Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way

Suggesting that schools can become more rigorous often provokes a variety of reactions from defensiveness to outright hostility. But I believe that schools must continually strive to improve their curriculum and the quality of instruction and assessment. In my new book. Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way (www.eyeoneducation.com), co-authored with Barbara Blackburn we provide a three-part definition for rigor.

Rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, and each student demonstrates learning at high levels.

Together these three elements provide the basis for nurturing and sustaining rigor in schools. Our focus in the book is straightforward: to provide principals and teachers with a practical guide to help make your school more rigorous. We introduce the COMPASS model, a set of 7 tools that leaders can immediately use to transform their school. They include culture, ownership and shared vision, managing data, professional development, advocacy, shared accountability, and organizational structures.

Barbara and I hope that the ideas in the book are helpful to you as you work with your community to improve your schools. Additional resources are available at www.rigorineducation.com or at my website (www.ronwilliamson.com). We'd enjoy hearing from you about the book.

Creating Your Personal Vision

Having a clear sense of vision or purpose for your school is important. Besides having your own personal vision you must work collaboratively with teachers, families, staff and students to develop a clear and compelling vision for your school.

It all begins with your personal vision. That vision consists of the most fundamental beliefs about life, about your work, and about relationships with people. I suggest you use a four-step process to develop your vision statement.

Step 1: Think about your personal and professional life. Describe what you would like to achieve and the contributions you would like to make. Think of it as something already accomplished. Describe what it looks like and feels like. For example, imagine hovering in a hot air balloon over your life. Imagine your life as successful as it might be---what would you see? what would you feel? what would you hear?

Step 2: Consider your self-image, relationships, personal interests, and community based on the things you wrote in step 1. Examine each item in your draft statement to be sure it still fits.

Step 3: Develop a list of values and identify those that are most important in your life. Once this is done, review the list and rank them from most to least important. Remove the least important. Re-rank if appropriate. Check for relevance with your earlier statement. Eliminate any item that is not relevant.

Step 4: Use the items from the first three steps to develop a statement about who you are. Review and edit the statement as often as needed until you believe it accurately reflects your vision.

Final Note: The job of a principal begins with vision. If you don't have a vision, or haven't revisited it recently, you won't have a clear direction when pressures mount. I suggest that you take the time to develop your own vision and to build shared vision for your school community.

Make a Mental Adjustment

The principalship is a complex job requiring a person to juggle an incredible array of responsibilities. Principals often tell me that the weeks during the middle of the school year are particularly difficult. I've found that your attitude toward your work greatly influences your success. When I was a principal I liked to focus on positive things, rather than negative, to build momentum for success.

The following examples illustrate how you can adjust your attitude about some of the things you do every day. If you want to make a change start with the way you think about what you are doing. Focus on the positive progress you make each day, whether it is delegating a task or taking the time to mentor a potential leader. Think about your personal vision on a regular basis. Write it on an index card where you can see it regularly.

Negative Thoughts	Positive Thoughts
I’ll never have an empty inbox.	I’m cleaning out my inbox everyday.
I’ll never get caught up.	Today, I choose to make progress on my task list.
100% of our students can’t meet standards.	I’ll make a positive impact on at least one child today.
It’s impossible to keep everyone happy.	Every interaction I have with people will be sincere regarding their behavior.

Working with Families and Community

I recently completed a project at Hadley Junior High School in Glen Ellyn, IL during which the staff and parents examined their program to find ways to strengthen and enhance their services to students. Several major commitments emerged during the project. First, the planning group worked diligently to keep parents and community informed. They held a series of Town Hall Meetings where they shared information with the community and heard about their concerns. Second, they published a series of newsletters in both paper and electronic format. They are also working to create a series of videos or podcasts of critical school events (6th grade orientation) that will be available for parents. They are also committed to making these resources available to parents and families where English is not the primary language. The commitment of the Hadley community to assure that everyone (families, community, teachers, students) are informed and have an opportunity to share their ideas about their school is significant. The commitment transformed their school.

Seeking Consensus

I’m fortunate to be able to work with lots of teachers and principals who are working together to improve their schools. Often I’m asked to help them design a process that will provide for thoughtful discussion of the issues and help the group reach agreement on how to proceed. Here’s some advice I give groups that are just getting started.

• Spend time agreeing on norms for both your operation and decision-making. I’ve always liked the Norms of Collaboration developed by Garmston and Wellman. Information can be found at www.adaptiveschools.com.

• Be clear about the process you will use to reach agreement. Consensus is often preferred but can be quite elusive, particularly when there are strong feelings about an issue. A few years ago I was introduced to theFist to Five, a way to measure the level of agreement on an issue. I like the process because it avoids voting and creating winners and losers. When using the Fist to Five, ask every participant to raise his or her hand and indicate their support, from a closed fist (no support) to all five fingers (a great idea). It’s an easy way to determine where a group stands on an issue and the need to continue discussion. Many groups I’ve worked with continue the process until everyone can hold up at least three fingers.

• Always be clear and the purpose and goals for every meeting. Provide an agenda that is clear about topics, action that may be requested, and the time for each item.

• Consider using a parking lot to gather information from members about the meeting. A “parking lot” is one way to anonymously provide feedback to other participants and to facilitators. One model I’ve used is a grid of four blocks---one indicating what went well, one indicating what needs improvement, one for questions, and one for ideas to improve the meeting.

• Structure time for the group to pause and reflect on the meeting. Identify a way for every member to comment on the meeting and the processes used during the meeting.

• Keep notes of the meeting and allow time at the end of the meeting for the group to be clear about next steps and any responsibilities that may have been assigned.

I’m always looking for good ideas about how to assure that meeting time is productive and that members feel the processes have helped the group move forward. I’d love to hear from you about ways you make your meetings productive.

Great Resources for Principals

I'm always looking for resources that can help principals. One of my favorite websites is The Principals' Partnership (www.principalspartnership.com), sponsored by the Union Pacific Foundation. The site includes lots of useful articles including a set of over 200 Research Briefs (http://www.principalspartnership.com/library.html) that provide information about all of the important topics faced by principals. The briefs can be easily downloaded for your use.

There are also a couple of articles at the site that share tools for improving instruction. They include First Things First (www.principalspartnership.com/feature908.html) and Improving Instructional Quality (www.principalspartnership.com/feature308.html).

I hope you find these resources helpful. Let me know of any great resources you find for helping principals.

Time Management for Principals

When I was a principal I started every school year with unlimited energy and a commitment to make a difference in the life of every student in my school. As the year progressed I found that my time was consumed by a multitude of tasks, individually important, but collectively distracting. They often kept me from my primary responsibility for assuring a quality instructional program.

In order to protect time for classroom visits, working with teachers on improved instruction or collaborating on school improvement, I developed a set of processes that helped me manage these multiple priorities. There is no one perfect strategy---except the one that works for you. But, here are four of my personal favorites.

Create a “Tickler File” - Many tasks and responsibilities occur annually. A tickler file is a way of creating a reminder about the tasks so they can be anticipated, planned for and accomplished. Some friends had a set of file folders labeled by month. Others used an electronic file. Even others had a daily tickler file rather than a monthly file.

Use a Journal - I’ve found that using a journal as a “running” record of notes from meetings helps me create a “to do” list. This ensures that everything is in one place rather than on multiple pieces of paper or sticky notes. The journal also makes it easy to look back and find ideas and tasks that emerged at earlier meetings. While I keep a paper journal, others are electronic.

Take Control of E-Mail - Check e-mail at set times, not continuously. If you can, respond when you first read a message. Handle them as a group---start with the first and move through them until complete. I like to use descriptive subject lines to identify the substance of a message. I also try to keep messages short and am real clear about what response may be needed. I also turn off the automatic notification of e-mail. When it beeps, it distracts me from my work. I recently read a book that suggested not checking e-mail before 10 am so that the first few hours of the day are focused on your most important work, rather than responding to the most recent request.

Establish Norms Around Access - Everyone wants an “open door,” but a literal open door can lead to fragmentation. Identify a quiet time each day to respond to e-mail and to work on important tasks. Don’t reinforce the idea that you respond the moment you receive a message. Establish norms around interruptions. Work with you administrative assistant to protect time. I scheduled time every week to visit classrooms, talk with students and work with teachers. When I was involved in these activities, everything else waited.

Chapter J in The Principalship from A to Z describes even more ideas. I hope you find my tips helpful and would enjoy hearing from you about ways you juggle the multiple priorities faced by every principal.