Building Schools That Learn

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MIDWESTERN INTERMEDIATE UNIT IV
Building Schools That Learn Tools for
Instructional Leadership
Timothy Lucas Special Projects -
CLIU 21 Professor - Lehigh University
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook Project
Co-Author - Schools That Learn with Peter Senge,
et. Al.
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Housekeeping
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Sawu bona(I see you)
The Check-In

• Sikona
• (I am here)

Zulu Greeting
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Please introduce yourself (district and role) and
tell us the most unusual job you have had
The Check-In

• And end by saying
• I am here.

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Goals for Our Morning

• Overview the core
• concepts for building
• learning communities.
• Share language
• and tools you can
• use in your work.
• 3. Encourage you to
• see the connection
• to Instructional
• Leadership.

• Getting on the balcony

Ron Heifetz
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Board of Directors CEO, COO
Middle Management
Workers of the Line
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The Assembly Line
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Board of Directors, CEO, COO - Superintendent,
Central Office Staff
Middle Management - Principals. Department
Heads, School Leaders
Workers of the Line - Teachers And Students
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A Systems Thinking View of Schools
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We know how children or individuals learn
But how do groups of people learn? or How do we
engage in organizational learning and
instructional leadership?
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The History of The Fifth Discipline and the
Fieldbooks
1990
1994
1999
2000
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Tools For Building Schools That Learn

• If your only tool is a hammer,
• isnt it amazing how
• many things begin to look like a nail.
• Abraham
  Maslow

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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn
Dealing with Complexity
Defining our Aspirations
Holding Meaningful Conversations
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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn

• Dealing with
• Complexity
• Systems Thinking

• Defining our
• Aspirations
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision

• Holding Meaningful
• Conversations
• Mental Models
• Team Learning

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Personal Mastery
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Personal Mastery addresses the tools behind
the reflective practitioner.
Personal Goals
Creative Tension
Current Reality
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Exploring change on a personal level
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Heres where I want to be
Heres where I am
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Sawu bona(I see you)
The Check-In

• Sikona
• (I am here)

Zulu Greeting
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The Check-in

• Our identities are based on the fact that we are
  seen, respected, and acknowledged with dignity as
  a person. We need to get people sharing and
  involved.
• By listening and focusing, we aspire to mutual
  respect and openness.
• We invoke each others potential through a formal
  acknowledgement at the end of the check-in by
  saying, I am here.

I am here
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How are the children?
Common greeting of the Masai Tribe
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How do you celebrate in your school?
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What charges your battery? What discharges your
battery?
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If we could design a professional
development workshop just for you - what topics
would you like included?
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If you had to get a tattoo what would it say?
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What is causing your headaches right now?
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What are you passionate about?
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What are two things you would tell a new teacher?
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What technology would you like to know more about?
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You have to look to your past to see
your future. Share an event
that has impacted your career.
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How are complaints handled in your school?
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Where is your school with technology?
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Are you dealing with any Elephants in the Room
in any of your meetings or committees?
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Left brain and right brain Share a creative
project or program you are working on.
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What is one thing you would change in your school?
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What is the most effective team you have ever
worked with? What did you accomplish?
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Our pathways are fascinating journeys. How did
you end up right here?
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What would your billboard say today?
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MUI 4
Where could your travels take you in five years?
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The real journey is in learning who we are. Share
one new learning in the last week.
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How can you have a beautiful ending
without making beautiful mistakes.
A real fortune
Share one of your mistakes you can laugh at.
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Share one place where you would like better
directions.
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When things and people connect it is time to
celebrate. What would you celebrate this month?
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What walls (systems) are you or your district
banging your head against these days?
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Recalculating anything?
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Share a reflective practice you use
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What changes have you noticed in your school?
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Got a George Thing going on? Share it.
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What keeps you focused?
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Share one sustainable project or program in
your school?
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Share one thing you dont understand about
schools?
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Heres where I want to be
Heres where I am
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Heres where I want to be
Heres where I am
The actions I must take
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Current Reality
Personal Mastery
What is it like to stand in the Gap?
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Where might GAPS exist?

• Personal Lives
• Interpersonal Interactions
• Family/Community
• Professional
• Professional Lives
• Content knowledge
• Pedagogy
• Other area?

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• ... the people who achieve the greatest good are
  those who have the greatest capacity to stand in
  the tragic gap.
• Parker Palmer
• (A Hidden Wholeness, pg. 180)

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GAP Standing Strategies

• Hold the tension
• Be patient with the system
• See the good of the system
• Remain hopeful
• Trust yourself, others, and the others
• Look for new learnings
• Keep on learning about all three positions

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As educators we use Personal Mastery.
When we evaluate teachers and talk about
improving teaching and learning we are working
with Personal Mastery. When we work with
students to be on time for school or attend
school each day we are working with Personal
Mastery.
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The Danielson Framework
Domain 1 Planning Preparation
Domain 4 Professional Responsibilities
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Domain 2 The Classroom Environment
Domain 3 Instruction
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The Danielson Framework
Domain 1 Planning Preparation
Domain 4 Professional Responsibilities
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Domain 2 The Classroom Environment
Domain 3 Instruction
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And as we build goals for students with
parents we encourage Personal Mastery
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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn

• Dealing with
• Complexity
• Systems Thinking

• Defining our
• Aspirations
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision

• Holding Meaningful
• Conversations
• Mental Models
• Team Learning

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Shared Vision
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Building a Shared Vision requires distributed
leadership, redefines collaboration, and builds
capacity in the organization.
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• Building A Vision Activity
• Your group should list the common complaints
• teachers could have about students. (5
  items)

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• Building A Vision Activity
• Your group should list the common complaints
• teachers could have about students. (5
  items)
• Clarify your list into the actions or behaviors
• you would like to see from students. (5
  items)

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• Building A Vision Activity
• Your group should list the common complaints
• teachers could have about students. (5
  items)
• Clarify your list into the actions or behaviors
• you would like to see from students. (5
  items)
• Write a statement that explains what you
• desire from your students. Start with We
  are
• designing an instructional program that

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• Building A Vision Activity
• Your group should list the common complaints
• teachers could have about students. (5
  items)
• Clarify your list into the actions or behaviors
• you would like to see from students. (5
  items)
• Write a statement that explains what you
• desire from your students. Start with We
  are
• designing an instructional program that
• What are ways you could allow (encourage)
• this to happen?

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Learning Culture for 90/90/90 Schools

• A focus on academic achievement
• Clear curriculum choices
• Frequent assessment of student progress
• and multiple opportunities for improvement
• 4. An emphasis on nonfiction writing
• 5. Collaboration scoring of student work

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Your vision its everywhere or its nowhere
JUST DO IT
We Bring Good Things to Life
(get a logo - grab a font)
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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn

• Dealing with
• Complexity
• Systems Thinking

• Defining our
• Aspirations
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision

• Holding Meaningful
• Conversations
• Mental Models
• Team Learning

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Mental Models
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• Take two minutes and build a story that could
  explain how these footprints were made.
• Share your story with a friend.

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Screening
In the research on human cognition
Information relayed from the outside
through the eyes accounts for only 20 of
what we use to create a perception. We each
create our own worlds by what we choose to
notice ...to enact our particular version of
reality.
Margaret Wheatly
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We do not describe the world we see, We see
the world we know how to describe.
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Topic or Issue
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Topic or Issue
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Sometimes our mental models send us up The
Ladder of Inference
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Going Up The Ladder
Weve either got to find a way to motivate Jean
or ask her to leave.
Jeans not really interested in working with us.
Shes probably been forced to show up, but she
leaves as soon as she can.
She must not really be interested in the
committee.
Jean, one of the teachers on our joint
parent-teacher committee, left early today.
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Going Up The Ladder
Weve either got to find a way to motivate Jean
or ask her to leave.
Jeans not really interested in working with us.
Shes probably been forced to show up, but she
leaves as soon as she can.
She must not really be interested in the
committee.
Jean, one of the teachers on our joint
parent-teacher committee, left early today.
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Going Up The Ladder
Weve either got to find a way to motivate Jean
or ask her to leave.
Jeans not really interested in working with us.
Shes probably been forced to show up, but she
leaves as soon as she can.
She must not really be interested in the
committee.
Jean, one of the teachers on our joint
parent-teacher committee, left early today.
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Going Up The Ladder
Weve either got to find a way to motivate Jean
or ask her to leave.
Jeans not really interested in working with us.
Shes probably been forced to show up, but she
leaves as soon as she can.
She must not really be interested in the
committee.
Jean, one of the teachers on our joint
parent-teacher committee, left early today.
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Going Up The Ladder
Weve either got to find a way to motivate Jean
or ask her to leave.
Jeans not really interested in working with us.
Shes probably been forced to show up, but she
leaves as soon as she can.
She must not really be interested in the
committee.
Jean, one of the teachers on our joint
parent-teacher committee, left early today.
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Going Up The Ladder
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How do we capture and better understand other
peoples mental models?
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Lead with inquiry and gain new perspectives.
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Key Questions for a Shared Vision 1. What do we
want our students to learn?
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Key Questions for a Shared Vision 1. What do we
want our students to learn? 2. How will we know
they have learned it?
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• Key Questions for a Shared Vision
• 1. What do we want our students to learn?
• 2. How will we know they have learned it?
• What will we do if they cant learn it?

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• Key Questions for a Shared Vision
• 1. What do we want our students to learn?
• 2. How will we know they have learned it?
• What will we do if they cant learn it?
• 4. What will we do when they do learn it?

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Learning Culture You Create

• Key Questions for a Shared Vision
• 1. What do we want our students to learn?
• 2. How will we know they have learned it?
• What will we do if they cant learn it?
• 4. What will we do when they do learn it?

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Leading With Inquiry

• The process of designing questions
• for use in our schools creates meaningful
• dialogue. Questions for
• administrative meetings
• policy and committee work
• curriculum review
• parent meetings
• student conferences
• program evaluation

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Leading With Inquiry
When we lead with questions, we build dignity
into our process.
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As you lead with inquiry and start building
clearer images of the mental models you are
exploring - you can use maps to capture your
thoughts and insights.
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Map a person you know.
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Now add yourself to the map.
You
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Standards Aligned System
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Catasauqua
LCCC
East Penn
CCTI
Allentown
Weatherly
Panther Valley
Jim Thorpe
LCTI
CLIU
Salisbury
Palmerton
Lehighton
Parkland
Whitehall-Coplay
Southern Lehigh
Northern Lehigh
Northwestern Lehigh
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Catasauqua
LCCC
East Penn
CCTI
Allentown
Weatherly
Panther Valley
Jim Thorpe
LCTI
CLIU
Salisbury
Palmerton
Lehighton
Parkland
Whitehall-Coplay
Southern Lehigh
Northern Lehigh
Northwestern Lehigh
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Catasauqua
LCCC
East Penn
CCTI
Allentown
Weatherly
Panther Valley
Jim Thorpe
LCTI
CLIU
Salisbury
Palmerton
Lehighton
Parkland
Whitehall-Coplay
Southern Lehigh
Northern Lehigh
Northwestern Lehigh
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Catasauqua
LCCC
East Penn
CCTI
Allentown
Weatherly
Panther Valley
Jim Thorpe
LCTI
CLIU
Salisbury
Palmerton
Lehighton
Parkland
Whitehall-Coplay
Southern Lehigh
Northern Lehigh
Northwestern Lehigh
PDE
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The Power of Mapping
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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn

• Dealing with
• Complexity
• Systems Thinking

• Defining our
• Aspirations
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision

• Holding Meaningful
• Conversations
• Mental Models
• Team Learning

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Team Learning
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The Challenges of Adult Learning

• 1. Adults will learn, retain, and use what they
• perceive to be relevant to their personal
  and
• professional needs.
• 2. Adults will commit to learning something when
  the
• goals of in-service training are considered
  realistic
• and they understand how it impacts schools
  goals
• the bigger vision.
• 3. Adult learning involves egos. Reduce fear of
• judgment by peers in the
• process of learning.

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• 5. Adults need constructive feedback on their
• efforts to learn and apply new skills.
• 6. Individualization is appropriate because
  adults
• have a wide range of previous experiences.
• 7. Adults will resist learning in situations that
• they see as an attack on their competence.
• 8. Adult learning is motivated by both
  lower-order
• AND higher-order needs.

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Learning is Developmental
When you engage in reflective practice.
you change and grow.
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Learning is Vision Driven
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The Iceberg
Photographer Ric Manager Location
St. Johns, Newfoundland Estimated Weight
300,000,000 tons
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Event ___________________________ ______________
_____________ ___________________________ Pattern
or Trend ___________________________ ___________
________________ ___________________________ _____
______________________ ___________________________
Systemic Structure ___________________________
___________________________ ______________________
_____ ___________________________ ________________
___________ ___________________________ Mental
Models ___________________________ ______________
_____________ ___________________________ ________
___________________ ___________________________
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The Iceberg Discussion Questions Step
One - The Event Name a critical event or issue
that has emerged in the last few months in your
classroom or school. Tell the story of the
event. Step Two - The Pattern or Trend What is
the history of the event you described? When has
it happened before? Chart the course of related
events over time on a graph. What patterns do
you see emerging? Step Three - Systemic
Structure What forces seem to create the pattern
of behavior you described in step 2? How do the
systemic elements seem to influence each other?
What fundamental aspects of the school need to
change if you want the pattern to change?
(Policy, culture, attitudes, environment) Step
Four - Mental Models What is it about your
thinking and everyones thinking that causes this
structure to persist? How can these mental
models be safely brought to the surface for
inquiry and dialogue with the larger group?
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• As we experience the Iceberg we
• React to Events
• Predict Patterns and Trends
• Design Systemic Structures
• Transform Mental Models

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As we experience the Iceberg we also Move
from recall to higher
thinking skills It guides us to
meaningful conversations.
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Core Competencies For Schools That Learn

• Dealing with
• Complexity
• Systems Thinking

• Defining our
• Aspirations
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision

• Holding Meaningful
• Conversations
• Mental Models
• Team Learning

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Systems Thinking
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There are Four Specific Tools That Are Used in
Systems Thinking

• Graphing Behavior Over Time
• Mapping Causal Loops - (Archetypes)
• Modeling Structured Diagrams
• Experiencing Simulations

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Using Behavior-Over-Time Graphs
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Victoria Bernhardt
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Before Beginning the Analysis

• Determine the purpose
• Focus the data analysis on the goals of the
  school
• Get everyone on the staff committed and informed
• Create the questions you want to answer
• Identify the data sources you have and may
• still need

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During the Analysis

• Include everyone and make the data is accessible
• Determine what the data is telling you
• Dig deeper disaggregate the data, see how it
  was collected, look at root cause
• Keep the process positive and always focus on
  students and your school goals
• Make sure everyone understands how the analysis
  of the data can effect how we may have to do
  things differently

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After the Analysis

• Look for solutions to problems only after you
  have answered you original questions
• Establish a plan of action
• Create an action plan that everyone understands,
  receives, and impacts meetings, professional
  development, and daily dialogue
• Evaluate using the same data and process each
  year
• Document your results in a school portfolio
• Keep the momentum going by using the process as a
  standard procedure in your school

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Complexity of Problems
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Complexity of Problems
Our Ability to Understand Problems
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Complexity of Problems
Our Ability to Understand Problems
Our Skills to Work Together
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Complexity of Problems
Our Ability to Understand Problems
Our Skills to Work Together
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Complexity of Problems
Our Ability to Understand Problems
Our Skills to Work Together
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1995
2005
2000
Actual Budget
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1995
2005
2000
Actual Budget Cost of Mandated Programs
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1995
2005
2000
Actual Budget Cost of Mandated Programs Amount
of Federal and State Funding
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Modeling Structured Diagrams
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Drawing a Structured Diagram
Bathtub or Stock
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Drawing a Structured Diagram
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in the bank
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in the bank
List actions that deplete or drain your stock
List actions that increase or build your stock
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Trained Leaders In Our Schools
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Trained Leaders In Our Schools
Not Enough
Not Enough People Who Want to be Principals
Workshops For Principals
Hire More Leaders

Train Teachers To Take Certain Leadership roles
Number of Principals Retiring
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School Goal from Structured Diagram
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Monitor your stock over time and
you can make data-driven decisions using
behavior-over-time graphs that are easily shared.
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Our Mission In a safe and secure
environment, each student in the Quincy Public
School District will develop into a lifelong
learner with the skills and knowledge Necessary
for the next steps in life.
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Mapping Causal Loops And Using
System Archetypes
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Kindergarteners Causal Loop Diagrams
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Trappers Catch Beavers
Trappers Want Revenge
Beavers Want Revenge
Beavers Catch Trappers
BOTG
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Shifting The Burden
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Shifting The Burden
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Shifting the Burden Template
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Shifting The Burden
Mechanical, Output-Centered Process
Drain on Energy, Lack of Creativity, Soul-less
Occupation, Top-Down Process, Reinforces
Industrial Model, Impacts Trust, etc.
Change

Attentive, Creative, People Centered Process
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• Areas of Instructional
• Leadership
• Framing school goals
• Communicating school goals
• Supervising and evaluating instruction
• Coordinating the curriculum
• Monitoring student progress
• Protecting instructional time
• Maintaining high visibility
• Providing incentives for teachers
• Promoting professional development
• Providing incentives for learning
• 
  Sheppard, 1996

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Trying the Tools
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Bringing Our Morning to Closure -

Mr. Osborne, may I be excused? My
brain is full.
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As Leaders We Need Two Perspectives -
The Window
The Mirror
From Jim Collins Good to Great
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The Mirror of the Reflective Pracitioner
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The Mirror of Deeper Learning
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Love After Love Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation, you will
greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your
own mirror, and each will smile at the others
welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love
again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine.
Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to
the stranger who has loved you all your life,
whom you ignored for another, who knows you by
heart. Take down the love letters from the book
shelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel
your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on
your life.
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The Window of Relationships
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The Window of Relationships
Superintendent, Central Office Staff
Principals. Department Heads,
School Leaders
Teachers, Parents and Students
YOU
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S C H O O L C U L T U R E
S C H O O L C L I M A T E
Superintendent, Central Office Staff
Principals. Department Heads,
School Leaders
Teachers, Parents and Students
YOU
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A Ritual to Read to Each Other If you don't know
the kind of person I am, and I don't know the
kind of person you are, a pattern that others
made may prevail in the world, and following the
wrong god home we may miss our star. For there
is many a small betrayal in the mind, a shrug
that lets the fragile sequence break, sending
with shouts, the horrible errors of
childhood, storming out to play through the
broken dike. And as elephants parade holding
each elephant's tail, but if one wanders the
circus won't find the park, I call it cruel and
maybe the root of cruelty to know what occurs,
but not recognize the fact. And so I appeal to a
voice, to something shadowy, a remote important
region in all who talk though we could fool each
other, we should consider - lest the parade of
our mutual life get lost in the dark. For it is
important that awake people be awake, or a
breaking line may discourage them back to
sleep the signals we give - yes or no, or maybe
- should be clear the darkness around us is
deep. by William Stafford
American poet 1914 -1993
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Welcome to the Community of Practitioners
It has been a pleasure to work with you.
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MIDWESTERN INTERMEDIATE UNIT IV

Thank You