Weeding the Garden
From: Doug Reeves (2011)
Finding Your Leadership Focus: What Matters
Most for Student Results
How Do We Create a Plan That
Focuses on a Few Strategies
AND
How Will We Implement with
High Fidelity (By at Least 90%
of Our Staff?)
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
3 Keys to Successful
Implementation
Focus
Efficacy
Monitoring
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
Laser-Like Focus: Why Weed the
Garden?
• Of 21 variables studied, the combination of
FOCUS, MONITORING, and EFFICACY were most
powerfully related to student results
• Schools with effective monitoring and focus had
TWICE THE GAINS in reading over three years
compared to low focus schools
• Schools that most needed focus were least likely
to have it.
Webinar Title: 02/07/2011 Change Leadership in Action
www.leadandlearn.com/multimedia-resource-center/webinars
The Focus (Stage 2: Plan)
Goals, Strategies & Actions Steps
• Efficacy
– When staff believe that what they do in the
classroom DOES predict the outcome of student
achievement, their levels of stress, anxiety, and
burnout are lower.
• Monitoring (Stage 3: Implementation)
– Frequent: at least every 1 -2 weeks
– Adult Actions must be addressed
– Constructive
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
What is Your Load Limit?
One Person’s
Is Another
Person’s…
What Happens
When We Don’t
Weed our Garden?
1.Toxic Weed
Thistle: Deep roots, use caution when touching
Toxic Weeds
– Demand a response
– We are reluctant to challenge and remove them
– May look good, sound good, make people feel
good in the short term
– Once introduced into the environment, they
strangle the life out of the other plants that we
had hoped to cultivate
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
2. Unsustainable Weed
Bamboo can grow quickly and become a weed when
not carefully planning for it’s growth/use.
Unsustainable or
Programmatic Weeds
– Can be a meritorious idea
– Becomes a weed when it is unsustainable!
– Can quickly move from good intentioned to chaos
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
3. Diversionary Weed
Melaleuca Tree/Brush: Takes over in Florida. Not
native to USA
Diversionary Weeds
– Earnest intent and good appearance
– Becomes a weed when it takes time and focus
away from priority
– What we do with our time has to have an
outcome related directly back to student
achievement
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
Implementation Audit Protocol
1. Initiative Inventory:
a.) Look at each initiative listed. Start with items in the “Current” column.
Repeat Steps 2-4 with “Possible/New” column.
2. Determine Impact on Student Achievement
a.) Review actual student achievement and researched
achievement claims. Define from Low to High.
3. Range of Implementation:
a.) Define/quantify the levels of implementation
i. How much time, energy and fiscal/human resources will be needed to
continue to implement at a level of at least 90%?
HIGH Implementation is 90% of staff implementing with fidelity.
4. Plot results on the chart
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.
Current Initiatives
2 minutes: Each person
(without discussion) list
the CURRENT initiatives in
their district/building that
are being undertaken.
THEN, combine the
individual lists into one
group list.
Definition of Initiative: Anything being undertaken that
must maintain a focus, needs human and/or fiscal
resources and should be monitored for implementation.
Step 2: Determine Impact on Student
Achievement
Current Initiatives List
Definition of Initiative: Anything being
undertaken that must maintain a focus, needs
human and/or fiscal resources and should be
monitored for implementation.
Achievement
Low to High
Actual Student
Results
Researched
Claims
Level of Implementation
Actual Level of
Implementation
Low to High
(High = 90%)
Can we continue to
provide the time,
energy, resources
(human & fiscal) to
ensure 90% level of
implementation?
Hattie, J. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 MetaAnalyses Relating to Achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.
Step 3: Determine Level of Implementation
Current Initiatives List
Definition of Initiative: Anything being
undertaken that must maintain a focus, needs
human and/or fiscal resources and should be
monitored for implementation.
Achievement
Low to High
Actual
Student
Results
Researched
Claims
Level of Implementation
Actual Level of
Implementation
Low to High
(High = 90%)
Can we continue
to provide the
time, energy,
resources (human
& fiscal) to ensure
90% level of
implementation?
i.e. District mandates a specific
assessment be used for short cycle
assessments to use in TBTs.
Negotiate that you’ll do SCA but can
a variety be used instead.
Boundaries vs. Micromanagement
Avoid It
Low impact on learning AND
Low action on part of
implementers
• We keep doing it because we
always have
LOW
Impact of Decision on Learning
HIGH
Negotiate It
LOW
Do It!
High learning
High action able to be taken
Drop It
You have control but there is
low impact on learning.
•i.e. using a textbook from front
to back even if standards aren’t
addressed vs. only using the
chapters that focus on the
standards
Level of Implementation
HIGH
Research findings from Implementation Audits
1) Non-linear relationships
2) Drowning in initiatives
3) Most initiatives not monitored
4) Many initiatives are not linked to student achievement
Threats to Sustainability
1.) “Program Orientation” – tradition of cycles of initiatives, boredom,
death, and then comes another new initiative
2.) Vocal Opposition of a few wears the leadership down
3.) Political Opposition – i.e. Honors classes increased in size due
to improved core instruction which created large class sizes
in honors which were traditionally small
Deliberate Practice
• It takes 24 (Reeves) to 40 hrs (Darling-Hammond) of practice to apply
new professional practices.
Reeves, Douglas B (2011). Finding your leadership focus: What matters most for student results.