by Scott Fogo and Brad Ermeling
“Investments in bold ideas should be matched by an equal investment in support and attention to detail”. (Ermeling and Graff-Ermeling, 2016)
A critical challenge for every school executive is helping the educators they serve and support successfully implement, navigate, and sustain new school initiatives. Often times, leadership of the most challenging initiatives falls on our best teachers or administrators who are already near capacity because of other roles and responsibilities in the building. How do we support these important coworkers so that new programs cohere with existing work, build upon one another over time, and produce meaningful outcomes for students?
Over the past eight years, Faith Lutheran High School has adopted an implementation framework which serves as the foundation and structure for many of the new projects or initiatives we prioritize. This supporting framework crystallizes a system of people and settings so that each tier of program leadership receives the direction, assistance, and support needed to not only reach desired student outcomes, but also to help project leaders feel efficacious in their work and decreasing feelings of frustration and “burnout.” The framework places school executive in a proactive position to provide both the accountability and support their colleagues deserve. As Elmore (2000) writes:
The exercise of authority requires reciprocity of accountability and capacity: If the formal authority of my role requires that I hold you accountable for some action or outcome, then I have an equal and complementary responsibility to assure that you have the capacity to do what I am asking you to do. (p. 19)
Whether it’s launching a school wide process for professional learning, integrating a new small group ministry, or improving an academic program, we rely on this Settings and Assistance Improvement Framework (SAIF) and its four central themes to guide our planning work.
One recent example is Echo Family Groups--a new initiative we launched to foster spiritual growth and student leadership in our school community. Echo Family Groups (EFG) break our student body into small groups of twelve students each, with two of those students serving as group leaders. Since our school has roughly 1200 students, we need an effective way to train 200 student leaders per week. Ten mentor teachers will serve the student leaders and help the EFG Director with planning and feedback.
Below is an outline of how we used the four central themes of SAIF to design the implementation, training, and ongoing support for this exciting new ministry.
Theme #1: Focus settings on critical goals and phases
We set the following three goals for the project:
a) Building Christian community between our students through close relationships and authentic conversations around the word of God.
b) Developing Christian leaders that are equipped to lead their peers and share their faith.
c) Creating a more intimate setting for our teachers to build relationships with individual students and do intentional ministry.
We identified several critical phases:
Learning Phase (9 Months): Visit high schools with small group ministries and learn from outside experts.
Development Phase (4 Months): Introduce the idea to the faculty. Choose Mentor Teachers. Design format of Echo Family Group meetings. Clarify roles of each level of support. Clarify the purpose for each category of meeting and create the setting for each category of meeting.
Preparation for Sophomore Pilot Phase (3 months): Take nominations and choose student leaders. Train student leaders on skills and topics. Train mentor teachers. Clarify the roles of in-group adults.
Sophomore Pilot (4 Months, January-April): Practice training and feedback routines. Determine what works and what doesn’t. Develop interventions.
Preparation for School-wide Launch Phase (3 Months): Choose student leaders. Plan retreat and additional settings to prepare student Leaders and mentor Teachers for school-wide launch.
School-Wide Launch (continuous during future school years): Implement with fidelity. Sustain settings and assistance.
Theme #2: Align settings, leadership, and scope of work
We identified the following key settings and recruited project leaders to guide the work.
Theme #3: Connect and build relationships among settings
We connected our primary settings to identify any gaps in our planning and ensure there was sufficient continuity and support for each role group. See diagram.
Echo Family Groups Settings and Assistance Model Adapted with permission from Teaching Better Institute
Theme #4: Sustain settings over time through strategic assistance
We are now working to execute this plan and monitor areas of need during the preparation for the Sophomore Pilot. We are also establishing meeting routines for each setting, feedback loops for communication between meetings, and weekly surveys to identify needs and provide strategic support. We will then work to sustain these settings and routines in subsequent years to continue implementation of Echo Family Groups.
As described in this example, the Settings and Assistance Improvement Framework is about matching vision with resources and attending to the seemingly ordinary but critical details that will either advance or derail an initiative. By establishing a system of settings and assistance, school leaders can foster a culture of support and encouragement that is highly valued by teachers, elevates productivity of meetings, and ensures bold ideas are translated into results.
References
Ermeling, B.A. & Graff-Ermeling, G. (2016). Teaching better: Igniting and sustaining
instructional improvement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Elmore, R. (2000). Building a new structure for leadership. Washington, D.C.: Albert Shanker
Institute.
Scott Fogo is Principal at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brad Ermeling is Cofounder and Lead Partner at Teaching Better Institute.