Do we listen to teachers? Five ways to ensure upward communication in your school and school district.

I was speaking with the superintendent of a mid-sized district in the Midwest this week. He is an old friend and we had not had a chance to connect in some time. He was updating me on developments in his districts and we were sharing thoughts on all manner of tangentially related topics.

The conversation turned towards my current research project on School Climate and Culture. He is very familiar with the work we do in this area and has used our services in prior districts. As we discussed the need for and importance of conducting nationally normed school culture studies, he said something rather simple but profound. “We do a pretty good job of talking to teachers but I don’t think we always do a great job of listening,” he said. I assumed at the time that he was speaking about district administrators in general. Not surprisingly, I agree with him.

The lack of two-way communication is prevalent at all levels of education. (In fact, it is prevalent at all levels in many types of organizations not just schools and school districts.) Communication, like water, tends to flow most easily downhill. Yet at the best schools and the best school districts, communication also flows “uphill” nearly as well.

Best practices in communication would fill a book. But with respect to two-way communication, I will attempt to summarize what I’ve seen in a few paragraphs. Here goes:

1. Upward communication takes work. Downstream communication seems to happen naturally in most schools and school districts. It may take some effort but information tends to get dispersed through a variety of means. Yet communication and feedback that moves UP the chain of command does not always happen naturally. Leaders have to be ready to listen and to hear. They need to communicate that willingness to listen to staff. They need to set up structures for staff to be heard. This takes work and requires being intentional about your upward feedback goals.

2. Committees are not enough. Committees are a great way to create formal or in-formal groups to deal with a variety of issues. Oftentimes permanent or ad hoc committees of teachers will work on key issues like discipline, text book adoption, or school improvement. These are great opportunities for teachers to be heard and to exercise their own leadership skills. But they are not enough. The task of committees are limited both by the scope of their charter and the individuals who are assigned. Upward communication should be much broader. It should draw from a wider range of individuals and topics. And, even with a proper structure of committees, school and district leaders must be ready to listen and hear what is said.

3. Create a feedback culture. In some schools, staff members feel a strong sense of empowerment and entitlement to speak their mind. They do so in an appropriate and useful manner. And they benefit from a cultural element that they, very likely, take for granted. Many schools simply do not operate that way. Some school administrators are either unwilling or unable to listen to feedback from teachers. Teachers either feel at-risk for sharing their ideas or feel dismissed when presenting their opinions. The typical results it to drive these idea underground. This is not good. Otherwise good (and sometimes bad) ideas are forced underground and become fodder for the malcontents in the organization. Left unchecked, a principal will have a rapidly “toxifying” culture on his or her hands.

4. Use 360 degree feedback with school leaders. There are fabulous 360 degree feedback tools for school administrators. By using these with principals, assistant principals, department heads, and district administrators, it does a couple of things. First, it provides valuable input to leaders about what their superiors, peers and subordinates think about their leadership style. Second, it sensitizes these leaders to thinking objectively about how their style is being perceived. Done correctly, these types of tools create a better empowered and better educated school leader.

5. Share some decision making – but not all decision making. Despite all of the importance that we place on listening and developing structures to enable faculty members to be heard, the ultimate responsibility for the school lies with the principal. He or she should be prepared to listen and make decisions. Even after carefully weighing input, a principal will still need to make tough decisions. Sometimes those decisions will not be popular. In my experience however, the leaders who take the time to listen and provides the opportunity for all sides to be considered will gain better buy-in from staff regardless of the decision.


Scott Wallace is the Executive Director of the National Center for School Leadership. To learn more about their services and how they work to improve school culture and develop school leaders, visit their website at http://www.ncfsl.org/

Can Web 2.0 Break School-to-Home Barriers?

Many school and district administrators I speak with spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to connect with parents. The research clearly indicates that parental involvement is critical to student success. And so, educators create elaborate (and often time consuming) ways to increase parent interaction with the school.

Some of the most effective methods are creative in their approach(though decidedly low-tech): serving breakfast before school (parents invited, of course!), newsletters, evening and weekend school events, and parent workshops. Many schools encourage teachers to make a certain number of phone calls to parents each week. These methods, while effective, can be challenging given that they are time-consuming. Even the best school-to-home communication plans have to pick and choose methods because you can’t do it all.

Then consider this: how much true interaction do these forms of communication enable? Newsletters are a one-direction form of communication. Information posted to websites must be changed frequently; most school and district websites don't easily facilitate the exchange of thought but rather just the dissemination of information (this could be changed though!). Also websites require a parent to proactively visit and don't "push" the information out effectively. Email can be great -- no longer do we require the student to bring home a piece of paper -- but can be overdone. I admit that I stopped reading all the emails from my daughter's school when I began to receive 3 to 4 per day! These mediums are fairly static in nature. They don't build on some of the most powerful promises of technology which will enable better sharing and rich interactions.

And so we see an emergence of Web 2.0 technologies particularly in the area of communication. In a recent eSchool News article (click here) the most commonly used Web 2.0 technology is online communication tools for parents and students, as identified in a research study commissioned by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize Inc.

In thinking about this, I began to consider the different and interesting uses of technology that I've seen -- specific to the school-home communication area. Here are three of the most interesting and straightforward ideas that I have seen in this area listed from low-cost to high-cost:

1. Extending the website

Your school and your district already has a website. But are you utilizing it fully? This is a great and low-cost way to share information that you already have ready-to-serve!

Status quo: Many schools have static websites. Some post new content semi-frequently.

Best practice: Schools and districts have a constant flow of new information. This can be done easily with out-of-the-box software that will require no technical expertise to publish information. These information posts are supplemented with RSS Feeds that allow parents and students to subscribe to any and relevant feeds which are conveniently served up in their RSS Reader of choice.

Cost: Low. The content is usually already there and the tools to make this possible are readily available, free or low-cost, and easy to deploy.

2. Teacher Generated Content

With a bit more work and investment, schools and school districts can provide their teachers with the ability to easily publish to a class website, attach homework, provide a calendar of events, etc. When teachers have the ability to share this information, on their website, without relying on another person to update the webpage, we see an explosion in content.

Status quo: Teachers send home schedules, handouts, reminders. Sometimes these are sent via email as well. The information is not posted to a teacher-specific website.

Best practice: Teachers have publishing tools that enable them to post their information to a web page which is specific to their class. They can attached documents as well as post announcements and alter a calendar/schedule. RSS feeds and email subscriptions are available so parents can get updates automatically without visiting the web page directly.

Cost: Low to Medium - While you can opt to spend a lot on a sophisticated content management system, there are a number of low cost options that will require minimal set up to implement. Granted with a bit bigger budget you get better functionality but you can do a lot with very little in this category.

3. Parent Portals (w System Access)

Nirvana of home-school communication would include password protected parent access that allows for checking on personal information (grades, attendance) as well as class specific information (homework, test dates, field trip dates, etc.). Furthermore, a parents "calendar" would combine the schedules associated with the classes (and only the classes) specific to their students. And of course these would be enabled through "push" technologies such as RSS feeds and automatic email distribution of new content. There are some systems that allow for pieces of this -- particularly the password protected access to grade and attendance information. We have yet to see all the functionality we'd like.

Status Quo: Wait until progress report and report card times to communicate grades and attendance.

Best Practice: Proactive, automated, real-time access to information for parents at any hour. Provide parents with the ability to receive automated information in a number of ways. Facilitate discussion and networking via internet including teacher-parent and parent-parent.

Cost: High. Feel free to share the costs if you are a school or school district who as implemented a system. When I've asked the typical answer given indicates that it is a hefty sum!

Here are few companies that offer a publishing platform. This list should not be thought of as an endorsement on my part. I know district using each of them though so they are certainly in production. That said, if you have experience with any of these, please comment. Also if you know of other platforms that are effective (or ineffective) please share:

Principle Data Systems

Edline

Infinite Campus