Whole site approach to improvement Management vs Leadership Workshop 1 - for leadership teams in secondary sites Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness Unit

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 2 Whole site approach to improvement Workshops PURPOSE: To…  build leadership capacity to implement a whole site approach to improvement  collaboratively determine the leadership capacities and site processes required for leaders to ‘lead the learning’ and successfully support improvement  provide a platform for development and team learning in 2011

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 3 Whole site approach to improvement Workshop 1 PURPOSE: The extended leadership team develops an understanding of:  the implications of current research on leadership and improvement  the difference between leadership and management  the transformation of thinking and skills needed to be ‘leaders for learning’

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 4 Improvement is never neutral context It happens in a context historystage It happens with history and in a stage of the development cycle time It happens at a time and in a time frame/period people It relies on people and their willingness, readiness and ability emotional It is emotional, political & social TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 5 Doing our own thing

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 6 Alignment with flexibility

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 7 What constitutes a good lesson? Table Discussions Take 2 minutes quiet time to individually decide your top 4 key elements of a highly effective lesson Spend 6 minutes to share these Take another 5 minutes to agree on the top 4 for your table group, write them down on a piece of paper and decide who will report back…

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 8 What constitutes a good lesson? An example: A clearly stated purpose, with connection to prior learning and real world application Includes explicit teacher demonstration and modelling aloud of key skills/processes Involves time for collaborative practice and individual practice of skills The learning is recapped at the end and linked to future learning Volunteer?

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 9 Time to be provocative… What is current research telling us about LEADING – and the challenges…? What is current research telling us about LEADING IMPROVEMENT – and the challenges…? What is current research telling us about LEARNING – and the challenges…? “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Machiavelli

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 10 Leading… “Leaders and teachers are the key determinants of student success in challenging schools.” (Notes from Keynote address, Alma Harris, ACEL Conference, Darwin 2009.) “Good leaders create the best learner conditions for teachers and students.” (Notes from Alma Harris, op. cit.) “As leaders we need to develop agreements with our teachers on the key universal principles of excellent teaching that we will all use in classrooms, meetings, PD … that become embedded in our daily practice.” (Notes from Keynote Debate - Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin, ACEL Conference, Darwin 2009.) Distributed leadership ( = distributed responsibility) must be the norm in schools now. Teachers can not expect formal leaders to do it all – learning is everyone’s responsibility.” (Notes from Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin, op. cit.)

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 11 Leading improvement… “Good leaders build communities of practice within schools with teachers …where critical collaboration, sharing and reflection on teaching effectiveness lift performance and sustain improvement.” (Notes from Keynote address, Alma Harris, ACEL conference Darwin 2009) “Leaders must look to ways of reducing what they have been doing and spend much more time on influencing and developing colleagues and the quality of learning that their teaching delivers.” (Notes from Keynote Debate - Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin, ACEL Conference, Darwin 2009.) “As leaders, do we know what our students are learning? Do we know what our teachers know about their students and their learning?” (Notes from Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin, op. cit.) TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 12 Learning… “The only way to improve the quality of achievement outcomes, is to improve the quality of instruction.” (Stephen Brown, Hume Regional Director, Victoria) “If teachers are talking about students disconnected from learning outcomes, or taking about learning outcomes disconnected from what they were trying to teach, then they are wasting their time and their students’ time.” (Notes from Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin, op. cit.) “With the pace today, we must look to prevention, not intervention. We need to know exactly who is at risk, in what areas, work out what the problem is and what is needed to prevent it.” (Notes from Viviane Robinson, Ben Levin op. cit.)

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 13 Learning… “The greatest cause of failure in secondary schools is literacy failure, not content.” (Notes from “Leadership for Literacy”, Douglas Reeves, Adelaide 2009) Significant improvement in outcomes came from:  Collaborative agreement of ‘proficiency’  Provision of multiple opportunities for success  Greater emphasis on non-fiction writing (balance)  Laser-like focus on achievement (Notes from D Reeves, op. cit.) Three times the gains in student achievement were made where staff attributed student achievement to causal factors they controlled.” (Notes from D Reeves, op. cit.) Deep knowledge of where students are at, what they know and can do, must be the starting place for all teaching. From Leading for Literacy, Adolescent Literacy Leadership Forum, Ohio Ed Dept TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 14 ‘Effective schools are ones in which principals and teachers focus on student learning outcomes and link this information to improvements in teaching and learning strategies.’ Michael Fullan 2003

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 15 Effective schools: have leaders who are dedicated to obtaining quality performance from teachers and students alike have a climate in which learning is stressed, order exists and all are committed to a single vision are student-oriented and classrooms are permeated with the belief that all students can learn and all are expected to reach their full potential emphasize time on task, require daily homework, and offer a warm and supportive work environment where teachers use a variety of teaching styles and encourage student interaction and team learning. Weller & Hartley, TQM & School Restructuring (1994) TABLE TALK: How does all this sit with your current roles?

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 16 Managing vs Leading Managers: Leaders: Focus on organisational details Articulate vision, purpose Focus on ‘problems’ Focus on ‘ideals’, challenges Deal with goals based on necessity Generate forward goals Are reactive Are proactive Adaptive in thinking and planning Strategic in thinking and planning Are analytical and step-by-step Are creative and big picture Operational Inspirational Work with others Influence others Accept and consolidate status quo Challenge status quo thro’ change and improvement Ask “what’s the bottom-line” Ask “what’s possible”

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 17 Managing… From “current” Coordinator 3, AP and DP J&Ps: Support Deliver Promote Work to develop Provide Maintain Manage Responsible for Liaise with Establish Ensure Collect, analyse and report on Monitor

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 18 Leading vs managing So what needs to change – To shift the paradigm for leaders? To shift the paradigm for staff? In the language we use? In the structures/processes here? TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness 19 Leading …improvement …the Learning Homework: Read the articles provided – at least some… Make some notes on “What the ‘desired future state’ would look like at xxHS if we were all leading improvement and leading the learning?” Come to next session with your notes