This article is from Willard Daggett that I had the priviledge of hearing back in January.
Here are my rather sketchy notes on his speech. Reading the full article will provide the background.
A partnership with K-12, higher ed and the businsess community is the ONLY model for effective change
Study based on examining the 30 top achieving High schools in the US
- We need to spend more time explaining WHY we need to change
- if you start with the HOW the majority will respond with, “this too shall pass”
- make change voluntary
- understand your three groups :
- lunatic fringe…never heard an idea they didn’t like
- realists
- those who will always say, “this too shall pass”
- spend your first year explaining why
- year two the realists will move over
- year three some of the “this too shall pass” group joins
Main Characteristics of these schools
- Learning Communities
- High Expectations…espescially in the area of literacy (see the article for his definition)
- 9th Grade is different
- 20-40% weren’t ready for 9th grade
- Research does not validate remediation
- Core subjects taught in context of electives
- looping of 8th grade teachers to 9th grade
- 12th Grade…kids that were ready got all requirements by 11th grade and used 12th grade to acquire AP classes
- Data at the classroom level revealed curriculum was too heavy. Pared it down to essentials. Critical benchmarks taught in multiple subjects
- Emphasis on Relationships and Reflective thought…looping teachers develops relationships with students. Reflective thought cannot take place with no relationships.
- Professional Development is NOT mandated.
- Strong Leadership
He gave me lots to think about. What are your thoughts???
Dean;
I like the thoughts about explaining why we need to change, not just saying we need to do it. I worked as a consultant in our small district for several years and found myself constantly running up against the wall of people who feel that the changes we were trying to make were jsut another example of a new priority. People were almost “innnovationed” out. They had seen things come and go and none of them stuck. They knew if they just rode out their time, priorities would change again. And with the overturn of administrators we had, they were of course correct.
I think Daggett is definitely on to a lot we need to both think about more deeply and act upon. He has impressive statistics to back up his points too, he was a keynote speaker at our statewide tech conference last year in Texas. I am glad to see people like Daggett advocating not just for change, but also showcasing folks who can serve as models for others in making the changes we need.