“Deep Implementation, Relentless Monitoring”

As I begin my fifth year in Anson County I take pause to reflect on how far we have come in our journey to become a high performing school system. Knowing full well that we have literally only taken small albeit significant first steps toward realizing the vision of all means all.

The challenges of creating at best and shifting at worse the mindset that we can, we will, and we must ensure that all students are prepared for “the next” through mastery of the basic skills of reading, writing, and Algebra is not easy.

Incredible as it may seem the work of cultural transformation resulting in all students demonstrating mastery has greater resisting forces than driving forces. Chief among these is the belief that our students cannot and will not choose to learn. This belief is pervasive and permeates throughout the implementation or lack of, powerful, evidence based, results producing practices and programs.

Our failure to implement to fidelity cannot be limited to beliefs alone. Deep implementation requires frequent, consistent, constant monitoring, relentless if you will by building administration, central office, and peers.

Yes, peers!

Until educators accept and embrace the reality that they have a responsibility to one another – an accountability to one another to implement effective practice, implement programs to achieve classroom, grade level, subject level, school wide, and system wide success, we will not move closer to achieving our mission.

The history of educational reform is replete with examples of limited success. More often or not, results from reform have been contextual and thus limited in utility and import. However, in the few examples of successful reform, evidence of not only changed mindsets but changed behaviors were ubiquitous.

The behaviors were undeniably, uncompromising, and unwaveringly focused on instruction not structure.

Additionally, the changes were not singular. That is, there was no one-way or right way – no single initiative, no single answer, or no single solution that caused the change. Rather, change was produced from a multilevel strategy driven by first and foremost a vision of a preferred future.

I shared at the Leadership Advance that we could if we really wanted to eradicate illiteracy in three years. We have put in place the programs to assist us. Now more than ever we need the behavior and practice of teachers and building administration supported by central administration to implement to fidelity.

Deep implementation occurs when one sees the vision.

Relentless monitoring occurs when one sees the vision.

Beyond seeing it is “owning” it.

The vision of all means all is derived from the school effects research also known as the correlates of effective schools. These correlates, when consistently and constantly present and practiced, paint a picture of the work of teaching and learning accomplished – completed.

When unpacked, the correlates provide an in depth look at the beliefs and behaviors of educators albeit classroom teacher or administrator committed to the learning for all mission.

More often or not, the vision of public schools is distorted or obscured by the obsession with test scores. The mission is convoluted as well by mixed oft competing purposes that at the end of the day are merely whims or the fancy of the day but don’t amount to the enduring habits of learning that are time proven.

The confluence of the economy and increased pressure from DPI with the reality that our school system and all its’ subparts must perform to higher standards is opportunity knocking.

If we are able to harness these factors along with shifting or changing mindsets to the vision of “all means all” and the learning for all mission we will achieve deep implementation.