School Administration: Diverse Thinking, Redefining Readiness, Creating Processes with the end in mind

Sue Alexander and Dr. Sarah Jerome share ideas on being a creative thinker in order to develop consensus and build a vision in your schools and school district. These educators have decades of successful school leadership experience to share. 

Thanks for listening. If you would like to share your thoughts or topic ideas, or would like to be a guest, you can find Educational Relevance on Facebook, YouTube or email us at oliviaw1201@educationalrelevance.org, brwright44@gmail,com or mark@educationalrelevance.org.

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

Hello. Welcome to Educational Relevance, A platform for experienced educators to share. Proven successful strategies to educate today's students and leaders. I'm here today, with Sue Alexander and Dr. Sarah Jerome to talk about consensus and building a vision school districts, but also tackling problems that happens every day in our educational lives. I want to introduce the ladies first. Sue Alexander has served on administrative teams in three different public school districts holding positions of superintendent. High school principal and assistant principal prior to education, Sue worked 10 years in business finance and held the positions of secretary of the Board of a No Load mutual fund, and as vice president of Investment Advisory Company, and she always talked about anniversary live stability. Welcome, Sue.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 0:49

you.

Track 1: 0:50

And then we have Dr. Sarah Jerome. Sarah has worked 46 years in education, 23 years of those years. Were as a superintendent, 15 years in Kettle Marine, Wisconsin, in eight years in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was a principal at Nicola High School and assistant superintendent in Rockford, Illinois. She served nine different school districts in five states. Sarah served as president of A A SI, the American Association of School Administrators, and she's currently working. For HYA consulting, which does superintendent searches and strategic planning for school districts. And her mantra and motto, which I always say, A code is public education and the backbone of democracy. Dr. Jerome, welcome. Glad to see you. So that,

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 1:33

Wright.

Track 1: 1:34

all right, and both these ladies I've known for several years, One as a co-worker. Partner, my partner Sue Alexander. We always say partner. And then of Dr. Sarah Drum was my boss and, a heroine of mine for many years. Now I'm gonna turn it over to my co host Mark Macbeth. Mark, we gonna talk about problems today. So lemme turn this over to you.

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 1:55

The thing we want to talk today to them about is, that problem solving process and how do we go about doing that?

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 2:02

Thank you. Definitely. Pre-planning is an important part of being a successful school in a successful school district. thinking about things ahead of time is certainly important. And when we think about what we are wanting to accomplish, We need to have the end in mind. We need to know what we are working toward each step along the way. And the way to do that is to plan together and to have a whole community bring their thoughts to create a vision, a mission establish what the core beliefs are, consensus around that. So that there is a direction for everyone who's in the school district. Now, that certainly does not mean that there won't be diversity of thinking. We will certainly have that because you can arrive at the same goal. Through a lot of different avenues, but we all need to know what the goal is, what the priorities are, and it takes some work with the community to establish that. To get that. One way is to bring people together who have some stake in the community, who are residents of the community, who are parents of the community. People who might live in contiguous school districts who have a stake in the success of the school district. And you bring those people together assuming that there are going to be differences of opinion, and they work together around the idea of building, a knowledge base together. They study the data of the community of the school district. They study the demographics and they find out what the needs are in the community and what is valued in the community, and build the portrait of a graduate from that. it takes some time to do that. So it's a process that could take a year or even two over a period of meeting with some regularity. To come back to this point, and there are some progressive steps along the way that get you to determining the portrait of a graduate looks like. once you found that, bring it in communication to the whole school community. Through publications, you ask for input from that community you make adjustments in that portrait based on some of the feedback. So it is an important process that begins slowly and crescendos really into a board approval of a portrait of a graduate. Sue. You know, over the last century, there have been some real masters in the United States, the business world. I. Who have done exactly what Sarah's describing and Disney was one of'em. He was such a believer in the importance of diverse thinking, that he created a process that's still available to people today through a company called McNelis. but it's a way of gathering. Information in a fashion that allows all of the ideas to come out and the stories about Disney, tell you that he was so fanatical about collecting every idea that he would go through wastebaskets after these sessions. Fearful that an idea might have come from someone who didn't maybe feel they were as proficient at speaking as others were. I. And he wanted to retrieve those ideas because his system collects them. one. Another one is Stephen Covey build with the End in Mind, of a Graduate. Those are identical ideas and they force you to think where is it that we're going, what is it that we wanna do at the same time? can also work with people in small groups on problems at building the opposite of that so that they have in their mind where they don't want to go as well as where they do want to go. And sometimes in dealing with diverse situations, you have to have people able to hear the whole continuum and then to decide, we're committing to this. This is what we want. One of the things that I'd like to recommend is a program that A A SA has sponsored, and it's called Redefining Ready. And it helps the school district get to career ready, life ready, and college ready when they're talking about the portrait of a graduate. a A SA has offered a number of workshops to help people get to that point. They find that the enrollment is growing because the interest in helping bring consensus around. What the portrait of a graduate looks like is growing. And it's certainly needed, especially when you, we think about the difficulties we've had in the past five years or six years now. With Mm-hmm. Covid and the various challenges that have come to the public schools, it has become increasingly important to be able to define that the graduate skills and then to help hone our. Process to helping create those able and skillful graduates. One other thing that I'd like to mention is the use of imagination in solving problems there's a, new book out that's called Cultivating Imagination and Leadership Transforming Schools and Communities. It's by Gillian Judson and Megan Dory. And it is one of those books that urges us to be creative thinkers about. The planning process about the problem solving all of these diverse ideas. Mm-hmm. Being brought to bear on something that is critically important, both to our community, our state, our nation, and our world.

Track 1: 8:33

You know, doc, you've mentioned a couple of things. please explain more about when you talk about diversity of thinking and how did you set a staff. diverse thinkers? Because out the staff you developed, I think a half dozen of us went on to become superintendents and principals

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 8:48

Right.

Track 1: 8:48

and you, you saw something in us that maybe somebody didn't see. So can you talk about that process? Then the second thing I wanna make sure you talk about is how did you set the soft skills part when you talk about students being college, life and career ready, both those things.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 9:02

Happy to do so. I do think as an administrator, we have the obligation to be really discerning talent scouts. We want to bring the highest talent pool to our students for their benefit, and I have always believed that that talent pool needs to reflect. The population that they're serving, and it needs to be able to be role models for the student population. So we have to have diversity in lots of different ways. Diversity of thinking, diversity in skin color, diversity in belief systems, all of those things pulled together to help our students grow. And to be able to identify with the leaders that are in front of them. So it is certainly an important part of the job of the administrator to seek out the very best possible for their students. I also believe that we should never be scared of hiring people who are likely to disagree with us. Certainly we want their core beliefs. To be in common with the goals that the school district and community set, but to have people who are willing to speak out and say, that is absolutely the wrong direction. You need to be thinking about this and this and this. And to be able to not only tolerate it, but to invite it as the school leader is a really critical piece. I couldn't add a thing to that. That's absolute perfection, that's what you need. And it's not always easy. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. And it's also important that as an administrator, your main job isn't. force your ideas onto the group. It's to create processes and ways of thinking and working with one another that brings the ideas of the group up. There are times when you'll be able to put that overview perspective in, but as Sarah described, the processes that you're working with, you're really pulling that up out of your group. helping people to understand that you are listening and not only listening, you are attempting to pull out the key pieces that will help to create that portrait of a graduate or the end in mind, I'd like to just mention also when we're talking about career ready, life ready, college ready having people who have. A strong level of enthusiasm for the work they're doing is a really important aspect of helping children know that they're cared for, that they're loved, that they're valued, that they're celebrated. When, when we have teachers who are. Tired and show that it tells something to the student. So we as leaders have to be charismatic and enthusiastic and cheerleaders for the work we're doing and to have that infused every single hour of every single day in what we do. so we have to charge ourselves up and we have to charge each other to help support each other in this work. Mm-Hmm. And know that some days will be good and some days not That's

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 12:19

I'm gonna challenge this just a little bit. So, schools and districts are at different levels of, their processes, right? But. I've heard, we've already done our visions, we've already done our missions. We've been through that. We've done that. It's it's old hat. How often should we be looking at this or, should they say, well, we've done the vision, we're done, and then move on? Or is there a procedure to think about?

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 12:47

Well, I definitely, we're never done. We're, we're never done. Even when we were retired, we're never done. So it's, it is one of those things where we are learners and. Things change and we have to keep abreast of those things. So every three to five years we need to be bringing our groups together to have this ongoing discussion about I. What are we doing? Where are we? Have we mastered what we said we were going to master? Are our students mastering that? Do we need to make some adjustments in what we expect our students to be doing? It's, an ongoing change. Yeah. And there are small things that can be done, on a week or monthly basis. To collect information to let you know whether you're on target or not. And one of them is an idea that Disney presents and that is simply to use a way of allowing people to respond to. A particular situation. it's something that you've had to handle that you think, boy, I need feedback from that. And Disney did it with boards, great big boards, but today's people may do it with Google Docs, whatever it is you're going to ask your group to respond to what worked well. And that's a good one to start with. What did we do right? What worked well in this situation? What didn't work well, and what's a key takeaway you want us to have? And then let your group. In Disney's days, he used those little dots that you could buy at the store. People would put their ideas of what worked well, what didn't work well, what are the key pieces you wanna take away? He'd give them four or five different dots and tell'em, go at it. Which are your keys. So they weren't just looking at their own idea. They would look at the board and see maybe 10, 12 different things that came forward. I've done it with whole faculties of 60 or 70, and they'll still And pretty soon you can begin to see the dots in certain things that you definitely wanna hold onto. My daughter is a department head in a local high school, and she said they do it with Google Docs. Same kind of thing. No, they're gathering ideas, not shutting one another down. Everybody's thoughts are collected and then highlighting them so that you know. And you can pick out as the leader what those key ideas are and what the things are that they want you to learn from this, they want you to know. So that's a very simple way to do it without the entire visioning process that you're talking about. Whenever I went into a new school. As an administrator, I always did a large group meeting. With that in mind now, today, what's working well that you don't want me to mess with? What's not working well and what are some key things you want me to know? that's one of the strongest things I ever did as a school leader was to be able to come back at the end of that year or the beginning of the next, and review with them, here's where we started. These were the things you loved and you asked me not to mess with. These are the things that you asked me to work on, and these were key pieces you wanted me to know. are these things changing right now? Let's do a real quick collection. So there are things that you can do that will give you that information that you need without a large process that's ongoing. It can be just done in a simple day, and Sarah's very nicely explained, that larger process, that makes sure you're figuring out who you are as a district, district's different. It, who the community members are will determine where those core values are. And in some districts, it it just will look slightly different than it will in others, but it's still somewhere along that broad based bell shape curve of ideas.

Track 1: 16:45

Mm-Hmm.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 16:46

we could end with Ruth Bader Ginsbergs quote, fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you. How's

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 16:56

There you go. So I think it's really good. We talked about Disney a few times, by the way. There is, a book called Disney Way. A really fascinating read and also on audio for those people that wanna listen to it on audio. One of the things that always impressed me about Disney that you talked about was the idea he knew what he wanted his. vision to be. to be the best entertainment world and, the elite at making entertainment for families, But what he did was he constantly was working to revise that on how do we get there?

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 17:29

Hmm.

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 17:30

And that's the key I think you were talking about When you walk through the gate of Disney World there's murals on the side of the, gate. they know that only 10% of the people ever stop and look at that. But those murals are made out of little bitty tiles, and it's intricate, they find that it was worth it because the people, that did stop, stared for a while and stayed the other thing was, when you exit a ride at Disney World, you go through the the store now. because the, number one question that people ask, wanna know where they can buy a shirt that they can buy their shirts instantly.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 18:07

Right at that kind of a simple idea, but I can

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 18:10

Yeah.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 18:10

how it would work. Museums are

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 18:12

Yeah,

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 18:12

now.

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 18:13

the idea was that he was listening to people, involved in engaging people in that process. One of the other key things I wanted to capture was really learning where you're at, as a new school administrator when you enter a building, it's essential that you learn What has been practiced in the past. before you just jump into saying, let's sit down and do a vision. They already got a vision. They just did it last year. let's figure out the procedures and processes to make the vision reality, and then if they don't have that in place, then that's where we work from.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 18:49

And it's a great way to reflect because the ideas are in, in print. This is what you told me was our starting point, where we are now.'cause those ideas can be lost, those thoughts can be lost over time. But when you actually document it. Again, it doesn't take hours to do that. It's a pretty simple process, but it just gives great conversation in the future.

squadcaster-28d0_2_02-22-2024_094717: 19:14

And then from there, pre-planning

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 19:16

Absolutely. Mm-Hmm.

Track 1: 19:17

I'm gonna say wow, diversity of thinking build the end of mind. Redefining ready. I think all these wonderful things came out, this program today. anything else you wanna say at, this time? Wanna make sure before we close up. And I say thank you to you both.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 19:31

It's been great. It's been fun.

Track 1: 19:33

You are wonderful. mark it's good to see you. Thank you all and Have a great day. Thank you so much. Bye-Bye.

squadcaster-a93g_2_02-22-2024_094716: 19:39

Thank you,