Public Charter School Alliance of South Carolina 12

Public Charter School Alliance of South Carolina 12 th Annual Conference Leading Change Dr. Buddy Coleman Associate Professor UNC Wilmington

Leading Change Session Topics • Effective Leadership • Gaining Followership • Achieving Goals and Objectives

Guiding Questions • What does it take to lead people through school change? • How do charter school leaders provide what teachers, students and parents need for them to support school change?

What does it take to lead people? • Understanding: – their needs, emotional maturity, job maturity & preferences – their acceptance versus resistance to change • Developing goals and objectives that support he school’s mission and purpose • Gaining “buy-in” from followers by aligning their needs and interests with the goals & objectives

Operational Definitions Define a leader – “A leader is someone who has…followers” Define Leadership – “Guiding followers to accomplish goals & objectives”

Organizational Components • • Leader Followers (people) Goals & Objectives (tasks) Interaction of Tasks and Relationships

Guiding Questions • How do charter school leaders provide what teachers, students and parents need for them to support school change? • For example, what about a change process to try and meet state and federal student achievement standards?

Alignment • A effective charter school leader successfully guides followers towards achieving the goals of the organization. • The leader strives to ensure that all instruction, resources, activities and evaluation aligned with achieving the goal of the charter school. • What is the goal of a charter schools?

Maximizing Student Outcomes Goal of Charter Schools Tested Curriculum Alignment Taught Curriculum Written Curriculum

Ensuring Charter School Alignment: A Function of Leadership • An Effective Charter School Leader – Gains followership among teachers, students and parents to achieve goals & objectives – Monitors instruction & student achievement by collecting, analyzing and evaluating data – Modifies & changes instruction & support Services based on • Student needs • Teacher need

Effective Charter School Leaders • Operationally defined as individuals who live, work and perform at their very best • They accomplish this by being keenly aware of their beliefs, their preferences and their personalities • Most importantly, they modify their thinking, behaviors and decisions based on what they should do rather than what they want to do.

The “O” in your Soul • • Your core values – what is my purpose Your orientation – personal and professional focus Student-centered Emotional Intelligence & Job Maturity Indicators

Emotional Intelligence & Job Maturity • High Emotional Intelligence – Impulse control; objective & rational – Empathy – Understanding – Taking the high ground • High Job Maturity – Be able to stick with a job until it is finished. – Be able to bear an injustice without having to get even – Do your job without being supervised.

Objectivity & Rationality • Critical to a leader’s effectiveness & success • High emotional intelligence and high job maturity • Modifying initial responses and behaviors (decision making) based on rational and objective analysis • Effective, successful charter school leaders focus on students’ needs and goal achievement rather than their needs

Needs Theory • Leader’s Needs versus Stakeholders’ Needs: – Successful charter school leaders focus on the needs of their students, teachers & parents. – Your ego, your feelings, your needs, do not matter • For example, if our goal is to implement a new instructional program to maximize the learning and development of students, then we, as professional leaders, must do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal – regardless of how we feel.

Leading Change: Disrupts Our Comfort Zones • What we want to do; given the same situation and the same set of circumstances – over and over again • Staying in our comfort zone limits our effectiveness and causes us to ignore important information, data, variables and outcomes • Doing what we should do may cause us to become stressed and very uncomfortable

Self-Awareness & Self-Evaluation • Critical factors in determining a charter school leader’s success • Leaders with clear understandings of their personalities, their beliefs and emotional intelligence are more likely to be successful leaders. • Self-awareness & self-evaluation should be ongoing.

Leading Change • All leadership is personal • To be successful, charter school leaders must establish high quality, trusting personal relationships with their teachers, parents and board members • This is accomplished by: – Being open and willing to listen to others’ views, opinions, and ideas – Leading through personal interactions rather than positional authority and allowing time for followers to process issues and decisions.

Continue, Stop, Start Self-Assessment • Continue doing what is working for you • Stop doing what is not working for you • Start doing whatever is necessary to take your leadership to the next level • Develop action plans to diminish ineffective leadership responses and to increase effective leadership responses

Leadership Change Steps Stakeholder Involvement Develop goals and objectives Longitudinal student data base Develop an evaluation plan to monitor the change process • Benchmarks and timelines • Interim and summative reports • •

Stakeholder Involvement • Stakeholders: Teachers, Students, Parents & Board Members • Stakeholder Communication Plan: – Emails, announcements, web pages, flyers, information sessions • Professional development for teachers: – Need a clear understanding achievement strengths & gaps – Design best practice lesson plans for all grade-levels. – Evaluate impact of instructional practices.

Goal Alignment • Are your goals SMART Goals: – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time Bound • Are you goals aligned with the requirements and standards?

Longitudinal Student Achievement Data Base • Target completing & maintaining 3 -year trend data: – Quantitative data - Test scores collected on student subgroup proficiency and growth results, participation rates & achievement gaps – Qualitative data – Open-ended surveys, observations, and interviews

Ongoing Evaluation Plan Critical to assess change process – Interim, periodic benchmark assessments with established dates to determine what is working and what is not working – These must be drop dead dates; no exceptions. – Identification of support services needed to intervene to help struggling students – Repeated focus on SMART Goals and Objectives – The leader must constantly keep all stakeholders “on point. ”

Leading Change • Effective Leadership – Stakeholder Involvement – SMART Goals – Evaluation Plan – Longitudinal student data base – Benchmarks and timelines – Interim and summative reports

Leading Teachers Key Factor • Gates MET, 3 -year million dollar report on student achievement validated the importance of quality instruction and effective teachers. • The report revealed that this was the most important factor in ensuring high student achievement levels. • The 2 nd most important factor was the school leader

Situational Needs Theory • Schools are basically organizations that have Tasks (T) relative to providing instructional and student support services and relationships (R) which would include interaction between principals and teachers, among teachers and between teachers and parents. • All teachers, staff members and parents, (and people in general) have preferences relative to “tasks” needs versus relationship needs.

Hershey & Blanchard’s Situational/Needs Leadership Theory • Most individuals fall into one of four quadrants based on Task/Relationship preferences • High Task/Low Relationship – HT/LR • High Task/High Relationship – HT/HR • Low Task/High Relationship – LT/HR • Low Task/Low Relationship – LT/LR

High Task/Low Relationship – HT/LR • These individuals are extremely dependent, prefer to be given specific directives and usually avoid and do not desire or need interaction with others • Sometimes can be difficult complying with the leader’s requests and make an effort to meet the standards and expectations • Usually have low emotional intelligence and job maturity levels

High Task/High Relationship – HT/HR • High task focus, high relationship focus • These individuals are somewhat dependent, prefer directions, detailed tasks and high levels of interaction with the leader • Usually have moderate levels of emotional intelligence and job maturity

Low Task/High Relationship – LT/HR • When the teacher can do the job, but is refusing to do it or otherwise showing insufficient commitment, the leader need not worry about showing them what to do • Instead the concern is with finding out why the person is refusing and then persuading them to cooperate. • Very independent, moderate levels of emotional and job maturity

Low Task/Low Relationship – LT/LR • When the teacher can do the job and is motivated to do it, then the leader can basically leave them to it, trusting them to get on with the job. • High competence, high commitment • Teacher is able and willing • Very high emotional intelligence and job maturity levels

Situational/Needs Leadership Theory S 3 LT/HR S 2 HT/HR S 4 LT/LR S 1 HT/LR

Leading Change • Gaining followership based on teacher Task/Relationship preferences • Collaborating with LT/LR teachers to assume leadership roles with other teachers • Allowing the leader to focus teachers who need more assistance and interactions

Case Study • Identify specific ways to communicate information about your school’s educational goals and expectations to all of your faculty members • Establish an efficient and effective system to provide appropriate supervision & support for all of your teachers