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Commitment to Meeting the Needs of Public School Learners

South-Western City Schools (SWCS) posts a mission statement that reads as follows:  Our mission, directed by our commitment to excellence, and in partnership with the community, is to meet the educational needs of our diverse population of learners. As with most districts, the vision and mission are posted with belief statements that drill down into what each school within the district must embrace to meet the goals of the mission. In SWCS, to be excellent, schools must work with the community to build a framework of educational strategies and beliefs that meets student learning needs.  With nearly 22,000 learners diversity is extensive — not just in ethnicity and cultural differences, but also in learning styles and preferences, learning challenges and successes, and cultural expectations of educational opportunities. With 2,800 staff members, this large district and its superintendent, must rely on primary and secondary directors to effectuate mission beliefs within the building leadership, and then rely on building leaders to model and reinforce the mission (and belief statements) within their buildings. The commitment of the directors must be to challenge each building level principal to develop informed goals and plans that include community outreach, community research, and finally, community demographic information that allows staff members to become experts on the needs of students, as a whole group and as individuals. Barriers to understanding culture, background, disabilities, abilities and uniqueness must be eliminated to the fullest extent to allow students to attend a school where their educational, emotional and social needs are met to the best ability of the staff in place. The building level principal must commit to working with building leadership to establish goals and belief statements that are supported by staff and relevant to the school’s unique population. Commitment to belief statements at the district level and creation of these statements at the building level must involve representatives of all stakeholder groups, or all stakeholders when possible and if realistic. The challenge faced by district leadership at all levels is how to get buy-in from all individuals that have the ability to impact a student’s educational experience, however, commitment to getting this buy-in is critical. Where sweeping change is perceived as needed to meet the needs of the diverse population of learners, district and building leadership must take into consideration the challenges (or resistance) that are faced by staff members when implementing change. Patience, reflection and education (with data when available) are critical to chipping away at resistance. However, resistance has its place in educating leadership about strategies needed to bring all staff together for the common good. Identifying barriers through this resistance allows leaders to purposefully plan for implementation challenges.  

When the research is complete, the goals are in place, leadership must then take on a new role. Using stakeholder feedback from the process of constructing belief statements and goals, leadership must then determine the professional development and growth opportunities needed. Regardless of perceived “should be”, employee needs will vary and staff longevity can be a huge barrier to change. It will be very important for leadership to be communicative and provide feedback fairly and respectfully. A rallying point for staff could be as simple as acknowledgment of the motivation to help all students succeed.

None of what I’ve written comes easy, nor is it groundbreaking. Recently, in an interview with a local superintendent, I learned of a behavior that reinforces and reminds staff members of beliefs and commitments. Each year, belief statements and operating norms are reviewed, revisited and revised. Those working within the norms must sign a poster document, reinforcing their commitment. Commitment for understanding student populations, learning about best practices, and stakeholder buy-in are all part of what is needed to be successful in meeting goals and modeling beliefs to provide learning environments where every member of the student population can be successful.