Introduction
In order to complete this activity, I considered community resources that both assist and impede our central goal of improved student learning. I used a force field analysis to consider these factors and, to be honest, I found the tool to be more of a hindrance than a help. I spent quite a bit of time researching and learning to use the organizer which was really nothing more than a glorified bulleted list of factors. I don’t see myself using this sort of approach again in the future myself, although it might be helpful in a large-group exercise as a way to keep every member of a team focused on how various factors can exert influece.
Influencers
The restraining forces which I identified which work against the desired state of improved student learning include:
- A history of discipline laxness
- A “private school mentality” among families which gives students and teachers a sense of entitlement that can lead to the bullying of faculty
- An aging facility in a down economy
- Confusion regarding the school’s religous mission
The driving forces which I identified which work in favor of the desired state of improved student learning include:
- A young, hardworking, dedicated faculty with strong administrative leadership
- Community support for the school’s legacy mission and history
- A new, cutting-edge, research-based curriculum
- Resrouces and the will to use them to initiate cutting-edge programs
Examination of the Influencing forces
Ours is a forty year-old religious school with a strong, supportive community and a history of family involvement and close cameraderie. The challenge which this sort of “family-close” community presents is that we often accept behavior from our own family which we would not tolerate from stranger or co-workers. When students and their families feel too at-home in a school, they tend to become informal, forming inappropriate, non-professional relationships with teachers and administrators, exerting undue influence and becoming involved in areas which should remain the purview of educational professionals.
In our case, this has resulted in a student body far too comfortable at school and families who are willing to bully teachers to get what they want. In many cases, teachers -who have known students and their families for as many as 25 years- either bow to this pressure without being aware of it or buckle because they sense no alternative.
An additional challenge not unique to our school is the current economic climate which challenges any organization which relies on philanthropy. That downturn, combined with our already-aging facility makes it difficult to compete for students with newer, better-funded or, frankly, better-looking schools.
Working in our favor, we have a number of factors which begin with our school’s current educational leaders. Over the last five years, we’ve turned-over a number of long-term faculty and, which that is a difficult process, the result has been a more vibrant, harder-working and more recently-educated faculty willing to adopt new, research-based techniques and programs. (Don’t get me wrong: many long-term faculty are still on-board and I’m not saying that older teachers can’t learn new tricks; I’m only saying that in our case, many teachers remained only out of momentum and our administration found the will to let them leave.)
While these new directions are exciting, our community has remained supportive mostly because of the school’s legacy and that support has been invaluable. Moving into our fifth decade, we have had to work hard to communicate why the old ways, while valuable in their time, are outdated and it’s time to consider new technologies, methodologies and ideas. It has been helpful that our current community trusts the institution and its leaders enough to come along with us.
Communication is the key
That communication has been the key. It has been hard work to tell the story of how our established school can become a leader in a new educational world but we’ve managed to do it and our current vision includes serving as a model of a 21st century school. Instead of being too concerned with our current challenges, we’ve created a plan to focus almost ten years in the future, imagining what we can accomplish, as a community, in that time. It’s an exciting time and everyone on our campus, students, parents, faculty and administration, has learned to look past the challenge to the vision for the future with anticipation.