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In this episode, we tackle adaptive challenges, which often impede systems transformation and change leadership. Specifically, I’ll explain how you can use a diagnostic tool to identify what exactly is going on and how to get unstuck and finally move towards transformation.
Why are we talking about this? Adaptive leadership scholars, Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky (2009) write, “Adaptive challenges are typically grounded in the complexity of values, beliefs, and loyalties rather than technical complexity and stir up intense emotions rather than dispassionate analysis.” In summary, a typical workshop or other means of sharing information is not going to work. There’s something deeper that’s resisting the change, and we have to unearth that before transformational change can happen. However, it is quite difficult to get everyone on your staff or in a classroom to share where the resistance is really coming from. It’s a struggle—even for the individuals that hold these values, beliefs, and loyalties—to diagnose the challenge. So, how do we do it? For today’s episode, our starting point is a school discussion. Whether it’s a challenge within the staff (start by paying attention to a discussion in a staff meeting) or a classroom (observe students’ talking), you can follow this list of suggested steps. Step 1: Determine which type of discourse is present.
Step 2: Invite imagination and possibilities. Invite teachers/stakeholders to tell you what they wish their classrooms/schools were like. (Often, the change we’re trying to lead is a way to get to that outcome. People just need space to share and be valued) What does it actually look like for you? Paint a clear picture of your dream. Co-create the dream. Make this the focal point. Root it in shared values. Step 3: Create disequilibrium. (Name the avoidance.) Avoidance is a hallmark of adaptive challenges. Often, we’re avoiding conversations about the things that matter. We like to be comfortable! This could look like diverting attention (e.g., making a joke or making it personal to deflect from the real issue) or displacing responsibility (e.g., “That’s the family’s responsibility, not ours.”) Mezirow (1990) says adults need a disorienting dilemma to jumpstart transformative learning—learning that requires a paradigm shift and asks us to critically examine our assumptions rather than just learn a new skill. Present information that makes participants just uncomfortable enough to realize, “the way I’ve been thinking about this isn’t working anymore.” This will help them try on other ways of thinking, which is most effective within group discussions! (The dialogue is both a tool for diagnosis and for change, as. Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick has told us before.) Step 4: Practice discourse. Engage as a participant. Encourage all school stakeholders to do the same and notice aspects of the experience (what skills are you using, what is avoided, what feels good, what doesn’t feel good). Make space for reflection individually and as a group (e.g., staff, class). You can use these reflections to co-create community discussion agreements or adapt them if you’ve already created these. Step 5: Build your skills.
These come from Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick’s research, which she talks about in depth in this previous episode of the podcast. Final Tip Pick one meeting or class to observe this week. Take notes using the Diagnosing Adaptive Challenges Workbook linked below. To help you identify adaptive challenges in your school, I’m sharing my Diagnosing Adaptive Challenges Workbook with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 161 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about student voice tools like this one:
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In this episode, we’re continuing to talk about transforming the systems that uphold inequity in our schools. Specifically in this episode, we’re addressing classroom, school, and district grading policies.
Why? A-F, 0-100 grades work for a small number of students. Meta studies show that kids who get high grades are the ones that know how to do school, and these are often students who have inequitable access to that information. (Joy Nolan in a Competency Collaborative presentation). Averages penalize students who enter the class without already knowing the content and skills. A student who is struggling with a skill in the first month of school has a grade from when they were first practicing the skill count equally with a grade they received in the last month of the school year? That’s nuts when you think about it. 0-100 scales seem to me to be based on the percentage of recall-based questions a student gets right or wrong on a test. We know from the research that tests are inequitable and not super effective at measuring transferable skills. Project-based assessments are much better, as students in PBL classrooms understand the content on a deeper level, retain content longer, and still perform as well or better on high-stakes tests than students in traditional settings (BIE research summary). What? Step 1: Discuss the why with staff Share the research. Invite questions and concerns. Interrogate deficit language or harmful beliefs that arise in the discussion. Bring it back to equity, and ground it in your shared community values. Step 2: Discuss the why with families and students This is new for students and families too! Have conversations with families and students about the new practice, what it is and is not, and why you are making the shift. Use the same key ideas as listed in Step 1 above. Step 3: Learn from those who’ve done it Competency Collaborative is an organization in NYC. They are an excellent resource for relevant research, examples, and stories of equitable grading shifts across many schools. Check them out! The Crescendo Ed Group developed guidelines that emerged from their research, which includes:
Ashley, a teacher who worked with Competency Collaborative, discusses her shift to competency-based teaching and assessment in this video (from 34:41 to 37:00). Step 4: Co-create an equitable grading policy Create a policy that works for your community in partnership with students, families, and educators. Consider the why when making decisions, and be sure to leave with the structures that will need to be put in place to support implementation of the new policy. Step 5: Implement with solid systems for feedback and revision Specific Skill-Based Rubrics: Embed specificity and feedback into the rubric with which you assess all of your students’ work. For more details, check out the previous episode) Resource Banks: When students receive feedback that they have not yet met the standard, give them a next step. Share with students: instructional videos or texts as well as activities or mini projects so they can improve specific skills. Workshop or “Upgrade” Days: Revision or feedback cycles are important and take the place of typical “grade inflation” practices such as homework or completion grades. Get Metacognitive: As you implement or after a specific amount of time, gather feedback from stakeholders on your new system of feedback and grading. Adapt as needed. Final Tip If this is absolutely a no-go for you this year, try this as a stepping stone: All feedback, grading, and rubrics use competency-based categories, but the grades are translated at the end to correspond to a 0-100 scale. For one example of this, check out the “JumpRope to Transcript Grade Conversion” table on this webpage. To help you facilitate the adaptive conversations mentioned in steps 2 and 3 above, I’m sharing my Root Cause Analysis Worksheet with you for free. Use this strategy when you are digging into the beliefs around grading and the inequitable distribution of grades among your students. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 160 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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In this episode, we continue our mini series of episodes focused on transforming the systems that uphold inequity in our schools. Specifically in this episode, we’re addressing competency-based learning and using competency-based rubrics as a tool for increasing equity in feedback and assessment.
Why? Typical grading policies lead to grades that are often inconsistent, inequitable, and don’t relate closely to students’ competency in a subject. They also cause many students high levels of stress (Ed. Magazine). Haystead and Marzano (2009) found teachers who measured skill growth over time on competency-based rubrics noted a 34% gain in student achievement. In competency-based classes, students showed increased student learning, less stressful classrooms with better teacher-student relationships, and decreased grade achievement gaps (Crescendo Ed Group). And if you’re not grading for students’ competencies in subject-specific skills, what are you grading for? Likely, a student’s ability to memorize, fill out a worksheet, or have their butt in their seat. (A little tongue in cheek, but I’ve seen it—I’ve even done it as an early-career teacher!) Why rubrics, specifically? What’s helpful to learning is actually feedback, not necessarily grades. Feedback that provides actionable next steps to improve a competency is what rubrics can give us! How do we do this? Step 1: Ask teachers to reflect. Here are some sample questions from Competency Collaborative:
Step 2: Share the above research and the hallmarks of competency-based learning. Teachers have transparent learning outcomes that inform their lessons and assessments, and the criteria and expectations for meeting these outcomes are shared with students. This helps teachers plan more efficiently and effectively. It also helps students know what’s coming and reduces anxiety. When giving feedback around a specific competency, the teacher gives specific next steps for students to improve. The feedback is useful and timely. (So, don’t give all the feedback at once. Instead focus on the first next step.) Again, helpful for students and teachers! Assessments are opportunities to demonstrate competency over time. Mindset shift: Think of assessment as an ongoing dialogue, not a “one-and-done” act. If students will be revising their first try on an assessment or doing a lot of similar assessments, this again helps students and teachers (fewer assessments and rubrics to create!) Step 3: Consider categories of competency. A typical scale is four points or categories. One example Competency Collaborative has shared can be remembered with the acronym NAME: Not yet, Approaching, Meeting, and Exceeding. I think you can also use the first three or use a visual, non-linguistic category name like the example on the first page of my Skills-Based Rubric Templates. Step 4: Use team time to have departments create subject-specific rubrics. Ask each department or team to select 4-8 discipline-specific skills that are taught across units and grade levels. Define what each category of competency looks like at the highest grade level, and then backwards map competency for each grade level or grade band. Step 5: Have teachers use these shared rubrics for every assignment. For summative assessments, use the whole rubric (all skills). This also helps teachers design assessments align with the complete rubric. For formative assessments, teachers can use one row of the shared rubric (just the specific skill the student is demonstrating in the formative assignment). Final Tips and Implications for Teaching To ensure students have time to revise and improve their skills based on feedback on a previous assessment, embed regular “Competency Upgrade Days” into the course. During this time, students can determine which activities will be best for them based on the feedback provided. They can also ask their peers for feedback because all students will be familiar with the rubric language. This frees teachers up to be what Competency Collaborative folx have called a “cognitive coach.” In terms of pacing, a big shift for teachers will be moving from a “coverage mindset” of speed and breadth to prioritizing deep learning and skill transfer across contexts and content areas. This is likely a desired shift, and the development of competency-based rubrics will help get you there! To help you create your first department-wide rubrics, I’m sharing my (recently updated!) Skills-Based Rubric Templates with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 159 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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In this episode, I’m inviting you to dream big to support student achievement, teacher retention and educator well-being. Teachers are overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted. The educational system is not set up to support teachers’ mental and emotional wellness. Since we are focused on systems transformation, we’re thinking about the systems we can revise to stop putting the burden on individual educators to to self-care their way out of burnout.
Why focus on teacher schedules? From Hattie’s research, we know the thing that has the largest impact on student learning is collective teacher efficacy. How do teachers’ build efficacy? Professional learning. This includes opportunities to collaborate, learn from and with peers, and have enough time to thoughtfully and effectively plan instruction. In many schools, this is not possible during the school day, given the schools’ schedule. This excerpt from “Reimagining the School Day” highlights some interesting data. “Teachers in the United States reported spending 27 hours teaching out of 45 hours of work per week compared to teachers in Singapore, who teach for only 17 hours per week and teachers in Finland, who teach for a total of 21 hours per week. Schools in these countries prioritize time for planning and collaboration, recognizing that developing and executing lessons take time and preparation…In another analysis of more than 120 school districts, the most common length of time allotted for planning was 45 minutes per day,” (American Progress). Not much time at all, and certainly not for collaboration. What can we do? There are many innovative scheduling models out there. Check them out! Visit those schools or hop on a call with educators who teach in or lead those schools. Seeing what’s possible is a great start. You can find links to several examples at the end of my Make Time Quick Guide freebie. Here are some specific ideas to consider that can increase teacher planning time: Step 1: Early Dismissal/Late Start Half-Day PD days or early dismissal Thursdays are becoming more popular (e.g., MA) Step 2: Reallocate Tasks Hire community members to do recess, lunch duty, or other circular 6 tasks. Administrators, teach one class! Step 3: Intervention, Enrichment, or Club Time Blocks Staff an enrichment/intervention block with paraprofessionals/aides, social workers, media specialists, instructional coaches, or community partners. You can also use this time for clubs, projects intensives, internships, or community service. Example: Urban Academy’s Community Service Block on Wednesday afternoons
Step 4: Project-Based Intensives Example: Generation Schools’ secondary schedule gives teams 2 weeks of professional collaborative time staggered throughout the year when students are in intensives with the college and career intensives team.
Example: Urban Academy’s twice per year intensives.
Step 5: Leverage Existing PD Time for Collaboration & Peer Learning Peer Visitation Time Vertically Align Rubrics & “Norm” Expectations Invite Teachers to Share a Promising Practice as the Staff Meeting Final Tip Invite teachers, students, families, non-instructional staff to creatively brainstorm scheduling ideas. Give them the legal parameters, and let them dream. To help you implement one new PD structure within teachers’ schedules, I’m sharing my Peer Visitation Starter Kit with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 158 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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We’re kicking off a mini series of episodes focused on transforming the systems that uphold inequity in our schools. In this episode, we are specifically exploring the structures that enable us to meaningfully partner with students and families on a regular basis. We’re grounding the conversation in a powerful theoretical model which directly addresses the common barriers to success in our student voice endeavors.
Why are structures needed? In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker writes of how adaptive leadership professor Ron Heifetz starts his class without speaking for 5 minutes. She points out that when we step back and don’t facilitate at all, we are not democratizing the space, but instead handing control to someone else in the space—perhaps the loudest, confident, or extroverted person. (We can democratize the space with skilled facilitation.) When we step back from our intentional facilitator role, we also are likely to create confusion and anxiety for the participants of our gathering. Many students will respond to an open invitation to share their ideas and experiences with understandable skepticism, confusion, and perhaps anxiety. Consequently, you may get zero student responses after extending the invitation. Certainly, we need to develop trust in relationships with students (and families) before real sharing will happen. However, we also need effective structures for how and when we can listen to folx share their experiences. Student voice scholar, Laura Lundy (2007) developed the Lundy Model of Participation, which includes four features that are required to enable students to authentically share their ideas: SPACE: Children must be given safe, inclusive opportunities to form and express their view VOICE: Children must be facilitated to express their view AUDIENCE: The view must be listened to INFLUENCE: The view must be acted upon, as appropriate How do we provide students with each of these features at a school level? Create Spaces: In addition to creating the relationships necessary to make this happen, we want to design our school schedules to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to share their ideas. From co-constructing curricula to co-creating school policy and all the things in between. Possible ideas to explore include:
Facilitate Voices: Use discussion and listening protocols such as Circle in all levels of school/district life (e.g., classrooms, school committees, after school clubs, advisory, family nights, staff meetings). Co-create community discussion agreements. Use them regularly. Normalize this way of being in community and listening deeply. Gather an Attentive Audience: If anyone (particularly adults) struggle to do this, do some adaptive work. Invite them to share challenges and interrogate deeply held beliefs that may be holding them back from partnering with students. Sometimes, inviting the adults to share their experiences is enough to build trust that listening is a community experience that is not unidirectional. They feel valued and cared for, and this may give them the capacity to do the same for others. (This has certainly been true for me in relationships! Everyone wants to be valued and listened to.) Partner for Influence: Invite students to attend relevant meetings or discussions about their proposals so you can work collaboratively to make the idea happen. Commit to respond to each suggestion or concern by a specific date. If it’s not possible to implement the proposal, clearly explain why to the students and invite students to brainstorm additional ideas to address the underlying issue. Final Tip You don’t need to implement a ton of structures tomorrow. Keep Lundy’s 4 principles in mind as you engage with students and ask them to share their ideas and experiences with you. Commit to building up structures and practices as you continue this work. To help you implement one structure for amplifying authentic student voices in your community, I’m sharing my Setting Up Structures of Shared Leadership worksheet with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 157 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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Time for Teachership is now a proud member of the...AuthorLindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Archives
May 2024
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