We went from negativity and isolation to collaboration and a focus on instruction.

— A high school principal

Of course, in reality there is a fine line between and among the three high-payoff strategies when it comes to achieving the leader's vision. Although leaders are well served by focusing on one strategy at a time, they all work together and are mutually reinforcing.

In order to achieve the vision, there needs to be a culture with shared values that support the goals the leader seeks. The instruction work needs to be clearly defined and aligned with the vision. And, one of the most effective methods of achieving the instructional efforts is through ongoing learning communities. This chapter tells the stories of education leaders who have combined all three high-payoff strategies and closes with advice on how the tools in this book can be used to align them.

First, let's discuss a superintendent in the Midwest who has brought a laser focus on instruction to her urban district. Through the use of all three high-payoff strategies, this district has been the highest performing in the state for the past several years.

The superintendent has made the value of student success through great teaching and learning the singular focus throughout the district. This shared value formed the basis of the district's “culture of no excuses.”

And she walks the talk by providing support—time, funding, and professional development—to all schools. The instructional practices are refined through model schools, which try out innovative curriculum and share their results with schools throughout the district. This was the early win that built momentum.

Ongoing support includes professional development programs for the district's leaders and teachers and ongoing coaching for principals provided by the principal supervisors. Learning communities are a main strategy for ongoing learning. Every Monday for ninety minutes all schools engage in this activity.

Then, there's the middle school where a new English language arts (ELA) curriculum was designed and implemented that illustrates this point. The school's vision was to empower all students to reach for the highest levels to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century and be lifelong learners. The principal and leadership team determined that teaching and learning in ELA needed more rigor in order to fulfill the vision. New curriculum and teaching methods were called for. The instructional strategy would be based on co-teaching and blended learning that would enrich reading on a daily basis.

Because academic rigor and innovative teaching methods were shared values at the school, this strategy seemed consonant with the culture. However, there were many outstanding questions. What type of instruction would be best? How could it be developed and implemented? Where would the time come from to plan this new approach? Would there be sufficient support? Would all this be in addition to teachers' already overburdened workload?

The challenge was turned over to the school's learning community for ELA, which consisted of ELA teachers for all grade levels. The learning community was asked to study the latest methods of instruction in ELA and make recommendations to the leadership team. Learning community members met regularly. They also visited other schools, observing lessons and talking with teachers.

The learning community recommended curriculum and professional development for teachers in co-teaching. The community also recommended that a new type of block scheduling be designed and implemented. This new schedule would provide double-session classes for the co-teachers to have the instructional time they would need with students and also have regularly scheduled planning time.

The principal and leadership team supported all the recommendations. The district chipped in as well, providing an expert in school scheduling. The principal arranged for ongoing professional development for all teachers. In addition, three teacher leaders were permanently assigned to support this work by offering coaching and demonstration lessons to teachers.

There was an aspirational vision, a supportive culture, an instructional focus, and the active participation of the learning community. An early win—which resulted in buy-in—was the new school schedule, which was a plus for teachers because it afforded them the planning time they needed. Instructional support was provided by the professional development. And, support for the effort was ongoing through the continual involvement of coaches and continuing professional development. It is important that the effort was measured by data, which demonstrated after one semester that students were getting more credits in ELA than they had in previous years. The challenge ahead is to keep the momentum going and make sure that the training and support continue.

Now, consider the successful implementation of the vision in an urban elementary school that “all teachers are teachers of reading.” The principal built on the shared values of data and trust—and everyone's high expectations for students. However, there was a cultural problem in that teachers valued autonomy and didn't share much with colleagues nor value teamwork. So there were values to build on and a big, shared value that needed to be developed.

The other big problem was that, although newer faculty members were eager to be involved, veteran teachers were more resistant. And, in all cases, faculty members couldn't visualize what all this meant in the day-to-day reality of the school. However, there was a feeling that, if this vision could be realized, it seemed logical that the extra literacy support for students would be useful. The principal was able to produce data that showed this, so most faculty members were willing to suspend disbelief and bought into trying.

The learning community played an important role here. The ELA learning community partnered with those in other subject areas for joint meetings. They arranged visits for learning community members to other schools in the district and in other cities. They developed protocols for observation. This was the early win. Schoolwide debriefing from those visits demonstrated that this approach was working effectively elsewhere and could be done in their school.

Once the goal was clear, the principal brought in professional development experts from outside provided by the district. She also modeled the teaching that was expected and reorganized the schedule so there was common planning time. This included getting subs to cover classes when the professional development was being offered.

Instructional leadership then translated into the development of several teacher leaders as coaches, available to all teachers on an ongoing basis. The assistant principal was the coach of the coaches, so they also had support.

It is now accepted practice in the school that literacy is incorporated into all classes. ELA scores have improved. This teaching practice is now rooted in the school's culture, and the ongoing support from the coaches continues.

Finally, here's an example from an urban high school with nine hundred students and eighty-four teachers. The instructional vision was to integrate mathematics in all classrooms. The vision was designed not only to improve student performance in mathematics but also to increase their perseverance in an area in which many simply gave up. If perseverance could be strengthened in mathematics, the effect should be seen in all other subjects as well—as well as benefiting students for the rest of their lives.

Accomplishing this vision required the school to share the value of the importance of mathematics for the students and the potential of all teachers to deliver such instruction. This required a culture change as well as professional development and coaching. The keys to making this work were district support, scheduling changes that permitted learning community meetings, and hiring a mathematics coach who was available to all teachers on-site.

A learning community, composed of all assistant principals and faculty members from all departments, examined the data and made a plan. There would be common planning time every Friday from 1:20–2:35. There would be professional development for all faculty members.

The professional development—the early win—sparked interest that got the teachers excited. The common planning time and help from the coach were the ongoing supports. When students' math scores started to go up, the entire faculty celebrated—cementing the culture change. Mathematics achievement was no longer the responsibility of a single department; it was a shared responsibility across the school (and the district) and a shared success.

__________

I realize that the illustrative stories in this chapter, and indeed throughout the book, may sound simple. We all know that they are not. It would take another full book to document the specifics of how each principal accomplished specific goals.

What they do have in common is that savvy leaders developed a vision and persevered in developing and implementing strategies that ultimately succeeded and resulted in improvements for the district, school, and students. Some of these improvements made the organization a better place to work and thereby reduced turnover of good teachers and leaders; others resulted in improved student attendance, lessened discipline referrals, and improved student learning outcomes. The strategies are most certainly not simple, but the message is that they are doable and there is an approach that works.

An effective leader starts by developing a vision and focusing on its achievement. The leader identifies the shared values of the school or district and uses them as a starting point—both to validate and further the shared values that are present and to begin to inculcate instructional values that may be missing. This begins the process of “we're all in this together.”

Instructional strategies are identified that further those values and demonstrate—via early wins—the usefulness of others related to instruction that may not be present. Readiness assessments provide more information with which to plan activities that meet everyone's needs. Schedules enable common planning time, and coaches are available for ongoing support.

More early wins and ongoing support can be realized through the creation of learning communities by which real-time learning is applied to everyone's work, and further lessons are learned and shared. Data are analyzed to assist in planning, monitoring, and ultimately evaluating the success of the strategy in achieving the vision.

The process is not linear—enter wherever it suits you and take things where they go in the context of your school or district. I hope, however, that the book has provided you with approaches, tools, pitfalls to avoid, and a sense of what others have done that inspire your success as well. Education leaders are just too important to accomplish anything less.