Subject: abstract vs. concrete

Posted by Scott Lipton on 2/7/2006
In Reply To:abstract vs. concrete Posted by Lees Stuntz on 2/6/2006

Message:

When dealing with the concrete in schools, such as changing the behavior students and teachers in a low-performing, dangerous inner-city campus, requires an absolute focus on the system as whole without regard for thought without action or action without thought. For us there is no separation between thought and action. When dealing in the world of high need school change, you are changing a tire on a moving car, and there is no action without thought and no thought without action--the two are inseparable and interchangeable. In a traditional educational model, there is a great deal of thought, but little action. For teachers and administrators this looks like professional development that is disconnected from what is happening in the classrooms. This type of disconnected training is typically based, not from actual data from within the system, but from outside research that often presents itself as 'best practices' based on data collected from other systems (the feedback loop being the interchange between curriculum, instruction and assessment within the existing system). In many education reform models, there is a great deal of action without thought which more often than not leads to failed reforms (this can be seen in dozens of educational reform movements that have come and gone since the seventies).

In our school, we are in the process of turning a large, comprehensive urban high school into three small, autonomous schools that share a campus, facilities, and some programming. Our first challenge, before autonomy, is the stability of the current system. The behavior of our students and staff was the first thing that needed to change. There has been a positive change in a relatively short period of time in the behaviors of both students and teachers. We were able to accomplish this through a systemwide fluid exchange of thought and action. We developed a plan for campus wide behavior management (adult and student behaviors) that is constantly reviewed and altered. We have developed a shared language, way of thinking and are aligning our actions (which is more difficult with adults than with students). The key to this is discussion--which is also my response to question two. A democratic school is one that includes teacher and student voice in real decision-making processes that impact the entire system and promote strong relationships among all groups in the community. The shared involvement in process, delivery and analysis provides the interchange that is the connection to the system that allows the participants to act as systems citizens.

Scott Lipton, Director
Johnston High Prepatory Academies
Academy of Global Enterprise and Information Technology
Austin, Texas