Will to Lead, the Skill to Teach, The. Anthony Muhammad
beyond a student's comfort zone
• Low emphasis on collecting or examining student learning data and frequent attacks on the validity of outside measures of student performance
A school that places its efforts solely on the emotional needs of learners and neglects their academic skills may make students feel good temporarily, but will leave them unprepared for the competitive environment they'll enter after graduation. This school has failed to make student learning the cornerstone of its purpose, and in the long run, students suffer.
High Skill/Low Will
A high-skill/low-will school emphasizes acquisition of knowledge only and discounts the power of motivation and relationships. In a high-skill/low-will school, a student is simply a receptacle for information. Educators in these schools believe their responsibility stops when they fill the student with information. If the student cares to learn, he or she has the opportunity to learn; if a student chooses not to learn, the student must be willing to accept the consequences for his or her choice. High-skill/low-will schools have the following characteristics:
• A very refined and complex curriculum
• Staff members with a high level of knowledge who take pride in their knowledge and experience
• Staff members with many personal achievements, but few students with achievements
• High numbers of students failing academically and little to no support system for struggling students
• Staff who do not support students' emotional and personal development
• Combative relationships between staff members, students, parents, and administrators
• An administration that protects and supports the status quo environment
These types of schools may be fertile ground for technical educational jargon and high academic standards, but high standards alone do not produce great results. The staff of a high-skill/low-will school does not see the need to cultivate its students. Customer service is not important to these educators. They view the personal qualities students need to adequately process instruction and meet high academic expectations—such as perseverance, focus, and commitment—as qualities students should develop outside of school. A staff member in a high-skill/low-will school thinks about the educational process in the following way: “It is my job to teach and the student's job to learn.” This perspective misses one simple but critical principle, however: children may not have the intellect or maturity to cultivate personal qualities on their own—they often require the guidance of a caring and qualified adult.
Low Will/Low Skill
A school characterized as low will/low skill is quite honestly the worst-case scenario for students and staff. The school does not function well on any level. There is very little belief in students either socially or academically, and educators in these schools also lack the skill to cultivate students academically. In fact, the combination of low skill and low will leads to a sense of contempt among educators and students and parents. A school categorized as low will/low skill has the following characteristics:
• Low academic standards
• Low student achievement
• High numbers of student conduct violations
• High numbers of students who are failing academically
• High turnover among teaching and administrative staff
• Adversarial relationships between staff members and students and parents
Low-will/low-skill schools are our most dysfunctional and underperforming schools and the focus of great concern since the passing of No Child Left Behind. They violate the stated purpose of public education. Policymakers have been confused on how to deal with these schools that some call “dropout factories” (Thornburgh, 2006). Some advocate for punitive measures, while others advocate support. What is obvious is that no one benefits—neither students, educators, parents, nor society as a whole—from low-will/low-skill schools.
High Will/High Skill
A high-will/high-skill school is an organization that has matched its belief systems with its practices. There is a philosophical agreement that all of its students have the capacity to become successful, and the educators spend their time and energy seeking and implementing practices that are best suited to manifest their collective goal of learning for all. A high-will/high-skill school has the following characteristics:
• Staff members with high academic expectations for all students
• Staff members who value relationships with students and use students' backgrounds and experiences as a bridge to high academic success
• Staff members who respect the culture of their students and collaborate to become responsive to students' specific needs
• A philosophy in which student support is an integral part and institutionalized in the school's policies, practices, and procedures
• Staff members with high level of skill in classroom management, academic vocabulary, academic literacy, and learning environment who pride themselves on their knowledge and experience in these areas
• Staff members who reflect on the quality and effectiveness of their instructional strategies
• Staff members who believe that learning for all is the only acceptable outcome
The Need for Philosophical Agreement
Many researchers identify this need for philosophical agreement as critical to student success. In their PLC model, DuFour et al. (2008) identify shared mission, vision, values, and goals as a critical characteristic of learning communities—the will components. This forms the foundation for their additional characteristics: collective inquiry, collaborative culture, action orientation and experimentation, continuous improvement, and a focus on results—the skill components.
A comprehensive study of effective characteristics of high-performing schools in high-poverty areas (Petrides & Nodine, 2005) found that effective schools possess a clear understanding among all staff, teachers, and administrators of the district's performance goals concerning student achievement, and the alignment of organizational processes and systems to meet those goals. Douglas Reeves's (2000) analysis of highly successful schools in Milwaukee known as 90/90/90 schools (90 percent minority, 90 percent students living in poverty, and 90 percent academic proficiency on state assessments in both math and reading) found that these schools shared common characteristics, such as a focus on academic achievement, clear curriculum choices, and frequent assessment of student progress and multiple opportunities for improvement. The research shows a common thread: effective schools align educational philosophy among staff, and they move swiftly to align professional practice with that shared philosophy. This book seeks to establish a clear and effective path to accomplishing both.
Reeves also establishes that student and school performance is multivariate. He states, “Those who claim that a change in one variable causes a change in another variable have usually not scratched the surface of the issue at hand” (Reeves, 2000, p. 8). In other words, there is no one magic solution to the complex problems of schools. School reform is both cultural and structural. Schools and districts that understand the complexity of both facets and develop them appropriately are effective in reaching their goals. Those that rely on one in the absence of the other endanger the learning of their students.
Embracing Culture and Structure
In this chapter, we have established what it means to be a school with high will and high skill and shared the characteristics of these schools to show how these environments can impact student achievement. In the next chapter, we will delve more deeply into the specifics of school will and healthy culture. Before you move on to the next chapter, take time to reflect on the questions that follow.
CHAPTER 1