What Tender Days
Towards the end of my first year as principal at Lane Tech College Prep, some of my students wanted to interview me regarding my first year impressions. That school year, in particular, was memorable for many teachers and administrators in the state, as a number of legislative mandates were created or came into effect at this time (PERA, Danielson, Common Core, PARCC, NCLB impacts, etc).
Many of these mandates created national and state culture and climate issues that teachers and administrators are still wrestling with to date. In addition, during my first year as principal, our district experienced the first teachers strike in 25 years, and because Lane Tech is a high profile school, our school was designated a strike center.
Despite these challenges, my focus remained creating the most positive school culture possible by collaborating and partnering with student, teacher, parent, and community stakeholders. Although a variety of external, legislative mandates (and staff experiences from the strike) were culture/climate issues we had to address and navigate even though we did not cause/create them, I could fully control creating a positive culture within our school to combat these complications.
My approach was student-centered. I also carried out our mission via servant leadership and distributive leadership. Everything we did, whether it was facility infrastructure, tech, budget, curriculum, etc. centered on how it would impact students and included partnering with students, staff, parents, and external stakeholders.
After some time, I am certain a number of fellow administrators and staff tired of me repeatedly stating, “How would you feel if you were a student here?” or “Ask yourself, ‘is this good enough for my own children or someone I love?’” I also framed the same two questions with my administrative team but replaced “students” with “staff.” Our goal was to create a supportive, caring environment via empathy.
We created a number of policy changes to improve our internal school environment as well as curricular and facility improvements to better support teaching and learning. These included creating a Student Advisory Board, which had not previously existed, for building student voice and formally and informally collaborating with licensed and non-licensed staff to address climate issues. The goal was to learn student, teacher, parent, and external stakeholder perceptions. This approach produced a caring, empathetic environment and established a foundation for the development and implementation of new policy and curricular and facility improvements for years to come.
Chris
Referenced links and documents:
100 Years Ago by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Elevating Student Voice in Education, Meg Benner et al. Center for American progress. July 2019
Engaging Families at the Secondary Level: An Underused Resource for Student Success, Krista L. Jensen and Kathleen M. Minke. School Community Journal, 2017, Vol. 27, No. 2
Greenlit by Chris Dignam