Culture and Change

I would say that Perry Hall High School's culture is one that is primarily centered around tradition.  Not only is it part of the school's mission statement--Tradition, Pride, Excellence, but it's also an older school that is currently hosting its 50th graduating class.  It's located in an area that has a minimal transient population, and many of the students at Perry Hall are the children of past alumni.  We also have a considerable number of teachers who are alumni of the school or have been teaching at the school for many years.  All of these factors contribute to a culture of tradition and school pride.   The walls and trophy cases are packed with pictures, trophies, and awards from the past.  Our library walls host pictures of all the previous principals and the backs of our auditorium chairs have the etchings of previous student's notes and names.  This culture has its perks--we have a strong sense of identity at Perry Hall and we have a long-standing reputation as being one of the best schools in the county.  But, it is also a culture that resists change.  Both the staff and the students resist change because we are so comfortable hiding behind our traditions.  We think of change as a criticism, rather than as an opportunity to grow.    

Perry Hall promotes a positive school culture for teaching and learning that is inclusive of all students in a variety of ways.  First, we have over 85 clubs and extracurricular activities at our school and all of the clubs are inclusive to all students.  There are clubs that range from the Black Student Union to the Knitting Club and by offering this range of clubs, we are able to appeal to the interests of almost all the students in the school.  The majority of these clubs and extra curriculars are sponsored by staff members because we have established a culture at Perry Hall that compels teachers to get involved in student's lives outside of the classroom.  This area of teacher performance is assessed at the end-of-year evaluations.  We have several mentor programs in the school that promote students helping students.  Whether it be National Honor Society students tutoring underclassmen or lower-level students or the peer mentoring program where model seniors act as mediators to settle underclassmen disputes, these programs are helping to promote inclusiveness and a positive school culture of teaching and learning.  We also are a PDS school, meaning that we host a number of Towson student interns and student teachers.  The mentor teachers and hosting departments promote a culture of teaching and learning by helping the student intern establish, develop, and refine his/her practice.  Finally, many of our staff members are or have been a member of a graduate level cohort program or are taking graduate level courses.  This practice demonstrates for our students what it means to be a life-long learner.  I believe that Perry Hall has an extremely dedicated staff and that is the result of our school culture.  Most of us are not satisfied just working within our contracted hours and responsibilities, which is why those people that do, either do not last long at the school, or simply do not make an impression on the staff or the students. 


My ideas on how Marzano's research of first and second order change could be used to improve our present school culture relate to intellectual stimulation and the change agent.  At first, I was surprised to find culture ranked in the first-order change list.  However, once I got to thinking about it, I suppose he's right.  Culture is developed over time based on the incremental and day-by-day activities within a school.  If a leader attempted to change everything all at once, I imagine he/she would be met with negative attitudes and strong resistance.   But changing a school culture can be done with taking one or two dramatic departures from traditional school practices.  At Perry Hall, our leadership team has been struggling to create a culture of teaching and learning using 21st century learning skills and the use of technology.  As I discussed earlier, this change, like many others, has been met with resistance.  I believe our leadership team could benefit from Marzano's research on second-order change when meeting their intellectual stimulation and change agent responsibilities.  Using Marzano's words, a leader cannot expect to grow a culture which "fosters knowledge of research and theory on best practices among the staff through reading and discussion" using gradual and incremental change. This may need to be required of the staff, rather than suggested.  In terms of technology and best practices, this change can also not be met with our current set of strategies, since technology is relatively new to education.  E-learning communities have rapidly changed higher levels of education and we need to prepare our students for this in the lower grades; therefore, we don't have the time for this change to be gradual.    In addition, a leader cannot "challenge school practices that have been in place for a long time" with gradual change--the outdated practices need to be challenged with strategies that a school hasn't already tried.  In thinking about technology integration, a leadership team might challenge the staff's current method of implementing a socratic seminar with a socratic seminar on a wiki page.  Or,  a leadership team might challenge the NHS's current method of tutoring with one using SafariLive or Skype.  Then, the school can evaluate whether they are seeing the benefits of these "dramatic" changes or not.

Marzano's 21 Responsibilities of a School Leader

There were several similarities between my self assessment of Marzano's 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader and the McREL Balanced Leadership online inventory.  Strengths that were listed on both surveys were culture, knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and visibility.  These similarities did not surprise me because they all relate closely with my beliefs and with what type of leader I hope to be.  I know that developing the culture of my organization will be a priority of mine.  I read a lot about the value of teamwork this week when researching the leadership theorists.  I also know that curriculum and instruction will be a priority of mine, considering my background as a classroom teacher.  I have always loved lesson planning and finding innovative ways to engage my students, and so I hope to remain involved and knowledgeable regarding curriculum and instruction.  Lastly, I hope to be visible to my staff and students, because those were always the type of principals for whom I wanted to work.  I was especially impressed during my student teaching by a principal who stood in the front lobby and personally greeted as many students as he could in the morning.  I was blown away by how many of them he knew by name and how many of them he was able to speak to each morning.  Every student was greeted by his presence, a smile, and motivating words.  That is the type of principal I hope that I'd be. 

Categories that I scored the lowest in, on both assessments, were flexibility and outreach.  It was interesting that I scored the lowest in flexibility because I consider myself to be a very flexible teacher.  I think the reason I am scoring low is because I am not "comfortable with dissent".  I know that this is something I will need to work on before I am in a leadership role, but I am happiest and most comfortable when everyone is in agreement.  I think it might be challenging for me to adapt my leadership style, without also adapting to the wants of the dissenting group and just "giving in" for the sake of peace.  I believe I scored myself low in the outreach category, simply because I know how hectic school life can be, and I have a feeling that communicating on behalf of the school in the community might be what ends up at the bottom of my priority list.  I hope that this might be a task that I can delegate to another school leader so that I can be sure that it is happening.    

Some of the most blatant discrepancies were among discipline and contingent awards.  I think initially I scored myself low on the self assessment in both of these categories because I was too focused on what my limitations might be; for example, I know that I will never be able to completely clear a teacher from all the distractions from their teaching time and focus and I will never be able to recognize every individual's personal accomplishments.  However, the detailed questions in the McREL survey, helped me to realize the many opportunities there are for a school leader to fulfill these responsibilities, which is why I scored higher on this category on the McREL inventory. 

I was pleased to read that my top seven strengths, according to the McREL online inventory, (culture, visibility, knowledge of curriculum, ideas/beliefs, resources, discipline, and order) almost all have a .25 correlation with student achievement or above.  This makes me feel confident that I'll have what it takes to be an effective leader, but considering the closeness in correlation values that all of the 21 responsibilities have, it makes sense to always strive to meet all of the 21 responsibilities. 

Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leadership

In “Transformation School Leadership in a Transactional Policy World”, Leithwood (2007) defines transformative approaches as ones that “spring from an organic worldview, assume capacity to be a key to change, offer intrinsic incentives and rewards when additional motivation is required, and use commitment strategies” (p. 189).  I would define transformative approaches to leadership as being based on values and vision, rather than currency and advancement.  Transformational leadership is founded on an organization’s mission and developing employees whose values are aligned with that same mission.  Rather than offering employees salary increases or promotions, transformative leaders offer their employees inspiration and self-fulfillment. 

Transformational leadership can flourish in a learning environment because it is already an environment whose members are more dedicated to ideals and passion than to money and advancement.  Teachers do not typically enter this profession because their goal is to make a lot of money.  They become teachers because they believe in education and care for young people.  Transformational leadership will also flourish in a learning environment because of the category of practices within this form of leadership: charisma, inspirational leadership, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (Bass, 1993).  These four practices are inherent in any learning environment.  The personal qualities and mission of a principal are on display for the staff and students daily, through forums such as faculty meetings, assemblies, and morning announcements. Teachers and staff members receive individualized considerations through professional development and lesson observations.  The staff’s opportunity to reflect after professional development and lesson observations allows for intellectual stimulation and the awareness of problems.

Transformational leadership can impact the way an administrator leads a school because, up to now, the transactional approach has not been working.  In his article, Leithwood discusses the recent trend in education: higher expectations, with more accountability (2007, p. 186). He writes about the school system’s failed attempts to solve the problem of “both raising the bar and closing the gap” (Leithwood, 2007, p. 187); all of these solutions have been transactional in nature because they have attempted to increase accountability of schools and teachers through competition, salary increases, and high stakes testing.  Leithwood’s findings indicate that the only way to increase accountability is through transformational leadership.  He references the instructional leadership models provided by Hallinger and Murphy (1985) and then writes, “Hallinger’s recent review of evidence concerning instructional leadership found that mission-building activities (the most “transformational” of the dimensions) on the part of principals are the most influential set of leadership practices”  (p.191).  I agree with Hallinger and Leithwood.  I believe that allowing the staff to help build the mission will only increase their commitment and dedication to the school and the students. 

When integrating technology with instruction, an administrator should use transformational leadership by establishing technology and 21^st century skills as part of the mission.  Transformational leadership is founded upon a common vision and belief system.  If the administrator cannot find a way to help his/her teachers share in this technology integration belief system, I’m not sure that this type of leadership will be effective.  Teachers need to be intrinsically motivated to learn these new strategies, not provoked by promises of salary increases, promotions, or satisfactory evaluations.   In order to use transformational leadership, the administrator will have to do his/her best to build a mission for the school that involves the integration of technology, and then continue to inspire the staff and model exemplary practices. 

References:

Leithwood, K. (2007). Transformation School Leadership in a Transactional Policy World. The     Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership (pp. #183- #196). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.