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"...offers a college preparatory program that focuses on a liberal arts program. The curriculum is designed to accelerate students into college courses at the University of Toledo, beginning with the freshman school year. Students take two years of English, up to three years of mathematics and science and two years of social studies at the high school level. All other courses, including electives and foreign language are taken at the University of Toledo. Students can earn up to 60 college credits during the four-year high school experience. College-level courses and required textbooks are provided at no cost to students. College courses qualify for dual credits, allowing them to be counted for high school and college credits."

(Right-click and open links in new tab.) Thinking about the Semester Online program that is just rolling out I wonder what we could do in Vermont with elements of this school in Toledo in combination with an online component. Vermont does have a Dual Enrollment program, but it is no where nearly as comprehensive as this. And, students still have to pay for a vast majority of their classes. It would seem that a high school would actually come out ahead by paying for college courses rather than for high school faculty to teach a less rigorous...and noncredit earning course.

Ranked 17th out of 3500 schools in Ohio... Even more significant given that the district it is in ranked 708th out of 937 districts.

"Leadership has several aspects, each of which contributes uniquely to school competence and to school excellence. The current focus in leadership theory and practice provides a limited view, dwelling excessively on some aspects of leadership to the virtual exclusion of others. Unfortunately, these neglected aspects of leadership are linked to excellence-a revelation now unfolding from recent research on school effectiveness and school excellence."

Five leadership forces: Technical derived from sound management techniques Human derived from harnessing available social and interpersonal resources Educational derived from expert knowledge about matters of education and schooling Symbolic derived from focusing the attention of others on matters of importance to the school Cultural derived from building a unique school culture.

"There is a difference between personalization and differentiation and individualization. One is learner-centered; the others are teacher-centered."

Completely agree Adam! The chart is a little perplexing at times in its definitions/examples. How the first is Competency-based and the others must be Carnegie Unit based comparison…I just don't get. What I do like about the chart is that it makes me reflect on how I do what I do. And also on, "Do I do what I say that I do?" Sometimes I feel like I might begin implementing a strategy one semester only to have my application of that strategy drift as time goes by. Every now and then I think that it is necessary to take a step back and question each piece of my own professional practice. This approach comes from my belief that we need to question and challenge everything...especially those things we most believe in.

Excellent point! Beliefs are like clothes. If we don't regularly take them off to wash them, we often mistake our own stench for what we perceive as someone else's.

"A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much." At the first RF conference Peter McConville and Tom Sabo ran a really interesting activity where we looked at schools' mission statements from across Vermont. As a part of this activity they asked if individuals could recall their own. Not many (if any) could. It is too bad really. Coming from a corporate background myself, I understand the power of an organization having a common and driving statement of intent. To me what was striking, and unfortunate, was that it wouldn't be at all challenging to get fairly close if you just said something about students who strive to become life-long learners who are global citizens that give back to their community. Maybe it is just me, but I think that a mission statement should be as unique as the schools, communities, and individuals that are striving to fulfill that mission. It should be a mantra, a way to identify what is truly important to your school, a means of sharing your school's common sense of purpose, to communicate your school's common sense of direction to fulfill that purpose. My sense is that a mission statement should be the keystone for the very unique work that we do in our schools, it should be more akin to Dan Pink's My Sentence. But, read though most and you'll find that they seem interchangeable and ambiguous. I think that it may be better to not have one at all if it doesn't really share the message of what your individual school is about and what it specifically strives to be. Does your school's mission statement really share your school's mission?

Jason Thanks for posting this. Question - how do I copy this post over to another Diigo group I am working with? Jim

Mission statements are pretty generic... NEASC is moving away from asking schools for mission statements but instead for statements of core values and beliefs about learning in the hope of getting more school specific statements.

"Can schools as we currently know them ever accomplish the mission we've established for them? This week Richard Elmore, one of the nation's most prominent educational thinkers, emphatically shared his conviction that they cannot. "

"Clinging to dysfunctional models will actually do more damage to our children in the long-run, and so more dramatic shifts of thinking and practice now seem in order."

Looking at our efforts and our work as Rowland Fellows...are we providing "palliative care" to our schools? When we think about what we do, our work must embrace true innovation rather than "fortifying existing institutions that no longer work." I feel we are on the right track and am humbled by the work that is being done through this foundation.

Important to know. What is your school doing to define its brand? Can you articulate in a sentence or two what your school is all about and has to offer students?As this progresses things may get even more competitive. How many students does your school need to lose to translate to reduction in staff? 10:1? 7:1?Under the progressive possibilities what would losing 35 or 40 students mean to your staffing, programs, and academic offerings?

Under this interpretation, if a school has opted to limit transfers to the fullest extent permitted by law, the 5% or 10 students limit is calculated based on the school's current full 9-12 enrollment, which excludes those who have already transferred, but have not yet graduated. In determining how many transfer slots are available in any given year, the number is the lesser of 5% of the then-enrolled students, or 10. And this standard is cumulative over a four-year period. For example, a high school with 180 presently-enrolled students may limit transfers (during the following year) to 9 students (the lesser of 9 (5% of 180) or 10). In the following year, if enrollment at the school is 171, and if all of the 9 remained in other schools, the transfer limit for students participating for the first time would be 8, for a total of 17.

Long-term transformational change has four primary aspects: scale (the change affects all or most of the school), magnitude (the degree to which it challenges the status quo), duration (the change is incremental at first and then moves to exponential), and strategic importance (how ready the culture is for adapting to change). Yet schools will only see significant change when the change occurs first at the level of the individual educational leader- be that principal, superintendent, or teacher. Real change, transformational change happens when there is personal ownership of the new technologies and concepts. Today's new economy is all about human capital, which starts with the educators in a school and then extends outward to all members of the school community.

Principles for Managing Change 1. People before Things (or test scores) 2. Start at the Top 3. Everyone is a Player in the Change Game 4. Garner Buy-in 5. Can't Give Away What You Do Not Own 6. Communicate and Often 7. Know Your Culture and Predict Possible Impact 8. Expect the Unexpected 9. As the Individual Grows so Will the Collective Wisdom of the Community

Debatable, but interesting reforms.  While I may not agree with all of the pieces I do like that they are taking a multipronged approach...and that they are not just talking about transformation, but taking real and decisive actions.

Here are five resolutions from the article...with my personal take on them.

1. Find a trustworthy mentor. (Regardless of your position or how successful you are there will always be others out there who you can learn from.) 2. Form a leadership development group. (Why not two? One among leaders from multiple schools and another among the leaders and potential leaders within your school.) 3. Volunteer in a civic or service organization. (How have you formed connections between your school and the community in ways that the school isn't the primary beneficiary? How do you know the perceptions and expectations of the community unless you are truly engaged with them?) 4. Work in or travel to one new country. (Or, simply visit schools in your district. Have you visited with the admin and teachers from your sending schools? What could you learn from them? What could you learn from other high schools in Vermont that are similar to yours?) 5. Finally, ask more questions than you answer. (If you think that have all the answers…then you aren't even aware of all the questions.)

"...site provides information about systems theory and describes an effective way to view school systems - by looking at them as consisting of three domains. Using this perspective can help you simplify the complexity of school systems, adopt multiple ways of viewing them, and better understand the interconnectivity of their various parts. "

I think that as educators we often become so engrossed with opportunities to implement change and our own vision of what that change should look like that we sometimes forget that we need to think systemically. How does our vision fit within the school as a whole? And, when we determine what change is necessary...how do we determine how to implement that change in a sustainable way? Too often we become experts in Programs, but have little understanding of Planning and Process. What do you think? Once we identify the need for change and the means to address that need, how do we make that change happen and stick?

Leading School Transformation (EDLP 380) is a graduate-level course that brings together educators who are leading transformation efforts in Vermont schools. The course will build on the Rowland Foundation Transformation Conference at the University of Vermont through professional dialogue, personal refelection, and related readings. EDLP 380 will help participants develop school-based projects based on the latest research related to school transformation. Participants will read The Big Picture by Dennis Littky and Drive by Daniel Pink and develop strategies to lead change at their schools.

It appears that we are not the only group having this conversation. Here is an article that parallels our own. (It is actually eerily similar in its stream of thought.)

"...it's easy to see why students are disengaged from the learning tasks that we give them. The big question is whether we care. So far, most of our school systems don't seem too bothered by their environmental deficiencies when it comes to fostering internal motivation. Our actions put the lie to our school mission statements that state that we're about creating 'self-motivated, life-long learners.'" "As school leaders and classroom teachers, how long can we continue to ignore core principles of intrinsic motivation?"

I could not agree more and this is a critical topic for the independent schools with which I work.

Great ideas here and very relevant to #VTed Schools. Not just article about online learning,but 1:1, blended instruction, and "flex" model schools.   

Yes indeed. IF we build out infrastructure. IF teachers train themselves to teach accordingly.

New England Secondary School Consortium's third annual conference for secondary educators to share success stories, exchange best practices, and build momentum for innovations that will prepare all students for success in the colleges, careers, and communities of the 21st century.

WHEN: Thursday + Friday, March 22-23, 2012 WHERE: Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood, Massachusetts WHO: Educators and teams from high schools, charter schools, and technical schools across New England engaged in school improvement COST: $75 per person (includes appetizers, beverages, breakfast, lunch, and materials) PROGRAM: Click HERE to read the session descriptions

Article based on The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators Focus on concluding three chapters, People, Processes, and Philosophies, which draw on and offers 15 takeaways for Principals and School-Leaders.

What You Can Do to Become Stronger Innovation Leaders in Your School: 1. Own as Principal the role of Innovator-in-Chief: You can't delegate innovation. 2. Make your practice of "active innovation" visible. 3. Create complementary teams in school leadership. 4 . Observe closely what other principals and schools are doing. 5. Arrange for employee swaps. 6. Ask "Why?" 7. Seek people who had invented something, held deep expertise in a particular knowledge area, and demonstrated a passion to change the world. 8. Remember that innovators want to work with and for other innovators. 9. Embed innovation as an explicit, consistent element of performance reviews. 10. Develop formal and informal processes to facilitate knowledge exchanges. 11. Network externally. 12. Practice Beta testing and Prototyping. 13. Build many small, diverse teams. 14. Communicate and reinforce that Innovation is everyone's job. 15. Make innovation an explicit core value of your school. 16. Give more time for innovation. 17. Create "a safe space for others to innovate. 18. Model your risk taking and your learning from failure.

The book is framed around the Five Core Skills of Innovators, a framework highly valuable for ourselves and our students: What are we doing to do more of and become better at *Associating, *Questioning, *Observing, *Networking, *Experimenting.

13 schools categorized by area of focus / innovation.

It would be a great resource for the Vermont ed community to put together a categorized list of schools such as this. Sometimes the most innovative practices are happening right down the road. (And, sometimes right down the hall)