One of the biggest obstacles to change we are encountering is a lack of understanding by those in charge. It isn't that they do not want to improve education. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. Our site is embarking on a movement to turn our site into one that utilizes data effectively to drive instruction. We are also looking to improve our student-readiness for college, and improve testing overall. My team's plan to incorporate innovation as a regular part of the classroom is something that will allow our school to meet its goals. The problem is that they hear "innovation" and think we are planning an entire philosophy change that they just aren't ready for.
The solution would be to sit down and present our ideas and our vision, as well as communicate what the impact to our site would be. Unfortunately, we are not being given the time we would need to share (likely 30 minutes or less), and instead have made the mistake of trying to share our vision in 30 second soundbites to our administrators. This has created the perception that we are looking to dramatically overhaul the way our school operates, when in reality it is simply adding to the strong program we already have in place.
Over and over again we are reminded that major change happens not only with great ideas, but with the use of strategy. In public education, strategy hasn't been something we have needed to use often (if ever). During the course of this movement, we have come to realize that it is a vital skill. Not with the intention of manipulation, but to avoid self-sabotaging a good plan. Our eagerness to share what we feel is a game-changing idea has led us to be satisfied with short bursts of shared enthusiasm that has caused us to appear at the best overly enthusiastic, and at the worst, flighty with a series of seemingly unrelated ideas. If we had waited until we had our plan solidified and then obtained a chunk of time to share our ideas and the method of achieving our goals we would not be fighting the impression that has been developed. Timing is everything, and in education, this is no exception. Instead of preparing with our administration for the future, we now find ourselves trying to make up lost ground to try to garner the support from above we will need.
This setback does not prevent us for moving forward, but it definitely sucks some of the energy out of the group. Instead of focusing fully on our future, we are instead having to also deal with issues that really aren't issues. Thankfully we do have the support from our local university as we begin the process of turning our ideas into reality.
