Robert Curtis wrote this for the blog at my request. Here he describes how he is combining coaching strategies with networked systems of learning groups to support SLC conversions in Fremont Unified School District, in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, I am attaching a diagram he sent that shows the structural relation of the various teams supporting the SLC conversion. What I see is how using networks of teams and coaches across school sites and traditional district “silos” is creating a new culture of learning and innovation… Read further…
School Leadership Networking, Coaching and School Reform
Robert F. Curtis
School Reform Project Director FUSD
In Fremont Unified School District we have received our third SLC grant as a district and currently have three comprehensive high schools of about 2000 students each working together to implement these SLC reforms. My role is as district project director to help bring the schools together to identify areas where we can work together to support leaders and build leadership capacity for this reform work. Each school has a leadership team and has created positions for leaders such as a site coordinator, data coordinator and interdisciplinary team’s coordinator. We have attempted to create a networked learning community model (See: National College for School Leadership in the UK) for these leaders from across the district and have used coaches from a local organization to lead help facilitate these meetings and workshops.
A few of the challenges in doing this work and developing leadership capacity is finding the right coaches who have the right skills and knowledge that the leaders need. Coaches take quite a bit of time to get a sense of what the school and leaders need and often never quite “get it”. In addition when doing work as a district, often a coach may be good for one school or set of leaders but not another. Yet you also don’t want too many coaches who are coming at this in an uncoordinated way that adds confusion to the process.
My job has been to work with leaders to set up structured formal meetings and workshops on a regular basis for them to meet, learn and work together. Working collaboratively with the leaders we have finally found a set of coaches that we think are working well with our leaders and school sites. However this didn’t come without some serious effort and costs and mistakes by me. We were initially using coaches from one organization that was not local and did some large workshops with them, but because they were not local and could not be available regularly this lead to them not understanding the needs of the leaders and schools and me having to spend much time attempting to get them up to speed. These coaches because of their distance never developed real relationships and connections with the staff but more so with me. This lack of connection lead staff and leaders at these schools to see this as a “district thing”. In addition coaches and support organizations often come in with a template and many assumptions which may or may not be relevant to our situation. The importance of coaches and support organizations developing in depth knowledge about the real issues that are currently being faced or may be coming down the road is critical. This requires the development of relationships.
Relationships have been critical for our leaders and their meetings and workshops. One of the most important things leaders have mentioned is how great it is getting to know each other on both a professional and personal level by having regular meetings. Initially most of our meetings were “check in” type meetings of just sharing out what was going on and sharing a few ideas. By using coaches and particularly having 2-3 coaches that we use as a district has really helped move us to deeper work. For example we have a coach who works with our data coordinators and has helped give them some tools and strategies for collecting and using data. They have taken these strategies such as a “score board” or “dashboard” and have adjusted them to their particular sites or issues but have also shared out with each other and served as critical friends to help further develop this tool and sharing strategies of how to use it. For our site coordinators we now use a consultancy protocol each meeting for part of the meeting to allow one leader to share a particular issue and to get some concrete feedback from the other leaders. Coaches have been crucial in providing these tools and strategies that are allowing our leaders to do more in depth work and that are surely building up our leadership capacity.
However problems still persist when trying to do larger workshops together because the three schools are at such different stages of development in terms of the SLC reforms. It has been difficult helping the more advanced schools see the benefit of working together with the school just beginning the reform work. In addition, the school just beginning doesn’t want to always feel like they are being mentored and taught and not contributing to the learning of others. There needs to be an openness to learning from one another that historically has not existed between schools in our district. There is a history of competition between the sites and not a culture of collaboration as a district. We are starting to change this but it has been a very slow process. Lastly coaches are seen as “outsiders” and obviously cost money. This makes it important for sites to be able to see that coaches are helping with the issues they are currently facing and not just coming in with their own agenda and “formulas” for success. Coaches need to spend a lot of time listening before they can begin coaching and this has not always been the case and has lead to some doubts about the usefulness of coaches. It has also been important to have someone who can point to what organizations or coaches might fit the school or district and who can organize and find areas that make sense for schools within a district to work together. In my role as district SLC project director, I have been able to have the same coaches who are coaching our teacher leaders also provide coaching to the administrators during their principals meetings and this has also brought in other schools who did not have the SLC grant. This alignment and coherence has often been lacking in our district and has lead to many coaches coming through our schools who have had little or no lasting impact on leadership or teaching and learning. However this new structure seems to be making some in roads in part thanks to the exceptional coaches we now have working with us.
