Education is Power
Today Show-Katie Couric Interview of Brian
Bennett-had grown up in a troubled and abusive
environment. He struggled in school and had
been picked on regularly. Now-a well adjusted
and successful adult.
Defining Moment-”when a grade school
teacher simply told me that she cared about me
and believed in me and that small interaction
turned my life around”
Education is Power
Let me tell you about:
CHRIS
Education is Power
Let me tell you about
another guy I know!!
Education is Power
To embrace learning rather than teaching as a
school’s mission, to work collaboratively to
help all students learn, to focus on results to
foster continuous improvement and to
assume individual responsibility to take
steps to create such a school.
Education is Power
Leading a successful enterprise calls
upon everyone to know the
organization’s purpose. Public
education has to be clear in its purpose
if schools are to grow and prosper.
RCAS Mission
Building a community
of life long learners,
one student at a time.
Education is Power
A purposeful community is one with
the collective efficacy and capability to
develop and use assets to accomplish
purpose and produce outcomes that
matter to all community members
through agreed-upon process
Education is Power
Are the processes that lead to patterns of
communication, relationships among
community members, a sense of wellbeing, connections between the school and
other institutions, shared leadership
opportunities, and a sense of order and
discipline
The Three C’s of Community
Building
Confront the Brutal Facts
Communication (Effective)
Collaboration
Confront the Brutal Facts
Create a culture where the truth is heard!
Includes four basic practices:
Lead with questions, not answers
Engage in dialogue and debate, not
coercion
Conduct autopsies, without blame
Build red flag mechanisms that turn
information into information that cannot
be ignored
Communication
Superintendent Website
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Community Blog
Staff Blog
Twitter Feed
Streaming Video Presentation
Presentations
Links
Collaboration
“Successful schools are places where
teams of teachers meet regularly to
focus on student work through
assessment and change their
instructional strategies accordingly to
get better results”
Fullan
Education is Power
Learn by doing and you build
community by doing the work
together
Education is Power
The best way to improve a
school or district is by
developing the people within
it!!
Education is Power
Fullan (2006) defined capacity building as
an action based and powerful strategy that
increases the collective efficacy of a group
to improve student learning through new
knowledge, enhanced resources and
greater motivation on the part of people
working individually and together
Education is Power
To create conditions for people to succeed
by helping people find meaning, increase
their skill development and their
personal satisfaction while they make
contributions that simultaneously fulfill
their goals and the goals of the
organization
What does this all mean???
We need to implement a strategic approach to
create an environment of high quality learning
Critical Steps:
Point to the Destination
Script the Critical Moves
Build New Habits
Big Ideas
#1-Focus on Learning: Are We Clear as to Our
Purpose
Learning outcomes are clearly articulated to all
stakeholders in the school, and each student’s
attainment of the outcomes is carefully monitored.
Staff members work together to enhance their
effectiveness in helping students achieve learning
outcomes. The school has developed systems to
provide more time and support for students
experiencing initial difficulty in achieving the outcomes
Big Ideas
#2-Collaborative Culture: Staff Working
Together
Staff function as a team. They work
collaboratively to identify collective goals,
develop strategies to achieve those goals, gather
relevant data, and learn from one another.
Unlike a work group, they are characterized by
common goals and interdependent efforts to
achieve those goals
Big Ideas
#3-Govern by Results
Teams of teachers are hungry for
information on results. They gather
relevant data and use these data to identify
improvement goals and to monitor
progress toward the goals
Education is Power
• Education goes beyond schooling
• Education empowers people
• Education is the true wealth of the
community
• Education is the hope for the future
• Education is destiny
Education is Power
• We must expect education to develop:
–Good People
–Successful People
–Self-actualizing People
• We must view education as a never
ending process for the individual and
the community
Education is Power
• Life is a process of learning and
growth
• Education is a part of the process of
life
• We get the full power of education
when it fulfils its true role in the
process of life
Education is Power
• "If a man empties his purse into
his head, no man can take it away
from him. An investment in
knowledge always pays the best
interest."
Benjamin Franklin