3 Building Blocks for a Student Success Culture (Part 4 of 4)

I’m writing this article from 35,000 feet, flying home from dropping my daughter off to college for the first time. As we participated in orientation, I was impressed on day 1 with school culture.  

It all started with sophomores, juniors, and seniors, cheering for the freshman as we drove up to move her into the dorm. There was also another whole crew of students who assisted and helped her carry things to her room. 

In one session we heard the university president speak about the school’s core values. Community is one of their core values and this was modeled on move in day. Even though this was on a college campus, it was a choice by the college, to create a strong, supportive, community and culture. They consistently created opportunities for connections for students and parents.  

In elementary, middle, and high schools, there are a variety of school cultures and core values/beliefs that contribute to a school’s performance. In a strong school culture, there are many overlapping and cohesive interactions with staff members. In a weak culture, interactions are sparse, and it does not give an opportunity for staff to fit in and grow as a community. The systems used in a school influence how the organization interacts and works together to achieve its goals or mission. 

I see two types of leaders. On one side, there is the "Organizational Manager" who focuses on responsibilities as they relate to the functioning of the school. For example: maintaining a safe and orderly environment, facility maintenance, budgeting, staffing, managing technology, etc. They focus on the day-to-day operations of running the school building.

On the other side is the "Organizational Leader" who is all about vision, about people buying in, about empowerment and, most of all, about producing positive change and meaningful results. They drive the mission and vision of the organization by motivating and inspiring others to achieve common goals. Often, it is the organizational leaders who are achieving their student achievement goals.

What are these successful organizational leaders doing to transform their school and achieve results?  

1) Create Opportunities for Connections and Inspire Others

• Create systems for communication with students, teachers, support staff, and families. How do you communicate with your staff and how do they communicate with you and each other?
• Create opportunities for connection throughout the year with meaningful conversations and fun activities. 
• Return to the Relational Leadership post for more ideas.

2) Strategic in Communicating Goals and Direction

• Lead with data to inspire action and improvement, to guide instructional decisions, and to monitor progress toward your goals. 
• Keep data systems simple and easy to understand.
• Communicate high expectations for students and teachers and explain rationale for changes.
• Create a supportive environment aligned with beliefs and values for success.
• Strategically manage and optimize how resources are aligned to support teaching and learning.

3) Focus on Impact and Transformation

• Focus on high impact activities first and manage tasks as needed. 
• Establish a system of accountability for implementation and follow-up. A wise co-worker shared: “Inspect what you expect.”   It is not about catching staff members doing the wrong thing.  It is all about expecting things to change when results are not happening. This is done by supporting learning and dialoguing with stakeholders, so they have ownership in these changes. 
• Transform the school culture/systems from a compliant, bureaucratic organization to a learning organization. For example, teachers collecting data and submitting it (compliance) vs. teachers who are connecting to the data and using it to make better decisions for kids. 
• Bring in people who help analyze positive and negative root causes for the current school culture and results. It is helpful if this comes from outside the school to identify next steps for transformation and better results. This can come from internal district support, and/or an external consultant. 

If you are getting results, there is no need for change. But if you are not happy with your results, it may be time for a transformation.

In all organizational decisions and structures, successful leaders put students first and empower their staff. They work together with staff to build a productive climate that serves students and helps them succeed.   

Organizational leaders foster a culture of shared purpose, empowerment, and continuous growth. By promoting the values of vision, buy-in, empowerment, and results, a lasting legacy of positive change is established.