The Heart Of Change: A Case Study

Level Up was designed to be a new innovated method of addressing the professional development gap within the current K-12 educational systems. The volunteer sessions have limited administrative oversight, are held weekly exclusively afterschool; beyond the contractual duty day. Each session is based on the unique needs of the faculty from week to week, centered around topics such as but not limited too; effective educational strategies, shifts in education, technology, and/ or classroom management. Level Up sessions are lead by members of the schools faculty with a strong knowledge base around a session topic or a strategy used and found to be successful within the building. Level Up shifted the culture of professional development in one elementary

Creating a sense of urgency among those who need to implement the change is the first step discussed. Level Up sessions aligned with this step by allowing all members of the school to not only see a need for the change, but also feel how the change would directly benefit each person involved. All parties clearly saw a way to address their sense of urgency. Administration found the sessions an effective way to address the needs within the school, and supported the idea of not everyone needed all the sessions, the leadership team was able to address some the educational and instructional gaps of the faculty, and the faculty felt empowered to not only learn and share, the faculty found sessions to be a safe place to experience needs in a comfortable setting. While creating a sense of urgency, communication of buy-in steps four of Kotter’s (2002) eight step process accorded at the same

Keeping these concepts in mind, new ideas were not introduced; the sessions were focused around the many aspects of the immediate needs of the faculty and staff members. The message was clear and a compatible fit to the established protocols within Prince George’s County Culture. Barker stresses the need to ensure when the new idea is presented there is a clear message and compatible fit, using the same using the same language faculty members were use to was a key component in each session, the goal was refine and build upon the faculties