Growing Hope in Denton, TX, Part II: Leadership

Here is Part II of Bob Barr's reflections on the work being done in Title I schools in Denton, Tx.  Bob worked with the schools during the 2010-2011 school year.  The schools of Denton ISD factored into the development of the Culture of Hope, and many vignettes and author's journal entries in the book featured Denton schools.   Enjoy....

Visionary Leadership:Anyone who works in high-poverty schools knows the importance of leadership in turning schools around and keeping schools turned around.  It takes visionary leadership, and a strong commitment to working with staffs.  

 As a group, the principals in the Denton ISD are among the most impressive that I have ever worked with.  In each of the schools, the principals had mobilized their school staffs around a bold vision of “all students learning and achieving high standards of excellence.”  Where I was able to observe, I found that the principals had also instituted strong accountability measures regarding this vision.  A number of principals shared stories regarding the difficult task of teacher evaluation and systems of support to improve instructional response.  Principals also shared stories of counseling teachers who were not performing effectively with low-income/Latino students to consider other professional opportunities.

Most impressive regarding the Title I principals were their ability to encourage and support creativity among their school staff.  In this post, I have identified a number of innovative efforts at making schools more interesting, more exciting, and more effective.  I have rarely seen effective leadership in such evidence.

·       High Expectations for All Learners: One principal described her classroom evaluation of one of her most effective teachers, working with one of the schools most demanding groups of students.  “How can I describe this teacher?” the principal asked.  “It was like watching a 16-wheel Mac truck grinding up a long hill. And when some students continued to struggle, the teacher did not slow down or stop; it was like she just kept downshifting and pushing forward and upward with more and more energy.  You just knew that all of the students were going to make it to the ‘top’ academically.”

 

·       Belonging and Place: Ryan Elementary, a poster in the staff restroom was titled: “What We Love About Ryan,” and teachers and staff members had handwritten their thoughts all around the poster.  Sharing their feelings about the topic, the theme of the notes all focused on “when we need help, it is always available” with specific examples of the nature of particular efforts of assistance.  When ready assistance is part of the culture of a school, teachers are free to focus on more important matters, like the students working in their classes. 

·       One Caring Adult: At Hodge Elementary, I observed the principal meeting with a student who had been reprimanded earlier in the day for being a “bully.”  In the midst of the discussion with the student, the principal was interrupted by an important phone call.  While the principal talked on the phone, the student opened one of the books that was stacked in front of him on the table.  It happened to be one of my books, Saving Our Students, Saving Our Schools. He noticed that one of the chapters dealt with “bullying," and he quickly became engrossed in the section. When the principal completed her call, she smiled and asked, "Would you like to have that book to read?"   The student looked up, and replied, "Oh, yes, please."   When the principal dismissed him back to class, he tucked the book in his backpack and left.     

     

     The next day, while we toured the school, the principal and I walked down to the student’s classroom. In the hallway, the principal introduced me as the author of Saving Our Students..., and asked if he had read any more of the book.  He retrieved his backpack and pulled out his copy of my book, handing it to me.  I was amazed to see that the chapter on bullying had been underlined and highlighted, with notes in the margins.   We talked a bit about what he had learned, and we shook hands before he went back to class.  

In the ensuing months, the student continued to meet with the principal to work on his difficulties.  The principal provides consistent one-on-one time with the student, even serving as a go-between so the student and I could confer as reader to author via email.  

--Bob Barr

Growing Hope in Denton, Texas, Pt. I: High Expectations for All

In 2010-2011, Bob Barr had the great fortune to work with a number of Title I schools in and around Denton, Texas. While many of his notes made it into Author journals in the book, many had to be drastically shortened, and many were left on the editing floor. Over the next few weeks, we'll share some of these vignettes from the front lines of Cultures of Hope in Texas..... Here is the first one.
 
While working in Razor Elementary School, I was so impressed with the school faculty’s efforts to be formally recognized as an International Baccalaureate feeder school. After two years of working toward that goal, and two or three years more work needed to achieve I.B. standards, significant strides have already been made in improving the intellectual level of instruction in the school.

For example, the IB Program emphasizes a number of “personal traits” as essential learning goals for each and every student in the school. After reviewing these traits, I was skeptical that elementary students, especially low-income and ESL students could really master these extremely complex personal traits. The school counselor smiled and encouraged me to check it out, to go out into the hall, select a few students at random, and see if they have learned any of the traits. I stepped outside the office and quickly picked three different students representing different ages and ethnic groups. When the counselor told them what we were doing they all looked at one another, smiling. One student spoke right up and exclaimed, “Try us out! Ask us a question.” 

Beginning to feel a little embarrassed, I said, “Okay, can any of you give me an example of living a ‘principled life?’” Immediately, all three students threw up their hands and jumping up and down each cried out, “I can! I can.” I pointed at each student, one after the other and was delighted that all could give an excellent example of a principled life. One said, “It is like if you find money in the hallway, you don’t just keep it, you try and find the owner.” I then asked about the meaning of the concept “integrity” and while two of the students were puzzled, the third student explained, “It is being good, even when you are alone and there are no teachers around.” 

The counselor explained that integrity was the new concept teachers had been working on and clearly some of the students had not yet mastered the concept. " Try another," she encouraged. I selected the concept “balanced life” from the list of traits. Once again, all three students eagerly showed a fine example of living a “balanced life.” One said, “It’s when you don’t do school work all of the time, but you leave sometime to play.” Another example was “Don’t just eat junk food; be sure and eat some healthy food… but some junk food is alright.” Clearly these students were learning and applying extremely sophisticated concepts and able to give good examples of the concepts in their daily lives.

While at the school, I also observed a chart where grade-alike teachers had met, discussed and planned cooperative inquiring lessons that reflected high levels of cognition. Slowly the school was developing a growing number of common lessons demanding high-order thinking and sophisticated concepts.

After a very brief visit, I came to the conclusion that this school was treating the entire student body, rich and poor, English-speaking and ESL students, as if they were each and every one gifted and talented. It was truly exciting to see this occurring. To see the enthusiasm of the teachers working together to develop common lessons and see the growing confidence of children who were learning difficult concepts and learning them well.

One of the oldest principles of effective, individualized instruction has always been: "treat all students as if they were gifted." Here in Denton, Texas, at Razor Elementary School, I saw this principle in action. And what a wonder it was to behold. Throughout my experience in this school, I was amazed that the students were learning such sophisticated concepts.

--Bob  Barr