A Model for School SuccessProfessional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School

Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan

ScenarioYou are a new principal that has

inherited a school and staff reluctant to change.

The previous principal was at the school for 18 years and most of the staff has been there more than 15 years.

School achievement has been sliding for the past 10 years, but the staff attributes lower results to a changing demographic.

How would you introduce change?Create a plan that moves the

school to new levels.Provide at least 3 ideas that

initiate a positive change.What would need to happen to

change teaching in:◦Your district?◦ Norway?

Two Models of Change

Business Capital

Performance outcomes

Data driven improvemen

t

Professional

CapitalSocial

capital – teachers create

togetherHuman capital –

individualism – some autonomy

Business view of change

Measures efficiency ◦Fewer staff – same results.◦Blended-delivery to reduce transportations

costs – Khan Academy experiment.Looks to improve measurable exam results.

◦Shanghai and math PISA results – school only compulsory to grade 9

◦Students must apply to High School – many not accepted.

◦Very high student stress – high suicide rates.◦Shanghai math teachers travel to Germany to

give advice.

Business Capital #2Alberta’s business plan for schools

◦ CEUs awarded to high schools for student success.◦ Schools only get paid for courses students

complete.◦ Assumption that all schools have the same

students and same programs.Canadian business CEOs to show schools the

way. John Manley and Canadian Council of Chief Executives. – assumption schools need to be businesses.◦ Are Canada’s CEO exemplary – comparison of

Alberta and Norway’s oil and gas royalties.◦ Math curriculum changes – the business solution.

Human CapitalAbout having and developing the

requisite knowledge and skillsAbout knowing your subject and

knowing how to teach it.You cannot increase human

capital just by focusing on it in isolation—must use teamwork—enabling teachers to learn from each other within and across schools—this is social capital

Social CapitalExists in the relations among peopleHow the quantity and quality of interactions

and social relationships among people affects their access to knowledge and information;

Their senses of expectation, obligation and trust

How far they are likely to adhere to the same norms or codes of behavior.

Increases knowledge because it gives you access to other people’s human capital.

Societies that have low levels of trust have higher levels of income inequality (US example)

Social CapitalSocial capital one of cornerstones to transform the

profession.Behavior shaped more by groups much more than by

individuals.Cohesive groups with less individual talent often

outperform groups with superstars who don’t work as a team.

Professional development does not have much impact on student learning when it relies on individual learning and does not focus on follow-thr0ugh support for teams of teachers to learn together. Social capital matters.

Success in any innovation is determined by the degree of social capital in the culture of your own school.

Views of educational change

Business Capital

USA and UK are examples

Change the teacher and you change the school

Professional

CapitalAlberta, Ontario, Finland,

Singapore

Changing the culture where

teachers work

Business view of teachingDemanding but technically simpleQuick study requiring only moderate

intellectual abilityHard at first but can be mastered readilyDriven by hard performance data about

what works and where to put energiesComes down to enthusiasm, hard work,

raw talent, and measureable resultsOften replaceable by online instruction.

Professional capital says good teaching is Technically sophisticated and difficultRequires high levels of education and

long periods of trainingPerfected through continuous

improvementInvolves wise judgment informed by

evidence and experienceCollective accomplishment and

responsibilityMaximizes, mediates, and moderates

online instruction, p. 14

Business Approach - Misplaced Focus on Individual Teacher Quality Concentration on poor teachers who

need to be removed from the system.◦Teacher requalification every 5 years in

Australia/most of the USA and UK.◦Teachers must continue to take

coursework to retain accreditation.◦Teachers receive regular evaluations.◦Merit pay for good teaching.◦Student performance determines good

teaching.

Your Question: What are the flaws in the business approach?

Critique each of the solutions below:◦Teacher requalification every 5 years

in Australia/most of the USA and UK.◦Teachers must continue to take

coursework to retain accreditation.◦Teachers receive regular evaluations.◦Merit pay for good teaching.◦Student performance determines

good teaching.

Hargeave and Fullan’s answers to : FlawsRewarding the Individual—Merit pay doesn’t work

except in jobs where the work is standardized and simple. Teaching cannot be reduced to a cookbook, set of basic skills.

Relying on Standardized Measurement—It’s not metrics that drives people performance, it’s what inspires you. We need to change the culture and increase professional capital.

Ignoring the School Environment: For too long teachers have worked in isolation. What matters is creating a culture of collaboration, working together, using the collective wisdom and increasing the performance and networks of a team.

Solutions that have failedClosing failing schools and dispersing students and

administrators—They just ended up in other failing schools

Bringing in smart and inexpensive young teachers into urban schools such as Teach for America. Within 3-5 years 2/3 of them move on creating more instability and leaving little of a legacy for the long run

Moving principals out—creates further instability. Should train and work with networks instead

Providing relentless timelines for yearly improvement—Takes time to show improvement

Charter Schools—evidence on whether they are better than public schools in general is at best uncertain.

4 wrong drivers for changeNegative accountabilityIndividualistic solutionsFascination with technologyPiecemeal or fragmented

solutions

The Texas ExperienceSchools rewarded for

performance.9 categories identified as

indicators of success.Schools that did not measure-up

were fined and placed under review.

The second year of a warning the principal is removed.

An IB school in San Antonio

5 misplaced fallacies for educational change are:Excessive speed, teachers need time

to plan for change together. In US and UK they spend 1500+minutes /week in classrooms.

StandardizationSubstitution of bad people with good

onesOverreliance on narrow range of

performance metricsWin-lose interschool competition

Alternative approach to changeProfessional capacity buildingCollective responsibility, teamwork, and

collaborationMoral commitment and inspirationMore rather than less professional discretion Personally engaging curriculum and

pedagogy with technology as its acceleratorBetter and broader performance metricsSchool-to-school assistance rather than

punitive intervention from on highSystemic policies that are coherent and

cohesive

How would you attract the best people to teaching?In Norway make a list of the top

professions and rank teaching in that list.Why might a top student not be attracted

to teaching?Comment on the present/ideal in Norway.

◦Teacher status – do students see teachers as hard-working?

◦Teacher pay◦Teachers’ ability to make decisions◦Teacher accountability

Profile of Teachers/Schools in NorwayUse a #1 to #10 Ranking, with

one meaning low and 10 identifying high level.

Give reasons for your ranking.Be prepared to share your

rankings and reasons.Discussion groups in Norwegian!

Please report in English.See handout.

How can a positive teaching culture be sustained?

10 minutes – generate ideas in point form.

Fullan and Hargeave’s answersStarting and spreading new projects

and not just implementing themFinding colleagues who can create

something exciting with you togetherHelping struggling peers in your own

school and in other schoolsReceiving resources for change that

sometimes go direct to the teacher and not always via the supt and then the principal

#2Being part of high-level conversations

where teachers can come across as being just as smart and confident as principal or policymaker

Being open to change but not exploitable by fashion

Managing upward and challenging the system when you have to, so you can help your students

Grasping that as soon as something is operating like clockwork—then it’s probably time to change it. P. 67

How can teacher renewal be kept fresh?Indicate some strategies to begin

change and keep things from becoming stale.

Maintaining renewalStarting and spreading new projects

and not just implementing themFinding colleagues who can create

something exciting with you togetherHelping struggling peers in your own

school and in other schoolsReceiving resources for change that

sometimes go direct to the teacher and not always via the supt and then the principal

#2 renewalBeing part of high-level conversations

where teachers can come across as being just as smart and confident as principal or policymaker

Being open to change but not exploitable by fashion

Managing upward and challenging the system when you have to, so you can help your students

Encourage alternate solutions.

30% of US teachers leave in the first two years

Important to get right people in profession to start with-need high quality training and top graduates to enter the profession and we should recruit from the top performers in college

Teachers leave because of the quality of the school’s culture and its level of support

Different types of cultures and their effects on new teachers

Veteran-oriented—very experienced colleagues who dominated culture—new teachers feel isolated and unsupported, tend to keep heads down to focus on survival and among most likely to leave profession.

Novice-oriented culture: new teachers felt energized but soon exhausted and prone to burnout because of demands of constant curriculum writing and absence of more experience colleagues willing to point out shortcuts and show them the ropes

• Mixed—mentoring is part of wider culture and all teachers help each other

3 common flaws to instituting changeShould not impose instructional change

uniformly on everyone because people are in different stages of careers

If you invest all energy on early career teachers, you will fill schools with transient teachers who are keen but not as capable.

If you defend rights of late career to choose whether or not to engage, you will then be defending those who are not capable of making reforms

Important to concentrate on the “dream teachers” those who have at least 4 years experience and are committed and passionate.

Types of school cultures1. Balkanization: Cultures made up of separate and sometimes competing groups, jockeying for position and supremacy like loosely connected Balkan states.Teachers may not be isolated, but they are

quite insulated.Some groups feel competitive with other

groups and cannot manage their envy.Leads to poor communication, indifference,

or subgroups going their separate ways.

BalkinizationCan lead to squabbles about space and

territory. Familiar to departmentalized high schools Search for collective responsibility for

student learning across grades is one way to circumvent these dangers of balkanization

In places like Alberta and Finland they realize that teachers across grade levels must work together and be in charge of curriculum writing which erases balkanization

Contrived Collegiality Characterized by formal, specific

bureaucratic procedures to increase the attention being given to join teacher planning and other forms of working together

◦ Peer pressure—can be valuable when peers are knowledgeable. Cognitive coaching and challenge coaching can provide feedback that will deepen reflection and provoke inquiry. BUT sometimes it can be another technical way to implement an external mandate and then it doesn’t accomplish the goal

◦ A lack of trust – going through the motions of collaboration.