Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 4: The Professional Ethical Learning Communityare our challenges? What are our struggles? What is keepingus from doing our best?Cultivating collegiality is a signature practice of the PELC.PELC 1: Develop shared purpose.Promising Practice 5:1.5 Tell your school’s “story,” conveyingPELC its history, purpose, and identity.Peter Senge and colleagues argue that thepurpose and identity of an organization are shaped andsustained through a process of continuously telling thestories that embody the organization’s mission and sharedvalues. 14 Cultures are defined by the stories they tell themselves.Building upon these ideas, DuFour and Eakerargue for deliberate and sustained attempts to “communicate,amplify, and validate” the defining narrative of acommunity. Consider: What is your school’s story?In our research, we found the stories schools told themselves—inmeetings, retreats, written histories, and everydayconversations— to be very powerful shapers of cultureand character. We heard stories of schools on theverge of closing that had revived themselves. We heardstories about changes in leadership, stories about criticalincidents, stories of pain, struggle, and growth.Faculty, staff, and administrators are the primary torchbearersfor the important stories regarding the purposeand identity of the school. Over the years, such storieskeep alive the soul of the institution.PELC 1: Develop shared purpose.Promising Practice 6:1.6 Celebrate your school’s purpose,PELC people, and progress.Celebrating the school’s purpose, people,and progress is a critical part of cultivating shared purposeand identity. There was a definite sense of joy in thebest schools we visited. There was laughter—self-effacingpersonal and institutional humor. There were rituals andceremonies and celebrations that made the communitiesfeel as much like a family as a workplace. There was aclear pattern of celebrating the purpose of the school, thepeople who make the school great, and the progressmade in their quest for excellence and ethics.One school district we visited had established WorkplaceExcellence Awards (see box below). A brochure on theprogram explains the criteria for the award: “living outthe five core commitments of mutual trust and respect,investment in others, personal productivity, relationshipswith students, and customer service.” To publicize theprogram, the district made a video about the award’s firstrecipient, a female bus driver. In the video she says:I’m passionate about my job; I love my work. I’m alwaystalking to my kids about safe loading and unloading andresponsible behavior. I can be a vital part of their day. Weare professionals; we have to put that out there. We are thefirst adult staff member they see in the morning and thelast representative of the school they see at night. A smileand a “How’re you doing?” can go a long way.WORKPLACE EXCELLENCE AWARDS1. Nomination forms go to every district employee.2. All nominations are submitted to a WorkplaceExcellence Team made up of 20 representatives ofall employee groups (teachers, administrators, clericalstaff, custodians, etc.).3. All persons who are nominated receive the award.4. At a whole-school ceremony, each honoree receivesa pin, a plaque, and a golden apple. Each year, abooklet is published that includes the text of thenomination of every recipient.68Smart & Good High Schools