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Leadership > The Change Process
Many Paths to Reform
Table of Contents:
Introduction
The neighborhood of Forest Park High School is in a state of urban poverty
and decay, and the conditions under which students live are evident from
the beginning. One student told us, "I feel safe here; it's just when
I go outside that I'm afraid." The entire student population receives
free breakfast and lunch at the school, with two seatings for breakfast.
Located in the large, eastern city of Jefferson, Forest Park is an urban
high school with approximately one thousand students in grades nine through
twelve. A middle school in the same building, under the leadership of
the same principal, serves students in grades six through eight. The regional
superintendent is also housed here.
Adjacent to the school, under separate administration, an elementary
school completes this urban equivalent of the village school complex that
dominated rural America in the first half of this century.
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Focusing the Snapshot
In May 1993 we made our second visit to Forest Park as part of the School
Change Study. This visit included two intensive days of observations in
classrooms and conversations with people in the school community--students,
teachers, administrators, and parents. From the observations we made and
the conversations we had during our visit, we created the following "snapshot."
As a snapshot, it depicts the school at a particular point in time and
gives pertinent information about the environment in which the school
operates.1 This snapshot, along with two additional ones we are producing
from other visits,2 attempts to provide a mirror for the teachers and
administrators at the school, to assist them in charting their own course.
As researchers we will also use the snapshots to seek greater understanding
of the challenges faced by schools that are committed to whole-school
change.
This second snapshot begins with a description of the challenges that
beset the district and the school as a result of the complex, troubled
urban environment in which Forest Park is located. The second part of
the snapshot presents progress and problems within the school itself from
the perspective of the teachers, parent/staff members, administrators,
and students. The snapshot concludes with the researchers' reflections
on questions raised by both the second and first visits to Forest Park
High School.
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The Context of Forest Park
In order to understand what it is like to learn and teach at Forest Park
in 1993, it is important to understand the earlier restructuring efforts
that have shaped the school.
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District-wide Revitalization Efforts
Forest Park is part of a district-wide school revitalization effort initiated
by the foundation-funded Metropolitan School Restructuring Collaborative
(MSRC). Throughout the city, the main thrust of the MSRC has been to break
down schools into smaller units, called "charters," which enable the teachers
to know and instruct students better. These charters include ninth- to
twelfth-graders, heterogeneously grouped, with a career interest as part
of the defining characteristics.
By the fall of 1992, Forest Park claimed to be a fully "charterized"
school. This meant that all high school students were included in one
of the three charters: a Business Academy, a Motivation Program, and a
Metropolitan Schools Program. The three high school charters were derived
from programs which had existed at the school prior to the initiatives
from the MSRC. The Business Academy, which originated in a businessæ-school
district partnership begun in 1971, was included at Forest Park in 1984.
The Motivation Program was adopted at Forest Park in 1975, from a district
program first created in 1964 to challenge students who had academic potential
but were not fully realizing it. The Metropolitan Program evolved from
the externally initiated, nationally widespread Cities and Schools Program.
In some ways, these charters function like sub-schools within Forest Park.
In addition, all middle-school students were placed in one of four "houses."
One of these houses, College Prep, is for high achieving students; the
other three are horizontal, grade-level groupings of students--for example,
there is an eighth-grade house.
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Connections with the Coalition
Forest Park is affiliated also with the Coalition of Essential Schools,
whose reform efforts are guided by the nine Common Principles, through
the state's Re:Learning initiative and through a direct linkage established
between the Coalition and its district in 1992.3 (See Appendix B for a
listing of the nine Common Principles.)
Forest Park's connection with the Coalition has been limited; it has
consisted mainly of contacts by a few of its staff at Coalition training
sessions at Brown University, attendance at Coalition Fall Forum sessions,
and participation in Re:Learning meetings. One consequence of this limited
connection is that few of the staff at Forest Park believe the changes
they are making are a direct result of involvement with the Coalition
of Essential Schools.
Challenges and Problems, 1992-93
During the 1992-93 school year, several circumstances significantly influenced
the pace of restructuring within the district.
The Need to Deal with Violence
From the beginning of the school year, outbreaks of violence in the district's
high schools absorbed considerable amounts of the top leaders' energy.
Even when there were not violent acts at a particular school, the time
devoted to establishing procedures for inspecting children to make sure
they were not bringing weapons onto campus and the efforts involved in
the general increases in supervision of students competed with the attention
needed for improving instructional programs.
Financial Problems Affecting Reform
At the same time, the district was faced with a series of financial problems
which directly affected high school reform efforts.
The year began with financial difficulties that caused the school district
to give each sub-school unit engaged in reform considerably less money
than promised. These same financial problems also affected bargaining
in the fall and continued to affect relationships between the school district
and the union representing the teachers. Added financial woes were caused
by cutbacks in the availability of federal Chapter I funds.
The final blow came in the spring, at the time of our visit. Faced with
reductions in state funding and slower-than-predicted local tax collections,
the district decided to make overall cuts of approximately $60 million,
with about $18 million of the cuts to come from the high schools.
As they faced the task of making budget cuts, the teachers at Forest
Park reacted with the same general lack of enthusiasm exhibited by teachers,
administrators, and parents throughout the district.
The Impact of Early Retirement
By the spring of 1993, the most obvious influence of the world outside
the school on life at Forest Park was the offering of bonuses by state
legislation to employees who retired early. Because of some rather unique
components of union agreements and past practices within the district,
central office leaders, principals, and teacher-leaders not only left
in large numbers, they began leaving prior to the completion of the school
year. District-wide, more than eighty principals needed to be replaced.
By the summer of 1993, the superintendent and her most senior, immediate
assistants had added their names to the list of retirees. As planning
was under way for 1993-94, the deputy superintendent had retired, and
the associate superintendent for operations, whose duties included all
personnel and labor relations functions, as well as one of the two assistant
superintendents for high schools, had retired. The interim superintendent,
appointed until a national search could produce a permanent appointment,
had no direct replacements for any of these departed leaders--although
their responsibilities had all been reassigned to continuing administrators.
The effects of early retirement were felt at the school, as well as
at the district office. During 1992-93, Forest Park's principal took a
sabbatical and was replaced by an assistant principal, who was given the
title of interim principal. The school also faced the loss of longtime
teacher-leaders. One staff member informed us that they were losing fifteen
teachers to retirement alone.
This second snapshot took place at the height of rumors regarding the
superintendent's plans and during the period of uncertainty concerning
the individuals who were to be assigned as principals, vice principals,
and teachers at Forest Park and at other high schools in the district.
Other issues, such as a court review of district desegregation and new
state mandates for curriculum, had less immediate impact on Forest Park
but were part of the environment within which the people at Forest Park
worked.
The Crucial Role of Context
The work at Forest Park takes place in a complex environment, consisting
in part of a large city school system, which, while committed to decentralization
and the strengthening of instruction, is a victim of the bureaucratic
problems facing all large organizations. The work also takes place in
the context of a community where poverty, violence, racism, and other
social ills conspire to make the task of educating children monumentally
difficult.
Our focus in the snapshots is on the school and the people who inhabit
it. However, the success of Forest Park High School in elevating student
performance will ultimately be determined by the extent to which progress
is made in curing the ills of the broader setting, as well as by what
happens in the school.
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Four Perspectives on Forest Park
A brief examination of the school in the spring of 1993 reveals how it
manages in the midst of the particular set of challenging conditions characterizing
its larger context. This examination conveys what is happening at Forest
Park from the point of view of the people who are part of the school community--its
teachers, parents, administrators, and students.
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From the Perspective of Teachers
Forest Park is a school buzzing with a multitude of change efforts. One
of the teacher-leaders who has been engaged with Coalition ideas opened
her interview with us by saying,
Our biggest job now is educating the staff about the Coalition. We
are trying to show and tell the staff about it all. We are trying to
define terms, discuss what the nine Common Principles are all about.
There are many who don't know about it, and when you put the nine Common
Principles in their hands, they say, "How can we possibly do this? Especially
the small class size puzzles us. How can we do this?"
Teachers expressed varying points of view concerning the school's direct
engagement with the Coalition of Essential Schools. One told us,
There are some people here for whom the Coalition is a religious experience.
But I feel that I'm at a loss because I don't know much about it. I
know that we are doing things that are Coalition-like. I know that we
have interdisciplinary approaches. We definitely believe in "teacher-as-coach."
We just need to learn more about it.
Perhaps the reason that the Coalition's role was not clear in the minds
of the people with whom we spoke is that the faculty was engaged in so
many different initiatives. One teacher stated,
blockquote>It takes time to do all this. It's one thing to hear experts
talk about all this; it's another to come back and do it. There's a lot
going on from the central office--a lot of programs--and you take faculty
meetings to talk about all this--plus portfolios, assessment--and everyone
is inundated.
But it's time for a change, and we are moving into the next century.
If we want to prepare students for tomorrow, we have to change too.
There's always apprehension. That comes with anything different. And
there's always a group that says no, no matter what. But we have a majority
who want to do these things. And, since it's a small school, you find
us involved in a lot of things.
Reform Initiatives at the School
What did this teacher mean when she said we would find them involved
"in a lot of things"? In addition to the school's work with the Coalition,
teachers told us about the following reform-related activities in which
they and the school were involved:
- Taking part in the interactive math projects from California
- Participating in the federally funded Chapter I programs, which are
virtually schoolwide because of the pervasiveness of poverty in the
school's attendance area
- Offering a new course called Discrete Mathematics
- Participating in the summer Algebra Transition Project
- Working with the MSRC for the fourth consecutive year on restructuring
that focuses on creation of small sub-schools (charters)
- Participating in the PRIME program, designed to encourage students
to enter engineering and science careers
- Participating in the PACT program, encouraging students to develop
careers in technology
- Creating family groups that help students deal with the realities
of their lives
- Participating in programs designed to encourage students' engagement
in community services
- Participating in various science awards programs, highlighted by the
presence of the state's governor at the school to see the summer school
programs and the work in science
- Involving students in the new Literacy Corps
- Developing alternative approaches to assessment
- Expanding the use of senior projects as a means of determining student
progress
- Expanding multicultural and technological materials in the library
of the school (coupled with the possible elimination of the librarian
position)
- Developing an extended-day schedule
- Creating double periods for teachers and students in some charters
- Developing a schoolwide educational plan
- Collaborating with a local college to match Forest Park kids with
urban education majors--one example of why people at Forest Park consider
themselves to be a teacher training center
- Participating in the science and math networking affiliated with the
Coalition of Essential Schools' School Change Study
- Obtaining a grant for a teacher-leader to work on a literature-based
approach to writing
- Working with a new IBM computer lab
- Developing shared decision making and school-based management capabilities
- Making cuts of $292,000 from their annual budget
- Engaging with an organizational development consultant from the MSRC
in team building and in learning how to reach consensus
- Structuring a program in which male faculty members keep their eyes
on selected black male students--checking their grades and checking
on attendance and other records
- Engaging with the city program, Setplay, to develop self-esteem through
culture, leading to academic excellence for young black boys
- Participating in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
network for high school restructuring
- Engaging in transition meetings necessitated by the midyear taking
of a sabbatical by the principal and the ascension of the assistant
principal to the role of acting principal
- Participating in staff development work facilitated by the city's
Human Relations Commission, to help head off signs of racial conflict
generated by a disgruntled parent
- Being involved with a local college in a summer science enrichment
project for students, with a focus on ecological concerns
The Need for Accountability Amidst Change
One of the teacher-leaders suggested that in view of the multitude of
activities, everyone is doing something, but nobody knows what anyone
else is doing; the school is "scattered." This same teacher went on to
suggest that they needed to stop any more new "experiments." Another teacher
responded, quietly but firmly, "The school needs to work on a focus that
could be used to tie these experiments together."
Both of these teachers agreed that some new form of academic accountability
is needed. However, the teachers openly expressed their frustration with
the system that requires them to construct elaborate educational plans
as a means of responding to demands for accountability. They added, "And
then all kinds of resources are taken away, and we can't move ahead."
In some cases, teachers suggested, the various initiatives have contradictory
effects. For example one noted that "charters are good for the students'
sense of identity, but not so good for the whole school's morale." He
was worried that while the sub-schools generated productive competitiveness,
they also created an unhealthy divisiveness.
For the teachers, the school is a place where they are engaged in many
different programs seeking to serve the needs of the students. In some
cases, it is a place where high expectations exist for students and deep
concern is shown for their personal lives.
Classroom Close-ups
The following close-ups are drawn from the researchers' observations
in several classrooms during the May 1993 visit.
Algebra
Students worked with each other while the teacher checked to make
sure they were applying the FOIL rubric correctly as they multiplied
binomials. As they completed reviewing the previous day's assignment
and turned to page 400 to do problems 1 to 11 and 28 to 30, the
students formed groups, opened their books, and began working intently.
A pair of them teamed up with the teacher. Another pair, actively
engaged in their work, paused to explain to us that they had covered
imaginary and complex numbers in only a week's time. Based on their
application of these concepts in the earlier discussion, they appeared
to have gained a good working knowledge from this quick study. The
class ended with what the teacher told them was the best part--the
assignment of more problems from page 400 as their homework.
Geometry
Twenty-two students practiced concepts they had been learning
by working on worksheets in small groups. Moderately noisy at first,
but more subdued as time passed, the students concentrated on the
work they had been assigned. As the students pursued their tasks,
the teacher moved from group to group, responding to questions and
pointing out processes for solving problems. As the period drew
to a close, the teacher reminded the students that they would be
continuing the same work the next day. He told them, "This is our
first practice with this new stuff, and I know that you are struggling.
But you're getting it. You just have to keep trying."
Business
Thirteen students were engaged in a simulation of a business situation
calling for the completion of four jobs. Working in groups of four,
the students began by making a group decision concerning the role
each student was to play. Not unlike the real world, one member
of a group decided for himself what he would do. When the students
protested, the teacher intervened to help the group make its decisions
concerning who would be doing what.
The students were using IBM computers and performing tasks such
as composing a letter with an enclosure; typing a memo, bulletin,
or outline; and creating a letter or list. This class is part of
the Business Academy, which starts at 7:30 each morning, so its
students can leave the building to go to their jobs early in the
afternoon. For the teacher in this class, the academy is also her
world. The jobs for which she is preparing students set the direction
of the instructional program.
Family Group Advisory
In this class teachers worked with students in an advisory capacity
in family groups. While not explicitly associating these groups
with the Coalition Principle concerning personalization, the teachers
and students in these groups clearly engaged in dialogue that revealed
significant understanding by teachers of students' needs and interests.
In one group, students talked about one group member's reluctance
to apply for jobs because of an experience in which he once had
been rejected for a job. Students in another group talked about
concerns of violence, police brutality, and other factors that made
living in their neighborhoods so difficult. Students seemed to respond
positively to these conversations; but at least some teachers seemed
unsure of their facilitating role, and some expressed concern that
they have too little time in the short sessions to pursue topics
the students raise.
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From the Perspective of Parent/Staff Members
We talked with several parents who serve as parent-community coordinators,
in a dual role of parent and staff member. Interestingly, in the midst
of efforts to decentralize school operations, these people told us, "We
have two bosses. One is the principal here, and there's the School-Community
Area Coordinator. We turn all our records into that person." Clearly these
parent/staff members are dedicated individuals--both spoke of working
Saturdays and Sundays in their efforts to contact the students and parents
in the community.
They shared their own views of the school and the community it serves.
They told us about block organizations which make sure that the kids get
to school, and about other segments of the area which the school serves,
where they ventured only if accompanied by a family member or a current
or former student.
They told of marching to get the school built so they did not have to
send their kids out of the community.
One parent/staff member said,
Yes, I marched. I was a young women then, marching because I had small
children that hadn't started school yet. But all my children would attend
the school. I was a parent here, and volunteered my time here, and I've
seen this school. It has always been a great school. It's my school
...but I can say there have been some changes. There has been some improvement.
I see the teachers and the students having a togetherness. Because of
the houses [charters], the students have someone they can go directly
to.
They explained how their involvement in the Get Set program helped their
children get on the right track when they were three and four years old.
These parent-activists shared their belief in the value of such initiatives
as the Governing Council and the advisory councils. They spoke of their
current engagement in the school's Governing Council and of their past
involvement in advisory councils at the school and district level. They
also expressed their worry that "teachers don't have a tendency to turn
to parents as a partner." They identified problems of engaging parents
in meetings, including difficulties in scheduling meetings at times that
were compatible with parents' schedules.
For these community members, as for some of the faculty, the answer
to the problems facing the students, many of which they connect with the
prevalence of drugs, is the creation of programs. One reported,
We tried to start a program where we can get the young people back
into school. We got quite a few back in last year. We had the ACE program,
and we got some of the dropouts to come back in, but it's just hard
when they see this money and see how fast it is, and drive around in
the cars, and they're into designer things. I raised my children not
to be into those kinds of things, OK? And that's the answer. We just
have to teach our children, "As long as you've got shoes on your feet,
decent clothing--go to school!"
Another parent told of investigating a Florida model which included
creation of alternative housing, complete with "house parents" so there
would be a stable environment for the students. One raised the possibility
of using buses owned by local churches to get parents to advisory meetings
and to help students who could not afford transit passes to get to school.
One parent suggested having a summer program that would give parents and
teachers a better understanding of how to help children.
For these individuals, who combine the role of parent and staff member,
much of the blame for student problems rests with families that do not
follow up to make sure their children are in school. One described a boy
who was the focus of considerable attention by the school:
He told me he goes downtown. He walks around the Galleria. Nobody stops
him, because he's big for his age. And he just walks around 'till school
is out and then he comes home. You see him leave with his school bag
and you see him come back with his school bag. We have worked--everybody
I've talked with, the principal--we have worked everything out to help
this particular child. I don't know what the answer is because his mother
lives one place and he lives somewhere else. That's the difference.
She doesn't know what he's doing. She's in her own world; he's got a
room at an apartment in a friend's house.
For these parents, the students who succeed are the ones who are known--known
by their parents, their teachers, the administration, and supervisory
personnel of the school. As one parent told us, "They know when you know
them!"
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From the Perspective of the Administration
Just as parent-community coordinators have two bosses, administrators
at the school are often dependent on external decisions for day-to-day
operations. For example, in talking about problems associated with disciplinary
cases, one administrator told us a child could be transferred to another
school if that child had a record of difficult behavior.
The teacher has to fill out a form, I have to fill out another bunch
of forms, and then once it leaves here and the request goes to Central
Office, I have no control. They have a bunch of these requests sitting
on the desk, and it takes time to process them. In the meantime, the
child is still acting out and the teacher thinks that I haven't done
anything about it. I tell them, "I acted on it," and I pick up the phone
many times to follow up on the request, but it's out of my hands. Finally,
someone else down at Central Office decides.
This is a problem throughout the system. The assistant principals have
suggested that they be given the power to just pick up the phone and
make the arrangement in another school--it would avoid a lot of paperwork
and middleman stuff.
In another instance, union and central office directives left the school
without security workers for a part of an afternoon, in order to have
them present for an evening program.
In spite of such concerns, we gathered a largely positive picture from
the administration. As we noted earlier during our visit in the spring
of 1993, the principal was on a career-completing sabbatical, and an assistant
principal, who was seeking to become the permanent principal, was acting
as principal.4 Not surprisingly, questions related to the transition from
one administration to another dominated much of the work of the administration.
The acting principal shared with us her numerous conversations with
various advisory groups as she worked to build consensus for her administration.
Borrowing from Thurgood Marshall, she adopted a theme of "the dream makers
or the dream breakers" and encouraged people to be the former. Obtaining
the necessary agreement required work with the segment of the school power
base, represented by the union's Building Committee, the official leaders
who were present on the Instructional Cabinet, and the fledgling Governing
Council, which was seeking to define the nature of school-based management
at Forest Park.
During this transition time, meetings were held to work out an interim
arrangement for leadership in the building. The acting principal initiated
this arrangement to fill the gap until the district placed an assistant
in the school. The administration called on the city Human Relations Commission
to help with staff development that would enable the teachers to keep
racial concerns from affecting fairness in student discipline.
In a third instance of proactive leadership during this transition,
the administration defused a demonstration by the National People's Party,
protesting the failure of the school to emphasize African-American values.
A quickly called assembly for both middle school and high school students
helped keep them informed on this issue and probably contributed to the
kids' response to the media, who showed up to cover the six marchers:
"What is that woman talking about? None of that is happening here, and
we have a fine school, and we like our principal, and leave us alone!"
In spite of these instances of the interim administration's taking the
initiative, the task of building the consensus needed for the continuation
of the reform efforts at the school was complicated by the ongoing process
of selecting a new principal--a process slated to take another month following
our visit. One of the most recent events in this regard was the initiation
by a community member of a petition demanding the hiring of a black male
as principal. One of the African-American female staff members, a strong
supporter of the acting principal, a Caucasian woman, made it clear she
would have to talk with this man and "get that under control."
The administration told us that they believe the faculty is convinced
that "they're moving and they've changed and they're looking at different
strategies, but [the administration and faculty] all worked on it together.
It's not top down, and there's no one change agent."
Still, the administrators see their role as vital in establishing a
common vision in the school. In that regard, one administrator described
another of the most pressing problems:
I don't have time to reflect. I just don't. And that's the one thing
that is missing in our piece here. It's a good school, but there's no
reflective time, either for teachers, for students, or for administrators.
Maybe what we need to do is take a breath--take a breath and don't
do anything different, don't bring in anything new. Let's look at what
we have, and let's spend a year reflecting. People have been in this
whole thing maybe now for three years. They have had a taste of different
things. It's time now to say, "All right now, what do we like?"
Even as the administrators recognized the need for bringing people together
to reflect on the various initiatives under way, they expressed the need
for new efforts:
Still, there are other things we need to do. I mean, I was all gung-ho
next year to go into a different time schedule--an A/B schedule
where you have half your classes on A day and half on B day.
And we need to consider eliminating the seventh-grade and eighth-grade
houses in the middle school and creating vertical houses with both seventh-
and eighth-graders in them.
Looking ahead, the administration realized that building a more reflective
environment--creating conditions which would allow teachers to examine
their own teaching and to think about how to improve it--would be made
even more complex by the big changes in staffing that would result from
the state's early retirement plan. Again, examples of proactive administrative
leadership emerged as they talked about plans to use retiring people part
time as mentors, and about ways they could "personally recruit" within
the system to assure that the teachers who came to their school would
be ones who fit into the culture being developed at Forest Park.
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From the Perspective of Students
"This school has a lot of really smart teachers." This unsolicited testimonial
from a student may not be the view held by all students, but it represents
well the generally positive views of their teachers and school which students
shared with us.
Another student told us, "This school is great because of the teachers
and my friends. I'm a senior, and I've been here since seventh grade.
I've seen lots of programs." She went on to talk about being involved
with Upward Bound programs associated with a local university and of being
taken on college trips to other schools. She also talked about her involvement
in PRIME and how it was supporting her interest in becoming a mechanical
engineer.
Another student told us about his previous enrollment in one of the
district's magnet programs:
I went to Academic High School; I've been here for a year and a half.
Here classes aren't as big, and there's more of a family atmosphere
here. The teachers and counselors go out of their way to help you here.
At Academic, you had to wait a month to see a counselor--and teachers,
they taught old-fashioned ways and didn't go into much detail, as they
should. The tutorials were larger than the classes.
These students explained they were from a charter where "99 percent
of their group" went to college. One was headed for Spellman, the other
for Morehouse. Both had just received $500 scholarships from the engineering
program. They spoke about the support they received for effective group
work in their Elementary Functions class and of the knowledgeable assistance
they got from the English teacher who helped them deal with Shakespeare's
language.
Another student, not as mature nor as academically talented, described
how she was trying out the various opportunities provided by the charters
in the school. During the 1992-93 school year, she had enrolled in the
Business Academy as a ninth-grader. She was convinced she wanted to be
a lawyer, but was somewhat uncertain about the course of study to follow
to pursue that dream. As of the spring of 1993, her intention was to try
the College Prep Charter in her sophomore year and the Motivation Charter
as a junior. Reflecting the feeling that she was being tracked (without
using that terminology), this student said,
After high school I want to go straight to college. And in Business
[Academy], I think you have to go to a business school, a two-year business
school. But I don't want to go to business school. It's not boring to
me, it's just that I ...I want to take College Prep.
As she tried to determine the future of her school life, she identified
the principal, counselors, and her parents as sources of assistance. She
shared with us ways the teachers she now had encouraged her to stay with
the charter in which she was currently enrolled. For this student, and
for others with whom we spoke, being well known in the school obviously
was a major factor in determining her attitude toward school.
Given staff members' descriptions of students who fail to come to school,
or who come to school only to hang out in corridors, we know that the
students with whom we talked were not necessarily a representative sample
of the whole student body. However, their observations did help us see
the school from the perspective of one group of students--a group which
one student admitted to us are often referred to as "nerds" or "geeks"
by other students. Like their adult counterparts, the students realize
the value of being known and are aware that a large number of different
programs surround them.
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Reflections
Several themes emerged from our recent visit to Forest Park. This visit
also provided perspective on questions raised by the first snapshot of
Forest Park.
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The Need for a Coherent Vision
When we visited, we noted that there were obviously many programs being
tried simultaneously. It is not clear that the school community had a
coherent vision of how this multitude of initiatives fit together. It
was evident that the faculty did not have a holistic view of the change
efforts. In this regard, the acting principal's recognition of the need
for reflection about direction seemed to be right on the mark.
[Return to Table of Contents]
Divided Allegiance, Multiple Controls
There was another facet of the multiple program effort that will need
the district's cooperation before it can be addressed. Earlier we mentioned
that staff needed to get outside approval for various kinds of decisions.
One almost inevitable consequence of the presence of multiple programs
is the existence of external offices set up to help the programs succeed.
Unfortunately, these offices have a tendency to become control agents.
Thus, in a school like Forest Park, where staff may be involved in more
than twenty programs, allegiance of staff may become divided between the
program leadership located in the central office or in a non-profit agency
and the leadership and clients to be served at the school. This is particularly
true during times of limited resources (the most common of times), when
the outside programs offer money to enable staff to overcome fiscal limitations
otherwise imposed on them.
[Return to Table of Contents]
The Need for Personalization
One of the key Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools is the
need to personalize high schools. This Principle is also key to the efforts
of the MSRC in Forest Park's district. At Forest Park, students, administrators,
parents, and teachers testified to the power of knowing students
in creating a safer and more academically meaningful environment. They
agreed that the charters in the high school and the houses in the middle
school have been key contributors to their success in helping students
feel known.
[Return to Table of Contents]
The Human Costs to Staff
There is another element to school reform which came through as we talked
with people at Forest Park: the human dimension of the costs of reform
efforts, which too often gets ignored. We listened sympathetically as
a young teacher explained the pressures on his family of his continuing
involvement in reform efforts and in his own graduate study. He commented,
My wife told me the other day she wished all this was over. The nights,
'till 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, at the word processor ...but it
was something I wanted to do--a dream. And she was supporting me, but
she said, "I'll be so glad when all of this is over, so you can come
back down and be a normal husband."
In another situation, we heard descriptions of staff members working
Saturdays and Sundays in order to make contacts with parents. We recognized
the toll that engagement in the reform efforts can take on parents, as
a parent/staff member told us about juggling her schedule to take care
of her daughter's two-year-old baby so the daughter could stay in high
school and go on to college. For another person, a heart attack had served
as a warning about overdoing. Still another told of arriving before seven
every morning and being too tired at the end of the day to read even a
trash novel, let alone examine and reflect on professional literature.
Of course, such conditions are not unique to Forest Park, but they do
serve to remind us of the human element in the struggle for school improvement.
[Return to Table of Contents]
Questions and Comments
At the conclusion of the first snapshot of this school, we posed several
questions for the Forest Park school community about their struggle for
school reform. Calling upon on our most recent observations, we repeat
the questions in the following section and comment on them.
How will the school organize students for instruction? While there
are many indications of "Coalition-type" teaching, there are equally
obvious signs of continuation of tracking and other practices which
are contradictory to the direction espoused by both the MSRC and the
Coalition.
Comment: The school continues to insist that since students have
a choice of charter in which to enroll (as opposed to staff assigning
them to charters), they are not tracking students. The reality continues
to be ability-grouped charters, with their origin in college-prep programs
in the middle school years, continuing into college-prep charters in high
school. Particularly in math and science, we have witnessed some exceptional
teaching, but real signs of integrating the curriculum have been less
apparent to us.
What will the decision-making processes be, and who will have the
power? Will shared decision making become the real mechanism for determining
the direction or will direction be set by the administration?
Comment: The school has not yet approved by a 75 percent vote
the educational plan that would make it a shared decision making/site-based
management school. Leadership in the Governing Council continues to be
optimistic that this will be achieved. The faculty's participation in
budget reduction and in selecting new administrators may help. Certainly,
the interim principal has expressed a commitment to this approach.
What are charters at Forest Park? In what ways are they really different
from the earlier academies and programs at the school?
Comment: While the teachers in the charters acknowledge the origin
of their sub-schools in the earlier programs, they insist that they have
made modifications to adapt them to the principles of the MSRC. Questions
remain about tracking and integrated curriculum, which we noted earlier.
In addition, the people at Forest Park are still not sure whether ninth-graders
should be included in the charters, or whether they should be treated
as a separate, transitional group.
How can people best work together? How can the tone of the school
truly be one which values trust and decency?
Comment: There were encouraging signs that progress was being
made in achieving qualities such as tone. Teachers worked to keep students
in charters, administrators and teachers supported each other in solving
problems, and all exhibited caring for the students.
To these earlier questions, we now must add a new challenge:
How can the people of Forest Park manage the multitude of programs
so that they repreresent a coherent program of reform, aimed at improving
the learning of all students?
In short, how can they be sure the many paths they are following lead
in the common direction of better student learning?
One alternative available to them is to use the nine Common Principles
of the Coalition of Essential Schools to help them focus their efforts.
As they do so, they can build on examples of students using their minds
well, which we have observed already--particularly in math and science.
They can concentrate on having high expectations for all students, and
not just those who are in advanced classes. They can make better use of
their limited resources by concentrating on doing a limited number of
things well--on taking advantage of the notion that less can truly be
more.
[Return to Table of Contents]
Notes
- Each snapshot of Forest Park is based on field notes by two ethnographers:
Janet Miller and Neill Wenger. Janet and Neill observed classes, and
interviewed parents, teachers, administrators, and students at the schools.
They also examined and collected some documents regarding current happenings
at the school. Information gained by the author during other discussions
with people in the school district, union, and Metropolitan School Restructuring
Collective also supplements the field notes.
- See Richard W. Clark, "Revitalization in an Urban Setting," Studies
on School Change (Forest Park No. 1), June 1993; and Richard W. Clark,
"Clean, Cool, and Calm," Studies on School Change (Forest Park No. 2),
Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown University, Providence, August
1994.
- Re:Learning is a partnership formed by the Coalition of Essential
Schools and the Education Commission of the States in 1988. It offers
a framework for states and schools to work together to support school
reform, and seeks to allow changes initiated by school-based professionals
to influence state policy reforms.
- During the summer, she was successful in her bid, and a teacher-leader
from the school was appointed as an assistant to replace her, thus assuring
a continuity that was considerably in doubt at the time of our visit.
[Return to Table of Contents]
The Forest Park research team was headed by Richard W. Clark, senior
associate at the University of Washington Center for Educational Renewal
and the former deputy superintendent of the Bellevue (WA) School District.
The other members of the Forest Park team were Janet Miller, professor
at the National-Louis University (formerly National Teachers College)
at the Beloit (WI) Academic Center and author of Creating Spaces and
Finding Voices: Teachers Collaborating for Empowerment (1990); and
Neill Wenger, a cognitive psychologist who has taught in elementary school,
consulted for the Pew Foundation, and is currently co-authoring a multimedia
textbook.
Price: $6
Code: FP2
To order a hard copy of this resource you will need the title, price, and code to fill out your order form.
This resource last updated: June 11, 2002
Database Information:
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Publication Year: 1993
Publisher: CES National
School Level: High
Focus Area: Leadership
STRAND: Leadership: the change process
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