“The only thing constant in life is change”. French author Francois de la Rochefouchauld captures the essence of change so well in that quote. Considering how often we must handle changes, the educational community struggles. When looking at a district it is easy to find all of the areas that could use improvement. Creating focus and a plan for a specific change requires careful consideration and a lot of time to manage the change. In the Spring-Ford Area School District, there is so much that is going right, despite the need for a significant curriculum updates and adjustments as well as a comprehensive professional development plan. According to Kotter, change occurs in eight stages. Beginning with a sense of urgency and …show more content…
It simply needs to get done. The teachers need to be able to come to work each day knowing that they are utilizing updated documents, resources and instructional practices. The curriculum department has made some critical time frame errors and has cost the district in many ways. Building back the trust and feeling of support is necessary to this reframing process as well. The two biggest factors for this type of change is time and money. The money has been committed by the board. They have put into place additional human resources and expect results. They have approved additional funds over the next four years for more staff and new resources. The time that teachers and others will need to commit to the process needs to be valued and structured. There needs to be short term victories and they need to see the big picture. In the end, this process could take as long as three years or could be done in 18 months. The longer it takes the more everyone will need to be reminded about “why” we need to make the change. If the curriculum department can lead the district through the process, grounded in the vision of high quality education, the reframing will be a positive experience. There will be always a push to improve standardized scores and overall achievement of students. The district will be in a better position to support students with better informed teachers and aligned
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University. This model focuses the leadership's attention on the interdependence of the various aspects of their school district and how they reinforce one another to support the implementation of an improvement strategy. One of Ms. Hall's mantras was change, but not just for change sake, deep change for sustained improvement. Therefore, although Ms. Hall's predecessor was able to put the district on the right path, Ms. Hall has taken the baton and run with it; establishing her own style and path to excellence.
Dr. Tanisha L. Heaston, principal of Treadwell Elementary talks to me about educational change. In my first meeting and interview with her, she displays many if not all the leadership benchmarks of a Change Master and Facilitator. Defined by McEwan (2003), a Change Master is a highly effective principal who is flexible and futuristic. A realistic leader who is able to both motivate and manage change in an organized, positive, and enduring fashion. As a Change Master, she uses a situational approach since every school community requires somewhat different skills. Dr. Heaston respects change resisters, procures resources for her school, and trusts her teams which aligns with ISLLC Standard Six.
and critical thinking, but the process will be slow, teachers will be stress about changing
Richter, K. B., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2007). Systematic transformation in public school systems. The F. M. Duffy Reports, 12(4), 1-24.
Only now is evidence emerging testifying to the fact that much of the criticism leveled at public schools is exaggerated and misplaced. It is easy to forget that schools reflect what is happening in society, not cause it. Schools of today have recently shown that they are performing better than ever. Unfortunately, the traditional challenges confronting schools have increased dramatically and broadly as the world and students have changed. Now schools are facing drastic change -- necessary change that must take place quickly so students are able to cope in a dramatically changing world of the future. All of the criticism creates fear in teachers and administrators rather than a desire to embrace change.
Of the teachers I have spoken with most have agreed that the common core has been rushed, with not enough time and/or money to adequately prepare. The goal was a noble one – to have the United States a global leader in education. But the curriculum was basically just dumped in the teacher’s laps. Testing the system in a select few school districts would have been a better way to gradually implement the new curriculum.
...ting a new curriculum. The system needs an entire restructuring, from the top to the bottom.
This essay aims to give an in-depth analysis of strategies by applying Kotter’s Eight Stage process framework on how change can be implemented successfully. It will further discuss reactions and resistance to the planned changes that one may encounter from staff and parents.
Change is a word that I have constantly heard throughout my high school years. It is a transformation through which everyone goes whether it's for the better or for the worse. For me the meaning and value of change has helped me to focus on the goals I have to accomplish. For others, it is simply just a phase we go through. All of us here have been able to learn and develop from our changes to be come a better and successful person.
Several of the major reform initiatives of the 1980s and early 1990s argued that improving education requires improving teacher quality and, accordingly, teacher education. Numerous changes in teacher recruitment, preparation, and certification were proposed. (For a detailed list, see Hartley, Mantle-Bromley, and Cobb 1996.) In response to the calls for reform, general teacher education programs raised admission standards/exit requirements; revised curricula to reflect multiculturalism and new K-12 standards; paid more attention to pedagogy, teaching practice, and relevance; included clinical experiences in public schools and other learning environments; and proposed new model standards/principles for licensing beginning teachers (Lynch 1997).
It is hard to blame just the curriculum, tests, students or teachers for the difficulties seen in the new adopted common core. It is also hard to disregard all the documentation and evidence of the damage that has been done to the children and schools from the newly adopted curriculum. Our only hope for our future means we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children. Maybe the Core curriculum does not need to be shipped out, but instead needs shoring up. If the common core is to continue being implemented in our school system the districts need to adjust its curriculum to not only better fit what the tests ask, but also, not rob our children from what makes them an individual, creativity.
Schools must decide how to teach the standardized curriculum. Schools must figure out how to mesh a standardized and non-standardized curriculum. Can students guide their own curriculum and perform well on tests?
The decade of the 1980s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures. With the advent of the 1990s, school reform finally to...
Going to school and getting a great education is important for a successful future in today’s world. Years ago, many children did not go to school and many young adults opted to work instead of attending college. In today’s society, gaining a high level of education is almost always mandatory for many jobs. There are many changes being done to the education system along with new items and ways of teaching in the classroom. There is a growing amount of changes in the classroom such as technology, teaching time, teaching styles, and freedom of space.
When it comes to implementing a curriculum everyone has an opinion. Whether it is the organization of the curriculum or the evaluation of the curriculum, everyone from administers, teachers, and parents will have their opinions on the new curriculum. The curriculum development group has many difficult decisions to make. They have to decide when and how to implement, who will be in charge, what data will be collected, and how will the curriculum be evaluated.