Everybody Learns, Everybody Teaches -- Inspirations for Back to School

By Sarah Goldin, Ph.D., Partner and Director of Qualitative Research

It’s that time of year again!  It’s August and “Back to School” is in full effect.

I’ve been reflecting over the past week on all the “new” that a new school year brings.  The nervous excitement and anticipation of:

• New relationships and collaborations with and between students, faculty/staff and school leadership

• New priorities and initiatives for learning design, curriculum, program, pedagogy, and assessment

• New challenges posed by new conditions -- both internal and external

All the “new” is enough to daunt even the most seasoned of educators!  

So how to make sense of it all?  How might school leadership, faculty/staff, and students collectively organize around a shared “North Star” that brings all of the important and urgent work of schools together under a cohesive and more manageable throughline?    

I was thinking all these thoughts when the podcast and article “Apprenticeship Gets a Makeover” (McKinsey & Company, July 28, 2022) came into my inbox.  Although written for/from a business perspective, the insights therein immediately resonated, suggesting a powerful approach – with supporting and specific tactics/skills – to help make all of the complicated work of schools feel both simpler and more integrated. 

So here’s my “Back to School” wondering and challenge:  

What if we reframed our understanding of ALL that schools do – and every relationship through which work gets done – as a powerful apprenticeship opportunity through which “everybody learns and everybody teaches”?  

For example, professional development, priorities/goals, and reflection/evaluation processes for instructional faculty could adopt an apprenticeship stance – forging collaborative teams of teachers who learn with and from each other through peer-to-peer modeling, coaching, iteration, and reflection.  At the same time, instructional faculty across all grades and subject areas could emphasize the same approaches in learning design – curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment – with their students.  Similar peer-to-peer apprenticeship could support leadership teams in making coordinated progress across school-wide priorities and initiatives.        

If we collectively commit to the mindset that every task and relationship is an opportunity to “learn by doing” -- through the intentional and consistent practice of modeling, scaffolding, coaching, fading, and reflection -- we promote positive and collaborative culture, and create conditions for more powerful learning by both students and adults. 

For more about apprenticeship frameworks and how they can be leveraged to foster a culture of continuous learning, see also:

• “What Is Cognitive Apprenticeship And How Does it Make Thinking Visible?” (Tomsett, John.  Teaching Times. 2021

• “Reviving the art of apprenticeship to unlock continuous skill development” (McKinsey & Company, October 21, 2021)

• “Cognitive Apprenticeship in Classroom Instruction: Implications for Industrial and Technical Teacher Education” (Duncan, Sarah.  JITE v33n3. 1996)

Part 2: Not Enough Teachers? What Schools Need to Know

By Cara Gallagher, Director of Thought Leadership, and Stephanie Rogen, Principal & Founder

Part one of this blog examined early data about the teacher talent supply and how we might better understand whether there is a shortage. Part two continues the conversation with guidance and further data that answer these essential questions: 

• Do you have a teacher retention problem? Use internal data to define the problem, and understand and address the needs of your talent.

• How do you attract, protect, and develop your talent? Support and protect your talent by investing in their growth.

Do you have a teacher retention problem?

Data matters; your data matters more: Schools need to collect their own internal data to reconcile findings at national levels with what is happening on the ground. You need your own data to help you a) separate the signal from the noise and b) understand more deeply what sustains or challenges a healthy talent pool in your school. Remember, context matters and comparisons to other schools don’t tell the whole story. National data can sometimes exclude critical factors such as school affiliation (public, private, parochial), size, grade levels taught (K-8, K-12, 9-12), region, and boarding and/or day status. Moreover, culture is not accounted for in big data sets. A better and more comprehensive story can be told by comparing longitudinal data that tracks internal trends backwards over the last five years, i.e. data before, during, and (hopefully) after COVID, coupled with a frank assessment of your school’s culture and how it values and supports talent.

To do this, you need to collect and use internal data to inform your talent strategy. Without adequate data, anecdotes and perceptions tend to rule the day and fuel anxiety and misguided conclusions. Let your data replace anecdotes, assumptions, and feelings with facts, forecasts, and invitations for employees to see and talk about what’s really going on inside the organization.

Work with your senior leadership team to gather data to answer these critical questions:

1. What is your retention rate this year? How does it compare to your retention rates in the years prior to COVID? 

2. How can you contextualize your data to uncover what percent of exits were planned (retirements, elimination of a role, etc.) versus unplanned attrition?

3. What themes and patterns can you lift up from your exit interviews to better understand the factors causing teachers to quit unexpectedly?

4. How do those factors relate to what you can control in your school versus what is a reflection of larger, macro trends?

Data can tell you a lot about whether your retention and attrition rates are outpacing national rates and what’s happening that’s specific to your school. The next and perhaps most important conversation uses that data to inform your approach to recruitment, development, and retention - and to help ensure you align that approach to the needs of students as well as adults. 

It’s not easy: Effective hiring, onboarding, professional development and retention strategies are hard to come by and require significant investment of time, talent, and dollars. Investing now is a critical risk mitigant. We protect our assets by purchasing insurance, guarding our budgets and endowments, and maintaining, renovating and expanding our physical plants. And yet when it comes to schools protecting their greatest asset – their talent – we’d argue many schools do not invest in the people they have. They overinvest in search and underinvest in development. Ensuring a strong pipeline of talent, and ensuring you retain and develop great teachers and teacher leaders are expensive, time consuming processes. Retaining valuable talent needs to be a priority to maintain consistency in the student experience and to ensure effective mentorship, coaching, collaboration, effective teamwork, and a culture where everyone learns and grows. 

So we know why talent matters, and now you’ve evaluated your internal data. Maybe things are stable – Congratulations! But, maybe you see seeds of a retention problem or uncover more serious problems. Why is it happening and what do you do about it?

Is burnout your problem? To some, the word “burnout” has become a noisy and potentially misunderstood, and easy concept to explain “The Great Resignation.” In truth, burnout is a multifaceted condition that may or may not be linked to any number of factors in a particular school —although the pandemic has been a profound accelerant. To this point, in a January 2022 survey of National Education Association members, 90% of the respondents said that feeling burned out is a serious problem, and the causes of burnout may be directly linked to consequences and burdens of COVID-19: 

Is burnout the only problem? If so, is it temporary? Protecting your talent by supporting them so they come out of two very difficult COVID years stronger, restored, and more secure is first order work for all schools, but don’t jump to the assumption that burnout is either the sole cause or the at the root of what might be driving turnover in your organization. Most talent challenges are multi-faceted - and quit rates or issues with recruitment are often lagging indicators that point to complex issues. 

How do you attract, protect, and develop your talent?

Align to your values: Adults join organizations because they see (or hope for) alignment between their personal values and the values of the institution.  Clarity about what professional standards and expectations, using commonly understood terms to describe work at your school, goes a long way towards an aligned faculty and staff. For example, consider the ubiquitous worries about burnout: Defining terms and building shared language around what people think burnout is and is not are good ways to learn more about personal experiences, build empathy, and come to an agreement about expectations for your school. Consider using Dr. J Eric Gentry’s research and books on compassion fatigue and burnout. According to Dr. Gentry, burnout is often a symptom of one’s inability to de-identify oneself from one’s work. Those who work in education tend to be more susceptible to burnout given the caregiving, nurturing, and highly relational nature of the work. 

Lead with listening: Seasoned talent strategies often begin with deliberate and deep listening campaigns. Set aside time during an all-school meeting with faculty and staff to share their reactions to your internal data analyses to see what if anything resonates with them personally. Share the language of professional expectations, work equity, and work/life balance and invite employees to make sense, offer productive solutions, and expand leadership knowledge of the issues. 

Be intentional: An effective talent development  strategy takes work and calls for an understanding of what your talent needs and values, thoughtful design, and careful, and actionable solutions to underlying challenges. A culture that supports, develops, and recognizes talent will grow your teachers, nurture leaders, prevent attrition, and attract external candidates.

Create the culture students need and teachers want: Some interesting research has emerged from MIT Sloan School of Management that indicates money is no longer the sole factor that keeps people in their jobs – not surprisingly, people also seek recognition, connection, and culture. To this point, researchers Dr. Don Sull and Charlie Sull (Father-Son team) found that the best predictor of attrition was the degree of “toxicity” present in the culture of the organization or company. 

This is particularly true for Millennial and Gen Z employees. In their evaluations of thousands of company comments on Glassdoor, the Sulls found the following as the leading causes of toxicity:

• Identity exclusion

• Disrespect

• Unethical behaviors

• Low integrity

• Cutthroat environment

• Abusive management 

An adult culture where these conditions are present model and manifest conditions that are in direct opposition to what young people need to learn and thrive. Leaders who ensure that a healthy adult culture, in service of supporting students, can engage faculty and staff in reasonable and mission-aligned solutions. Schools that demonstrate a commitment to healthy culture and higher retention rates also foster change-ready environments that can adapt to and manage challenges, transitions, or crises. 

Invest, Invest, Invest! People are more likely to stay in a job when their employers support their wellbeing, care about them as human beings, compensate them fairly, and create conditions for inclusion. But that’s not enough. New research continues to confirm what we already know: to develop, attract, and retain talent, you must invest in their growth and development. According to Udemy Business 2022 Workplace Learning Trends Report, “Investing in workforce development facilitates employee productivity, keeps employees engaged and satisfied in their work, boosts employee retention, and supports the innovation needed to grow revenue.” Offering opportunities to upskill or reskill signals recognition to your talent and proves you are invested in supporting and advancing their careers.

At GLP, we observe many schools that underinvest in mission aligned talent and talent development relative to other priorities. Examination of budgets is an easy and illuminating way to ask: Are we prioritizing talent as a mission critical asset? Are we putting our money where our mouth is? Investing in developing a talent strategy, and then executing it powerfully, will be a defining characteristic of high performing schools and exceptional student outcomes. Make sure your board of trustees includes members with talent development expertise — who can help create and innovate staffing strategies, policies, and systems that support your objectives. Finally, know that data matters — and before you compare yourself to others, understand what’s happening in your school. 

We hope this post offers some concrete and immediate next steps to identify and learn more about why your talent may be leaving and what to do to mitigate attrition. We’d love to know more about what’s working in your school!

Not Enough Teachers? What Schools Need to Know (Part I)

By Cara Gallagher, Director of Thought Leadership, Associate Director of Qualitative Research, Consultant

Are we Facing a Teaching Talent Crisis? GLP weighs in on the national dialogue.

Last summer was the first time this question came on my radar. Someone forwarded me a Twitter post about a group on Facebook called “Leave Teaching…And Smile :-).” Curious, I discovered that not only did it exist, it had over ten thousand members (it currently has 14,000). A quick search of the word “teaching” in the groups section of Facebook surfaced at least five whose sole charge is to help teachers leave the field. One group called “Life After Teaching - Exit the Classroom and Thrive” has 81,000 members and functions both as a one-stop shop where burnt out teachers can get emotional support, peruse jobs posted by other members, and connect with transitional career counselors and resumé coaches. 

This trend is not unique to primary and secondary education. Academics in higher education are feeling the same strains and taking their frustrations to Facebook. One group called “The Professor Is Out” – created only a year ago and already has 24,000+ members – was created to help tenured professors leave higher education. Subreddit group r/Professors has 100,000 members and offers “a place for professors to BS with each other, share professional concerns, get advice and encouragement, vent (oh, especially that), and share memes.”

Teachers Leaving is not a “New” Problem

What strikes me is that most of these groups were created before the pandemic. Interestingly, many were formed in 2018 or 2019, immediately before Covid started. This certainly challenges the prevailing narrative that Covid caused teachers to flee classrooms for different careers. While the formation of these Facebook groups may have begun before the pandemic, it’s fair to assume burnout and job fatigue were underlying conditions that Covid may have worsened at an accelerated rate.

So our answer to the question about whether or not we have a talent crisis is “Yes, and no.”

Context… a Slow Burn, and Conflicting Data

The teacher shortage is more than a decade in the making: Remember that the field historically has always had a higher turnover rate than others. Thirty percent of educators leave the field within 6 years of entering it. After secretaries, childcare workers, paralegals, and correctional officers, teachers have the fifth highest turnover rate by occupation. 

In November, the Wall Street Journal published an article about quit rates across different sectors. One data point that was particularly troubling was that “quits in the education sector—which accounts for a larger share of employment in Northeastern states than many others—have risen at the fastest pace of any industry since January (2021).” In May of 2021, the National Department of Labor reported public education employment dropped to levels not seen since August of 2000. 

These two points, combined with a reality that the pipeline of teachers entering education training programs has been in a steady decline since 2010, raise some concerns; however, what they don’t take into consideration is the degree to which Covid has adversely impacted the teacher workforce. 

New research gives us a glimpse of how Covid may be disrupting both the current and future teacher labor market. According to American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) member surveys, in 2021 and 2022 about 20% of institutions reported a decline in new undergraduate enrollment of 11% or more; 19% of undergraduate-level and 11% of graduate-level teaching programs saw a significant drop in enrollment this year. Additionally, in February, the NEA published an alarming report that “55 percent of educators are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned.” This is an 18% jump from when teachers were asked about their likelihood of leaving last August and takes into account factors such as their age, years of service, proximity to retirement, role at the school and impact on children. 

But talking about leaving is not the same as leaving: Chad Aldeman, a researcher at Georgetown’s Edunomics Lab who studies public education policy and the teacher labor market, recently found “the [teacher] quit rate has held at lower or average rates during the pandemic. But here’s the thing, openings are way outpacing hiring right now, and that’s partially thanks to the big infusion of federal funding that’s created the opportunity to hire more people, and that’s leading to a higher vacancy rate.” Aldeman also points out “voluntary ‘quit’ rates were slightly above the 20-year average, while ‘total separations’ that include quits, layoffs and retirements were slightly below average. State-level data for teachers shows that turnover has remained on par with long-term historical trends.” With that said, Alderman is cautiously optimistic. “The story of next year has yet to be told,” he said.

To compare public school data with independent and private schools, NAIS Career Center looked at monthly job postings before and during the pandemic to see what if any impact Covid had. “Because of the traditional contract renewal schedule, the peak job posting activity usually occurs in March and April. If we consider 2019 as a representative pre-pandemic year and compare the job postings to 2021, we see that, after a delayed start, the number of jobs posted were consistently and significantly higher than the pre-pandemic patterns. Even more troubling is what we are seeing for this year. The number of job postings in 2022 is even higher. Overall, the number of new jobs posted to the Career Center in the first three months of 2022 is 59% higher than in 2021.”

According to NAIS, “clearly the fact that the number of job postings is so high relative to historical data is an indicator that schools are facing hiring pain.”

Another troubling data point is that there was a 12% decline in the number of job seekers looking at openings posted to NAIS job center database. 

Conditions, Perceptions, and the Problem 

When the data conflict, we are left with no conclusions and the news cycle coupled with anecdotal observations fill the vacuum. And as we know: Perception is one version of reality. 

But if it feels like teachers are fleeing schools as part of this phenomenon we’re calling “The Great Resignation,” there’s probably some truth to that. The reality is that teachers – like everyone else during the pandemic – took stock and reevaluated their lives, jobs, and futures. They looked around and saw school boards shouting over what they could and couldn’t teach, how to be healthy and safe, and whether or not they were “essential”. Teachers switched up their lesson plans for in-person, hybrid, and/or online learning on a moment’s notice and endured an endless stream of thundering emails, opinions, and national debates about whether or not kids should stay home, learn online, go back in person, and wear a mask. As these challenges continued through the end of the 2020 school year and settled into the next two years, so did symptoms like fatigue and burnout. 

Some educators realized they wanted the same freedoms afforded to those who worked from home since the start of the pandemic. The decreased responsibilities and an ability to find more separation or balance in their personal lives and their jobs appealed to them. As one member of the Facebook group “The Professor Is Out” put it, “The pandemic really exposed the cracks in the foundation and made people realize that this is not a healthy way to live. And I think that that was a wake-up call, sort of across the entire industry, that there's other options out there.”

The exact percentage of teachers that have left the field due to these “pull” factors might not be possible to gather data on for a while. It hasn’t been long enough to collect data and draw any concrete conclusions. With that said, can schools afford to wait to find out if this is or isn’t going to be a mild headache versus a full blown crisis? 

No, they can’t. The simple truth is that if educators are leaving the field and the pool of applicants is eroding, you have to take steps immediately to 1) understand the problem within your school or system and 2) develop fresh approaches to how you recruit and retain your current talent. 

Stay tuned! We’ll offer some concrete suggestions in our next blog and welcome your comments and insights as we finalize the next post.

Reminder: Read Our Recent Blueprint!

Our most recent Blueprint is dedicated to offering you timely, helpful resources on leadership (both for teams and team leaders) to bolster your collaborations, and facilitate productive, effective, and energizing experiences. While summer is often when organizations retreat to reflect back on the year and design plans for the future, anytime is the right time to focus on leadership, teaming, and organizational improvement. Let our recent Blueprint serve as a starting point for you to find resources about how to hone leadership skills, strengthen the efficacy of teams, and create a culture of coaching. 

We offer two sections of this Blueprint. The first section focuses on the purpose, discipline, and composition of teams. The second focuses on ​​being a team player. Teams with clear focus and purpose are essential but cannot perform at their best without the right dynamics, so how do you cultivate conditions for high performance? At GLP we believe coaching and facilitation skills are super powers in every context and especially when working with teams and team members. If there is one thing to help make you and your team more effective, it’s creating and sustaining a culture of coaching, and these articles help with that aim. Leaders who model a coaching culture demonstrate the value of collaboration, feedback, and vulnerability and inspire colleagues to follow suit.

Sign up to receive future copies of the Blueprint!

July 2023: “WOW! That was fast…”

By Sarah Goldin, Ph.D.  Partner and Director of Qualitative Research 

When meeting new clients I often summarize my career/learning journey to GLP as “Research scientist turned science educator turned education researcher”.  Representing a melding of these interests, the June 27, 2022 New York Times article “CRISPR in the Classroom” really struck a chord.

As a doctoral candidate studying Genetics and Development in the late 1990s-early 2000s, I worked in a lab that researched the function of a family of genes called the “T-Box genes” using mice as a genetic model.  One key avenue of inquiry into the roles of these genes was to create “targeted knockout” mice – i.e. mice that entirely lacked a specific gene – and then observe how the absence of that particular gene impacts development of the embryo.  And so I spent four of my six total years of graduate school trying – sadly, unsuccessfully – to make a targeted mouse knockout for the gene Tbx 2.  You'll have to trust me that my lack of success was NOT because of gross ineptitude on my part, but rather due to the vagaries of the very complicated and sensitive series of experimental steps required to make that happen.  Fortunately, a later graduate student and colleague finally succeeded in generating a Tbx2-knockout mouse (if you are inclined, feel free to check out Zach’s work here!).  

So what’s my point?   

The very first “knockout mice” – mice containing the first targeted deletion of a specific gene – were generated in 1989 (see e.g. here and here).  That the technique could work at all, no matter how problematically or inefficiently, marked a sea-change in the study of genetics. Excited by the possibilities, scientists throughout the 1990s and 2000s struggled to create targeted mouse knockouts for their gene of interest one gene at time – and doing so required an extremely high level of technical expertise and sophisticated (and expensive!) equipment and supplies. 18 years later, Cappecchi, Evans, and Smithies were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells." 

Fast forward to 2012, and the advent of the CRISPR technique.  CRISPR was first reported in a June 2012 article in Science magazine by Emmanuelle Charpentier and  Jennifer Doudna (and others).  Only 8 years after this first publication, Charpentier and Doudna were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of a method for genome editing” using the CRISPR technique.  Perhaps the “Nobel Prize fast track” says it all, but it is impossible to overstate how much of a “game changer” CRISPR was for the study of recombinant DNA and genetics.  That which previously took painstaking years with a fairly high failure rate could now be accomplished far more reliably in a highly compressed timeframe and in a much more resource/cost-effective way. 

Even faster forward to 2022, and now targeted gene editing can be accomplished by your typical high school student in a matter of days using commercially available kits from any of a number of educational supply companies, including BioRad, Carolina, Rockland, and Innovative Genomics.  Holy moly! 

Granted, students using these kits are working with fast-growing relatively simple bacteria (not mice), but the essential point (and why the article “CRISPR in the Classroom” made me say “Wow!”) is the accelerating pace of change exemplified by this one specific scientific technique.  And not just acceleration in the timeline, with profound advancements happening in shorter and shorter intervals of time, acceleration in every aspect of the technology – how long the technique itself takes to complete, decrease in cost of materials, and decrease in expertise required to successfully use the technology.

When GLP works with schools we explicitly name this accelerating pace of change as an ongoing condition - otherwise known as VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). Whether we’re talking about advancements like CRISPR or disruptive events like COVID, we have long asserted that all organizations must intentionally cultivate agility, adaptability, and a culture of continuous learning to thrive -- at every level and across every role.  It’s an imperative for organizational longevity -- and it's an even larger imperative for our learners.   

Educational Mission: Back to the Work of Why

““Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate
integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and
bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by
which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover
how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
—Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed”

An election approaches in the midst of pandemic, economic crisis, racial injustice, environmental disasters, and social unrest. I find myself asking: how do we, as adults, help young people make sense of our world? What is the role of school and of education now - in the lives of our children?

Complexity is here. Actually, it’s been here for quite some time. Sadly, we struggle to make progress in addressing essential human needs and rights. Every thorny challenge, when reduced to one issue or interest, is often avoided, argued, or made worse. Tensions escalate. Violence erupts. Political posturing overrides empathy, listening, and civil discourse. Individuals and their actions are met with outrage or applause, so that they might be held up in defense of one point of view or another, or so that they might illuminate or distract from the bigger, underlying issue that is at the core. And in the chaos, some of us lose sight of the pain and suffering, the lived experiences, the rippling implications, and the larger consequences to society. We lose the “big picture” and deep understanding of how individual actions or incidents relate to a much larger context too complex to name. The roots of our problems continue to grow. 

What do our children see? 

Our children see too many examples of adults behaving badly, with glib, unkind, and ill-informed retorts and arguments grounded in attack rather than reason and evidence. Our hard truth is that we don’t all agree about the truths, and thus, many adults have staked out their corners to merely argue positions.  They stop seeking truth, because they have their truth. They stop listening. Children see adults throw up their hands and dismiss problems, or opponents, as intractable; they see adults react with avoidance and dismay, or moral authority, or worse still, contempt.

How’s that working?

For the sake of conversation, let’s look instead to our children for direction. All of us have experienced the child who relentlessly asks “why” questions in a spiraling line of inquiry that, if we are patient, takes us to places where we no longer have easy answers.

A child’s method is an earnest and wise approach to making sense of the world and of testing assumptions we adults may have long forgotten to test.  If we allow ourselves to be uncomfortable in exploring the why, to be patient with the ambiguity, to follow the student, to go where there is no single right answer, or where the answer no longer makes sense, we just might make some headway. Young children are unconcerned with ideology. They are observers and actors, far more curious about questions and where they might lead. Adolescents grapple with ideas, and push boundaries -- seeking community with their peers as they test and challenge others. Our job is to engage them at whatever stage, to help them formulate good questions, to explore their provocations, to develop the skills of empathy, inquiry, analysis, and respectful dialogue, and to notice and integrate what works. In other words, in matters of philosophy, humanity and the great questions of our time, our job might be reframed from the responsibility to teach,  to the responsibility to  help them learn. Whether in circle time, the physics lab, the art room, or the playing field, these opportunities present - and we must be ready.

Educators must be “on the balcony”— now more than ever.

What happens when difficult questions, challenges, and uncomfortable statements emerge from students? Barring bigoted, hateful, or personal attacks, great teachers know students’ search for answers on the “big questions” cannot be reduced to one issue, one argument, or one set of data. We pursue truth in the complex space where our histories, cultures, choices, and values converge, where what we observe and what we know coexist with the possibilities of what we may not know, and what assumptions can be tested. We must look at all of it now, and we must relentlessly ask why - knowing that there will be many answers yielding more questions.

We must try to make sense of where we are with students - not by reducing and narrowing our questions to one answer or one perspective - but instead by widening them to embrace multiple viewpoints, leading us toward a deeper understanding; one that often lies at the intersections. That means allowing diverse perspectives to enter the classroom, with respect and tolerance, and with an open pursuit of inquiry and evidence. That means the educators do the work alongside the student, developing the skills and capacities through modeling, practice, and feedback.

Parents, educators, and schools begin by welcoming questions that begin with “why” and seeking the many perspectives that might inform that exploration. We do this when we invite learners to lead, when we are willing to engage with their hard questions or uncomfortable observations, and when we acknowledge, rather than judge, the natural emotions or wonderings that spur the questions.

• We do this with dialogue, structured and informal

• We do this with rigorous research and inquiry, 

• We do this with disciplined and creative work, 

• We do this in open and respectful conversation that includes everyone in the room, 

• We do this with care, and in our best moments, we do all of this with love. 

Pedagogy and practice are our essential tools.

By designing learning experiences, and then allowing for the questions and challenges that emerge, teachers work with students to find relevance and meaning, and to make sense of the content. The content itself becomes less important, as students are encouraged to explore, probe, create, make, compose, build, perform, and produce what matters - and to produce with excellence. 

Because so much learning happens in dialogue and relationships, let’s ensure that foundation is strong. The  subject matter or discipline is important context, and as students are invited to explore, with their many perspectives, let’s ask why, let’s listen, let’s see things anew, working through discourse to learn and to find common ground.  

So what does it look like  to be on the balcony? 

To be on the balcony is to is to insist that we, as educators, focus on learning - that we rise above our own perspectives to empower our students as they make sense of our world:

• As leaders, educators model the way, inviting these questions and cultivating conversations between and among students of any age to develop them as independent learners, critical thinkers, and respectful citizens. 

• As facilitators, educators help students explore: to establish perspective and understand context, to seek evidence, explore content and data, analyze different arguments, and construct knowledge. 

• As compassionate adults, educators honor students as they are: withholding judgment as they raise the bar for scholarship, empathetic listening, and respectful dialogue. 

School leaders and educators, let’s get on the balcony. Let’s invest in developing the tools and capacities to help students learn, ask questions, listen respectfully, and make sense of their world. Let’s ensure we create conditions for young people to enter the world better equipped to lead than the leadership they see now. Then we might  do what Freire calls us to do: to empower learners “to deal creatively and critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world”.

The Case for the Executive Committee

During the course of the pandemic, many board leaders have asked us about the purpose and role of their Executive Committees.  We couldn’t be happier about this question. It’s our view that a purposeful and well composed Executive Committee (EC) can be integral to a successful board / head partnership, a healthy board culture, and effective governance. 

We know this may be counter to the prevailing wisdom: when we ask trustees why their EC operates in form but not function, the most common response is that they have been told this is best practice, designed to guard against becoming a “board within a board” and assuming power that renders the larger body of trustees ineffectual.

We certainly don’t support an all-powerful EC that functions as a “board within a board”’  But the solution to, in effect, disable the EC in order to guard against a power play strikes us as the wrong solution, designed for a misdiagnosed problem. The problem is not that ECs exist; the problem is how ECs are designed and operationalized. The key to an effective EC is its mission and membership: it relies on capable trustees who cultivate, with their head of school, shared institutional purpose and a commitment to transparency. 

If we consider the Executive Committee to be a facilitating body, represented by the committee chairs and a few select trustees chosen for their perspective and capacity, we transform its purpose and function.  In this conception, the EC operates as an important glue -- forging a strong communication loop between Head and Board, and distributing leadership in a way that promotes transparency, effective and efficient communications, and opportunities for meaningful learning and development among trustees. In short, the EC is a mechanism to better support your Head, develop trustees, and ensure a healthy climate and function for governance. 

Portrait of a High Performing Executive Committee

A high performing Executive Committee has a clear purpose: in short, an EC should function as a facilitating and representative agent of the board, with the express purpose of ensuring strong Head support, upholding norms and standards for board engagement, promoting transparent communication, and cultivating depth and breadth of leadership.

A high-performing Executive Committee strives to achieve important benefits: 

• Distribution of Leadership and a Stronger School-Board Partnership:  In many schools, an inactive EC is often coupled with a Board president- Head of School relationship that drives the school board partnership.  There is no question that a healthy Board Chair/HOS relationship matters, but it can be enhanced and strengthened by expanding it to the EC. As a matter of fact, the risks associated with Chair-Head centric leadership are perhaps greater than those associated with an EC that operates as a “board within a board”.  

  • By opening the circle to a well composed EC, Heads are offered better advice, broader perspective, and improved dynamics for collaboration. 

  • Likewise, Chairs are better supported, with EC colleagues who can “pinch-hit” in times of need, and share in the efforts to facilitate the work of the board. 

• Improved Transparency and Coordination: an effective  EC is naturally positioned to act as a facilitator and two-way feedback loop to the board’s standing committees, task forces, and individual trustees.  

  • As issues and questions present themselves, executive committee members can initiate dialogues, with individual trustees and groups - to share information and solicit input.  

  • Committee work can be coordinated; intersections and overlaps are identified and cross disciplinary work  encouraged. 

  • Issues the Head brings to the EC for purposes of information and/or thought partnership can be communicated to the wider board in a more transparent approach that is inclusive of all trustees. 

• Board Learning, Leadership Development, and Succession Planning: a strong pipeline and continuum of capable board leadership is essential to stable and effective governance, but not every school has enjoyed a long line of board leadership. In some cases, it’s because the job, whether as board or a committee leader, is viewed as undesirable. Moreover, research indicates that healthy board leadership and the longevity of a successful Head’s tenure are correlated; where we see frequent Head transitions, we often also see weakness in board leadership.  

  • A high functioning EC is an excellent context for leadership development, offering high potential board leaders the opportunity to learn, work, and contribute around enterprise-wide matters, in active partnership with the Head.  

  • Board Chair transitions, and committee chair positions,  are well supported by EC colleagues who are ready to support and mentor new leaders. Working closely with the Governance committee, a healthy executive committee cultivates a thriving leadership pool.

Tips for Executive Committees That Work

Commitment to consistent practices and protocols can  be helpful in ensuring a healthy and high functioning EC:  these practices mitigate against some of the risks that have discouraged boards from activating their committees and, instead, encourage the healthy benefits we list above.

• Design for Trust: Compose your committee with the chairs of your standing committees and include other trustees who bring valuable expertise, perspective and/or capacity to the Head of School. Consider and delineate what meetings can be used as a confidential and low risk environment for the Head to discuss sensitive topics or concerns, and where you might have an “open” meeting” for the purposes of transparency and information sharing.  Ensure that issues that go beyond conceptualization in private meetings are properly vetted with the wider board, using the EC members as agents for agenda setting and communication.

• Design for Two-Way Communications: As always, you can never over-communicate. Communications can be for the purpose of transmitting information and updates, agenda and goal setting, soliciting trustee input, and ensuring trustee engagement and support. Build a systematic process for two-way communications between the EC and the Head, and the EC and the wider board. Your approach might include regular meetings between Head and EC, with minutes that are posted to the Board portal; targeted updates by EC members to their committees and key trustees or relevant stakeholders; and regular check-ins with all trustees after board meetings or for input on critical issues. Consider how technology can assist with dialogue and confidentiality - whether via your board platform and/or other messaging and project management tools.

• Design for Integration and Enterprise-Wide Governance: The EC ensures that dialogue across, within  and between committees and task forces is well coordinated - helping to synthesize strategic work and facilitate effective work planning and decision-making. See our Adaptive Boards white paper for a deeper dive into committee structures that encourage strong coordination.

• Design for Clarity: a well supported and high functioning EC stems from clarity of role and purpose. If you are just getting started and evolving the role of your EC, take time to work with your trustee colleagues to clearly articulate the role and function of the EC. Clarify expectations for transparency and communication, and ensure that you’ve defined the rare occasion when and under what conditions an EC might meet in private with or without the Head (for example, in cases of student or staff privacy, discipline matter, or if you are discussing a matter pertaining to head performance).

• Design for Data Enriched Dialogue:  EC’s function better with the right data and a forum for effective inquiry and exchange. By ensuring dialogue inside EC, there is opportunity to practice conversations, “test” issues, and collect data and input that inform a deeper dive into strategic or mission critical decisions the Board will undertake.  EC’s can help a Head direct and even centralize data collection and analytics, building infrastructure for effective strategic planning, oversight, and policy development. 

Don’t let old and antiquated practices hinder your ability to build and operationalize an effective Executive Committee. Every board must examine for itself what structures and practices are most valuable to effective governance, ensuring the capacity to flex and adapt as needed. An Executive Committee that can partner effectively with your Head and lead and facilitate the work of the Board is a great place to begin.

June 2020: A Call to Boards and School Leaders

A Blog in Three Parts

By Georgy Ann Peluchiwski and Stephanie Rogen

This three part blog post is a result of several conversations between Georgy Ann Peluchiwski and Stephanie Rogen as we reflected independently and together about where we find ourselves at this moment in time in our world. In our dialogue, we traced a throughline of lessons learned from our work together in support of the Latin School of Chicago -- and in our work with many wonderful schools. While this short series in no way fully wrestles with the complexity and gravity of where we are now, we hope it offers some inspiration and some practical guidance as we work towards a better future for our students and our communities. 

Part One: A Call to Communicate

Is this time different? We think it has to be, and it starts by communicating with purpose, so that we can expand and sustain conversation and action in pursuit of racial justice.  Following the horrific death of George Floyd, on the heels of Ahmaud Arbery and a long and shameful history of similar incidents, the national outcry for change erupted once again - bringing people out onto the streets despite a global pandemic. School leaders, knee deep in addressing the complexities of Covid-19,  struggled to make sense of this for their communities when everyone was socially distanced; connected at best, by Zoom. Most schools, if not all, sent some communication as an attempt to acknowledge the anger, hurt, fear, and care for their Black community members, and to promise that they would be part of the solution to address serious inequities in our country.  School communities are responding to these statements, and a wide array of voices are sharing experiences, demanding progress, questioning collective commitment, and seeking specifics about how their schools will effective positive and sustained change. In GLP’s work with schools, we’ve noticed the wide range of emotions, stories, and demands evoked by these school communications, and in some cases, significant reactions and backlash from alumni. Social media has expanded the platform for better and for worse, reminding us that we have many voices within our communities, and the work of communication must be open ended, inclusive, ongoing, clear, and profoundly human in tone if we want to make progress.

Whie it’s imperative to communicate, it’s not easy. Schools that fared best in their initial statements spoke with deliberate and careful consideration of both tone and content, centered in mission and values. 

So now what? Whatever your initial response evoked, you need to keep communicating to cultivate and sustain a productive dialogue in and with your community. 

Broadly, the best strategy is to address your community honestly, to listen openly, with genuine interest and compassion, and to follow up with actions:  This is an ongoing and virtuous cycle, one that invites dialogue, seeks a range of perspectives (most importantly students), incorporates feedback, and results in clear next steps. It’s not a one time response or statement of position. Rather, it’s the beginning or the continuation of the most important conversations we have in any community: how might we become better learners, better citizens, and better people, so that we might all participate in a better world?

These invitations and messages may be delivered by your Head of school or your Head and Board together.  In either case, the Board must be fully aligned and supportive of the Head - this is a matter of institutional purpose.

Specifically, we offer a few tips that might be helpful as you move through this cycle:

• Acknowledge that members of your community, faculty and alumni included, are hurting.  Trustees: act as ambassadors of this message anywhere you can, as stewards and guardians of the institution. Heads, school leaders, faculty and staff: hear the voices and experiences, and ensure you have the space and support to make sense of them together, as you consider how to protect, value, and serve your current students better.

• Be authentic and transparent about where you are as a school.  You may have a long way to go. You may feel you really have not started the work. You may feel that you are deep in the process. Wherever you are - you are not there yet! So speak candidly and lean on your mission and core values as guideposts for the journey. If there is clear, concrete criticism for which you must take responsibility:

• Accept that you are where you are on the journey, and that many constituents are hurt and angry. You may have both current community members and alumni whose lived experiences at your school don’t live up to your current aspirations. 

• Apologize, and promise to do better. It’s okay to be vulnerable and imperfect, in fact it may create an important opportunity to bring your community together to do the hard work that is required. If you are ready, or in process, name what it is specifically that you are doing or that you will do. 

• Model the way. Trustees and leaders have a special responsibility to lead by example: to take the first steps towards serious reflection, learning, and constructive action. As a way to begin, you might consider the appointment of a special group of the board with the purpose of assessing governance in all its dimensions, to ensure the board reflects and represents the culture, composition, and function you want to see in your school, and to examine how policy development can support progress.

Leaders and boards who work together, with one voice, to address their communities with empathy, compassion, and honesty can build a strong foundation for what’s next: a collaborative process that engages everyone in making our schools more just, more inclusive and equitable. Even in times of calm, leading with one voice can be challenging. Let’s start there.

Part Two: A Call to Trustees (from an Independent School Board Chair)

As a white female board chair who has spent two decades working in schools and other non-profit organizations in Chicago, I am personally struggling to find a productive and  meaningful way to contribute to combating racism in our schools and communities.  I attended both a public and an independent school in the 1980s, worked in finance, served on several non-profit boards, and have been a parent and/or trustee at the Latin School of Chicago for the past 18 years.  While I have seen many positive changes in all of these contexts, I recognize with great sadness how far we still have to go.  

Independent schools, like many other institutions, have been actively prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion work as central to their missions.  How this work plays out in the specific context of each school varies; school policies, strategies, and choices reveal the complexity and underlying tensions between rhetoric and the practice. Some of us have been more successful than others.  It is more important than ever that we get this right. 

During the past four years, I have had the great honor of supporting our outstanding head of school, Randall Dunn.  Randall, a Black man, and I, a white woman, have navigated deep divisions in our community that arose in response to actions and initiatives undertaken to create a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable school. We’ve made some mistakes, we’ve had to adjust our thinking as we expanded our perspectives, and we’ve made progress.  I have learned so much from him and from our collective work with our community, and I credit Randall for keeping Latin focussed and committed on what matters most: evolving our culture and program in service of all of our students and families. His leadership is successful because he has been steadfast in purpose, and flexible in practice.  

Three lessons learned in leading the change:  

• First, this is difficult and uncomfortable work. We have to be willing to lean in to the conversations and the work, sometimes amidst uncertainty and criticism. We may be afraid, we may disagree, and we may make mistakes, but we can’t make progress if we avoid what’s uncomfortable.

• Second, we must be unwavering in our commitment to make progress. We need to get this right, and that means we need to acknowledge our mis-steps along the way, and swiftly change course, so that we sustain the work, and expand our insight and skill in achieving our goals.  

• Third, we need to unite in our shared leadership and responsibility for this work. We, as a Board, must move together into the uncomfortable space of frank examination. We must be the change we hope to see - and our progress depends on the recognition that as a Board, we model the way, leading in lock step with our heads and school leaders.
  

Call to Action: 

Today, I ask that we, as trustees, commit and challenge ourselves to examine how we can be part of the solution and agents of change in our schools.  This work likely begins with some frank self-assessment and some tough questions. To begin, let’s acknowledge that many of our boards are predominately white and often over represented by families with long histories in our communities; ones who often command significant economic resources. Given that context:

• How are we able to serve all of the students in our schools equitably?

• Are we willing to challenge the status quo even if it implicates us and our leadership? 

• Do we have the diversity of background, identity, knowledge, skills, and perspectives we need to authentically represent and steward our communities? 

• Are we asking the right questions of ourselves as leaders and listening carefully to all voices in our schools? How do we know? 

• Are we demonstrating true commitment to not just increasing awareness and tolerance but to sustaining deep work to address systemic racism and to prepare the next generation of leaders? 

• Do we speak with one voice? Can we effectively resolve conflict “inside”, so we can act in concert “outside”? 

• How are we holding ourselves and our schools accountable? 

These are big questions, but we can and must begin to do this work. 

Part Three: A Call to Act 

Once you have begun communicating your commitment and engaging your community, it is time to consider how you will act upon this commitment. As a Board and leadership team, there is work to do within, and as you do that work in partnership, you must also move outward to engage your community and undertake concrete, school-wide actions towards your goals. A sound process that establishes a frame for design and decision-making is helpful, if not essential, to productive work and consistent, clear communication.  To design that frame, we offer these suggestions to shape your next steps:

1. Start with Questions: asking people how they feel, what they need, and what might work can lead to deeper commitment, understanding and progress in the long run.

   • What does your community need as a whole? What do key constituencies need?

   • What do you know? What have you learned? What do you NOT know?

   • How can you use focus groups, small dialogues, town-halls, or other opportunities for listening, so that you increase your understanding of where different parts of your community are before moving forward? How can these forums also create opportunities for listening and healing?.

   • As Head of school, what do you need from your board? As a board, what do you need from the Head? Talk openly and frankly about how to stay the course together, and leverage the strengths within.

2. Build The Case: demonstrate that you are not merely reacting and that this work is necessary and mission driven  

   • How can your mission, vision, values and current strategy support and forge alignment with the commitment to act? How might it cause you to adapt your strategy?

   • Work backwards from what you believe is essential for learners: how and why is this essential to the outcomes that matter most for your students?

   • In developing your case, you may want to consider how you incorporate and reflect the  feedback and learnings from the community.   

3. Articulate The Vision: your vision emerges as you listen, become clear about where you are, and build the case for where you want to go. People need to see the destination, and you need to help them 

   • How can vision help people make sense of the many words, ideas, approaches? and theories associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion work at your school. 

   • Consider creating a vision statement for DEI specifically. What other work is important?  

   • What will success look like in your school?  What is it that you aspire to for your students, families, faculty staff and broader community?

   • How will you seek evidence of progress?
     

4. Assess Culture/Systems:  You’ll need to do deeper diagnostic work in  order to identify and solve the right problems. Are you ready?  

   • Where are your various constituent groups? What are their current attitudes, values, interests?  

   • What opportunities and challenges might you face in light of the above?  

   • What language matters to you and how will you define the words you use?  What is right for your school? Do you have common language, definitions and understandings for this work? 

   • What practices or policies are out of sync with where you want to go?

   • How is your current leadership talent, organization and culture currently aligned to the vision you have? What support do you need, board, parents, professional development for faculty and staff?  

5. Craft the Plan:  

   • Create a plan of action that involves your faculty, staff and students

   • Ensure your plan addresses climate, culture, and program/content.

   • Don’t be afraid to highlight and describe work that is already underway or prior accomplishments. These serve as launch points for what is next.  

   • Set expectations clearly; insist on integration rather than a siloed exercise.

   • Insist on deep alignment and agreement between school leadership and the board as to what the work will look like and that it matters.  Externally, the head and the board must be one as you move forward.

6. Communicate Commitment and Accountability. As we mention in part one, communication never stops , and it’s a two-way process.

   • How will you communicate, with frequency, and in many contexts, the case, vision and plan?  

   • How do you demonstrate commitment and create pathways for feedback?

   • What accountability structures can you build in to improve odds of success and demonstrate commitment?

7. Measure and Assess:  

   • Define goals and measure and assess progress periodically (may be qualitative measures).   

   • Assess, and reassess.  Use this information to communicate and course correct where needed.You will not get it right the first time.  That’s okay, continue to assess, ask, adapt and act until you do.

8. Rinse and Repeat! As with your communication, this is all part of the virtuous cycle of positive change and progress.

   • Be prepared to respond if there are mis-steps, while honoring your commitments and values.

Conclusion

This is a call to leadership in an acutely painful moment in history, but in truth, this is the call to work that never ends. Like learning, this is profoundly relational and human work: we must commit to it as an essential part of our mission and purpose in schools. True change will take all of us acting in partnership to lead with compassion and courage to do the right thing for all members of our community. Boards have an important role to play, so lean in, listen, and lead. Our schools, students and our country deserve no less.