What do Schools need to Succeed?

What makes schools succeed?  We typically measure the success of a school through standardized tests and graduation rates.  These measures help the community at large determine whether a school is successful or not, but what helps a school succeed?  I’m sure many would argue that schools succeed because of time spent in the classroom and the quality of the teacher, among other things.  I don’t deny that these factors are important, but I believe that schools could be even more successful if they had more autonomy, if there was more collaboration and cooperation among and between teachers and students, and if the school had a culture and climate that focused on students. 

If every school had autonomy to make their own decisions, and had strong leadership to make good decisions, I believe our schools would be much more successful.  For seven years I taught in a school that had autonomy.  We were able to make all our own financial and curricular decisions.  We thought about the current student body, and made decisions based on what our students needed.  We didn’t have to use textbooks and we didn’t have to do what every other school around us was doing.  We developed our own curricula to meet the needs of our students, and our students were successful.  Success can be seen as evidenced by test scores (http://arch.k12.hi.us/PDFs/ssir/2011/charter/SSIR149-C.pdf) and I believe the progress we made as a school was because of the local power the school had. 

I take this experience and compare it to my current position.  I work in a traditional school district where the superintendent or other district administrators must approve almost all curricular changes that teachers want to make prior to changes being made.  Even my principal lacks power to make certain changes.  Schools aren’t allowed to decide what materials are best to meet their students’ needs, the decision needs to be based on what’s best for the district, even if the needs of the school are different.  My school is currently labeled as a focus school, a new label in Michigan as part of NCLB.  Even though we need to make changes to help our lower achievers be more successful, we have so many hoops to jump through that I’m not sure if/when changes will be made.  If we had autonomy to make our own decisions, we might be able to reach more of our students.  Autonomy is so important that an entire section of this paper has been devoted to it.  After looking at many different schools and examining different factors, the authors find that schools with autonomy tend to perform better than schools that don’t have autonomy.   Giving autonomy to schools allows schools to develop and assess students on their curricula and make appropriate adjustments so that students succeed.  Meier (2002) and his staff believe in autonomy so much that they recommend “Decisions about curriculum, pedagogy, and scheduling … be made by on-site professionals” (p. 65).  This needs to become a common practice in our schools.

Eisner (2001) argues that if we want our students to be successful, we need to teach them how to have quality conversations.  Since conversing is a skill that is needed in almost all aspects of a person’s life, we need to teach students how to talk with one another.  When students are able to talk about issues, both curricular and non-curricular, they build their critical thinking skills (Eisner, 2001).  When we teach our students how to have discussions (like in this lesson plan on literature circles) we give them conversational strategies, teach them how to relate to others, and how to organize their thoughts.  If students can articulate their thoughts verbally, they will also have an easier time writing down their thoughts and they will be able to process more difficult material.    

Conversations are also important when thinking about teachers.   Teachers need to have opportunities to talk with one another- about students, lessons, and everyday school business.  If teachers have built in collaboration time, when they can discuss curricular issues, schools are more likely to end up with an aligned curriculum.  Schools will likely be more successful if teachers have time to visit each other’s classrooms, talk about and reflect on teaching styles, and provide each other with feedback and support (Meier, 2002).  Our students will be more successful when teachers have opportunities to collaborate and improve their instruction.  

Lastly, and probably most importantly, schools will succeed when they have a positive culture and climate.  Schools need to be small with small class sizes so that teachers have the opportunity to know their students well- academically and personally (Meier, 2002). When a school has a strong and positive culture, students can surpass many expectations.  Baruti Kafele is a principal in New Jersey who has turned around a poor performing high school.  He has established high expectations along with respect for and knowledge of all of his students.  When students feel cared for and acknowledged they are willing to rise to high expectations.  This video provides a glimpse at how Kafele has shaped the culture of his school.   In the book Transforming School Culture,  (Muhammad, 2009) school culture is described as “the set of norms, values, and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the ‘persona’ of a school” (p. 12).  Schools that have a strong culture and communicate the expectations, values, and beliefs to students are more likely to see their students succeed.  Students know when they are cared about and when their teachers are looking out for their best interest.  If the school can support each student, then students will push themselves to meet the expectations because they know they won’t be working on their own. 

If schools had the ability to make autonomous decisions, worked to build collaboration with students and teachers, and established a school culture that encouraged and supported students, our schools would be successful.  While we may have to measure success based on test scores, that shouldn’t be our only measuring stick.  If schools can work together to provide students with the skills they need as individuals and provide all of the support needed for students to achieve, then we have truly helped our students succeed.  The success of schools needs to be measured not only by test scores, but also on how schools work together internally to support their students. 

References:

Eisner, E.  (2001).  What does it mean to say a school is doing well?  Phi Delta Kappan,

82 (5): 367-372. 

Meier, D.  (2002).  Chapter 3.  The Power of their Ideas:  Lessons for America from a

Small School in Harlem.  Boston, MA: Beacon Press

Muhammad, A.  (2009).  Transforming School Culture:  How to Overcome Staff

Division.  Bloomington, IN:  Solution Tree Press.