Ethics and School Culture: Choose Your Own Adventure

Cory Stutts, Head of Middle School

Ethical Literacy ConferenceMiddletown RI

June 2012

Welcome to Our Adventure

About CCS

• Located in heart of Old Town, just north of downtown Chicago

• Founded as parent cooperative 1975

• Urban school– started in Jewish Community Center– moved to Catholic School basement– moved to current loft building, former B&B Shoe Company in

1992

Our Namesake, Catherine Cook

• Purchased building from Alex Anagnost 1990

• Renamed (formerly Melrose School) after his mother, Catherine Cook

• Attorney, Philanthropist• Dedicated to causes

affecting children

Recent Milestones and Challenges

• Reorganized as independent school in 1997

• Transition from parent cooperative to professional administrative structure uneven– 4 heads of school in 5 years

• Current head of school, Michael Roberts, came 2005– Had worked with Rush Kidder at previous school– Suggested IGE as resource for building school culture

Creating our history

• Not fighting a long history—creating it right now

• Redefining identity from “little school that could” to top tier innovative urban junior school

• Ethics and character development essential components

Who we are now

• Three divisions: Early Childhood (PS-K), Lower School (1st-4th), Middle School (5th-8th)

• 500+ students ages 3-14

• Growing from 2 to 3 sections at each grade level

• Introduction to Catherine Cook School

Where we are today

Over the past four years, our Ethics and Culture team has evolved into a powerful tool for:

• shaping school culture• driving professional development • fostering teacher leadership • partnering for parent education

But it hasn’t been a straight line…

First steps…marching forward

August 2008• Team of Middle School teachers and school

administrators train with IGE

August 2008• Teachers and staff develop core values during back-to-

school meetings

Sept-Oct 2008• Middle School students develop core values in

advisoriesOctober 2008• Staff and students meet to agree on final five core

values

CCS Core Values agreed upon between staff and Middle School students-Fall 2008

RespectResponsi

bility

Compassion

Integrity

Onward and upward…

October 2008Present final Core Values to entire staff and Middle School students

October 2008Develop CCS Shared Ethical Norms for healthy collegial relations

2008-09Explore what core values look like in action with staff and Middle School students

2008-09Explore decision-making frameworks with staff and Middle School students

Everything is good, right?

• Not exactly…

• Growing pains?

• Middle School pushes ahead with stops and starts

• Challenge keeping Early Childhood and Lower School engaged

Crossroads…

• Is this just a Middle School thing?

Choose Our First Adventure

Sooo…do we choose to keep the focus on Middle School and push forward with our Action Plans?

Or…do we regroup and choose to broaden the initiative to include all our students?

CHOICE 1: Keep the focus on Middle School

• Keep working the Middle School Action Plan

• Build a sturdy Middle School EL curriculum

• Let EC and LS go their own way with Responsive Classroom, Love and Logic

• But…we chose the other path

CHOICE 2: Include all our students

• How to do it? No road map…

• Energy beginning to fray and lose focus

We need a new plan

Step 1: Persuade Division Heads to attend 2010 Ethical Literacy Conference with me in Memphis

Step 2: Come with a dilemma: Can we include young children in the work of Ethical Literacy?

– Aren’t they still learning right from wrong? – Can they understand right v. right dilemmas?– Isn’t this too complex and abstract?– How will they remember the values?

Don’t know what we will find…if anything

Happy Surprise

Iona WhishawPrincipal

Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School

Vancouver BC

ROARS Code of Conduct

Sir Charles Tupper Code of Conduct

Sir Charles TupperROARS Code of

Conduct

Respect

OwnershipAttitude

Responsibility

Safety

Aha! Moment

• Catherine Cook mascot is Cougar…

• A cougar ROARS…

• Concrete enough for young children…

• We can shamelessly borrow this idea!

Catherine Cook School Code of Conduct

CCSROARS Code of

Conduct

Respect

OwnershipAppreciation

Responsibility

Safety

Rolling it out…

• Share with EL Team in summer meeting

• Concrete way to bring younger students in

• Not abandoning Core Values…

Or are we?

• How to make the relationship clear between original Core Values and ROARS…

Core Values

• Respect• Responsibility• Compassion• Integrity• Diversity

ROARS

• Respect• Ownership• Appreciation• Responsibility• Safety

Choose Our Second Adventure

• Do we choose to put our efforts into ROARS and younger students and risk losing focus on Middle School and the original Core Values?

• Do we choose to try to do both at once?

CHOICE 1: Put our efforts into ROARS and broaden to include younger students

• Work with teachers of younger students to incorporate ROARS along with Responsive Classroom and other structures

• 8th graders lead Back to School Assembly aimed at younger children

• Middle School students translate ROARS for younger students– Make safety posters– Awards for being caught being ROARSY

• Let original Core Values rest while we focus on ROARS and unifying the entire school around a common set of values

CHOICE 2: Try to do both at once

• 8th graders introduce ROARS at Back to School Assembly

• Build and reinforce ethical vocabulary, conduct with younger students

• Keep building ethical literacy in MS advisories with right v right dilemmas in the news, in the classroom, and on the playground

• Deepen awareness of ethical issues in different MS subject areas

• Keep making the connections between original Core Values and ROARS

THIS PROVED HARD TO DO…Still figuring it out

Connecting Core Values and ROARS?

• One idea is to create banners in the gym that showed connections—ROARS as our Core Values in Action

• Both would be visible and reinforced

• Got as far as location and possible design…

• Banners got stuck at funding...need to revisit that one

Review of ROARS after first year…

• Strengths: ROARS was a good idea, started off with a bang– Shared with staff at Pre-planning—built energy and

enthusiasm

– 8th graders planned over the summer; introduced to whole school at first assembly, ending up with a cheer:

• We are the Cougars, coming through the doors,• We are the Cougars, ROARS, ROARS, ROARS!

• Weaknesses: ROARS fizzled in LS and EC

• Ideas for recognizing ROARSY behavior never got fully implemented

• Teachers lost focus

How do we sustain our efforts?

• Identify new EL team members from Early Childhood and Lower School

• Educate and bring new members up to speed with Ethical Literacy and ROARS– Refresher course on the basics?

The gist of it

• We need to build a structure that keeps ROARS and Core Values alive in the school

How to do it?

• Plan structures that repeat and can be revisited from year to year, i.e…

BUILD REPLICABLE STRUCTURES

STRATEGY 1• tie ROARS to existing CCS structures such as…

– Whole Faculty Meetings – Weekly Division Meetings– Weekly All School Assemblies – Middle School Morning Meetings – Advisory– Student Leadership Council – Responsive Classroom, Circle Time, Peace Wheels – Discipline Process

STRATEGY 2

• Expand the original Ethical Literacy team to include teachers of younger students

STRATEGY 3

• Create an Ethical Literacy steering committee including Division Heads and others

SOMEONE HAS TO HOLD ONTO THE VISION AND KEEP IT MOVING FORWARD

STRATEGY 4• Create other committees to get work done:

– Division Committees– Multicultural Committee (outreach to Parent Group?)– Assemblies Committee– Sports Committee– Writing Committee—get statement of purpose and

connection; write about program for website

COMMITTEES ARE FLEXIBLE—

CHANGE IN RESPONSE TO WORK TO BE DONE

STRATEGY 5

• Create an organizational chart that shows the parts and how they connect

Ethics and Culture Team

Student-Focused Ethics Initiatives Adult-Focused Ethics Initiatives

Student-Focused Ethics Initiatives

Back to School ROARS Assembly Advisory Buddies MS Advisory Curriculum

Integrate ethical dilemmas into subject areas

Adult-Focused Ethics Initiatives

Back to School Session for Teachers Diversity Work Teachers Leading Professional

Learning

STRATEGY 6

• Meet as a whole team once each trimester to report, review, and plan

SET MEETINGS UP A YEAR IN ADVANCE AND STICK TO THEM

STRATEGY 7

• Have Committees meet monthly and as needed to do the work

STRATEGY 8

• 8th grade students do the Back to School Assembly each year

Back to School ROARS Assembly 2011

With some basic structures in place, we see new possibilities…

• Problem: Lots of good ethical literacy work happening inside school, need to bring parents into the process

• Solution: One Book, One Catherine Cook

• Choose Good Kids, Tough Choices, Rush’s book written for parents

• Cross-divisional book discussion groups

• Invite Rush to spend a day at Catherine Cook, work with students, faculty, parents

ROARSY or BOARSY?

• http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/2011/12/05/roarsy-boarsy/

• http://www.amazon.com/Meet-Boars-Ribbon-Picture-Awards/dp/0805074880#reader_0805074880

• Problem: Scattered diversity initiatives need more intentional direction– Started Multicultural Parents Reading Group--morphed– Started Faculty of Color group--stopped– Started Multicultural Students Club--fizzled– In-service diversity discussion—controversial– Outside speaker brought in--controversial

• All testing the waters, no coherence; in need of a plan

New Directions for Diversity Work

Ethical Literacy and Cultural Competence

• Steering Committee kicks off 2011-12 school year with presentation on Ethical Literacy and Cultural Competence

• Faculty read and discuss The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Developing Teacher Leadership

• 8th grade teachers lead February in-service day on the genetics of race– Plan with Steering Committee– Describe integrated 8th grade science/humanities unit

on identity– Show clips from Race: The Power of an Illusion– Include skyped webinar with evolutionary biologist

Joseph Graves – Intellectually provocative; presenting at PoCC next year

Reviewing In-Service with EC Team

• Shared general survey results from wider faculty• Asked EC team for honest feedback• Major result: teachers enjoyed theory of race, but

wanted practical resources and strategies to use with students

• Invited new team members to plan whole faculty follow up session

Annual Learning Cycle

End of Year Review/Planning

September Kickoff

October In-service

Trimester 1 Review

February In-service

Trimester 2 Review

May Whole Faculty Meeting

Behind the Scenes Work that Admin Does

• Sets a tone of openness, voluntary participation• Regularly invites new members to join Ethics and Culture

team• Listens to team ideas• Shares leadership• Empowers faculty to have a voice in professional learning• Makes time to get the work done• Sets the calendar• Gathers feedback on events and activities

Behind the Scenes Work that Admin Does

MOST IMPORTANTLY…

• Keeps steering the process and staying on course, whether highway or byway

Reflective, iterative process

This has been a narrative of our journey so far…

Not a straight line, many crossroads

• Constantly evolving

• Some next steps for us – Re-engaging older students– Recognizing greater ethical complexity as students

mature– distinguishing Core Values from ROARS appropriately

for MS age students

Now Choose Your Next Adventure

• What structures to support ethics in your school/organization repeat on a regular cycle?

• Where are the tensions/decision points for your

process right now?

• What resources/information do you need?

• What are your next steps?

Resources

ROARS Code of Conduct• http://

ethical-literacy.org/annual-conference/2010-annual-conference/presenters-2/iona-whishaw/