Leadership for At-Risk Students
Keynote Address - August 20th 2004
4th Annual August Holiday Institute of
the School Leadership Center
of Trinidad & Tobago
Contact Information
Frank C. Worrell, Ph.D.
Cognition and Development
4511 Tolman Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1670
Ph: (510) 643-4891
Em: frankc@berkeley.edu
http://atdp.berkeley.edu/Frank.html
Previous Keynotes for Website
• Boys to Men: Masculine Diversity and Schooling
(James E. Davis, 2002)
• Male Youth Resistance in Schools (Pedro
Noguera, 2002)
• What Do We Know About Our Male Students and
How Can We Use Data for Decision Making and
Intervening with School Problems? (Frank C.
Worrell, 2002)
• Getting Past the Masks that Adolescents Wear:
Learning to Work with Everyone in the Classroom
(Frank C. Worrell, 2003)
Other Things for Website
• Worrell, F. C. (2001/2002). A psychological view
of teaching and learning. Workshop presented to
teachers at Belmont Junior Secondary, Diego
Martin Junior Secondary, Diego Martin
Government Secondary, Ibis Model School, &
Success/Laventille Composite School.
• List of recommended books.
Synchronicities
• When presenting with others on the same panel,
it’s great to be in agreement. Caveat - indulgence.
• On a personal note:
–
–
–
–
–
From “Behind the Bridge” 14A Irving Lane
Richmond Street Boys
Fond memories of many teachers
Teachers who have taught me are in the audience
Pursuit of tertiary education in North America
• What I hope to accomplish in today’s talk.
– Typing up notes from yesterday made me realise that
you already know much of what I am about to say.
Leadership for “At-Risk” Students
• The work that we do takes place in a particular
context.
– An academic community or community of learning
• Students also imply the following:
– A school site and the community the school is located
in
– Teachers and administrators
– Other ancillary staff (janitors, security, cafeteria)
– Parents
– School supervisors and other Ministry of Education
personnel
We Are All Part of Several
Learning Communities
• One learning community is the School
Leadership Center of Trinidad & Tobago.
•
•
•
•
Bullying: 2001
Boys to Men: 2002
No Excuses, Every Child Can Learn: 2003
Take Me To Your Leader: 2004
Leadership for “At-Risk” Students
• Is leadership for at-risk students different than leadership
for students who are not at-risk?
– In some ways, the answer is “No.”
• But there are things that make the answer, “Yes.”
• If they are part of the problem, they should be involved in
devising the solution, particularly in secondary schools.
• Definining “At-Risk” is also important because the
definition determines who we are concerned about and, in
part, what strategies we need to use.
• Look at the following students. Will the strategies needed
for each be the same?
Leadership for “At-Risk” Students II
• Poor academic skills
– Often inability to read fluently if at all.
– Also problems in writing and mathematics.
• Social and behavioural problems
– Absenteeism, truancy, vandalism, obscene language, disrespect to
teachers, bullying of peers, low frequency of homework
completion.
• Emotional and motivational issues
– Does not like school; Does not believe that school is useful; Does
not believe that teachers care; Angry at home, school, and or
society; lack of hope or sense of self-efficacy; sense of nihilism.
Diego Martin and Aranguez
Junior Secondary Schools
• The leaders at these sites identified both risk factors and
risk groups.
• Risk factors
– Teacher training; years of experience; teacher attitudes toward
students, teacher turnover rates; number of teachers who share
vision.
• Risk groups
– The students who enter secondary school with the label “One
Special.”
– The size of this group at the site.
– Lack of literacy and numeracy skills in this group.
– Male students in this category were at greater risk than females.
Leadership for “At-Risk” Students
• What does “leader” mean?
–
–
–
–
–
Boss, chief, head, supervisor.
The buck stops here.
I make the decisions; I’m in charge
Head honcho; Big cheese.
I am the only one with power.
• As a educational leader in Trinidad and Tobago,
how descriptive of you are the terms above?
• Who are the leaders in a school? Principal, Vice
Principal, Teachers, Other Staff, Students,….
Concept of “Maximum Leader”
• Can a principal in T & T be a “maximum
leader”?
• Do you have the power to hire?
• Do you have the power to discipline?
• Do you have the power to fire?
• Do you have control over financial resources?
• What power comes with the title, “Principal?”
Power
• Power can be defined as the ability to
influence others to believe, behave, or to
value as those in power desire them to.
– Ken Petress
• There are several types of power:
– Reward, Coercive, Legitimate, Referent,
Expert, Information, Tradition, Charismatic
Questions to ask about
each type of power
• Do I have it with teachers, students, parents,
community?
• Am I seen or perceived to have this power?
• Is it helpful in this context in the short term?
• Is it helpful in this context in the long term?
• Will it help me to achieve my goals?
Types of Power I
• Coercive
– Based on the use of, or the threat of the use of social,
political, emotional or economic force.
• Reward
– The ability to offer tangible, social, emotional, or
spiritual rewards to others for doing what you want, or
to deny them these rewards for failing to or refusing to
do what is desired.
• Legitimate
– Legitimate power is conferred by others and can be
revoked by the original granters. It results from being
elected, selected, or appointed to a position of authority.
Types of Power II
• Referent
– Power from the affiliations we make, and the groups or
organizations we belong to.
• Expert
– Based on knowledge, experience, special skills, and
talents.
• Information
– Possessing knowledge that others need or want.
• Tradition
– Psychological force that is exerted upon us to conform
to traditional ways so we are not socially isolated.
Types of Power III
• Charismatic
– Characterized by super confidence, typical
physical attractiveness, social adroitness,
amiability, and heightened charm.
One Very “Useful”
Type of Power
• Relational Power
– The openness to influence and be influenced by others.
– Associated with caring.
– Involves working with rather than working against or
in spite of others.
• Other descriptions of leaders based on relational
power:
– Facilitator, Motivator, Coach, Collaborator, Colleague.
– Leader is a person who helps you to achieve your goals.
• This type of power assumes a willingness to learn
from others, irregardless of your and other’s rank.
Power is necessary but not
Sufficient
• Can you identify leaders who have lots of power,
but who are, nonetheless, ineffective?
• Are you always effective in your school or in your
classroom?
• Power, like many other things, is a tool that can be
used well or misused.
• Power by itself will NOT make you an effective
leader.
Power is not always Useful
• Power is effective only when the targets of
power agree [implicitly or explicitly] to the
relevant power dynamic.
– Students and the policeman at Carnival.
• Even if you have and are recognized to have
a type of power, if it is not helpful or is
potentially harmful, or will not help you
meet your goals, one should resist using it.
Leadership Quote I
• We will greatly increase our understanding of
leadership phenomena if we abandon the notion of
“leadership” as a trait, and concentrate instead
upon an analysis of the behavior of leaders.
– Andrew W. Halpin
• What do effective leaders actually do?
• What behaviours do they engage in?
• In other words, all of us can be effective leaders if
we engage in the appropriate behaviors.
Effective leaders…
• Have a clear sense of the organization’s mission.
• Have goals for the organization that operationalize
the mission (i.e., put the mission into action).
• Develop the mission and goals with the
constituencies involved:
– In schools, these constituencies include administrators,
teachers, other staff, students, parents, and community.
• Make effective and efficient plans for achieving
short-term and long-term goals.
• Evaluate the plans as they unfold.
Effective leaders…
• Are willing to make changes to the plans as
needed.
• Value and care about the people they work with.
• Model the principles they espouse.
• Foster a sense of “belonging to the organization”
or community.
• Recognize that change takes place over time.
Mission: Tunapuna Hindu School
• We commit ourselves, in our quest for excellence, to work
diligently together with the home, community and other
stakeholders to enhance the holistic development of the
child through the implementation of a well-balanced
programme (academic and non-academic) that will
enhance the spiritual, mental physical, moral, social,
cultural, intellectual, and other faculties of the child.
• We will help our pupils to develop problem solving,
critical thinking, and creative thinking skills and expertise
in varying fields necessary to allow them to appreciate the
world around them and to live in harmony with nature and
man and become productive citizens in a democratic
setting.
Mission: Northeastern College
• To excel in the provision of quality
education in a well disciplined environment
for students of varying backgrounds and
competencies.
• To nurture students into stable, independent
individuals with integrity and commitment.
• To work with parents and community to
achieve the holistic development of all.
Core Beliefs
Aranguez Junior Secondary
• Unity among all is essential.
• Teaching is a vocation.
• All students need to be moved from where they
are to higher levels, academically, spiritually,
emotionally, socially…
• Facilitating this movement is the task of the
teacher.
• The “teacher” is every adult who interacts with the
child and therefore has a leadership role to play…
Commonalities in these Visions
• Quest for excellence (i.e., high expectations
for all)
• Development of whole child
• Work involved to achieve mission.
• Vital role of the adults in the school
• Partnerships within school and outside of
school with home and community.
Commonalities II
• All schools or learning communities should be
aiming for the same long term goals.
• Are we seeking Transformation and
Empowerment OR Containment and
Confinement?
• However, some of the implementation strategies
will differ, given the difference in level--that is,
primary versus secondary schools.
Power of Expectations of Self
and Others
• Protection of Self-Worth
– If I work hard and fail, what does that say about me?
– If I do not work hard and pass, what does that say about
me?
• Stereotype threat
– Positive and negative stereotypes that are pervasive can
affect performance.
– SAT, Athletic, and Math examples
• Reaching Higher by Rhona Weinstein
• Suspension of disbelief-- what if only one of the
students that you teach has the power to….
Expectations II
• In all of your endeavours, aim for the stars. You
may not reach them, but if you fail to reach them,
you are likely to be in the treetops. If you only aim
for the treetops, and you fail, you will end up in
the mud.
• …if you said to me, “Look how clean this street
is,” I must be able to say with pride, “My son
cleans this street.”
• -Rita Worrell
Clear Goals
• To be useful, goals MUST be SPECIFIC and
MEASURABLE.
• Specificity tells you what you need to pay
attention to as you go about the task of making the
vision a reality.
• Measurement lets you know (1) if you are making
progress, and (2) how much progress you are
making if the answer to the first question is ‘yes,’
or (3) if you need to re-assess and change the
plan.
MISSION: To excel in the provision of quality
education1 in a well disciplined environment2 for
students of varying backgrounds and competencies3.
• POSSIBLE GOALS
• Increasing the number of students from all
backgrounds who obtain a passing average in
individual courses and overall.1, 3
• Increasing attendance and punctuality across
school.2
• Decreasing the number of disciplinary actions
taken by the school.2, 3
SOURCES OF
MEASUREMENT DATA
• End of term and end of year exam results.1
• Comparison of these results over time.1
• Comparison of these results by gender, ethnic
background, and socioeconomic status.1, 3
• Number of disciplinary referrals, suspensions, and
expulsions over time and across groups.2, 3
• Attendance and absentee rates of teachers and
students over time and across groups.2, 3
Leadership Quote II
• One of the basic qualities which a leader in a
democratic setting must acquire is the habit of
renouncing power or authority over others. The
democratic leader is a person who knows how to
discover the will of the group, and who knows the
secret of releasing the energies of the group. He is
a catalytic agent who influences group action but
never dominates.
– E. C. Lindeman
Is a School a Democracy?
• No!
• A principal is not elected, but appointed.
• There may be decisions that only the principal can
make, albeit with input from others.
• There are activities that come with the “power” of
the principal-ship.
– Expulsions, Suspensions, Writing up staff for
inappropriate activities
Can a School Use
Democratic Processes?
• Yes.
• Does not mean that teachers or students vote on
everything. It means that you allow teachers,
students, and other stakeholders to participate in
setting the direction that the school takes.
• Some things can be voted on.
• Clear goals are useless unless they are also
SHARED goals.
Dunross Preparatory
• “The school vision was revisited and
updated…Some staff members expressed
the opinion that it was ‘the Principal’s
Vision.’ This led to several staff sessions
that were devoted to reworking the vision so
that everyone could have an input into the
wording of a revised Vision that
subsequently would allow a greater sense of
ownership by all.”
Aranguez Junior Secondary
• “In the afternoon shift, there are only three
members of staff (apart from the Principal and
Vice Principal) who were engaged in the exercise
of determining the mission.”
– Vice Principal of Aranguez
• This situation is recognized as problematic and is
a difficult one to solve when the movement of
teachers among schools is not within your control.
• What do we do?
Clear Goals II
• Formal or informal needs assessment that draws
upon representative sample of population.
– Population can be school, standard or form, or 1 class.
• Note that this is an iterative process and should
not be hurried to appear to be making progress.
– Important point in a TnT context: Style vs. Substance.
• The goal at all times is for maximum inclusion of
constituencies and “buy-in,” and both of these take
time.
• Strategies that I am about to lay out are guidelines,
NOT rules.
Clear Goals III:
Concerns and Solutions
• List your top 3 concerns with school functioning.
• Have other administrators list their top 3 concerns
and potential solutions anonymously, if possible.
• Have teachers and all other staff (e.g., security,
janitors, cafeteria personnel) list their top 3
concerns and potential solutions anonymously.
• May wish to have students do the same by class
(using Form Teachers).
Shared Goals IV:
Summarizing the Data
• Need to assign personnel to summarize data:
– A teacher who is given a trade-off on some other duty
– Cannot be punitive and must be equitable.
– Form teachers can summarize class data (social science
exercise on surveys)
– At end, you have a list of problems and potential
solutions by constituency and number of votes.
• Compare lists by constituencies.
• Ideally, the top items go across groups.
• However, you may need to balance across groups.
– Your top 10 list should represent all constituencies.
Shared Goals V:
Validating the Concerns
• Faculty meeting on top 10.
– Prioritize not just on votes, but on ease and visibility,
and cross-constituency agreement.
• Staff meeting on top 10 (ask for their priorities).
• Have focus groups of 4 to 6 students (with
inclusion of (or exclusively) at-risk students).
• Gang members or other visible “trouble-makers”
must be included. Same at classroom level.
• End of this process should result in the list of
concerns for immediate attention.
Plan Development
• Develop implementation or action plan.
• Develop with input from constituencies.
• Must be grounded in baseline data that you gathered
on area of concern .
– E.g., # of suspensions, expulsions last year; # of
students who failed in 2 or more subjects; # of kids in
class who do not know alphabet.
• Data can be at school, form, class or individual level.
• Must include short & long term indicators of success.
– Do not set yourself up by expecting too much too soon.
Leadership III
• Good leadership makes for mental health and its
absence makes for mental ill-health. And
synonymous with “mental health” and “mental illhealth” are the terms “efficiency” and
“inefficiency.”
– Dr. William Menninger
• The Lone Ranger cannot be an effective school
leader. The goal is NOT for the school to function
effectively ONLY as long as You are Principal.
One Super Principal/Teacher Does
not Make an Effective School/Class
Implementing Plan is
a Joint Activity
• You cannot develop the plan on your own.
• You cannot implement the plan on your own.
• You cannot run an effective school without the
active cooperation and involvement of students,
teachers, and staff.
• Plans must be as multi-faceted as the problems.
• Even successful plans evolve/change over time.
• Keep short-term goals realistic.
• Small wins are a good thing.
• Keep at-risk constituency involved.
Tunapuna Hindu
• “During the first few weeks of my
tenure….much time was spent on
consultation with the teachers, PTA, and
community groups in the development of
(a) needs analysis [and (b) strategic plan…”
• These activities led to goals for the physical
plant, community involvement, and
academic programming.
Evaluating Progress and
Making Changes
• Use the baseline data that you collect as a starting
place.
• Collect data systematically over time at strategic
and appropriate intervals.
• Data collection and analysis never stop - they are
routine activities for monitoring success.
• Data may already exist (e.g., exam results,
discipline referrals).
• Other data may have to be gathered via surveys or
other means.
• Use data to monitor progress with team input.
Diego Martin Junior Secondary
60
50
40
30
Top 10% Males
Top 20% Males
20
10
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Tools for Identifying “At-Risk”
Students
• As an aside, I wanted to share that there are
several sources of assistance with regard to
collecting data on your school.
• Normative data on reading and behavior
should be accessible via the Guidance Unit,
now the Student Support Services Unit.
Guidance Unit  Student
Support Service Unit.
• Conceived a number of years ago.
• In part based on work that some colleagues and I
did with the Guidance Unit from 1998 to 2002.
• Approved by cabinet with funding in early 2004.
• Have hired an additional 90 personnel this year
alone, including special education teachers,
guidance officers, school social workers and
school psychologists.
• First priority: primary schools with low
functioning students.
Repub lic o f
Trinidad & To bag o
Ministry o f Educa tion
Central Guida nce & Spe cial Education Units
Re ading Asse ssments
For Eleme ntary S choo ls
Tracey E. Hall
Center for Applied Special Technology
Marley W. Watkins & Frank C. Worrell
The Pennsylvania State University
Local Reading Norms
• TnT national normative sample for comparison
• Phonemic Awareness (sound-letter
correspondence)
– First Year, Second Year, and Standard 1
• Cloze Procedure (comprehension)
– Standards 1 & 2
• Oral Reading Fluency (fluency & comprehension)
– Second Year through Standard 5
Repub li c o f
Tr ini dad & Toba go
Min istr y of Educa ti on
Cen tra l G uid ance & Speci al Educ ati on Uni ts
Beha vi ou ral R ati ng Sca les
Fo r El emen tary S choo ls:
In te rim M anu al
Frank C. Worrell
The Pennsylvania State University
Tracey E. Hall
Center for Applied Special Technology
Marley W. Watkins
The Pennsylvania State University
Primary School Behavioral
Norms Based on Teacher Ratings
• TnT national normative sample for comparison.
• Learning Behavior Factors
– Attitude Toward Learning
– Strategy Flexibility
• Problem Behavior Factors
– Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
– Conduct Problems
– Underactivity
Trinida d & Tob ag o
Ministry of Educa tion
Central Guida nce & Spe cial Education Units
Se con dary Asse ssme nt Tool s
Marley W. Watkins & Frank C. Worrell
The Pennsylvania State University
Tracey E. Hall
Center for Applied Special Technology
Secondary School Behavioral
Norms Based on Student Ratings
• Self-Concept
– Global, Mathematics, & English
• Anxiety
– General Anxiety & a Lie Scale
• Depression
– Depression screener that may suggest greater
evaluation is needed in this area.
2nd Annual Summer Institute
August 6 – 8, 2002
Edited Proceedings
Frank C. Worrell, Ph.D. (Ed.)
A Publication of
The School Leadership Center of Trinidad and Tobago
Table 1
Raw Score to Percentile Conversions for StudentsΥRaw Scores
Percentile
Homework
Completion
Cutting
Class
Academic Perceived
Life Chances
High
Standards
Discrepancy
1
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
99
0
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
2
3
3
6
8
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
12
13
13
14
14
14
15
15
15
15
15
15
20
26
29
31
32
33
34
35
36
36
37
37
38
38
39
40
40
41
41
42
42
17
25
30
33
36
38
41
43
46
48
50
52
54
56
58
61
63
66
70
74
82
Caveats about Data Collection
• What changes can you reasonably expect to be
visible in a term or a year?
• Does no major change in the first year mean that
the plan is not working?
• Triangulation:
– Collect multiple sources of data.
– Do not depend entirely on subjective data.
– Diego Martin Junior Secondary used subjective data
(teacher complaints) and objective data.
• Post reinforcement pause.
• Extinction burst.
Valuing your Partners
• Who are your partners?
– Other administrators, Teachers, Staff other than
teachers, Students, Parents, Community members,
Others that you can identify.
•
•
•
•
•
How are they involved and when?
What is their role in development?
What is their role in implementation?
What is their role in evaluation and change?
Are they merely included in meetings or are their
voices an integral part of the whole?
Valuing your Partners II
• Note decision to rework vision at Dunross.
• Note needs assessment at Tunapuna Hindu.
• Note use of administrative team, committees, and
mentoring of teachers at Diego Martin Junior
Secondary.
• Note participatory management at Northeastern
College.
• Note core belief of “Unity” at Aranguez.
• Including others at school or in the Ministry.
The Golden Rule
• “If one of your core values is to be
respectful, then respect will be reflected in
all relationships with students, staff and
other stakeholders.”
– Principal, Northeastern College
• Observational learning is one of the most
powerful tools in the arsenal of a teacher
and of a leader.
Creating a Community of Learners
• One of your primary goals is for everyone
involved with your school to be willing to
acknowledge with pride, “This is my school.”
• This is done…
–
–
–
–
–
By working on the vision that you have outlined.
By striving for excellence.
By involving others in the implementation.
By acknowledging individual and group successes
By helping everyone involved recognize that “Our
school is making progress and we are contributing to it”
Rome was not built in a day
• I have returned to this theme several times.
• It takes time for most teachers and most students
to come on board.
• It takes time to see the outcomes of procedures
that one puts in place.
– 5 to 10 year rule consultation rule.
– My move from Penn State to Berkeley
• When the top concerns that you identified are
resolved, there are others that rise to the top of the
list.
Beware your EGO!!
• The biggest hurdle that most of us face in
leadership positions is our own ego.
• We do not like to be wrong, and we hate
admitting being wrong even more.
• We do like to be “in charge.”
• We do not like others, particularly those with
lesser status or rank, questioning our decisions.
• And on the flip side, we all want to be liked, no
matter how much we lie about that to others.
• We are human.
“I” ≠ “We” or “Us
Do Not Mistake Fear and Respect
Closing Thoughts I
• You are working to create communities of
learners.
• Your vision and expectations for your students
and schools inform and transform the vision and
expectations of your students and colleagues.
• Do not merely involve others, include them.
• Plan, evaluate, monitor, change, evaluate, plan, …
• Acknowledge your successes and those of others.
Effective Schooling Makes A
Difference
Cumulative Effects of Teacher Sequence on Fifth
Grade Math Scores for Two Metropolitan Systems
100
90
80
83
70
60
20
10
83
80
70
63
59
50
40
30
96
92
61
50
44
40
39
29
0
Low-Low- Low-Low- Low-Low- Avg-Avg- Avg-Avg- Avg-Avg- High- High Low
Avg
High
Low
Avg
High
High
Teacher Sequence
Leadership Quote IV
• A leader is best when people barely know
that he exists; not so good when people
acclaim him; worst when they despise him.
But of a good leader, who talks little, when
his work is done and his aim fulfilled, they
will all say, “We did this ourselves.”
– Lao-Tse