was tapped to help co-lead the efforts for the organization to fully adopt its Learning Philosophy and for organizations it assumed responsibility for to also be connected to the Learning Philosophy as well. The organization included four colleges serving a 16+ student population of over 3000 learners and 300 teachers. During my tenure the organization expanded to bring in three additional colleges and another 200 teachers and 1000 learners.
I worked with a team-that included representation from all the different levels of management and I represented the teachers and together we came up with an action plan as to how we will disseminate the Learning Philosophy, explain its significance and identify examples of why it works. In some ways we used a Design Thinking approach considering the impact the philosophy has on each of the stakeholder groups and identified the kinds of evidence we would be looking for to know its impact. In our teacher training program we adopted a ‘Meta-Teaching’ approach where we were explicit with which part of the philosophy we were connecting with and why in addition to the content we were delivering on. The plan we designed included the input and outputs from all the different departments including student admissions, recruitment of students and staff, marketing, estates to put up wall reminders of the philosophy, teaching staff, governors…. We interviewed teachers, students and employers to get their input about the significance of the philosophy and the role it plays in the success of students.
Over the next three years our organization became noted for this philosophy, won a few national rewards for its impact and proved to be a successful initiative based on student feedback and improved teaching quality.
The second example was when I served as founding principal of eCALS located on a brand new campus located in the heart of an intersection of 27 different street gangs and shared by four other new schools in Los Angeles. In this instance our multiple stakeholders included students coming from 12 feeder schools spanning grades 9-11, teachers, four school leadership teams, site level maintenance team, community partners and of course parents. We were given our school buildings and told by the school district to make the campus work with shared facilities including athletics, cafeteria, library, and common spaces. There was no blueprint for how to make this happen and no budget to hire a site level leader. Also important to note our five schools all competed to have this space and to recruit the students therefore there was a bit of tension between the schools.
Quickly assessing the landscape I tapped my training in Cultural Proficiency and team building to call for a meeting of the school leadership teams to begin to build a collective vision for the site. This was the first new high school built in 26 years by the school district. In our first meeting after we did introductions I suggested that we each share our hope and dream for the site, not OUR schools. This question helped everyone understand that though we are in some ways competitors we are also collaborators and collectively have the best interest of the students and community at the core. After this realization we were able to carve out our collective norms for how we as adults will work and what our expectations are for the campus.
We then established site level systems and protocols and all adopted a mantra “Once you pass the school gates you are a Sotomayor Scholar” and we worked hard to relay the message that our priority are our students collectively and will support one another to help each of them achieve. This collective focus and vision helped students to feel safe and supported; they also appreciated the different educational models available to them offered by each of the schools. As a founding team we were able to make it work to have five independent schools share one campus with shared student activities including athletics, leadership and served the community on the whole. In many ways this campus and our process served as a model for how I then went on to work with other schools on shared campuses. Those that adopted a collective vision with systems and protocols in place to support them were more successful than those that operated independently.
Please feel free to comment, share your thoughts or start a dialogue with question. Have a safe and peaceful day.
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