Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions about Smart & Good High Schoolseight strengths of character, we need all four of thosegroups working together to promote those outcomes.But it starts with staff. There are different ways to try toget staff on board, but here’s one scenario: First, sharethe Smart & Good High Schools report with your leadershipteam. Ask them, How does it align with our schoolimprovement initiatives?Second step, meet with faculty leaders, including unionleaders—who can help rather than hinder progress ifthey’re approached in a positive way. Summarize thereport for them, and give them a copy of the full report,highlighting what you think may be of greatest interestand relevance. Ask this group of leaders to work withadministration in jointly presenting the key ideas to thefull faculty and staff.In that presentation, keep the focus on alignment: Whatdo we see as our needs and current school improvementpriorities, and how can Smart & Good High Schools help uswith that? To begin to answer that question, you couldput people in groups of four and give them two sheets:one summarizing Smart & Good ideas and practices; theother a worksheet, with one column titled “CurrentNeeds and Initiatives” and a second column titled, “Smart& Good ideas and practices that could help us with ourcurrent needs and initiatives.”To get started, study the report andalign it with your current needs andschool improvement initiatives.Then set up a Smart & Good High Schools Study Groupmade up of a cross-section of staff, to spend the next fewmonths examining the report in depth and identifyingfurther points of alignment. Alternatively, use the full facultyas your study group and take the first 15-20 minutesof each faculty meeting to discuss the various sections ofthe report— looking at connections with existing needsand school improvement initiatives.Next, identify a couple of priorities for the current schoolHe who molds public sentiment goesdeeper than he who pronounces decisions.—ABRAHAM LINCOLNyear—such as improving freshman academic performanceor creating Critical Friends Groups to strengtheningstaff collaboration—and generate a list of proposedaction steps related to those priorities.Then repeat this study and alignment process with studentleaders, parent leaders, and community leaders.We don’t think it works to try to impose this or anyreform model—or even to try to “sell it” to others. Peoplehave two feelings about change: If it’s their idea, they likeit; if it’s somebody else’s idea being imposed on them,they tend to resist it. The challenge with all change is todevelop shared ownership. That’s needed to sustainchange in the long run. The process we’ve just laid out isone way to try to achieve shared ownership.The challenge with all change is todevelop shared ownership.What if you don’t have a principal who’s behind this?Leadership obviously matters. The research shows that.Experience confirms that. If you don’t have a principal orhead who’s out front leading this kind of school reform,what are your options—other than throwing up yourhands?One is to share the report with your school leader andask if you could have time at an upcoming faculty meetingfor people to read and discuss parts of it. Is there anythingin here that would improve our lives and help studentsperform better? What’s aligned with our needs andcurrent initiatives?A second option is to find at least one colleague whocould be a support system for you. Somebody you can talkto over coffee about these ideas. Somebody who’s willingto try out some of the practices and then compare experiences.A third option is to sit down with student leaders and discussparts of the report with them—perhaps the sectionon how to increase student voice in the school. Ask ifthey’d like your help in putting together a proposal andmeeting with the principal to discuss it.A fourth option is to say, “Hey, maybe there’s nobody elsehere who’s got the time or interest to try these ideas, butI’m going to do some things in my own sphere of influenceas a teacher, a coach, a counselor.” One person canmake a difference in a student, a classroom, or a team.We all know the Power of One from first-hand experience.Somebody made a difference for us.212Smart & Good High Schools
CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions about Smart & Good High SchoolsHow does the Smart & Good High Schools model compareto other reform models?We think it’s both similar and different. Many of thethemes highlighted in reports such as Breaking Ranks II—collaborative leadership, small learning communities, personalizationof the learning environment, a rigorous curriculum,assessment—are ones you’ll find in Smart &Good High Schools.What’s different about Smart & Good High Schools, wethink, is its focus on character—and its definition of characteras including both performance character and moralcharacter. Most school reform models emphasize excellence,but say nothing about the role of performancecharacter in achieving excellence. Moreover, few reformmodels address moral character. No other model weknow uses character in the full sense—performance characterand moral character—as its main organizing theme.We argue that schools must make performance characterand moral character the cornerstones of schooling. Why?Because they’re the cornerstones of success in life.Performance character and moralcharacter must be the cornerstones ofschooling—because they are thecornerstones of success in life.We’re saying you can’t separate excellence and ethics. Wedon’t want to graduate kids who become mediocre teachers,incompetent surgeons, or sloppy mechanics. And wedon’t want to graduate kids who become crooked CEOs,steroid-popping athletes, or citizens who don’t vote. Weneed to give more than lip service to the integration ofexcellence and ethics. They have to be our twin touchstones,the lenses through which we see all our work.So do you see your model as an alternative to otherapproaches?More like a complement to them. The chemical companyBASF has a slogan that says, “We don’t make a lot of theproducts you use—we make a lot of the products you use,better.” This tagline describes the catalytic nature of theirproduct. Without BASF chemicals, many other productswouldn’t be as good as they now are. And without theother products, BASF chemicals wouldn’t be as valuableto so many customers.This is similar to our Smart & Good High Schools vision.We think it has the potential to make any school or anyclassroom better. For example, we think that strong mathpedagogy coupled with the Smart & Good High Schoolsvision will get more from students than strong math pedagogyalone—especially in struggling schools.The Smart & Good vision cancomplement other reform models.Why is that so? Because the message is received accordingto the disposition of the receiver. Your math message isn’tgoing to be received as well by students who are missingthe performance character qualities needed for math—diligence, perseverance, positive attitude, orderliness. Youmight have great math teaching methods but not have aclassroom culture in which kids push each other to dotheir best work. You might have great math methods butnot good classroom discipline. If classroom discipline anda culture of excellence are not established, the best mathpedagogy will be less than optimally effective.Whether you’re a Coalition of Essential Schools member,a Talent Development School, a First Things First school,or any of the other current reform models, you can alsobe a Smart & Good High School. You don’t have tochoose one over the other. However, we do believe thatour approach can strengthen the other approaches.What’s your feeling about advisories? Are they necessary?Advisories are one way to get to a goal—namely, schoolconnectedness. Research shows the importance of schoolconnectedness—close relationships between adults andstudents, and close relationships between students andeach other. When kids feel connected in these ways, theywork harder in school, are less likely to drop out, and areless likely to engage in a range of risky behaviors such assex, drugs, and drinking.Are advisories the only way to create connectedness?No. You can create connectedness through classroomsthat build community around excellence and ethics.You can create it by using the traditional “homeroomperiod” for advisory-type activities. You can achieve connectednessthrough extracurricular and co-curricularactivities, which the research shows often have a biggerimpact on a student’s performance and moral characterand long-range life outcomes than any academic experience.Do all advisories work? Not necessarily. We saw advisorieswhere, quite frankly, the structure didn’t appear to promotestrong connectedness or foster other importantgoals. Like any school structure or practice, advisories213Smart & Good High Schools
Page 1 and 2:
A Report to the NationSmart & GoodH
Page 3 and 4:
A wonderful piece of work that addr
Page 5 and 6:
Dedicated to the memory ofWinifred
Page 7 and 8:
AcknowledgementsWe would like to ex
Page 9 and 10:
Table of ContentsLetter to the Read
Page 11 and 12:
ELC PRINCIPLE 4: TAKE PERSONAL RESP
Page 13 and 14:
1. Develop Critical Friends Groups
Page 15 and 16:
Letter to The Reader“Are you a he
Page 17 and 18:
Letter to the ReaderBut we also do
Page 19 and 20:
How to Read This Reporttices relate
Page 21 and 22:
Patrick Bassett, president, Nationa
Page 23 and 24:
Research Methodologyand Criteria fo
Page 25 and 26:
Research Methodology and Criteria f
Page 27 and 28:
Principles of a Smart & Good High S
Page 29 and 30:
CHAPTER 1The Call to Character:Perf
Page 31 and 32:
est work and be their best ethical
Page 33 and 34:
CHAPTER 1: The Call to Charactercha
Page 35 and 36:
CHAPTER 1: The Call to Charactertin
Page 37 and 38:
CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterA S
Page 39 and 40:
CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterBec
Page 41 and 42:
CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterTHE
Page 43 and 44:
1C. Peterson & M. P. Seligman, Char
Page 45 and 46:
CHAPTER 2: Performance Character an
Page 47 and 48:
Smart & Good High SchoolsCHAPTER 2:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
do not self-identify as “characte
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
EndnotesCHAPTER 2: Performance Char
Page 61 and 62:
CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning Com
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Galvanized by this finding, she and
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
(1) scheduling a weekend retreat in
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
person has gifts; and the convictio
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
CHAPTER 4The Professional Ethical L
Page 91 and 92:
CHAPTER 4: The Professional Ethical
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strength
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
on at home. If I think something se
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
tragedy, injustice, and weak and si
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
1.2.3.4.RULES FOR DOING OUR BEST WO
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190: CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strength
Page 201 and 202: In The Courage to Be Chaste, the pr
Page 239: CHAPTER 6Commonly Asked Questionsab
Page 243 and 244: CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions
Page 245 and 246: CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions
Page 247 and 248: Comprehensive EndnotesLetter to the
Page 249 and 250: Comprehensive Endnotesof stage-envi
Page 251 and 252: Comprehensive Endnotesacter Educati
Page 253 and 254: Comprehensive Endnotes6B. Watts Dav
Page 255 and 256: Comprehensive Endnotesside, 1990).3
show all

Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?