Changing School District into a Learning Organization
Oakland Unified School District, or OUSD, is a public institution that has approximately 86 elementary schools, including middle and high schools. The district also has other unauthorized charter schools in Oakland in California, serving approximately 49, 000 students in the United States of America. OUSD is located in the most diverse parts of the city, and for this case, it serves the diverse student population. Almost half of the students within the district speak languages other than English at their homesteads.
The school’s demographics and challenges led to the transformation through the use of a social-emotional learning approach, one adult at a time. This was a significant model because psychology in organizational research has proved for many years that change occurs in organizations only if the persons in the systems have the willingness to transform their practices and beliefs, from the ground levels going up. In the social and emotional transformation process, challenging as it maybe, Oakland decided to forge a new model, a model that even the other districts could use and adopt (Carter, Ulrich & Goldsmith, 2005).
Just other districts like Newark School District, OUSD also struggles with making education accessible to students within the city experiencing high levels of violence, crime, drop-out rates, and poverty. In order to help the students coming from such unfavorable environmental and emotional factors, OUSD decided to implement the Social and Emotional learning approach (SEL) through programs such as Responsive Classrooms, Second Step, Tribes, restorative justice, Roots of Empathy and Caring School Community. On the SEL program, although it covers the holistic district regarding all the stakeholders like teachers, students, and parents, it majorly deals with students rather than the teachers implementing the program.
The school leader, Tony Smith, had a clear understanding of the link between academic success and SEL. He had a clear purpose and vision that in order for the SEL to be successful regarding implementation, there was a need for an existent right relationship between the adults and their fellow adults and also with the students (Carter, Ulrich & Goldsmith, 2005). It was the responsibility of the adults to model their expectations from the students. The program became part of the school and community cultural fabric in the entire district demonstrating itself through student-teacher relationship, evaluation processes, curricula, and adult relationships.
Proposed Best Practices for Effective Leadership
Several factors are critical for effective leadership in a learning organization. These practices help steer the learning organization to achieve its organizational goals. One of the proposed practice is to link experiential development to the strategic priorities of the school. The approach entails connection of leadership development to real-time experiences of the organization. The methodology would create various advantages. First, it would enable leaders to become challenged to take on real problems with immediate feedback. Secondly, it would allow bonding to take place among individuals, since solving organizational challenges via collaboration would create relationships that have a lasting impact. Moreover, the approach would bring together leaders from distinct disciplines to work on significant projects.
Another approach for effective leadership is to implement 360-degree feedback. The methodology entails employees receiving anonymous and confidential feedback from people that work around them. The technique would allow leaders to get a better understanding of their weaknesses and strengths, thus enabling them to establish a development plan.
Another approach is to enable others to act. Leaders do not achieve everything by themselves but through the support of others. Therefore, those in top positions should allow those below them to feel able to act and should also be supported to put their ideas into actions. This would create collaboration and enhance relationship-based work thus fostering the achievement of goals.
Proposed Modifications to the School Reform Policy
The school district should come with a plan that represents a shift in the educational landscape of the school in the adoption of the standards for the students and adults. It should be the responsibility of the adults and not just the students alone, who need to hold to account for the social-emotional skills they influence the children. In other words, in as much as the program should be all-inclusive, it has to start with the adults themselves. The program should treat every single adult within the district on the approach and further involve them in the rollout of the vision of the program.
Another proposed change is to invest in leadership. Education leaders at both district and school levels should be prepared to respond constructively to the pressures generated by accountability, testing, and standards to make the policy more effective. In other words, they should adopt coping strategies that are well-suited to the new challenges of achieving their goals. This can be done by coming up with new ways of recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting leaders, and equipping them with the skills required to succeed.
The proposed changes would be implemented in three ways; fostering a team culture, making stakeholders part of the process, and setting markers to gauge success. In regards to fostering a team culture, everyone should work towards a common goal. The purpose of the modifications should be articulated and expectations established. Everyone should understand what is expected of them and acknowledge the roles of others, as well as develop a sense of shared accountability.
In regards to making the stakeholders part of the process, the stakeholders should be involved throughout the change process to establish their sense of ownership and share their points of view on the changes. This would get everyone on board and would also help identify those who would serve as contact points for others.
In regards to setting markers to gauge success, a timeframe and objectives as indicators of the progress of the implementation would be established. The approach would help to ensure the achievement of the desired outcomes.
Stakeholders
Students
The students should be ready to learn and adapt to the new cultural system unlike the old one they were used to do. They should readily embrace the new model policy.
Parents
Parents, who are the adults, should ensure that this new social-emotional learning program is effectively implemented at home and especially demonstrated by themselves for their children to emulate.
Teachers
The teachers are the implementers of the program. The teachers with the new program model and understanding of their environmental setting, guide the students into the new learning organization as they embrace and implement the new model. The teachers will need workshops and necessary support in adapting to the new changes (Zakrzewski, 2014).
Principals
The principals should ensure the school rules, regulations, policies, and programs within the school support the SEL program approach and help the students transform easily.
Central Office Staff
The central office staff is a critical component of this new policy. They will be responsible for monitoring of the implementation of the new SEL policy and coordinating school activities with regards to this new policy. The Central Office will need training and workshops in handling new roles and changes.
Superintendent
The superintendent is responsible for overseeing of the five-year plan for the SEL program in the schools. Good, focused and directional leadership would be critical for effective implementation. The superintendent will have to embrace new roles and change management in the organizational management of the schools in the district.
School Board
Since the board has a vast composition, including the principals, it will offer direction, support, and oversee the SEL program in the school. The new policy and culture would mean changes in the roles and responsibilities of the board, with an expanded responsibility.
Impact on Students and Staff
The SEL model would not be easy for both the teachers and the students. The challenge remains, the difficulty with which to effect the transformation persuasively in over 87 schools with students approximately 36, 000 and over 4, 400 members of the staff where there was no previous effort to educate the middle management of the staff, program managers, district leaders, principals, and curriculum directors on the academics and the SEL program (“Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development”, 2011). There is a need for professional development in social-emotional learning for the teachers and staff. Consequently, there would be a need for the adoption of new materials on the current curriculum screened for the SEL program.
Also, the school management, specifically the teachers, would have to come up with a new discipline policy for use in the SEL program. The new policy should not be punitive. On the other hand, the students would have to slowly transition through change management into a new cultural environment that is different from the previous one. This would be a long program process, intensive and involving and so the students will need adjustment in the long run.
The new policy would mean the creation of more time between the parents and the students for effective transformation into the new SEL approach. This will require more time investment from both the parents and the students at home. The school would help the students and teachers efficiently transition into the new culture. The school regulations and policy would be a guideline both for the students and the teachers in the new SEL model.
References
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (2011). General format. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/Default.aspx
Carter, L., Ulrich, D., & Goldsmith, M. (2005). Best practices in leadership development and organization change: How the best companies ensure meaningful change and sustainable leadership. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Zakrzewski, V. (2014). A New Model of School Reform. Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, (3) 201-205.
