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Building Capacity: The Work of School Boards
ASBSD School Board Institute-2008
Dr. Timothy M Mitchell
McREL's Taxonomy
Consider these four types of knowledge when you are planning professional development:
Declarative-What do they need to learn?
Procedural-How will they apply it? Experiential-Do they know why it’s important?
Contextual-When will they use it?
McREL's Taxonomy
Declarative knowledge- participants will leave with new knowledge about new research concerning capacity building associated with increased student achievement.
Procedural knowledge- participants will be introduced processes that help foster capacity building that is associated with increased student achievement.
McREL's Taxonomy
Experiential knowledge- participants will understand why it is important to emphasize capacity building practices associated with increased student achievement.
Contextual knowledge- participants will be asked to implement capacity building practices associated with increased student achievement during the 2008-09 school year.
New Research
South Dakota Public School Superintendents’ Perception of Innovation
Purpose of Study
To examine public school district superintendents’ perceptions of
individual innovativeness, organizational innovativeness, and
innovation behaviors.
Purpose of Study
Specific characteristics of public school district superintendents and public school districts were analyzed
Superintendent Characteristics
– Age– Gender– Years experience– Educational level– Professional development practices– Professional organizational membership
School District Characteristics
– Enrollment– Financial resources– Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Status– Professional development capacity– Average years of teaching experience– Percentage of teaching staff with advanced
degrees
Population
All public school district superintendents serving public school districts in South Dakota during the 2007-2008 school year were the population for this study. The total number of public school district superintendents participating in this study was 165. The Response Rate was 83% (137).
Method
The study utilized a researcher developed survey instrument that was based on the work of McCroskey (2006) Communication Research Measures: Individual Innovativeness and Organizational Innovativeness.
Research Base
The process of adopting new innovations has been studied for over 30 years, and one of the most popular adoption models is described by Dr. Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations (2003).
Research Base
He first published the theory of diffusion of innovation in 1962. Since that time, he has updated and changed his theory and has published the most recent edition (5th Edition) in 2003. Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system.
Definitions
Individual Innovativeness: The degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than the other members of a system (Rogers, 2003).
(Handout)
Definitions
Organizational Innovativeness: The degree to which an organization is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than another organization (Rogers, 2003).
(Handout)
Definitions
Innovation Behaviors (Perceived Attributes): Most of the variance in the rate of adoption is explained by five behaviors: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability (Rogers, 2003).
Adopter Categories
The individuals in a social system do not all adopt an innovation at the same time. It has become useful and efficient to describe each individual adopter in a system in terms of his or her time of adoption. Adopter categories are used as the classification systems for members of a system on the basis of their innovativeness. Each adopter category consists of individuals with a similar degree of innovativeness.
Adopter Categories
The first category of adopters is innovators (2.5%). These are the risk-takers and pioneers who lead the way. The second group is known as the early adopters (13.5%). They climb on board the train early and help spread the word about the innovation to others.
Adopter Categories
The third and fourth groups are the early majority and late majority. Each constitutes 34% of the potential adopting population. The innovators and early adopters convince the early majority. The late majority waits to make sure that adoption is in their best interests.
Adopter Categories
The final group is the laggards (16%). These are the individuals who are highly skeptical and resist adopting until absolutely necessary. In many cases, they never adopt the innovation.
Conclusions
Most South Dakota public school district superintendents perceive themselves as highly innovative on an individual innovativeness survey.
Conclusions
The largest adopter category of South Dakota public school district superintendents is early majority and according to Rogers (2003) they tend to have a high degree of opinion leadership, are respected by their peers, and they are the individual to check with before adopting a new idea.
Conclusions
They also perceive their public school district to be innovative yet rate the public school district lower on an organizational innovativeness survey than they rate themselves.
Conclusions
The largest adopter category of South Dakota public school district superintendents is early majority and according to Rogers (2003) they have a high degree of opinion leadership, are respected by other public school districts, and are the public school district to check with before adopting a new idea.
Conclusions
They also perceive their school boards as exhibiting innovative behaviors on a regular basis in a variety of situations.
Conclusions
The public school characteristics along with public school district superintendent characteristics do not significantly predict whether a public school district superintendent is innovative, the school district is innovative or that the school board will exhibit innovation behaviors.
Conclusions
Some of the public school district and public school district superintendents’ characteristics did have greater predictive ability than others.
Conclusions
There exists a strong positive relationship between innovative public school district superintendents and innovative public school districts. Respondents in this study perceive leadership capacity is needed for a public school district to be innovative and organizational capacity is needed for a public school district superintendent to be innovative.
Conclusions
Public school districts exhibit more innovation behaviors if they have greater financial resources and a larger percentage of teachers with advanced degrees.
Conclusions
Public school district superintendents that perceive themselves as innovative are found in public school districts with :
larger enrollments
greater financial resources
greater professional development capacity teachers with more years of teaching experience are more likely to be female
Conclusions
These public school district superintendents have a higher educational degree level and more professional organization memberships.
Recommendations for Practice
This study has shown that leadership is critical in innovative public school districts and that resources are needed by public school districts to develop leadership and organizational capacity to sustain innovation. Policy makers should note that investment in building capacity in leadership and organizational capacity is a critical factor in fostering innovation.
Recommendations for Practice
Public school district superintendents need to consider the importance of building their own leadership capacity through professional development, securing advanced degrees, and establishing intra-personal networks through memberships in professional organizations.
Recommendations for Practice
This study indicates that funding is critical in innovative public school districts and resources are needed to sustain the teaching staff, to provide professional development activities to build leadership capacity, and to provide professional development activities to build organizational capacity.
Recommendations for Practice
This study indicates that the size of the public school district, the amount of available fiscal resources, the investment in professional development activities, and the experience level of teachers can be factors in promoting innovation in public school districts. Policy makers and public school districts need to pay extra attention to these factors and be prepared to invest resources in these areas as they try to promote innovation in public school districts.
Recommendations for Practice
This study indicates that public school district superintendents with higher educational degrees and a greater involvement in professional organizations perceive themselves as more innovative. Public school districts, policy makers, and federal agencies need to invest in life-long learning for public school district superintendents and provide the resources to join professional organizations.
Balanced Leadership-Six Areas of Superintendent Responsibilities
1. Collaborative goal-setting process2. Non-negotiable goals for achievement and
instruction3. Board alignment with and support of district goals4. Use of resources to support the goals for
achievement and instruction5. Monitoring goals for achievement and instruction6. Defined autonomy: Superintendent relationship
with schools
Use of Resources
Developing a Master Plan to coordinate professional development activities of the district so that all directly relate to district
goals
Providing professional development for board members
Steps to Making Professional Development Work
1. Gather and analyze the data and identify gaps in student learning
2. Set student learning goals and align school improvement efforts with those goals
3. Define instructional strategies that address learning goals.4. Identify what staff need to know and be able to do in order to
implement new strategies5. Define professional development initiatives and develop an
action plan6. Create professional development evaluation plan
Step 5-Initatives & Action Plan
Instructional Leadership**Personal Professional Growth Plans**
Preservice/Inservice/Days Built into Calendar Summer Retreats & WorkshopsAfter school WorkshopsTuition Reimbursement ProgramMasters Degree Program National Board Certified TeachersNational Convention AttendanceEarly Release/Late StartFaculty Meetings
Theme
“Building Capacity Focused on Results”
Michael Fullan-2008 AASA NCE
Building Capacity
Fullan (2006) defined capacity building as an action based and powerful policy or strategy that increases the collective efficacy of a group to improve student learning through new knowledge, enhanced resources, and greater motivation on the part of people working individually and together.
Building Capacity
“Schools improve when purpose and effort unite. One key is leadership that recognizes
its most vital function: to keep everyone’s eyes on the prize of improved student
learning”
Mike Schmoker
Building Capacity
To create conditions for you to succeed by helping you find meaning, increased skill development and personal satisfaction in making contributions that simultaneously fulfill your own goals and the goals of the
organization
Building Capacity
If a job is satisfying, then the result will be commitment to the organization
The average person learns under proper conditions not only to accept but to seek responsibility
Imagination, creativity, and ingenuity can be used to solve work problems by a large number of employees
Building Capacity
What it takes to keep good people
According to a survey by the American Management Association, here are the four most cited incentives:– Sending employees to conferences and seminars– Tuition Reimbursement– Skills Training– Pay for Performance
Building Capacity
Use of methods based upon research To train and develop each worker Cooperation to ensure methods are
implemented To divide the work evenly
Learning is the Work
“Educational change depends on what teachers do and think—it is as simple and complex as that”
Fullan
Learning is the Work
“Good is the enemy of great, and that is one of the key reasons
why we have so little that becomes great”
Jim Collins
Learning is the Work
Accenture Tiger Woods ad:
“relentless consistency 50%; willingness to change, 50%”
Learning is the Work
The best way to improve a school or district is by
developing the people within it
Recommendations for Follow-Up
“The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations
Survive and Thrive”-M. Fullan Love your employees Connect peers with purpose Capacity building prevails Learning is the work Transparency rules Systems learn
Thank you!
Questions and comments
