Northcote High School
A Case Study
Good to Great… or
Great to Excellent (Hopkins)
The Cultural Effects of
Architectural and Social Change
Improvement is a developmental process
not an event…
Richard Elmore
N.H.S. Temperature Check
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A ‘good’ neighborhood school – 1,500 students
Community Support - enrolment demand
Gentrification - Rapid demographic change
SFO decreasing ~ 0.38
VCE results ‘good’ but static (2006 stellar year…)
NAPLAN – cohort matched – tracking north
Est. 1926 History - Golden Years…
Traditional; Faculty focused; Industrially sensitive,
Teachers – ‘Experts’ BUT changing profile
Committed, Loyal, ‘Institutionalised’ - ‘We ‘just’
want to teach…’
• Continuous Improvement focus
N.H.S. Temperature Check
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Leadership Momentum - Past and Present – TEAM NHS
Ambitious change agenda
Compelling story – Why we must do ‘things’ differently
Our ‘GARAGE’ challenge Cadillac
VW
Evidence / research
Aligning opportunities – DEECD + NMR
Community = Teachers, Students and Families
Personal and Collective Responsibility:
– Achievement (High expectations)
– Relationships Community
– Supporting Teachers
– Systems and processes
Six Secrets of Change Fullan 2008
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Secret One: Love your Employees
Secret Two: Connect Peers with Purpose
Secret Three: Capacity Building Prevails
Secret Four: Learning Is the Work
Secret Five: Transparency Rules
Secret Six: Systems Learn
Fullan, 2008a
NHS Improvement Case Study
WHAT
HOW?
Diagnosis of current state
Naval gazing – evidence – our data
Outward looking focus
What’s working in other schools?
Scanned Systems, Schools, F2F
Research, Reading, Rigorous dialogue
Communicating and Consulting
with or Community
Presented findings to community
Consultation process – Future casting
Acknowledging History whilst
Building a Case for Change
Celebrating successes whilst
articulating a compelling change story
Selective, Explicit Core Focus and
Work
What will make the difference?
e.g. Marzano – greatest effect size
Note Taking +Similarities &
Differences
Systematic Change Process
A Series of Actions to Inform our
Direction and Future Work
e.g. Instructional Rounds – findings:
- Quality of Task
- Time on task
- Quality of questioning
- Volunteerism – contract
- Who is doing the work? Teachers
Operational
&
Structural
Change
How?
Social and
Cultural
Change
Our Challenge
Constructing a New Learning
and Teaching Culture
or
Evolving a Learning & Teaching Culture
Consistent messages:
“Unique Year Level Experiences”, “Good to Great”, “Task Predicts
Performance”, “Time on Task”, “Learning is not voluntary”, “What goes
home in the schoolbag is our best publicity”, “We want to guarantee the
learning experience…” ‘No – we are not taking the personality out of
the practice…*!@!’ NHS mantras ….
• Explicit objectives each year - reflection
• Refined annually - expectations are raised and/accountability increases
• “Turning the Screw….” on change - no surprises
– Clear and transparent messages about and around the change agenda
– Built around a shared understanding and language
– Clearly articulated What’s negotiable and What’s not negotiable…
IMPROVEMENT FOCUS @ NHS
• Strategies for
ensuring high
quality learning
& teaching @
NHS
• e5
• Enquiry based
Rich Learning
Tasks
• Teachers &
students using
technology to
connect,
communicate
and collaborate
Instruction
Knowing
and
Your
Delivery
Students
Connect
Support
and
Communicate
and
Extend
• Using evidence to
know our students
• SPA, NHS Reports,
ACER, On Demand
Testing, VCE Data,
ACER, Colleagues,
_Students &
Families
• Extending all
students using
challenging
learning activities
• Assessment for, of
and as learning
Social “Engineering”
Architecture of Change
EXPERIENCE
&
INTERACTION
Operational
and
Structural
Social
and
Cultural
BELIEFS
&
BEHAVIOR
Social Network Theory
The informal conversations and interconnections between people are as
important as the formal and structural
• Structures (architecture) initially determine the social and
cultural environment
NHS “Suite” of Initiatives
Instruction and Delivery
Focus on Teacher practice
Instructional Coaching
Support and Extend
Every child makes at least one year’s
progress each year
Knowing Students
Rich, available, useful evidence
The Unique Year Level Experience
In the classroom and beyond
Toolbox
Generic skills and attributes for all
students and teachers
Compacts – what is a successful
teacher, student, family doing @
NHS….
Clear and consistent expectations
Teachers, students and families
The NHS Good Lesson
What are we learning today?
Academic Vocabulary
Specific instruction in academic
vocabulary
P and D = Performance Appraisal
and Professional Development
Goals – School, Faculty, Personal
Ultranet
e5
NHS Compact
PL Toolbox
Micro-Change Example:
Literacy Across the Curriculum:
NHS Academic Vocabulary
• The Evidence
The same student placing at the 50th percentile in
reading comprehension, with no direct vocabulary
instruction, placed at the 83rd percentile when provided
specific instruction in academic vocabulary (Marzano and Pickering,
2005).
• NHS Facts
– Student Outcomes - VCE results – Exams
– ‘Value add’ - NAPLAN / VCE
– Critiquing established practice: Sustained Silent Reading
Program
– Our Problem – ALL Teachers
Operational
& Structural
Change
Social and
Cultural
Change
Our Challenge
Constructing a new Learning and Teaching Culture
or
Evolving our Learning and Teaching Culture
• A Systematic Instructional Approach
• Clear expectations of what should be
happening in every classroom – together
• A mechanism for improving literacy - when
perceived limited literacy issues at NHS
• What’s Not-negotiable and Negotiable…
Literacy Across the Curriculum:
Academic Vocabulary
• Cultural Fit:
For NHS teachers to buy into a vision and action it must
be related to what teachers value, their content, the ‘art’
of teaching… Hence, ‘Academic Vocabulary’ rather
than ‘Literacy’.
• Operationally supported and owned:
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Leadership Team Workshop and Agreement
Whole School Presentation Leaders and Teachers
Feedback / Reflection / Refinement / Action Plan
Toolbox - whole school - PL sessions
Faculty Teams have responsibility and time (34 hrs 2010)
Support - Instructional Coaching
Academic Vocabulary
• The Intended Curriculum
– The key vocabulary (200 words) that will
improve performance (Marzano)
• The Implemented Curriculum
– Common approaches to vocabulary learning
specialised to the Faculty
• The Attained Curriculum
– Knowledge and understandings actually
learned by the students
What Next?
Systematic Continuous Improvement
The Collective Actions of ALL Generate
Momentum
Our Actions as Professionals and as a School:
 Evidence based and proactive – implementing an
agenda
 Collaborative Community - Working, Growing and
Learning together
– Intentional and Explicit - Goals and Focus Teaching Practice
 Moving Beyond ‘Solo Practitioners’
 Finding new ways to Share our ‘Best’ Practice
 Developing compelling reasons and great structures
easy - making people accountable & responsible...
 Clouds on the horizon – it’s complex
work
Continuing to feel the Fly Wheel of progress...
Keeping what’s most
important most important…
– Relationships
– Student Learning and Teaching
Excellence
– Creating a Supportive Environment
“Schools where all staff work collaboratively to build strong
alignment between school-level planning and individual
performance and development are better able to improve
student learning outcomes.”
Richard Elmore
Creating and meeting our targets…
Working to be more focused…
FLY WHEEL
• Marzano's vision of vocabulary instruction
recommends teaching subject-specific terms to
enhance academic success.
• He stresses that ‘subject-specific terms are the
best target for direct vocabulary instruction’ and
provides a list of 7,923 subject-specific terms in the
appendix of his book.
Marzano, R. 2004. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Northcote High School -AIP2011
Secret Six: Systems
Learn
• Continuous learning depends on
developing many leaders in the school in
order to enhance continuity. It also
depends on schools being confident in the
face of complexity, and open to new ideas.
CHANGE INSIGHTS
The implementation dip is normal
Behaviors change before beliefs
The size and prettiness of the planning
document is inversely related to the
quantity of action and student learning
(Reeves, 2002)
Shared vision or ownership is more of an
outcome of a quality process than it is a
precondition
Feelings are more influential than
CHANGE SAVVY leadership
Careful entry into the new setting
Listening to and learning from those who have
been there longer
Engage in fact finding and joint problem solving
Carefully (rather than rashly) diagnosing the
situation
Forthrightly addressing people’s concerns
Being enthusiastic, genuine and sincere about
the change circumstances
Obtaining buy-in for what needs fixing
Developing a credible plan for making that fix
— Herold & Fedor, 2008
What is Collaboration?
• A systematic process in which we work
together, interdependently, to analyze and
impact professional practice in order to
improve our individual and collective
results. — Dufour, Dufour, & Eaker, 2002
School Capacity
• The collective power of the full staff to
improve student achievement.
• School capacity includes and requires:
1.Every teachers knowledge, skills and
dispositions
2. Professional community
3. Program coherence
4. Technical resources
5. Shared leadership
Secret Two: Connect
Peers with Purpose
• Purposeful peer interaction within the
school is crucial. Student learning and
achievement increase substantially when
teachers work in learning communities
supported by school leaders who focus on
improvement.
Secret Three: Capacity
Building Prevails
• The most effective strategies involve
helping teachers and principals develop
the instructional and management of
change skills necessary for school
improvement. The role of assessment for
learning is essential in order to link data on
learning to instructional practices that
achieve student results.
Secret Four: Learning
Is the Work
• Professional development (PD) in
workshops and courses is only an input to
continuous learning and precision in
teaching. Successful growth itself is
accomplished when the culture of the
school supports day-to-day learning of
teachers engaged in improving what they
do in the classroom and school.
Secret Five:
Transparency Rules
• Ongoing data and access to seeing
effective practices is necessary for
success. It takes up the dilemmas of ‘deprivatizing practice’ in which it becomes
normal and desirable for teachers to
observe and be observed in teaching
facilitated by coaches and mentors.
Secret One: Love your
Employees
• Explore the importance of building the
school by focusing on both the teachers
and staff, and students and the
community. The key is enabling staff to
learn continuously. Evidence will be
provided from successful business
companies as well as from education.
• Motivational Work
•
Meaningful, accomplishable work
•
Enabling development
•
Sense of camaraderie
•
Being well led
ARCHITECTURE OF CHANGE
Key Focus: Enhancing the school experience for ALL students
The ARCHITETURE of Change
STRUCTURAL / OPERATIONAL –
• Layered Foci and Purpose
– Interconnected, Coherent, Purposeful, Explicit, Transparent
• Less is more ‘Refined Teacher Focus = Maximising Time on Task
Example
Faculty Team work layered over Ultranet, school, faculty and personal
tasks layered over Professional Learning Tool Box work layered
over P&D process school faculty and personal goals….. story
• Toolboxes: Regular in-house professional learning – a toolbox of
knowledge, skills, understanding and dispositions all teachers need.
• Staff opinion
ARCHITECTURE OF CHANGE
SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE
• Collaborative, collegial opportunities including ‘triads’
• Support from and for the system, working together and with other
schools.
• Listening – creating opportunities for collaboration, reflection and
feedback but perhaps ‘over-controlling it’.
• Transparency – nothing is a surprise…
PREMISE: If we want to change teacher beliefs and behaviors we do
this by changing the operational and social architecture
OPERATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL ARCHITECTURE:
Simplified – Layered – Interconnected
CLASSES I TEACH
e5 CLASSROOM
RESEARCH
(PERSONAL
PROFESSIONAL
GOAL)
FACULTY
OBJECTIVES AND
P&D GOAL
FACULTY
TEAM
P&D
TRIAD
(DRAWN FROM
FACULTY TEAM)
P&D
FACILITATOR
SCHOOL GOAL
CHECKLIST
TOOLBOX - INSTRUCTION AND DELIVERY
TOOLBOX - CONNECT AND COMMUNICATE
TOOLBOX - KNOWING OUR STUDENTS
TOOLBOX - SUPPORT AND EXTEND
What is Change?
New materials
New behaviors/practices
New beliefs/understanding
• Learning to Lead Change
The Pathways Problem
• Change factors
• Vs
• Change Process
Secret One: Love your Employees
Theory X Assumptions
Theory Y Assumptions
The average human being has an
inherent dislike of work and will avoid it
if he or she can.
If a job is satisfying, then the result
will be commitment to the
organization.
Because of their dislike for work,
most people must be controlled and
threatened before they will work hard
enough.
The average person learns under
proper conditions not only to accept
but to seek responsibility.
The average human prefers to be
directed, dislikes responsibility, is
unambiguous, and desires security
above everything else.
— McGregor, 1960
Imagination, creativity, and
ingenuity can be used to solve work
problems by a large number of
employees.
— McGregor, 1960
Operational
& Structural
Change
Social and
Cultural
Change
Social “Engineering”
• Social network theory
• In our context we seek to change the beliefs and expectations
that are manifested in the daily interactions between teachers
and students and between teachers and other teachers.
• Why?
• Because all the operational and structural changes have been
resisted (generally passively) by engrained cultures. (Thinking
curriculum, etc etc.)