Strategies for Change: Implementing a Comprehensive School Reform Program Six Strategies for Change in Brief Terms Used in this Issue of Connections Case Study: Sierra Vista Elementary Case Study: Sunrise Elementary Creating a Context Conducive to Change Developing and Communicating the Vision Planning and Providing Resources Networking Begins at CSRDweb.net Wesley A. Hoover, Ph.D. President and CEO Joan L. Buttram, Ph.D. Vice-President and COO Shirley Hord, Ph.D. Program Manager, Strategies for Increasiing School Success Editor: Leslie A. Blair, Communications Associate Photos ©PhotoDisc. ©2000 CSRD Connections is published quarterly by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. This publication was produced in whole or in part with funds from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. U.S. Department of Education under contract #RJ96006801. The content herein does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education, any other agency of the U.S. Government or any other source. You are welcome to reproduce Connections and may distribute copies at no cost to recipients; please credit the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory as publisher. SEDL is an Equal Employment Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to affording equal employment opportunities to all individuals in all employment matters. Available in alternative formats.

ierra Vista and Sunrise Elementary are both Title I, K-5 schools in the same state. Both serve approximately 600 students and both have struggled to improve student achievement and attendance during the past five years. Several years ago each school decided to initiate a comprehensive school reform (CSR) program. The schools’ CSR programs included adoption of the same national reform model. After the first two years of implementing its program, Sierra Vista staff strongly believed they were headed in the right direction, as indicated by a change in student and teacher attitude–everyone seemed energized and enthusiastic, and a new spirit of collaboration pervaded the campus. The school also saw some small improvements in standardized test scores. But after two years of implementing its reform program, Sunrise staff decided to drop the program. Teachers felt burned out and overwhelmed, and were disappointed that test scores had not shown dramatic improvement.

Why did one school do so well with their CSR program, while the other floundered? There probably is not any one strategy that ensures a school will do well implementing comprehensive school reform; rather it takes a combination of strategies to help ensure a school’s success.

The strategies that we are going to discuss in this issue of Connections, and in the next issue as well, are strategies that can nearly guarantee success. They focus on eliminating the barriers that can hinder school reform and success. However, implementing these strategies and the reform process takes leadership—facilitative leadership—to ensure the strategies are carried out. This means the burden of leadership for the reform effort may lie with the principal and superintendent, although others play leadership roles throughout the reform process. A principal who is a facilitative leader will encourage teachers to take on many of these leadership roles. It should be noted that teachers have the most important role of all—carrying out reform efforts at the classroom level.

In 1992, based on her work and that of her colleagues, researcher Shirley Hord described the actions that a facilitative leader can take to foster school change:

It is important to recognize that school reform is a PROCESS; therefore these steps are not necessarily linear, but ongoing and overlapping.

In this issue of Connections, we will examine the first three strategies a facilitative leader can use to bring about school change to successfully implement a comprehensive school reform program, and we will see how these strategies played out at Sunrise and Sierra Vista schools. Keep these strategies in mind as you read through the stories of Sunrise and Sierra Vista and as you read the discussion of the strategies.

In the next issue of Connections, we will focus on the fourth, fifth, and sixth strategies a facilitative leader must take to ensure a successful reform program. We’ll see how training, monitoring and checking progress, and continuing to give staff assistance contribute to a CSR program’s progress and help maintain the ever-important focus on teaching and learning.

Developing an atmosphesre and context conducive to change — In a school context that encourages change and improvement, there is an atmosphere of trust. In such a context, the professional staff works collaboratively to reflect on their instruction and on how they are working to achieve their goals for students. Principals in these schools pay attention to the concerns of teachers and are never too busy to listen, interact with staff and exhibit interest and support.

Developing and communicating a shared vision — Vision refers to mental pictures of what a school or its parts might look like in a changed and improved state–a preferred image of the future. A compelling vision for a school reflects the values held by individuals in a school and in the school community. The vision should help drive all decisions made at the school.

Planning and providing resources — After the vision is agreed upon, a school must prepare a comprehensive plan to serve as a roadmap to guide teachers and administrators along the path of school reform. How resources (including time, personnel, fiscal resources, materials, and physical space) are allocated at a school should reflect the school’s vision and its priorities.

Investing in professional development — School improvement efforts usually require that teachers learn new techniques and/or strategies to change practice. Investing in professional development means the school and district are committed to helping teachers learn new strategies and provide an environment of support that includes time for professional development, opportunities for practice, and follow-up coaching and feedback.

Monitoring and checking progress — Problems and challenges will accompany any school improvement effort, no matter how well planned. Problems can range from classroom management issues to new state mandates to student learning issues. These challenges are not necessarily negative and can result in an improved reform effort, if they are addressed promptly. Monitoring and checking progress incorporates formal and informal methods that may include standardized student testing, examining student data, or frequent principal visits to classrooms.

Continuing to give assistance — As teachers and administrators change their practice and implement new strategies and methodologies to support their school improvement plan, personal and management needs arise from time to time, requiring continuing assistance. As staff members move from novice to expert in their improvement efforts, technical assistance should be structured to accommodate these changes in expertise. Not only do facilitative leaders provide coaching and technical assistance as needed, but they look for and applaud positive progress on the part of each staff member.

Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) — A research-based approach to school improvement in which schools focus on meeting the needs of all students. The key word is comprehensive; the school improvement plans are not piecemeal but integrate all factors that influence teaching and learning.

Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program — This federal appropriation assists low-performing schools in implementing effective research-based school improvement models. These models help schools address the needs identified in their school improvement plans. The funding was first appropriated in FY98. State agencies applied for funding, then held competitions in their respective states, making awards of at least $50,000 to the winning schools which had developed comprehensive reform plans.

Facilitative leader — A leader who makes it possible for the school to move forward in the change or reform process by guiding and supporting faculty and staff and by instituting policies and procedures which help them move through the process and meet the needs of all students. There may be numerous facilitative leaders throughout the reform process and these leaders may include others in addition to principals and administrators.

Professional Learning Community (PLC) — An organizational arrangement in a school where teachers and administrators establish collegial relationships to continuously seek and share learning and then act on what they learn in order to enhance their effectiveness as professionals. In a PLC, the principal shares leadership–and thus power and authority–through inviting staff input in decision making. There is also collective learning among staff and application of that learning to solutions that address students’ needs. Research literature has shown that effective PLCs also have a shared vision that is developed from the staff’s unwavering commitment to students’ learning and is consistently articulated and referenced in the staff’s work. Effective PLCs also provide coaching, support, assistance, and feedback for teachers.

¹ These six strategies were identified by SEDL researcher Shirley M. Hord in Facilitative Leadership: The Imperative for Change (Austin: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1992). The six-component framework identified in Facilitative Leadership was based on eight categories of actions or interventions of principals and other facilitators who brought about school change that Hord and Leslie Huling-Austin developed from a longitudinal study. The study was discussed in an article written by Hord and Huling-Austin, "Effective Curriculum Implementation: Some Promising New Insights," published in The Elementary School Journal, 87(1), 97-115.