Just Some ThoughtsRaymond J. McNulty, Senior Fellow, ICLE

Chief Learning Officer, Penn FosterRay.McNulty@PennFoster.edu

Do You Really Believe…

• We just need to be a little bit better?

• New Standards and assessments are all the change we need?

• All students are getting what they need to be successful in the 21st Century?

Systems are challenged today like never before and the key challenge that we face is results.

So what will has changed in your school or district, that is different from years past? In terms of…

• Behavior of adults

• Lesson design, assessment

• Other items……

Are those changes making a difference?

• How do you know?

Theme

Strategy

Transforming Schools???

What’s your change strategy?

Having a theory

Staying the course is a lot easier when the course is something people

understand and you implement the theory with fidelity.

What is your theory for the change?

AYP

Research Based Successful Practices

Tight Tight

Critical PointRemain Tight TightEmpowerTight Loose

AYP

AYP

AYP

Questions often asked…1. How long does it take?

2. We are not moving at all. What should we do?

3. We were moving, but now we seem to be stuck. What should we do?

Patterns emerge in school improvement.

• There are no simple breakthroughs

• There are no dramatic turnarounds

• There are periods of significant improvement, followed by flat growth – and even decline.

x

Surviving during periods of flat performance

• Staff expects flat periods and persists through them

• Staff has a theory about what they are doing and focuses on student performance

• Staff develops focused measures for detecting improvement

• Staff makes adjustments when their efforts aren’t working

Expecting flat periods and persisting

• School improvement is a process of uncovering and solving progressively more difficult challenges around student learning (low-hanging fruit theory)

• This requires new learning from the adults.

Focused measures for detecting improvement

Changes in student performance lag behind changes in the quality of instructional

practices.

Changes in the classrooms are visible before you see them in external measures.

From Cooperation to Collaboration• Collaboration is essential for success today

• Cooperation won’t get the results you need

• Collaboration is mutual engagement to solve the challenge (21st Century)

• Cooperation is a division of labor approach (20th Century)

Emotions in the work place don’t just appear.

They arise from within the culture.

There’s a need to understand

1. Strategy

2. Emotions and Culture

3. Successful systems today need to be grounded in “whole-ism” first. From there, order will emerge.

Theme

VALUES

Do not underestimate the importance of MISSION AND

VALUES!!!

They help bring COHERENCE to the work.

Why we exist

Mission:

What we believe in and how we

will behave

Values:

Whenever something doesn’t work, revisit the

mission and values of the system. Are they correct?

Are we focused on the right things?

Core Elements of Transformation

– Vision / Mission – clear and powerful

– Core Values – lived everyday

– Employee Characteristics – enablers of greatness

How do you answer the following:• I bring a commitment to a quality experience

as an employee

• I am intently curious about how education is being transformed

• I have a passion for serving the student who needs me to succeed

• Success for me is creating great outcomes – not just showing up at work

The CORE VALUES of an organization are the SHARED BELIEFS that form its foundation. They guide all of an

organization's internal execution as well as its relationships to the internal and external world.

In an ever-changing world, core values are CONSTANT. They are ABSOLUTES. They are the practices we use every day, in

everything we do.

At Penn Foster, our core values establish that we are entirely vested in the winning OUTCOMES of our students,

and those of each other.

Because we prize LEARNING and GROWTH,

we possess an unyielding commitment to the FUTURES of our students,

whether they seek job skills, career path enhancements, personal enrichment or academic knowledge.

For us, LEARN MORE, DO MORE, BE MORE

are more than words.

They epitomize the values we share, define our Penn Foster system and

enable our MISSION…

BE A STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT CHAMPION

As champions for student achievement we passionately

advocate, mentor, and fight for every person who so desires to

access the knowledge and skills they need in order to fulfill their goals

and change their lives.

We create successful outcomes for our students through innovation,

creativity and problem-solving that fuels the outcomes our students

want and deserve.Helping students unlock their

potential is our shared responsibility and privilege.

Is This You?

PROVIDE SERVICE INFUSED WITH UNDERSTANDING,

RESPECT & EMPATHY

Be a partner; listen and care, and in doing so, create lasting and meaningful

relationships.

Is This You?

BE RESPONSIBLE ANDACT WITH INTEGRITY

We promptly acknowledge the needs of our students and colleagues and

respond appropriately and effectively.

WE FOLLOW-UP AND FOLLOW-THROUGH.

Is This You?

COLLABORATE TO CREATE BETTER

OUTCOMESWe know there is strength in

numbers.

We value the ability, perspective and unique talent of others; and we

embrace our differences.

A TEAM IS STRONGER THAN ANY ONE PERSON

Is This You?

SURPRISE AND DELIGHTWe go beyond the transaction.

We strive to exceed expectations and create emotionally fulfilling

experiences that result in consistently remarkable

HOSPITALITY.

Is This You?

TAKE CARE OF THE EARTH AND GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY IN WHICH

WE LIVE AND WORKWe support our students and

community through contribution and by adopting causes that matter.

We are charitable, and possess the spirit of giving.

WE ARE HOSPITABLE

Is This You?

Sustainability is about the relationship between

people, their purpose and their place.

Why do humans and or systems fail?• Ignorance, we do not have all the

knowledge.

• The knowledge exists but we do not use it correctly.

How do you get good at what you do?• The great seem to have the ability to work

through their weaknesses.

• Being just a slight bit better makes all the difference in the world.– Diligence– Doing it right

Carrot and stick vs. Coaching

• You can’t be successful today by being alone, autonomy does not get you to be great!

• Its about discipline

• Its about collaboration

Cowboys to Pit Crews

“Whole-ism”

Independent Interdependent

CollaborationTurf Protector

Active w/ focusLittle Buy In

ExtraordinaryOrdinary

SUCCESS BY DESIGN NOT BY CHANCE

Simply said, we get what we design for!

The one size fits all school that took its present shape in the 1930’s was a poor fit with the reality even then. In the twenty first century, it belongs in our romantic memories of once upon a time. John I. Goodlad

•The Emergence of•Multiple e-Dentity Disorder

•Find All of “Me” Online

•Photo credit : Amber Mayhem

"The concept of an 'average American' is

gone, forever. The average American

has been replaced by a complex,

multidimensional society that defies

simplistic labeling.”- demographics expert Peter Francese

“Ideals not Norms”

Theme

Being On Top

• Being on top of your game today requires a balance of traditional skills mixed with innovation skills

• Stability, control, and standardization mixed with uncertainty, ambiguity, innovation, and disruptive thinking

The skill set to do this is:

Current Leadership works hard to efficiently deliver the next thing that should be done given the existing system. Current leadership shines at converting a goal into actions to achieve that goal.

Delivery Skills

• Analyzing

• Planning

• Detailed Oriented Implementing

• Disciplined Executing

The transformative person incorporates skills from a far different dimension.

• Why accept the status quo?

• Look for new and better ways!

• Steve Jobs: “I want to put a ding in the universe!”

Discovery Skills• Questioning

• Observing

• Networking

• Experimenting

• Associational Thinking

• Delivery Skills

• Analyzing• Planning• Detailed Oriented

Implementing• Disciplined Executing

• Discovery Skills

• Questioning• Observing• Networking• Experimenting• Associational

Thinking

Question Storming

• What is…

• What caused….

• Why… Why not….

• What if…

Why do we breakup content into disciplines and structure learning that way?

Highly Innovative Systems

• In your system is innovation everyone’s job?

• Is disruption part of your system’s innovation portfolio?

• Are small project teams central to taking innovative ideas to scale?

• Does your system take smart risks in the pursuit of innovation?

Important Message

•The threat to your system is not choice, charters, other privates or funding.

•It is the “Status Quo.”

Theme

Best Practices and NEXT PRACTICES

Best practices allow you to do what you are

currently doing a little better.

Best practices allow you to do what you are

currently doing a little better.

Next practices increase your organization’s capability

to do things it has never done before.

System Innovation

Sustaining Innovation

Next Practice

Disruptive Innovation

-Shurnyu Suzuki

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the

expert’s mind there are few.”

First practice must change, then results,

then policy.

COREOptimizing existing systems

TRANSFORMATIONAL

ADJACENTExpanding from existing to new ways of working

Developing breakthroughs and inventing things that do not exist right now

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TRADITIONAL SYSTEM TO INNOVATIVE SYSTEM TO TRANSFORMATIVE SYSTEM

Best

Practices

Next

Practices

Some Straightforward Advice

Ignore the real world

The inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair.

They expect new ideas to fail.They assume society isn’t

ready.

Planning is guessingUnless you are a fortune teller

“long-term planning” is a fantasy.

Timing of long-range plans are backwards; you have better information when you are doing something, not before you do it.

Planning Strategy

1.Long Range Vision

2.30 Day Plan

3.60 and 90 Day Plans

Live it or leave it

There’s a world of difference between truly standing for something and having a mission statement that “says” you stand for something.

Embrace Constraints

We do not have enough money, time, people, or experience.

Less is a good thing as limited resources force us to make good decisions with what we have. There’s no room for waste.

Culture

Culture is a by-product of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, sharing will be built into the culture.

As will be trust, etc.

New Daily Plan•Wake Up

•Be Amazing

•Go To Bed

“EPIC WIN”

21st Annual

Model Schools Conference• Effective and efficient approaches to improving student achievement in times of

declining resources and increasing expectations • Focusing on instructional excellence as the key to the Common Core State

Standards, Next Generation Assessments, and Teacher Evaluations• Instructional approaches for special populations • Identifying and overcoming common barriers to dramatic school improvement

June 30 – July 3 | Washington, D.C.www.modelschoolsconference.com