Another installment of readings from Lead. Learn. Change., the book, pages 56-76. The episode includes a focus on change, the Narnia Principle story, and a PAGE Break about shared commitment. All profits from the sale of the book support the Allene Magill Memorial Scholarship fund, helping paraprofessionals who are pursuing their dream of becoming classroom teachers.
SHOW NOTES:
NOTE: Episode 47 will be followed by a guest episode, Tylan Bailey, who made a career move from school custodian to . . . teacher. You won’t want to miss it.
Thereafter, guest, book, guest, book, guest… will serve as the pattern for our epidsodes until the book selections are completed.
Today’ s episode includes:
Lead purposeful change - Where are We Now? Where are You?
Change the Story!
We learn best from others, and PAGE has learned more from teachers than from any other source.
What has truly changed as a result or your learning, your leadership, and your work?
Work on relationships - The Narnia Principle
Success is linked to beliefs, imagination, relationships, and focus.
PAGE Break – Shared commitment
All educators deserve access to quality learning experiences.
Words to Live By (Mark Cuban, Albert Einstein, Constance Baker Motley, Allene Magill)
Measuring What We Do in Schools: How to Know if What We are Doing is Making a Difference, by Victoria Berhnardt
Learning Forward’s standards for professional learning
David Reynolds (00:10):
Hello listeners, thanks for joining me today. Welcome to another installment of readings from the book Lead Learn Change. As a reminder, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are earmarked for the Allene Magill Memorial Scholarship Fund. A link for the book is available in the show notes or you can simply search for the title in the Amazon bookstore. Today we're reading pages 56 through 76, which includes some thoughts on change, the Narnia principle story, and a page break titled Shared Commitment. Let's get started. Where are we now? Where are you? On July 1st, 2008, I was privileged to begin working with PAGE, serving a number of high schools in the state-schools led by educators who had chosen to partner with our organization because they were dissatisfied with various aspects of the status quo. They were intentionally seeking a new way to frame their approach to teaching and learning.
David Reynolds (01:15):
The idea that teachers do not want change is a gross mischaracterization of virtually everything I have observed in our public schools. The very essence of teaching is to affect change and the greatest success stories that emanate from our schools are not anecdotes about stagnation and relative regression. Instead, they almost always center on how a teacher helped a learner acquire a new skill, sharpen an existing talent, deepen in understanding, or pave the way for a new path forward, be it for the next level of schooling, a career, or to chase one's passion in pursuit of making a difference. Schools are filled with spontaneous and joyful celebrations-even if not publicly shared or know-of student achievements and firsts such as a profoundly physically challenged child taking his first step at eight, a student body rallying around a classmate during a difficult time, a homeless student earning valedictorian status or a second language learner being awarded a college scholarship, the first in her family.
David Reynolds (02:21):
The list is literally endless. Schools are most assuredly not places of status quo. The systems that constrain them may be the way bureaucracies assess quality may be. But not the schools themselves. Learning and progress are simply not synonymous with status quo. Programs and school improvement plans come and go-and quite often they leave no positive imprint, no evidence that anything happened that really mattered. The principals and teachers that opted to partner with PAGE knew that-and believed it-and they wanted something more. They wanted more for their schools and more importantly, they wanted more for their students. PAGE's commitment was to support that change, and to address the challenges along the way. Through a concerted effort dubbed the High School Redesign Initiative, which had only begun about a year earlier, PAGE was leading the charge to shift the focus of “how we do school” from a traditional approach to one that could upend the historical and stereotypical culture and design of most classrooms-
David Reynolds (03:30):
From that of a structure where decisions are made out of habit, or for the convenience of adults, to places where students are viewed as the most important people to walk through the doors each day, and where actions and plans are ultimately agreed upon to benefit learning, to benefit kids. Changing anything so large and seemingly stable and function in form is no small task. The key is looking at who you are serving, why you are serving them, and what you are committed to doing to ensure their success. For PAGE, an independent educator organization, its customers were. Are, and always will be. School system teachers, administrators, and support staff. That fact would not change. With membership numbers that had increased every year since PAGE's inception, a drastic reorientation of the organization's trajectory and purpose was simply not warranted. What would change was the form that PAGE's support would take. In our view unmatched membership efforts, superb legal support and exemplary legislative advocacy already characterized PAGE's work and advancements in each area
David Reynolds (04:37):
in recent years only enhanced PAGE's role as a champion for those who teach the well over 1.7 million children attending Georgia's public schools. But something was missing. In the mid-2000s, professional learning emerged as an important addition to PAGE's suite of services. Within a decade, providing professional learning opportunities for educator leaders took on a place of prominence in our organization's work. Under this umbrella of professional learning, the High School Redesign Initiative took shape. This new initiative sought a way to help educators create and maintain a renewed-laser focus on students and student learning, a focus that served as the filter through which decisions should be made, whether at the classroom, school, or district level. The scope of this mindset expanded far beyond local attendance zones as PAGE coordinated and piloted some regional networks, primarily in high-poverty areas of the state, where educators from multiple school systems collaborated on authentic, meaningful, and sustained ways (via multi-year efforts) to ensure that students would graduate with many options available to them for a successful life after high school.
David Reynolds (05:47):
PAGE's voice has also extended beyond the school house walls to reach those elected as public servants to parents and to others who represent myriad sectors of our communities. This all sounds good, but what difference does it make and how do we know that an impact has been made? Based on what? How would you answer those questions at your school, in your family, or about your business? How do you know that you've made a difference? That your work matters? PAGE wanted to uncover solid evidence of its influence, but not solely through stereotypical “school report card” type data. PAGE opted to document change review testimonials, study requests for ongoing support, and analyzed other improvement measures. Toward that end, in 2012, a proposal was crafted that outlined how PAGE might go about capturing, organizing and analyzing information pertinent to its aims. Dr. Allene Magill, then PAGE's executive director, supported the proposal for what is now known as The Impact Project and the work to uncover and review data and evidence was officially underway.
David Reynolds (06:54):
Data, defined for our purposes as facts or statistics (often expressed as a number), constitute only one piece of a larger picture of evidence-a picture that answers questions about influence and impact. PAGE views evidence as relevant data that, when combined with other information, and intelligently considered as a whole, clearly substantiates the validity of a particular conclusion. During PAGE's earliest attempts at evidence-mining a lot was learned-and some of that learning was about what not to do. I was the point person for those efforts, so I know that the criticism levied against the processes that formed the first stages of this endeavor was valid. The primary takeaway from the first phases of this work? Try again. We were capturing evidence, true, but schools are places facilitating such a complex array of activities, with so many different constituencies, each with nuanced yet distinct needs and interests, that pinpointing the most important areas of focus remained elusive, at least for a short while.
David Reynolds (07:56):
Clarity eventually grew out of these initial steps, setting the stage for more focus. First, we knew that before we could claim we had made an impact, we must be able to answer the question, “What has changed as a result of our work?” Second, we believed that customer needs must drive the design of our work and that we must engage in serious reflective practice to align and update our efforts with the current, evolving, and projected forces that act on our state’s schools. Third, we desired to learn how our internal practices were changing as that had not been tracked before. And fourth, we were aware that for all the aspects of the Impact Project, we must consider not only traditional demographic data, but also perceptual data, process data, and valid data regarding progress. Footnote, footnote, text Victoria Bernhardt's books on data analysis' relationship to school improvement provide clear and compelling explanations about types of data, how to view them, and how to capture evidence of the shifts that a school is undergoing.
David Reynolds (09:01):
You can view a description of one of her books by visiting, measuring what we do in schools as an online search term. Back to text. Targets were identified, tools were developed, conversations ensued and questions were posed. Answers were questioned, partnerships were formed. Data and evidence accumulated in a picture of accomplishments and impact started to materialize. We have shared some of what we have learned, what we have learned from one another at page and more significantly what we have learned from our customers’ experiences, successes, feedback, and feed forward. (See, appendices, A, B, C, and D for information about PAGE research.) Let's return to the question, “Where are we now?” As the typical store directory indicates, “You are Here.” Regardless of the forces that have come together to bring us all to this place-whatever “here” means for you and those with whom you work and those you serve-here is your new starting point.
David Reynolds (10:02):
There is no other option. The past is the past, yet it shouldn't be ignored. We can and should learn from it, allowing it to inform our thinking and our practice and guiding our commitment to move ahead. Yet here is where we are now. This place, in this time. We move forward from here. The path toward excellence is not strictly linear or perfectly sequential. Instead, you are encouraged to consider, along with us, how to view those you serve, the reasons you do your work and how to assess, communicate, and enhance the impact of what you do. Your work matters.
David Reynolds (10:45):
The Narnia Principle. Flashback to Christmas 2002, gifts are being opened. One thing we do as a family is write inscriptions inside books we give to one another. Our son, Jackson, eight years old, had just unwrapped a 767-page volume of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. On the title page, opposite to the inside front cover are the handwritten words I had pinned there only a few nights earlier. “Dear Jackson, I have always wanted to read this book. Now I can. Let's not ever stop ‘doing books’ together. (From the length of this one, I don't think we can stop.) I love you. “1-4-3. Dad Christmas-2002.” We began right away, with The Magician's Nephew, one of the lesser known of the seven books in the series. I read aloud and Jackson listened, a familiar activity for all of his eight years. We didn't read this particular book every day, but we moved through it, eager to hear what would happen next.
David Reynolds (11:58):
Sometimes having our imaginings confirmed and at other times being quite surprised. It was great fun. We finished the first story and moved on to the next one. We chose the more famous, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe and finished it, although not at the same clip this time. Then one day in 2003 we started the third. Neither of us can remember what triggered the slowdown and eventual full stoppage, but it slid into our lives. Nonetheless, the book laid dormant then got moved. That became almost forgotten, albeit with some occasional moments of unspoken regret and we allowed our good intentions and valuable interactions to be subsumed by alleged urgencies du jour. Completing the Chronicles was simply not to be. Fast forward to May 25th, 2017. On that day, Jackson heard the last word of the seventh and final Narnia story to prepare for Jackson's return home after college during his gap. Year before medical school, my wife and I were rearranging furniture, discovering items in storage and considering in progress projects in the Chronicles of Narnia resurfaced it clearly needed to be read.
David Reynolds (13:14):
When Jackson came home at summer's end in 2016, he and I resumed our C.S. Lewis time, and there we were, a 56-year-old dad reading to a 22-year-old dual stem degree university graduate. We both loved it. It took us about ten months and in that time we re-read the interrupted third book and consumed the remaining four. Fourteen and a half years to the day, we crossed the Narnia finish line together. We both signed the book this time, commemorating the occasion. With just a few weeks left before Jackson was to leave for medical school, we created yet another very happy memory. Why was that father-son moment even possible for us? Because of the focus on relationships, a belief in the power of imagination, and a shared understanding of the value of commitment. These things are worth investing in and making part of your individual life, team or department norms, or corporate fabric.
David Reynolds (14:10):
These concepts serve as the hub for your work. Dismiss your relationships, stop dreaming, or fail to follow through on promises made, and the consequences will be evident. But you can't plan for every contingency. Interruptions are inevitable. We often say, “unexpected,” but we all know that a more accurate assessment of what life throws at us is “Expect stuff you don't expect”. All the time. No one can orchestrate a journey and account for every variable. So, what are the best buffers against being derailed by something unforeseen? Relationships, imagination and commitment. The benefit of these three ideals cannot be overemphasized. Relationships. Not mere acquaintances, but long-term. I-can- contact-you-after-five-years-and-we-pick-right-up-where-we-left-off. Relationships. Also those that allow for interaction every day, week or year, like clockwork. And imagination. The Narnia books may be viewed as purely imaginary, but the genre represented by that multi-volume classic is a not-too- distant cousin of science fiction: and science fiction is more than a mere figment of someone's imagination.
David Reynolds (15:28):
These realms of fantasy actually represent real concepts, just in a new way. A science fiction or fantasy writer does more than paint vivid pictures of what she sees in her mind's eye. She predicates her work on “What if scenarios?” She sees what others can't (yet) see. She's more insightful than we might think. Imagination ought not be written off as unimportant or nonsensical. Imagination, deftly wielded, can transform one's work or one's organization. Dare to think, “What if?” Carried to their possible conclusion multiple scenarios that can combine your vision for the future with what can actually be done and see for yourself what could happen. This simple exercise, repeated, refined, shared, and acted upon, can make a huge difference. Reflect for just a moment on the science “fiction” that has come to pass in our world: artificial intelligence, replicators and holograms, robot vacuum cleaners, video phones, credit cards, face scanning technology, wireless everything, space travel and Dick Tracy's wristwatch.
David Reynolds (16:42):
Nothing on that list is very far removed from Narnia’s doors to other worlds, communication with entities previously unseen, good triumphing over evil, and so on. Don't be fooled, swayed, or discouraged by those who say such things are childish. Imagination is worth sticking with. Success is far more likely where focus, belief, goodness and imagination. Thrive. And commitment. Committing to keeping a relationship alive and committing to what you imagine could be-and, whenever possible blending the two will yield amazing results. Commitment, and the discipline that serves as a prerequisite for it, even in the face of opposition may make or break the possibilities for the future and not just for you, but for those you seek to influence and benefit. It doesn't matter if you're knocked off course by forces beyond your control or if you veer off on your own. Maintaining direction and incremental progress despite temporary setbacks or detours still equates to commitment.
David Reynolds (17:46):
Specifics such as timing, structures, and costs may change, but the underlying principles do not. Try to forge stronger relationships with existing customers, colleagues, or students and commit to making at least one inroad toward creating some new connections. Talk with each person. Get to know them. You may be surprised to learn what results they envision as your partnership navigates toward common goals. Done well, tomorrow will not look like today. It can be better, better than you might have thought possible. Relationships. Imagination. Commitment. That's what works. That's what's real. That's what makes a destination a worthy one, a great one, like Narnia. Where do you want to go with your work? What are you willing to do to get there? Who will go with you? What will it look like when you arrive? What is your story? What will your story be? What's your Narnia? PAGE Break shared commitment page was founded in 1975 with fewer than 100 members on its role.
David Reynolds (18:56):
That year PAGE was formed to serve educators who wanted their decision to join a professional association to be optional, instead of supporting a national group via mandated contribution of dues through local or state affiliates. Paul Copeland, PAGE's founder and first president, imagined an organization that was nonpartisan and maintained a focus on education, while also providing liability coverage and a legislative voice for those serving Georgia's students. Lillian Cantrell, a DeKalb County teacher in 1975, was the co-founder of PAGE, and was actively involved with critical startup efforts in its first ten years. PAGE membership grew to nearly 10,000, topping 30,000 by 1995, and has since swelled to over 95,000, the second-largest independent educator organization in the nation. A few years after PAGE's founding, Jack Acree became PAGE's first executive director (1979 to 1993), followed by Dr. Barbara Christmas (1994 to 2002). In 2003, Dr. Allene Magill was tapped to serve as PAGE's executive director.
David Reynolds (20:06):
Almost immediately internal conversations were initiated and led to developing PAGE's core business statement and to structural shifts that would undergird the organization's revitalized focus. Unmatched legislative advocacy, solid liability coverage, robust legal support and first-rate member services remained in place while new courses were charted in professional learning. Traditional professional learning formats (training, delivery of information, et cetera) characterized PAGE’s offerings at first, but significant distinctions soon transformed the professional learning experiences facilitated by the organization. Educators are seldom asked if they are members of PAGE as a condition of participation in professional learning. Why? Because a core organizational belief is that all educators deserve access to quality learning experiences. Consequently, offering many of PAGE's professional learning experiences to member participants at zero cost is an additional membership benefit. So, if you are a PAGE member, great! If you are not, perhaps you will be someday. PAGE also quickly learned that only through relationships will lasting change occur.
David Reynolds (21:16):
Toward that end, professional learning encourages teams of educators. Similarly, the organization does not engage in “random acts of drive-by staff development.” Instead, PAGE provides initiatives that sometimes last more than one year (some have spanned three to five years). The bonds formed during this work have resulted in long lasting relationships with a number of school-based and school system-based educators. Some of these partnerships have endured and thrived for more than a decade. Relationships based on trust are the key to PAGE's success. Unwavering commitment to those relationships is of paramount importance. But core-business-filtered commitment, not blind compliance is the fuel behind these partnerships. In 2007, the High School Redesign Initiative (HSRI) was created and it rapidly became PAGE's professional learning flagship. Because of the success of this initiative, HSRI continued its tenure as the organization's professional learning standard bearer, then transitioned to a reconstituted framework of additional and more robust networks-collaborative experiences that included superintendents at the same table with classroom teachers and building-level administrators, representing many schools from multiple school districts.
David Reynolds (22:35):
Footnote Text: To view a list of Learning Forward’s professional learning standards, visit https://learningforward.org/standards-for-professional-learning and look for standards for professional learning. Note: PAGE has not fashioned its approach to professional learning to intentionally align with these standards-nevertheless, the parallel between characteristics of PAGE professional learning experiences and Learning Forward (previously the National Staff Development Council) standards is a strong one, especially with regard to the emphasis on collaboration, leadership, developing individual and organizational capacity and ongoing support mechanisms. Back to text. Besides professional learning, transformative work across every PAGE department and division has continued to unfold and is becoming an organizational norm. Craig Harper PAGE’s fourth (and current) executive director has continued the emphasis on PAGE, reflecting on its work, seeking ways to strengthen its support of current members, active customers, and potential partners in future endeavors. In many organizations, stereotypical descriptions of those in “the front office” refer to the disconnect between “managers” and “workers.”
David Reynolds (23:45):
Thankfully, this is not the case at PAGE, as awareness across departments and divisions has greatly improved in the past few years. For example, standard HR practices pertaining to recruiting, hiring, and salary, benefits and payroll details, are frequently punctuated with a personal touch, keeping an organizational finger on the pulse of the needs of employees and their families, celebrating accomplishments and constantly cultivating a culture of legitimate care and concern, via sharing important updates with one another. The Human Resources director also serves as the point person for the PAGE Board of Directors and serves as a key liaison with the state's Regional Educational Service Agencies (RESA’s). The Administrative Support Team augments these efforts and serves as a vital network for the entire organization, making internal communication possible, facilitating interaction between various PAGE initiative reps and those they serve, and approaching traditional office tasks with a customer service mindset.
David Reynolds (24:44):
Together, administrative support and human resources ensure that PAGE continues to blanket the state with long-distance and face-to-face contact between PAGE and Georgia's educators. Similarly, PAGE’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is fully aware of the scope, intent and results of each PAGE initiative and project, and provides detailed financial information to all pertinent parties so adjustments can be planned to support short-term and long-term efforts. PAGE's financial team ensures that all accounting and fiscal reporting processes comply with applicable regulations-meeting or exceeding auditing requirements-and works directly with the executive director, the board of directors and key leaders to maintain the proper focus on organizational priorities. (Footnote text) The executive director is responsible for spearheading the strategic direction process and leads team members (who serve in sometimes fluid roles as division and departmental point persons to filter all decisions through the lens of the organization's vision and mission, as affirmed by the board of directors who represent all members.
David Reynolds (25:46):
The board of directors is elected from among PAGE membership to provide recommendations and oversight for the executive director and to ensure that PAGE resources are allocated appropriately to meet the organization's vision and mission. (Back to text.) Individuals and teams are regularly updated regarding current and projected needs, anticipated revenue, and expenditures. Instead of merely functioning in a stereotypical status as “the numbers person”, PAGE's CFO functions as an integral valued member of the PAGE team managing all financial matters through the “bottom line” of impact and influence, versus merely focusing on practices that meet audit expectations. The team approach at PAGE is alive and well in every department, and those working with budgetary details serve as a great example of this collaborative and collegial arrangement. And we can't ignore Information Technology-IT. In any successful enterprise, there are structures seemingly invisible that people come to expect and depend upon.
David Reynolds (26:51):
For example, a staff member may need a report that includes data sets never previously requested or mined. And increasingly often, more and more PAGE members rely on mobile devices to stay updated on education, legislation and news, and online application forms must work seamlessly. Around the clock efforts by ne’er-do-well hackers and scammers to phish, pharm, skim and scare must be thwarted. An indispensable cog and organizational operations, IT handles all of these issues and more, refreshes hardware, software, and webware, and make certain that PAGE members have the best experience possible-online and on the phone-and free from problems resulting from an infected database or a website with broken links. The need to operate proactively and responsibly may be greatest inside the tech infrastructure of any organization and this is especially true in an organization with nearly 100,000 members. That one individual with occasional ancillary support, oversees all of these functions and improvements and remains one step ahead of internal technology needs is yet another indicator of lean but effective staffing patterns, which feeds into solid stewardship practices on behalf of page members’ dues.
David Reynolds (27:50):
Stories abound at PAGE-stories about persistence, professionalism, and preparation. These are the qualities that produce payoffs-payoffs in the form of mutually beneficial partnerships, positive changes for educators, and benefits to students. In these pages, we will share some of those stories with you. All have emerged because of PAGE's consistent emphasis on three things that truly matter. PAGE believes in the value of collaboration asking “What If?” questions and acting on them, and staying focused on intended results.
Long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. Imagination coming to fruition. Commitment to its core business.
That’s PAGE.
Words to Live By select quotations.
Aligning with the Narnia principle:
“It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.”
Mark Cuban
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”
Albert Einstein
“Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.”
Constance Baker Motley
“We must constantly think about where we want to be in 20 years and put things in place now to get there. People are depending on us.”
Allene McGill.
David Reynolds (29:28):
That's all for today. Thanks for listening. You can email me at Lead Learn change@icloud.com. Have a great day. Until next time, go lead, go learn. Go make a change. Go.