C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
S C H O O L S
The Way Forward
Listening, learning, and the case for change
Dr. Heath E. Morrison
Nov. 26, 2012
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The entry plan
What was promised
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The first 100 days
Listening and learning
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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“Seek first to understand,
then to be understood.”
-- Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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160 school visits
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13 town hall meetings
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Hundreds of meetings with
individuals and small groups
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Audits/surveys
Human resources audit - AronsConsulting LLC
Communications audit - Drive West Communications
Organizational audit - Council of the Great City Schools
Employee engagement survey - K12Insight
Community survey (ongoing) - K12Insight
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Every leader should be able to tell three
stories – the organization and where it’s
been, the organization and where it’s
going, and their own leadership story.
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What did I learn?
Goal 1: Focus on student achievement
 CMS has implemented thoughtful initiatives
with some promising results.
 Achievement gaps have been narrowed but
they remain pervasive.
CMS has focused on increasing the
graduation rate without being equally attentive
to ensuring the quality of the diploma.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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What did I learn?
Goal 1: Focus on student achievement
 CMS is not personalized enough and needs to
offer more educational choices for students.
The district lags in technology and 21st-century
learning.
 CMS has focused on teacher effectiveness but
needs to do more to build capacity, attract and
retain top talent.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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What did I learn?
Goal 1: Focus on student achievement
 CMS has relied too much on testing as a way
to increase achievement.
 Cultural proficiency is lacking in CMS.
 Satisfaction with incremental success masks
the need for sustained transformation.
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What did I learn?
Goal 2: Build a collaborative relationship
with the Board of Education.
 The Board is committed to effective
governance.
 The Board is willing to take on the tough
challenges.
 The Board wants to expand its capacity for
governance with professional training.
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What did I learn?
Goal 3: Increase organizational efficiency
to ensure strong support to schools.
 CMS has been a leader in pursuing a
performance management system.
 CMS needs better processes and systems.
 We need to increase our cross-functionality
as a district by breaking up silos in the system.
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What did I learn?
Goal 3: Increase organizational efficiency
to ensure strong support to schools.
 We need to provide better customer service.
 CMS has created a number of data points and
methods to gauge district/school performance
but needs to involve the community in
establishing an enduring common definition of
success.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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What did I learn?
Goal 4: Establish a respectful, positive
culture centered on teaching and learning.
 Many employees display a high degree of
commitment to their work and their work sites.
 We need to communicate more effectively
with our employees and make sure that
excellence is recognized.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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What did I learn?
Goal 4: Establish a respectful, positive
culture centered on teaching and learning.
 We need to strengthen employees’
connection to the district as a whole.
 Compliance-driven culture has hampered
engagement and innovation.
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What did I learn?
Goal 5: Build public trust through open,
honest communication.
 Nationally and locally, there is great pride in
individual schools within CMS.
 The gap between CMS’s national reputation and
its local image is significant.
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What did I learn?
Goal 5: Build public trust through open,
honest communication.
 We have missed opportunities to tell our story
and lost the public’s confidence over the last few
years with communication mistakes with some
important decisions.
 We must never assume we have earned the public
trust.
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What did I learn?
Goal 5: Build public trust through open,
honest communication.
 The community is willing to support CMS, but
it is a never-ending campaign to ensure a positive
CMS brand.
 We need to provide more comprehensive
information on district decisions both internally
and externally.
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How decisions are made are as
important as the choices decided on.
The Way Forward addresses how CMS
will move forward on behalf of its
143,866 students.
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What does it mean for CMS
to educate every child, every
day, for a better tomorrow?
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The case for change
There will continue to be reforms and changes in
education whether or not we choose them.
Reforms and policy shifts are occurring at the
global, national, and state level. CMS has to be a
voice in those changes.
“Ships are safest in the harbor, but that’s not
what ships are built for.”
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The case for change
Our community wants great results, not just good
ones. We cannot afford a culture of complacency
or feeling that “we’re good enough.” Great public
schools are constantly improving and changing.
“‘Good’ is the enemy of ‘great.’”
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The case for change
‘Just doing a job in an average way will not return
an average lifestyle any longer.’
– Tom Friedman
“Average is officially over.”
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The case for change
A high school diploma isn’t a guarantee of
success any more.
But not having one – and one that is meaningful
– is almost a guarantee of reduced opportunities.
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The case for change
‘The entry ticket to the middle class today is a
postsecondary education of some kind.’
– Jon Schnur, America Achieves
“Today’s students will have to create
their jobs. They will need innovation,
creativity and entrepreneurship.”
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The case for change
To prepare our
children for the
future, our schools
will have to
change.
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The case for change
New ways to teach and to learn
will require a wider variety of
schools and classrooms.
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The case for change
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How do we change our schools so
that they prepare our students for the
future?
The Way Forward
establishes eight key goals
for CMS.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Goal 1
Accelerate academic
achievement for every child and
close achievement gaps so all
students graduate from CMS
college- or career-ready.
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Goal 1
Identify college-readiness
measures and reverse-engineer
pathways of success for all
students with a focus on
literacy, numeracy and writing.
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Goal 1
Strengthen and expand early
childhood programs to build an
early foundation for learning
success that addresses the
achievement gap before it begins in
order to prevent third-grade
retention.
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Goal 1
Build a personal plan of
progress for every child that is
aligned with success pathways
and post-secondary goals. This
includes challenging our
highest achieving students.
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Goal 1
Increase programming and
extended-learning
opportunities to close
achievement gaps.
S C H O O L S
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Goal 1
Promote increased participation
in AP and IB courses and in
SAT/ACT testing; and provide
support to strengthen student
performance.
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Goal 2
Ensure an effective teacher in
every class is led by an effective
principal in every school served
by quality support staff.
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Goal 2
Reposition the Talent Effectiveness Project
as a professional-growth system focused on
employee effectiveness.
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Goal 2
Define attractive career paths
for all, including teachers
who want to stay
in the classroom.
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Goal 2
Strengthen and refine our
existing teaching framework
and performance-feedback
system.
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Goal 2
Incorporate a peer coaching
and evaluation program for
teachers, administrators and
support staff; Peer Assistance
Review (PAR).
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Goal 2
Incorporate district-level and
school-based teacher-retention
strategies focused on retaining
our top talent.
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Goal 3
Cultivate innovative
partnerships to provide a
sustainable system of
support for all children.
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Goal 3
Inventory needs at every school
and asset-map the community
to create unique matches and
opportunities; strengthen
existing partnerships and forge
new ones.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Goal 3
Expand parent involvement
and engagement strategies
by building on learnings
from Parent University, and
refocus Parent University.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Goal 3
Continue to reinforce higher
education, faith-based and
business/civic partnerships as
critical alliances needed to
advance student achievement.
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Goal 3
Launch a communitywide initiative to
promote reading and
an awareness of the
importance of literacy.
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Goal 4
Continuously nurture a
self-renewing culture of
high engagement,
customer service and
cultural competency.
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Goal 4
Intentionally nurture a
culture of pride, trust, and
respect in schools and
district-wide.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Goal 4
Establish a strong culture of
customer service within central
office and schools, and with
external stakeholders and
customers.
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Goal 4
Promote a comprehensive
anti-bullying campaign to
dramatically reduce bullying
and harassment, and create a
consistent framework to
promote a safe school
environment for every child.
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Goal 4
Initiate plans to ensure
cultural competency
framework in all schools
and every classroom.
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Goal 5
Establish a comprehensive performancemanagement approach that ensures datainformed and evidence-based decision-making.
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Goal 5
Establish a school performance review
framework and process.
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Goal 5
Develop multiple strategies to address
chronically underperforming schools.
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Goal 5
Partner with productivity and quality experts
to establish key processes and systems.
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Goal 5
Incorporate a system to ensure data
integrity across every department.
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Goal 6
Strengthen and expand our portfolio of
educational choices for students to foster
creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Goal 6
Position neighborhood schools as schools of
choice; help every school find its unique voice.
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Goal 6
Promote new non-traditional educational options
to support students with unique needs and
circumstances, e.g., schools with on-site daycare,
suspension-alternative schools.
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Goal 6
Create new magnets, middle colleges,
academies, and Cooperative Innovative
High Schools.
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Goal 6
Strengthen, expand and align current Career
and Technical Education offerings to ensure
post-secondary preparation for students.
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Goal 6
Support the success of Project L.I.F.T. and
expand best-practice learnings across the
district.
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Goal 7
Increase
technology
integration to
support inspired
learning and
teaching.
S C H O O L S
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
Goal 7
Expand access and use of
technology to provide one-toone/blended learning
opportunities and innovative
learning environments for all
children to support
learning.
st
21 -century
S C H O O L S
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Goal 7
Broaden the reach of
our most effective
teachers through
technology.
S C H O O L S
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
Goal 7
Digitize our
curriculum; widen
access to methods
and materials that
reach diverse
learners.
S C H O O L S
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
Goal 7
Establish a website
and electronic
portfolio for every
child to tell his or
her unique story.
S C H O O L S
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Goal 8
Communicate
proactively and
purposefully to
strengthen public trust
and establish CMS as
the preferred K-12
choice.
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Goal 8
Improve quality of internal
and external
communications with a focus
on how decisions regarding
district-level strategic
initiatives are made.
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Goal 8
Drive greater
transparency around
decision-making about
management of
resources such as capital,
time, and money.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Goal 8
Advance the use of
the CMS website
and intranet as
customer-focused,
information-sharing
tools.
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Goal 8
Increase use of social
media to drive timely
awareness of key
messages and events
and to strengthen the
CMS brand.
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Strategic Plan 2014
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Revise, not rewrite
 The current CMS Strategic Plan identifies many
key areas for improvement.
 We want to adjust the plan, not replace it – and
we want community engagement in this work:
• Town hall meetings in 2013
• Community members invited to join task forces
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22 Task Forces
These will be aligned to the eight key goals
and each task force will be led by a CMS
representative and a community member.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Revise Strategic Plan 2014
We will do this work in the context of, and
simultaneously with, budget development.
2013-2014 Budget Recommendation
Revising Strategic Plan
April 2013
August 2013
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Rebranding CMS
Some well-known brands…
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Rebranding CMS
What do we want to be? We want to be the option of
choice for parents in our community.
What do people say we are now?
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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Rebranding CMS
We will remake the CMS brand by reshaping
the way we educate our students, providing
exceptional customer service and earning
public trust each and every day.
.
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Of the U.S. students who drop out, 50 percent were
already behind when they entered kindergarten.
In our community, we have the resources, the
ability, and the will to educate all children.
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The world of work is changing…
The demand for these skills has increased:
Complex communication – +14 percent
Expert thinking/problem-solving – +8 percent
And the demand for these skills declined:
Routine manual – -3 percent
Non-routine manual – -5 percent
Routine cognitive – -8 percent
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…with profound impacts on some workers
From 1978 to 2005, the salary increased for workers with these
educational qualifications:
Postgraduate qualification – +28 percent
BA/BSc – +19 percent
And it declined or stayed flat for workers with these qualifications:
Some college – 0 percent
High school diploma – 0 percent
High school dropout – -16 percent
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A moral imperative
As a country, we
cannot accept schools
that only educate
some of our children.
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I came to CMS because I believe
this district can be great.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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As a district and a community, we are
uniquely positioned to succeed in this work.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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“Everybody can be great, because
anybody can serve.”
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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In envisioning the CMS of the future, we can
paint from a blank canvas.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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We can create a school district where
demography does not equal destiny and all
children’s success means all children.
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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We must do this work focused on the future,
making use of every single day, and focused
on each and every child.
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A rich mosaic of 143,866 different parts
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The CMS brand promise
To provide a personalized
environment of academic excellence
that prepares …
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The CMS brand promise
Every child….
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The CMS brand promise
Every day….
C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G
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The CMS brand promise
For a better tomorrow.