Praxis 2: Leading Communities of Practice

Walden University

Ed.D. Program

Certification of Authorship: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I also have cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for the purpose of this assignment, as directed.

Student’s Signature: Derrick Batts, M.L.A.-M.Ed.

Praxis 2

A blue print for urban school success

Derrick Batts, M.L.A-M.Ed

EDAD 8021-1
Proseminar: Leading Communities of Practice

Dr. Carl Beekman, Professor

Praxis Paper Submitted on March 1, 2009

in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Walden University

INTRODUCTION

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that public schools operating under the legal concept of “Separate but Equal” were operating unconstitutionally. In the fifty years since that ruling special population groups that should have benefited from that ruling still experience pubic schools that are widely inefficient and ineffective. The school organizations who typically experience the problems associated with the poor implementation of the Brown Decision are urban public schools. Often when schools districts initiate reform, this systematic change takes the form of funding and program sponsorship to elementary level learners, however when students reach secondary they still face challenges associated with poor funding and program sponsorship. My central research questions is; what would happen if we viewed secondary education (grades 6-12) as a separate entity deserving of its own program and funding considerations. In Praxis One, I stated that based on the literature, school culture has a tendency to shape an individual’s leadership style, taking into account the various leadership archetypes my position remains the same. The perceptions of a school organization can cause leaders to shift their personal beliefs and styles as a means to promote organizational harmony. In the case of an existing school community, these communities have developed and elaborate system of friendships and alliances which tend to transcend the newly appointed administrator, in these situations the staff is more likely to look to peers for guidance and support rather than the administrator.

EVIDENCE FROM LITERATURE

The foundation of systematic secondary school reform is selecting the right people for the school community. If the leader selects the right people for the community they will have all the support they need to accomplish any established goal (Collins). In situations such as these the staff members are more likely to look to the administrator for support and guidance.
In conjunction with getting the right people on the bus and developing a discipline oriented organization (discipline in thought and discipline in action) another important element to consider in terms of urban school leadership is the concept of developing the non-cognitive skills essential to life long success. Tough and Heckman describe non-cognitive skills as a pool of essential life long skills essential in adult level, decision making processes and necessary for successful in all academic endeavors. Specifically described these skills are self discipline, persistence, reliability, and dependability. Heckman surmised that many individuals who fail to successfully graduate from high school or who earn General Education Equivalency Diplomas, lack this pool of skills. Based on my previous action research observations, it is my firm belief that this pool of skills can be develop as early as Pre-Kindergarten thought the process of allocating student responsibilities within the class community. In the middle childhood aged student (age 6-12) these skills can be developed in the context of sports such as martial arts, or team sports such as soccer, football, basketball or hockey.

In older students (age 13-17), this pool of skills can be developed in the context of mentoring activities for younger students such as participation in Big Brothers and Big Sisters programs.

All too often many education professionals emphasis the spirit of “Saving the Student”, as a profession we must dispense with this thinking and more toward the development of non-cognitive skills, developing this pool of skills will provide students with their own internal locus of control and coping skills that will foster lifelong success (Zimmermann).
In terms of leadership, two leadership styles that prove highly effective in Urban Public Schools. The first can be found in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great where he describes a type of leader that he has labeled as “The Level Five Leader”. The traits of a level five leader are:
A Highly capable individual, able to make immediate contribution to the team through talent skills and work habits
A Contributing team member, able to make contributions to individual capabilities that support the group objectives and works effectively in a groups setting.
A Competent Manager who is able to organize people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.
An Effective Leader committed to the vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, simulating higher performance standards.
Level Five Executive Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.

In terms of level-five leadership, it is important to note that this leadership style has very different dynamics depending on wither its concepts are applied in a private or public sector organization.
Among the key characteristics of this leadership profile when applied in a private sector are governance structures that are very clear and hierarchical and straightforward.
Power is typically concentrated in the executive. When implemented properly this leadership profile can often substitute the use of power for the practice of leadership.
This profile takes a dramatic change when applied in the public social sector. When applied in public social sectors key characteristics of this leadership profile are the ambiguous hierarchical structures, which offer very little clarity. In the context of public social sectors this leadership profile lends itself to recognizing true leadership. Public social sectors followers tend to only follow leaders when they agree with and supports that leader’s vision, in public social sector follows then to have the freedom to decide when not to follow. This freedom to choose serves as a natural culling process.
A second leadership style that proves highly effective in Urban Public Schools can be found in Paul Tough’s book, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. In this work, Tough describes and effect that he has named the Superhero Approach.

To outline key the characteristics of this leadership approach the author tells the story of Glen Pinder, a Middle School Principal who is know for establishing very clear expectation for his students and their parents regarding their day to day behavior and academic performance as well as parent participation and his expectations for parental involvement. Other characteristics of this leadership style include a constant process of inspecting and monitoring to ensure compliance with organizationally established expectations. On the quest to high performing urban public school it is important to note that as a leader you have an inherent ability to encourage, support, and guide individuals in your organization toward success. However this only works if they are of a coachable mental framework. Data often suggest that classroom educators and building administrators are typically not very well prepared for the socio-economic challenges that they frequently face in the modern urban school (Sumner).
In the context of my specific learning organization, encouraging others to be successful tends to take on the form of encouraging teachers to embark upon state sponsored programs such as TEEMS, a Texas State sponsored program that supports certified Pre Kindergarten teachers in the implementation of best practices and provides them with mentoring and guidance that facilitates high quality academic experiences for Pre-Kindergarten students to the various advanced degree oriented opportunities which in the case of my school is a local Bilingual Master of Education (BME) program operated through Southern Methodist University or one of the many Education Leadership programs.

Programs of this nature improve the quality of day to day education in a school environment as well as provide employees with a sense of empowerment in their potential career mobility and autonomy which has been noted as a key element in successful schools. Secondly, data suggest a correlation in the number of advanced degreed teachers and a positive school climate (White). It can be also noted that in school that fit this profile there was also a significant reduction in the number of district-wide school drop outs between the grades of 7th and 12th, this reduction in dropout has a positive side effect in that the number of dropout in the range are closely linked to the rates of incarceration (Sanchez). Supporting educators toward advanced degrees provides them with the additional skill sets required to manage the classroom function of schools in Urban America, as a part of an advanced degree program teachers typically spend time analyzing research based information related to classroom best practices which generally improve the quality of instruction and thereby make strides toward education equity.
Other elements that contribute to urban public school success include survey tools such as the Organizational Health Inventory (OHI). OHI is a survey based inventory that uses a multiple perspective approach to guiding school officials and administrators through the process of developing local decisions to local problems.
This inventory emphasizes on issues rather than personalities and often results in a productive issues driven path to improvement. In terms of this inventory a committed school community can develop an action plans for improvement.

In a recent discussion on this topic a professor from the University of Arkansas, the university where this inventory was developed, determined through a cross-referencing of the data from the three most recent statewide assessments and the data from the OHI results from the same three year period suggest that when schools show high OHI scores in the areas of understanding the focus of the organizational goals (Goal Focus), the staffs’ ability to adapt to organizational change (Adaptability), and the overall cohesiveness of the staff (Cohesiveness) these schools tend to show the most dramatic improvements in student achievement. A second value that has been determined as strong indicator of urban public school success is the active use of an open door policy. By analyzing input from instructional staff as it relates to aggressive curriculum adjustments, collaborative analysis and use of student-generated data would reduce the minor disruptions in the areas of internal staff conflicts, concerns from community members that serve to divide a school community (Crawford). Researcher Terrence J. Burgess has also identified nine academic variables that determine college retention these values seemed to lend themselves to predicting potential success among at-risk-students. These factors are Current Cumulative GPA, Semester GPA, Mathematic Assessment Scores, Reading Assessment Scores other demographics may serve to determine success are Race and Ethnicity, English Language Status, Parents Occupation and Income.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In terms of manageability the super-hero effect leadership style is rather labor intensive in that is requires the administrator to remain on “constant patrol” for student behaviors that interfere with instructional time, which in this case is highly sacred due to the lack of instructional inputs occurring outside of the school environment. This leadership style is best employed in school communities where the school is engaged in a struggle to rescue kids whom society has written off where one must absolutely positively produce academic miracles. One central characteristic of a community where this leadership style would be effectively employed is a single school community with a long, consistent track record of academic underperformance, with feeder schools that have failed to provide strong academic foundations for their students. Finally, Tough continues by identifying this strategy as more difficult to implement as a student’s chronological age increases.
Therefore, this strategy is most effective with elementary aged students and although it can be applied in secondary schools it is noted that this leadership strategy is minimally successful as the students are much older in chronological age. This leadership style is rewarding in as an emergency strategy for the quick return on effort that it offers. Because of the intense physical and psychological nature of this leadership strategy it is important to note that you can not employ this strategy as a long term answer for chronic problems you must also develop a transitional plan as a means to bridge into something that offers the long term benefits.

In my analysis of Collins’ theories on leadership it is important to not that the concept of level five leadership has a different dynamic when implemented in the context of a public sector organization as opposed to the implementation in a private sector organization. In many cases public sector workers have chosen to work in the public sector because they have a cause that they are attempting to champion and therefore selecting the right people may not prove difficult. However in terms of implementation of ideas many public sector occupations have legal protections which make the challenge of leading more difficult many of these legal protections

References

Burgess, Terrence John. (2008). Factors affecting Students decision to withdraw from an urban California community college. Walden University, 295 Pages, AAT 3325329.

Collins, Jim. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and others Don’t. Harper-Collins Publishers Inc. New York City, New York.

Collins, Jim. (2005). Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. No information on publishing

DuFour, Rick (ND) Creating the New American School, No Information on Publishing

Tough, Paul (2008). Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to change Harlem and
America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, New York.

Zimmermann, Sandra Hundley (1998). Portrait of success: a situational analysis case study of students challenged by attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Walden University, 284 Pages. AAT9840094

References: Burgess, Terrence John. (2008). Factors affecting Students decision to withdraw from an urban California community college Collins, Jim. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and others Don’t Collins, Jim. (2005). Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great DuFour, Rick (ND) Creating the New American School, No Information on Publishing Tough, Paul (2008) Zimmermann, Sandra Hundley (1998). Portrait of success: a situational analysis case study of students challenged by attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder