"Before the ASK" -- Must-Have's for External Facilitation

“Before the ASK” -- Must-Have’s for External Facilitation

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Assistant Professor

Department of Educational Leadership

Bayh College of Education

Indiana State University

Graduate students in our Department of Educational Leadership course, School and Community: Collaborating for Effective Schools, are spending their summer vacations exploring the “how-to’s” of a school leader’s external facilitation and community support for schools.  Support involves gifts of time, talent, or treasure.

We often think of a school leader’s balancing the responsibilities of building management and instructional leadership.  However, a school leader’s role in external facilitation could be as critical to school performance as instructional leadership (Leana, 2011).

In external facilitation, school leaders must always keep in mind, “Withdraw less than what has been deposited.”

Ideally, leaders make deposits to their community resource accounts through mindfulness of image, action, and timing; withdrawals are then made through their requests of support from community.  A continued, positive, long-term relationship is key throughout these transactions. 

How as a school leader can you grow your account?

MINDFULNESS OF IMAGE

First, you need to maintain proper image in the minds of potential contributors. How are you portraying yourself?  Mindfully, we hope, in that you must:

See things from others’ perspectives, following Covey’s (2004) advice from his 5^th Habit, seek first to understand; then to be understood.  Be genuinely interested in business and community leaders as individuals and in the organizations they run.  Do much more listening than talking.  Spend time with them without making too many withdrawals.

Continually remain optimistic and positive when discussing current legislation, especially that of which educators are complaining.  Be seen as the one who can make what others perceive as lemons into lemonade, and be consistent in what you say to various groups.  Embrace and respect those who cause you complication, as you can learn from their perspective.

Be gracious and humble when complimented, but DO accept the compliment.  You probably deserve it. At the same time, give credit to the great teachers and staff who make your school a great place for children.

Treat others (and be seen treating ALL others) with dignity and kindness, especially those whom others avoid or shun.  Making time to brighten another’s day just for the sake of doing so is the stuff upon which generalized reciprocity is made (Putnam, 2000).

Ensure visibility of you and your family in public, at the bigger events, of course, or simply to enjoy what your community has to offer. You are always being witnessed, so parent positively.

Tip well at restaurants. Be kind to clerks who check-you-out at shopping centers, exchanging money hand-to-hand as opposed to placing cash on the counter. Little things DO matter. Represent yourself well when no one is looking, and treat people better than others treat them. 

Finally, make the world a better place for those who have too many monkeys on their backs by striving to shift them appropriately to where they belong (Whitaker, 2012).  All will be better off.

MINDFULNESS OF ACTION

Next, you must take professional action in your role as a school leader beyond that of building management and instructional leadership.  Particularly, you must:

Network and attend meetings with business and organizational stakeholders outside of the school, on their turf, at a time convenient for them.

Share with external stakeholders that you want better to understand their businesses and organizations so that you can do two things: (1) Ensure that your school is better preparing students to be a part of their workforce, and (2) Demonstrate how academic preparation is relevant to their world of work.

Open-up the school to your community during non-instructional times, offering early morning walking clubs for folks during the colder seasons, evening activity spaces year-round, and holiday meals for those less-fortunate.  Knock down all nonsensical barriers to access, yet be mindful of equal access provisions under the law.  Check with your school attorney.

Maintain impeccably clean and inviting facilities for students, staff, and visitors at all times, checking for even that crumpled piece of paper or broken pencil that may be dropped by students.  Anyone’s seeing dust, dirt, or clutter reflects upon your ability to steward resources properly.

Train students (and expect students) to meet and greet visitors and direct them pleasantly to the office, offering community members a friendly smile and “Welcome to our school.” Every visitor should be treated like you would treat the President of your Board of Education. Every student is your best ambassador. 

Perform a makeover of your school office waiting room, highlighting your community partnerships with artifacts, pictures, and informational materials of stakeholders’ time, talent, and treasure.

If you have an open campus, ensure that student off-campus behavior is stellar during lunchtime. Your kids are an extension of your image.  If they are not behaving well, your school’s reputation will suffer.

Highlight community “friends and partners” in school newsletters. Write them letters and give them plaques to hang in their businesses, with “thanks” for their generous contributions and ongoing partnerships.

Coordinate service-learning opportunities out of the building for students. 

Build capacity in your leadership team so that you can get out of the building each week to join a civic organization or attend external meetings.

Establish a Business/Education Partnership in your local Chamber of Commerce if one does not exist.

Schedule monthly breakfasts or luncheons with business or organizational leaders at your school and invite students to dine with them.

Embrace the concepts of educational choice and competition, or at minimum, work to better understand these perspectives, as these are assuredly supported by many with whom you could potentially garner resources.

Enhance academic and budgetary transparency in your school. Speak in terms of return on investment.

Finally, hold yourself continually accountable for each “next day’s, best work.”  Adequate yearly progress is simply that – “adequate.”

MINDFULNESS OF TIMING

With the aforementioned accomplished and image and action intact, you’re nearly in a position to deliver “the ASK.”  Ensure above all else at this point that you know what others are requesting, at which times, from whom, and under what conditions, especially those within your own school districts.

The last thing you want to do is ask for a few thousand dollars from the planned gifts division of a local pharmaceutical conglomerate while your superintendent is planning a well-coordinated ASK for a quarter of a million.

References

Covey, S. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Leona, C. (2011, Fall). The missing link in school reform. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 30-35.

Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Whitaker, T. (2012). Shifting the monkey: The art of protecting good people from liars, criers, and other slackers. Bloomington, IN: Triple Nickel Press.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan hopes that you’ll add to the ideas above, or even take exception to them, by commenting on this blog article or by contacting him at ryan.donlan@indstate.edu or (812) 237-8624.  Thanks for reading!!

Learning the HOW of Social Capital

Learning the HOW of Social Capital

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Assistant Professor

Department of Educational Leadership

Indiana State University

Launching a class in School and Community Relations this past weekend, I asked students this question, “How are we taught to facilitate social capital with those who can make a difference in education?”

Students shared pre-service advice, such as the fact that they have been taught the benefits of engaging others in sharing ideas, collaborating on best practice, communicating scope and sequence of curriculum among different grade levels, networking with supportive community members, and reaching out to those unlike themselves.  Because I have smart students, I got smart answers.

I probed further, “But prior to doing these things (all very important), HOW did you learn to DO the communicating – especially when reaching out to those more difficult or unresponsive? HOW did you learn ‘the HOW’ of accessing and developing positive social capital?”

This was not such an easy thing for them to answer, I discovered, so I tried to answer the question, myself, after class. 

How did I learn “the HOW” of developing positive social capital?  I was quite adept at it while a school leader?

Was it in my leadership training programs? 

For the most part … it was not. 

Not prescribed via formal curriculum, in fact, the HOW was instead taught to me through direct discussion and vicarious observation during moments when interest was piqued during my youth and young adulthood … even into the present day.

Here are a few of those experiences that I have had over the years in learning how to develop social capital:

1.     Observing a master of ceremonies at hundreds of wedding receptions interact with newlyweds and inlaws – especially in situations of family estrangement – about who would do what with whom during wedding festivities.  From an early age, I played in a wedding band and did a lot of people watching. This offered modeling of not simply negotiation, but also of integration.

2.  Watching my father, a small, retail business owner in a community of laid-off autoworkers, interact with those who had lost dignity. He did so in a way that affirmed their sense of personal worth, as they feigned nonchalance in the face of significant life trauma.  That offered me a deep understanding of keeping people’s needs at the forefront of one’s attention.

3.  Learning from my favorite teacher how networking with well-placed friends in high-ranking places did not begin in the dinner circuits, country clubs, or caucus rooms, but long-prior as schoolchildren pitching pennies near run-down basketball courts. That offered me an understanding of true in-group/out-group dynamics and not to assume that I go “way back” with someone.

4.     Receiving a reminder from a former colleague and dear friend, now deceased, of the fact that friendships demand hard work, selfless interest, and time for one another, even when not convenient.  That offered me an understanding of the need to make small relational deposits continuously, as withdrawals are necessary from time to time.  One should not expect return without investment.

5.     Observing human interaction continuously as a student of relationships, replaying in my mind what worked so well for others in the rarity of any given moment, hoping to borrow style in a way that it appears my own. That offered me a library of social capital reference material.

6.     Realizing on my own that I should always lend a store clerk a smile (handing money directly as opposed to laying it on the counter), offer my place in line to those who appear hurried or stressed, treat with respect others who have lost their own, send a smile to young children who look to others with distrust, and thank someone sincerely for taking a bit of time for me, even if he/she was curt in doing so.

Not too many of these things did I learn in a classroom. 

All of these things have been invaluable in the HOW of my fostering social capital.

Looking back with a more clinical eye, the things that I have learned in formal educational settings were more similar to “Little What’s” than they were to HOW’s. 

Here’s an example of something I learned: 

Educational programs improve with the input of stakeholders [The WHAT] through active parent/teacher organizations and family involvement in school improvement planning [The HOW]. 

In the example above, the articulated HOW is not really a HOW, but instead a “Little What” embedded inside the bigger WHAT.  It’s another WHAT.

What, instead, would be some HOW’s?

Learning …

1.     … HOW to greet someone entering the school and what to say in the first seven seconds of an interaction so as to ensure that he/she feels empowered and authentically valued.

2.     … HOW to balance your small talk among guests sitting in a room awaiting the event to begin, so as to avoid their sitting around looking at each other uncomfortably.

3.     … HOW to thank everyone for his or her participation in a way that is individually meaningful, but collectively efficient.

4.     … HOW to encourage candor and heartfelt commentary without inadvertently shutting down the communication through defensiveness when something strikes too close to home.

5.     … HOW to guide a group toward consensus when conflict is present among stakeholders.

I believe that we can provide more HOW’s to preservice and in-service educators, and that we’re doing more of this all the time. Positive social capital depends upon it, as we turn challenge into opportunity for today’s schools, families, and communities.

When designing professional development, we must all take care to transcend the “Little What’s.”

Too often those are all we study.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan works with the Department of Educational Leadership in Indiana State University’s Bayh College of Education to bring more HOW’s to the WHAT of scholar/practitioner development in cutting edge leadership development programs.  He can be reached at (812) 237-8624 or at ryan.donlan@indstate.edu.

Payne v. Kunjufu: Poverty and the College Attendance Pipeline

Payne v. Kunjufu:

Poverty and the College Attendance Pipeline

Joshua Powers

Professor of Educational Leadership

Special Assistant to the Provost for Academic Initiatives

Indiana State University

I recently attended a screening of the new documentary, First Generation. It is a film about four high school students—an inner city African-American athlete, a small town White waitress, a Samoan dancer, and a daughter of migrant field workers—and their experiences navigating the possibilities of college attendance and breaking the cycle of poverty that grips each of their lives.

Over the course of their junior and senior years, we see these four high-achieving students in archetypical daily struggles, yet most powerfully and fresh, we see the crushing mismatch between college expectations and potential with the barriers to attaining their dreams.  Some examples include:

Little sense for the diversity of institutional types in this country or how to differentiate one from another other than on proximity;

Seeing athletics as the only real opportunity for scholarships since that is what they know from big-time college sports on television;

Clear admissibility to an elite public institution but not applying because they could not pay the $100 application fee;

No sense that there is a college sticker price versus a price they would actually pay at even an “expensive” private institution and that as children of poverty, they had strong potential for attendance for free;

Being wholly dependent on the school guidance counselor for help and the realistic capability or even interest that the counselor has in the intense support of the needs of the student;

A parent(s) that can’t bear the thought of their child “going away” to school or that does not see why college is important; and

Choosing the local community college over a more distant four-year institution with the expectation of ultimately attaining a bachelor’s degree despite the reality that most with this expectation do not.

As I reflect on the power of this documentary, and the daunting challenge we have as a nation to provide a larger proportion of our citizenry with a postsecondary education, I find myself recalling a debate I saw a few years back between Ruby Payne and Jawanza Kunjufu and their competing perspectives on how to think about and respond to children and youth in poverty.  Payne provides a window into what she calls generational poverty and the patterns of behavior that she says pass down through generations that often lock a person in a cycle of poverty.  She also describes social class language differences that America’s teachers from largely middle-class backgrounds find enriching for “understanding” their poor students. 

Hmm, sounds a lot like blaming the victim and a means of helping teachers know “them” better, but does it serve to reinforce assumptions? 

Kunjufu, by contrast, puts forth an argument that America’s largely White, middle-class, and female teachers are ill-prepared to work with the African American students that make up a considerable percentage of poor students in schools and thus develop low expectations for them, perhaps reinforced through low performance sourced in a mismatch between teaching and learning styles. 

Hmm, sounds plausible, but how do we best prepare or mentor teachers to be more effective in the diverse classroom? 

Whatever is going on, insidious forces are at work, that in my view play out in many ways, including in their effect on college attendance patterns [i.e. rich kids disproportionally attending four-year institutions and poor kids community colleges], those that seem to reinforce a class society. 

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Dr. Powers welcomes your thoughts and comments and would enjoy further conversation regarding the issues he brings to the Ed. Leadershop.  He can be reached at Indiana State University at joshua.powers@indstate.edu.

An Off-Ramp for the Gifted & Talented?

An Off-Ramp for the Gifted & Talented?

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Department of Educational Leadership

Bayh College of Education

Indiana State University

Susan Rakow discussed gifted learners in her February 2012 Educational Leadership article, Helping Gifted Learners SOAR. She inspired my thoughts this week.

I posit that if we have a certain percentage of truly gifted students in our schools, then we probably have a certain percentage of truly gifted leaders leading? 

Let’s call them gifted and talented (G&T) leaders, those who are at or above the 95^th percentile in their Leadership Quotient (LQ^©), competencies illustrated by Service & Arnott (2006).

I am not simply referring to leaders who are “above average,” or even “great” by measurable standards. Gifted and talented (G&T) leaders have profound leadership efficacy; they intuitively know, live, and apply leadership excellence – theory to practice – in schools. They know how to keep the complex, simple. They are way ahead!

G&T leaders may not always have the best standardized test scores (those vary contextually), yet they are those whom we watch and say, “Oh Yeah.” 

They are not necessarily charismatic.

I have known a handful.

Just as Rakow (2012) referred to students who “languish in classrooms, held down by the low ceiling” (p. 35) in a system that fails to challenge them to their fullest, I’m wondering if G&T leaders are stymied similarly by the direction education has taken, and where it will go. 

Can we offer them an off-ramp to standardization?

Research on gifted and talented instruction discusses how we can stoke the intellectual fires of our best and brightest.  The goal is to ensure that those operating at the highest levels are not mired in one-size-fits-all – i.e. what they perceive as minutia (that which may be important, academically or practically, to the rest of us).

As we prepare for sweeping changes to education, are we identifying what could be perceived as “minutia” by our most talented?

Further, are we measuring twice and cutting once? Rakow (2012) noted that without effective pre-assessment, significant programming for the gifted and talented will not exist.  Have we pre-assessed G&T Leadership to see if our anticipated changes are right for them?

Might leaders be allowed to test-out of “mandate” on behalf of their schools if they are efficacious in offering creative solutions we so desperately need? 

It would be interesting, indeed, to untether exceptionality in leadership, research the results, and allow talent to operate unencumbered by broad prescriptions fostered through good intentions.

References

Rakow, S. (2012, February). Helping gifted learners soar. Educational Leadership, 69(5).  34-40.

Service, B. & Arnott, D. (2006). The leadership quotient: 12 dimensions for measuring and improving leadership. New York, NY: iUniverse, Inc.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Bayh College of Education at Indiana State University.  He invites your comments in the Ed. Leadershop and encourages you to write with your thoughts, ryan.donlan@indstate.edu.  Or … just give him a call: (812) 237-8624.

Helpful Directions or Forced Starts

Helpful Directions or Forced Starts:

Summertime Student Travel

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Assistant Professor

Department of Educational Leadership

Bayh College of Education

Indiana State University

A college student from downstate Michigan, I once took a trip through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and got lost.  This was prior to global positioning systems. All I had was a map, not even a detailed atlas.  I was off the beaten path.

Eventually, with the help of some well-meaning locals, I was back on a county highway, on the way to my favorite destination, Lake of the Clouds near the Porcupine Mountains. 

What was interesting about this experience is that in my getting back on track, the locals didn’t require me to start again from my hometown in the Lower Peninsula.  Thank goodness.

You’re probably wondering, “Why would they make me do that?” 

Well, if they are products of American public school system, this is what they have learned.

When students lose their way and find themselves off track, do we require them to start over again, rather than continue? Quite often, as most students who receive 59% in courses (i.e. -- have gone 59% toward their intended destinations) must take them over again.  They must start again in the Lower Peninsula.

It’s not as if they got 0%.  It’s not as if they mastered none of the content.  This all takes place in an America where batting averages of 50% are considered “OK” … where elections at 51% are won (some through a plurality, even less).

Why then in education do results lower than 60% oftentimes require a forced start, rather than a continued journey? For those reading who are saying, “Not in our neighborhood,” thank you. 

It’s early-to-mid May.  The school year is not yet over.  We probably can identify those students who are going to end-up scoring less than 60% in our classes. My request is that we offer continued journeys for these students, rather than forced starts.   How about 2 – 3 week extensions of the school year for students who are willing to shore-up some of the competencies that are holding them back (or for those who at minimum, begrudgingly comply)?

Let us envision this year’s summer season, not as a credit-recovery clearinghouse, but as a targeted, skill-development laboratory -- certainly, not as a “vacation” when some are lost.

Can we individualize our students’ summer journeys toward their intended destinations, based on where they veered from their paths, rather than through a blanketed approach?  Can we be the well-meaning locals?

This year, if students are headed to the Porcupine Mountains, let’s not require that they return to the Lower Peninsula to find their way.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan encourages your comments and hopes that you will let him know the relevance of this blog by offering thoughts, opinions, feelings, and reactions on this site or by contact him at (812) 237-8624 or by writing to ryan.donlan@indstate.edu.

ISU Ed. Leadershop

 ISU Ed. Leadershop

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Assistant Professor

Bayh College of Education

Indiana State University

As we near the end of our first school year of Community-Engaged Scholarship, I wanted to thank you for the over-3000 visits to our site. 

It is obvious that our topics have been of interest.  Your work has inspired our writing, as we get most of our ideas from our conversations with students, as well as our professional learning network.

In looking closely at the impact of our blog through feedback received, we are excited to see the development of our identity as a reflection of your needs and our content.  With your help, our site has become a marketplace of deep thinking for educational leaders.  It has practitioner appeal.

I like to think of our site nowadays as the ISU ED LEADERSHOP.  What is a leadershop?

A destination where we, as consumers of leadership, can select from an array of products, in the form of ideas, research, and best practice;

A destination where we can meet for conversation regarding the events of the day and those assuredly of tomorrow;

A destination where we can take something that we are doing and get advice on how to improve it.

I ran the name, ISU Ed. Leadershop, by faculty over the last week or so, as well as graduate students attending Commencement. 

Among the positive feedback received, one doctoral grad said that the name made sense.  Her favorite post was Common Sense, December 19, 2011.  Others liked the name’s similarity to the term, “Ed Leadership,” and felt that it had practitioner appeal, part of our ongoing mission as a Department of keeping our feet on the ground.

Colleague Dr. Will Barratt and I discussed whether a change of website address to reflect the new name would be prudent.  Both options, “to do” or “not to do” have merit, from my perspective. 

Weller (2012), in writing about higher-ed. blogs, noted that “good online impact” helps garner the interest of groups that support the work done in universities.  He added that quality on-line reputation also helps establish a global peer network, which helps writers through increased research collaboration.  Thanks to my colleague, Dr. Mary Howard-Hamilton, for passing along that article to me.

I’m thinking that an important part of one’s impact and reputation is a “known” URL.  Currently, we are getting visited far more often via “links” from other sources than via our URL.  I’ll think more on this.

As you move ahead with an exciting end of a successful school year with staff and students, please share with colleagues who may not know about us that the Indiana State University Department of Educational Leadership has an ISU Ed. Leadershop, an on-line destination with an array of topics for practitioner conversation -- quick, 5-minute "read's" that help put into perspective the challenges and opportunities in our profession. 

We offer a Twitter link to our articles each week and have a link as well on our Department Website.

Give us a read; talk with others.   We believe we’re helping our profession, because you have told us “just that.”

Thanks! 

You keep us relevant.

References

Weller, M. (2012, May 4).  The virtues of blogging as scholarly activity. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. 27-28.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan encourages your thoughts and perspective at any time.  He can be reached at www.twitter.com/ryandonlan or at ryan.donlan@indstate.edu. 

Leadership = Combustion Amidst Elegance

Leadership = Combustion Amidst Elegance

By Dr. Ryan Donlan

Department of Educational Leadership

Bayh College of Education

Indiana State University

While talking to a friend about issues with my golf swing, our conversation segued into discussion of his interest in televised golf. An incredible golfer who plays the game each week, he noted a small handful of professional golfers who demonstrate incredibly smooth golf swings, while at the same time, getting more distance and accuracy than others who try to smash the ball into oblivion.  I was trying to smash the ball.

In their effectiveness, the best golf swings are quite elegant – and intriguingly, embedded within that elegance exists a moment of combustion when club strikes ball, that which gets the job done, yet that which is invisible for the most part to the naked eye.

Thoughts then drew me to leadership, to metaphor.  Leaders, as well, must benefit from discreet moments of combustion within elegance, to be truly effective.

Metaphorically I equate combustion with the exercise of power and authority to target and achieve a desired end, that which cannot be easily undone – the moment when leaders “take action.”

A few examples:

Firing someone.

Asking your Board for its vote.

Suspending a student.

Hiring a teacher.

Offering a quote to the local newspaper.

Going where no one has gone.

The notion of leadership elegance as part of the golfing metaphor has to do as much with others’ perceptions as it does reality.  Here’s how it applies.

When readying for moments of opportunity to initiate combustion, leaders rarely should be seen locking and loading. Pondering thoughtfully but privately works; posturing and telegraphing are inelegant. Decisions should not appear overly effortful or contorted.

Part of your expected role as a leader is at times, to ensure elegance when readying the next hit of your club.

It could be said that in order for leadership to be perceived as relevant and strong, a few hits of your club need to occur [a few rounds played] from time to time, so that all in your care are satisfied that you are capable of doing what leaders should be capable of doing … playing golf, metaphorically – taking swings.

Like golf, your game of leadership includes suiting up, practicing and preparing, making your tee times, collaborating, competing, sharing in fellowship, taking long walks, as well as the game-specific components of driving down the fairway, laying up, getting out of tough spots, going for the pin, and knowing when to settle for par.  It also doesn’t hurt to celebrate birdies and eagles, to accept a bogey or two, and every once in a while, to make a hole in one.   

For your consideration, I offer these thoughts from my friend, colleague, and golfer:

Perhaps leadership and golf also share the notion that both are not 24/7 stretches of intense focus. In fact, to play better one needs only to focus for about 20 seconds for each shot; maybe adding a minute prior to each shot for contemplation, with the rest of the time as simply, informal chatter - a pleasant distraction. And it pays to have a bad memory so the bad shots do not creep into good decisions made later. As leaders, it would seem one might last longer if he/she spent less time in intense focus, and found more of the pleasant distractions in between the brief intense moments (personal communication, April 30, 2012).

Taking your swing, however, is non-negotiable. 

The positive perception of elegance during the swing is directly proportional to how others may come to define your leadership game.

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Dr. Ryan Donlan can be found in the Bayh College of Education 326A or on Twitter at twitter.com/ryandonlan.  Feel free to e-mail your commentary to ryan.donlan@indstate.edu or give him a call at (812) 237-8624.