About this course
Let's get to your survey of the land. We always hear about the ability to think outside the box . It's ironic, but the phrase itself is so cliche that it's lost its meaning. But the true art of leadership is being able to innovate Inside "the box".
The box is the culture of your school. Powerful innovation it being able to know the capacity of your school, the capacity for change, the capacity for leadership, and to know how far to push just beyond that capacity to expand it.
Too Far Beyond
It's a dreadful mistake to try to push significantly beyond capacity. Many excellent careers are sidetracked from this approach. The frustration and friction together will result in culture toxicity, and the leader will be blamed.
Aiming Below
On the flipside, there's a significant mistake in aiming below your school's capacity. This strategy is usually chosen because it's safe. That hope is that over time it will increase the capacity of the school culture. That rarely is the result. More often, this approach maintains status quo.
How to Know Capacity for Change
Knowing your school's capacity for change is the most critical benefit of surveying school culture. Your survey of the land gives you a picture of your school's capacity. And that capacity is determined by the culture.
The great thing is, culture can shift. It can change, for better or for worse. And the truth is it is always changing. With or without us. Becoming healthier Or toxic. Let's make it with us.
Three attributes of school culture are 1) teacher professionalism, 2) academic press, and 3) community engagement. Academic press has the highest impact when compared to English and Math scores. Academic press is the overall instructional climate as a serious, orderly, and focused learning environment.
- Tschannen-Moran, Parish, and DiPaulo (2006)
Administrators often fall into these 6 traps when attempting to increase a serious, orderly, and focused tone:
- Horner, Sugai, and Horner (2000)
School culture is what schools do and how they do it.
- Rodriguez (2008)
Only in a competent system can administrators and teacher discern what "can be" by bringing to the surface the school's underlying purpose and the stakeholders' deeply held beliefs .
- Zmuda, Kuklis, and Kline (2004)
Of the 21 leadership responsibilities in Marzano's meta-analysis, the two with the highest impact on student achievement were: situational awareness and flexibility.
- Marzano, Waters, McNulty (2005)
The fundamental flaw in most innovators' strategies is that they focus on their innovations, on what they are trying to do - rather than understanding how the larger culture, structures, and norms will react to their efforts.
- Peter Senge (1999)
Organizational culture will change with leadership actions ; speeches and announcements are not enough.
-Douglas Reeves (2009)
May
September
January
May
Save and use the campus culture surveys below. The surveys can be recreated in your Google drive, Excel online, or your favorite survey software. Adjust as needed to reflect your foundation factors.
Marzano, Waters, & McNulty (2005). School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results
Reeves (2009). Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results
Zmuda, Kuklis, & Kline (2004). Transforming Schools: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Horner, Sugai, Anderson 2010 Evidence
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*Amazon (TM) contributes a portion of all purchases to the development and delivery of this course.
There are so many variables in the making of a strong school culture that it's easy to mistake the starting point. That's the focus in step one - determining what it is you are designing.
And it is design - not happenchance.
In the 2nd lesson of the Surveying Campus Culture course, you will explore your own foundation factors for your school's improvement. These factors will be used in step 3.
This final lesson is when we survey the property. It is the starting point for lasting school success. Quotes, research, and your 3 culture surveys are in this lesson. Experts from Microsoft and Google share insights as well.