MCREL Leadership Summit: What Matters Most
April 5, 2011 - Chicago, IL
April 6, 2011 - Dallas, TX
April 21, 2011 - Orange County, CA
This summit promises to deliver more in one day than many deliver in a week:
- Lessons from the world's highest performing school systems
- Key elements to improve school culture
- Methods to collect and share data
- Strategies to manage large district or school initiatives
- Learn more about this and other McREL events.
Learn more about this and other McREL events.
Two school improvement mistakes (an how to avoid them)
Mistake #1: Ignoring school culture and climate
In an era of accountability, focusing on a school's culture and climate may seem disconnected from the pressing need to demonstrate gains with "hard" data. Our research and experience, however, suggest that addressing "soft" issues, such as culture, environment, attitudes, and beliefs, are at the heart of every successful improvement effort.
Mistake #2: Biting off more than you can chew
School improvement plans often focus on sweeping initiatives with multiple goals. However, schools can take a "less-is-more" approach by engaging in short-term (6-8 weeks) efforts that result in quick, measurable gains, which, in turn, begin to change a school's culture and encourage staff to undertake ever larger, more substantive efforts.
Read the full article online, here.