charlotte - mecklenburg schools the way forward · 2012. 11. 27. · the way forward listening,...

The Way ForwardListening, learning, and the case for change

Dr. Heath E. Morrison

C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G S C H O O L S

Nov. 26, 2012

The entry plan

What was promised


The first 100 days

Listening and learning


“Seek first to understand,then to be understood.”

-- Stephen R. CoveyThe 7 Habits of Highly Successful People


160 school visits


13 town hall meetings


Hundreds of meetings with individuals and small groups


Audits/surveys

Human resources audit - AronsConsulting LLC

Communications audit - Drive West Communications

Organizational audit - Council of the Great City Schools

Employee engagement survey - K12Insight

Community survey (ongoing) - K12Insight


Every leader should be able to tell three stories – the organization and where it’s

been, the organization and where it’s going, and their own leadership story.


Goal 1: Focus on student achievement CMS has implemented thoughtful initiatives with some promising results. Achievement gaps have been narrowed but they remain pervasive. CMS has focused on increasing the graduation rate without being equally attentive to ensuring the quality of the diploma.


What did I learn?

Goal 1: Focus on student achievement CMS is not personalized enough and needs to offer more educational choices for students.The district lags in technology and 21st-century learning. CMS has focused on teacher effectiveness but needs to do more to build capacity, attract and retain top talent.


What did I learn?

Goal 1: Focus on student achievement CMS has relied too much on testing as a way to increase achievement. Cultural proficiency is lacking in CMS. Satisfaction with incremental success masks the need for sustained transformation.


What did I learn?

Goal 2: Build a collaborative relationship with the Board of Education. The Board is committed to effective governance. The Board is willing to take on the tough challenges. The Board wants to expand its capacity for governance with professional training.


What did I learn?

Goal 3: Increase organizational efficiency to ensure strong support to schools. CMS has been a leader in pursuing a performance management system. CMS needs better processes and systems.We need to increase our cross-functionality as a district by breaking up silos in the system.


What did I learn?

Goal 3: Increase organizational efficiency to ensure strong support to schools.We need to provide better customer service. CMS has created a number of data points and methods to gauge district/school performance but needs to involve the community in establishing an enduring common definition of success.


What did I learn?

Goal 4: Establish a respectful, positive culture centered on teaching and learning.Many employees display a high degree of commitment to their work and their work sites.We need to communicate more effectively with our employees and make sure that excellence is recognized.


What did I learn?

Goal 4: Establish a respectful, positive culture centered on teaching and learning.We need to strengthen employees’ connection to the district as a whole. Compliance-driven culture has hampered engagement and innovation.


What did I learn?

Goal 5: Build public trust through open, honest communication. Nationally and locally, there is great pride in individual schools within CMS. The gap between CMS’s national reputation and its local image is significant.


What did I learn?

Goal 5: Build public trust through open, honest communication. We have missed opportunities to tell our story and lost the public’s confidence over the last few years with communication mistakes with some important decisions.We must never assume we have earned the public trust.


What did I learn?

Goal 5: Build public trust through open, honest communication. The community is willing to support CMS, but it is a never-ending campaign to ensure a positive CMS brand.We need to provide more comprehensive information on district decisions both internally and externally.


What did I learn?

How decisions are made are as important as the choices decided on. The Way Forward addresses how CMS

will move forward on behalf of its 143,866 students.


What does it mean for CMS to educate every child, every day, for a better tomorrow?


The case for changeThere will continue to be reforms and changes in

education whether or not we choose them. Reforms and policy shifts are occurring at the

global, national, and state level. CMS has to be a voice in those changes.


“Ships are safest in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.”

The case for change

Our community wants great results, not just good ones. We cannot afford a culture of complacency or feeling that “we’re good enough.” Great public schools are constantly improving and changing.


“‘Good’ is the enemy of ‘great.’”

The case for change

‘Just doing a job in an average way will not return an average lifestyle any longer.’

– Tom Friedman


“Average is officially over.”

The case for changeA high school diploma isn’t a guarantee of

success any more.

But not having one – and one that is meaningful – is almost a guarantee of reduced opportunities.


The case for change‘The entry ticket to the middle class today is a postsecondary education of some kind.’

– Jon Schnur, America Achieves

“Today’s students will have to create their jobs. They will need innovation,

creativity and entrepreneurship.”


The case for changeTo prepare our children for the

future, our schools will have to

change.


The case for change

New ways to teach and to learn will require a wider variety of schools and classrooms.


The case for changeC H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G S C H O O L S

How do we change our schools so that they prepare our students for the

future?

The Way Forward establishes eight key goals

for CMS.


Goal 1Accelerate academicachievement for every child and close achievement gaps so all students graduate from CMS college- or career-ready.


Goal 1

Identify college-readiness measures and reverse-engineer pathways of success for allstudents with a focus on literacy, numeracy and writing.


Goal 1Strengthen and expand early childhood programs to build an early foundation for learning success that addresses the achievement gap before it begins in order to prevent third-grade retention.


Goal 1Build a personal plan of progress for every child that is aligned with success pathways and post-secondary goals. This includes challenging our highest achieving students.


Goal 1Increase programming and extended-learning opportunities to close achievement gaps.


Goal 1

Promote increased participation in AP and IB courses and in SAT/ACT testing; and provide support to strengthen student performance.


Goal 2

Ensure an effective teacher in every class is led by an effective principal in every school served by quality support staff.


Goal 2

Reposition the Talent Effectiveness Project as a professional-growth system focused on employee effectiveness.


Goal 2

Define attractive career pathsfor all, including teacherswho want to stayin the classroom.


Goal 2

Strengthen and refine our existing teaching framework and performance-feedback system.


Goal 2Incorporate a peer coaching and evaluation program for teachers, administrators and support staff; Peer Assistance Review (PAR).


Goal 2

Incorporate district-level and school-based teacher-retention strategies focused on retaining our top talent.


Goal 3

Cultivate innovative partnerships to provide a sustainable system of support for all children.


Goal 3Inventory needs at every school and asset-map the community to create unique matches and opportunities; strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ones.


Goal 3

Expand parent involvement and engagement strategies by building on learnings from Parent University, and refocus Parent University.


Goal 3

Continue to reinforce higher education, faith-based and business/civic partnerships as critical alliances needed to advance student achievement.


Goal 3

Launch a community-wide initiative to promote reading and an awareness of the importance of literacy.


Goal 4

Continuously nurture a self-renewing culture of high engagement, customer service and cultural competency.


Goal 4

Intentionally nurture a culture of pride, trust, and respect in schools and district-wide.


Goal 4

Establish a strong culture of customer service within central office and schools, and with external stakeholders and customers.


Goal 4Promote a comprehensive anti-bullying campaign to dramatically reduce bullying and harassment, and create a consistent framework to promote a safe school environment for every child.


Goal 4

Initiate plans to ensure cultural competency framework in all schools and every classroom.


Goal 5

Establish a comprehensive performance-management approach that ensures data-

informed and evidence-based decision-making.


Goal 5

Establish a school performance review framework and process.


Goal 5

Develop multiple strategies to address chronically underperforming schools.


Goal 5

Partner with productivity and quality experts to establish key processes and systems.


Goal 5

Incorporate a system to ensure data integrity across every department.


Goal 6Strengthen and expand our portfolio of

educational choices for students to foster creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.


Goal 6

Position neighborhood schools as schools of choice; help every school find its unique voice.


Goal 6Promote new non-traditional educational options

to support students with unique needs and circumstances, e.g., schools with on-site daycare,

suspension-alternative schools.


Goal 6Create new magnets, middle colleges,

academies, and Cooperative Innovative High Schools.


Goal 6Strengthen, expand and align current Career and Technical Education offerings to ensure

post-secondary preparation for students.


Goal 6

Support the success of Project L.I.F.T. and expand best-practice learnings across the

district.


Goal 7Increase technology integration to support inspired learning and teaching.


Goal 7 Expand access and use of technology to provide one-to-one/blended learning opportunities and innovative learning environments for all children to support 21st-century learning.


Goal 7

Broaden the reach of our most effective teachers through technology.


Goal 7

Digitize our curriculum; widen access to methods and materials that reach diverse learners.


Goal 7

Establish a website and electronic portfolio for every child to tell his or her unique story.


Goal 8Communicate proactively and purposefully to strengthen public trust and establish CMS as the preferred K-12 choice.


Goal 8

Improve quality of internal and external communications with a focus on how decisions regarding district-level strategic initiatives are made.


Goal 8 Drive greater transparency around decision-making about management of resources such as capital, time, and money.


Goal 8

Advance the use of the CMS website and intranet as customer-focused, information-sharing tools.


Goal 8Increase use of social media to drive timely awareness of key messages and events and to strengthen the CMS brand.


Strategic Plan 2014C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G S C H O O L S

Revise, not rewrite

The current CMS Strategic Plan identifies many key areas for improvement.We want to adjust the plan, not replace it – and we want community engagement in this work:

• Town hall meetings in 2013

• Community members invited to join task forces


22 Task Forces

These will be aligned to the eight key goals and each task force will be led by a CMS representative and a community member.


Revise Strategic Plan 2014C H A R L O T T E - M E C K L E N B U R G S C H O O L S

2013-2014 Budget Recommendation

Revising Strategic Plan

We will do this work in the context of, and simultaneously with, budget development.

April 2013

August 2013

Rebranding CMS

Some well-known brands…


http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/dynamic/press_center/2012/05/fortune-the-new-coke.html

http://www.virtualvender.coca-cola.com/ft/index.jsp?brand_id=157

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html

Rebranding CMS

What do we want to be? We want to be the option of choice for parents in our community.

What do people say we are now?


Rebranding CMS

We will remake the CMS brand by reshaping the way we educate our students, providing exceptional customer service and earning

public trust each and every day. .


Of the U.S. students who drop out, 50 percent were already behind when they entered kindergarten.


In our community, we have the resources, the ability, and the will to educate all children.

The world of work is changing…


The demand for these skills has increased:

Complex communication – +14 percentExpert thinking/problem-solving – +8 percent

And the demand for these skills declined:Routine manual – -3 percentNon-routine manual – -5 percentRoutine cognitive – -8 percent

…with profound impacts on some workers


From 1978 to 2005, the salary increased for workers with these educational qualifications:

Postgraduate qualification – +28 percentBA/BSc – +19 percent

And it declined or stayed flat for workers with these qualifications:Some college – 0 percentHigh school diploma – 0 percentHigh school dropout – -16 percent

A moral imperative

As a country, we cannot accept schools

that only educate some of our children.


http://books.google.com/books?id=S6QvxCVxQiQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0

I came to CMS because I believethis district can be great.


As a district and a community, we are uniquely positioned to succeed in this work.


“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.”


-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In envisioning the CMS of the future, we can paint from a blank canvas.


We can create a school district where demography does not equal destiny and all

children’s success means all children.


We must do this work focused on the future, making use of every single day, and focused

on each and every child.


A rich mosaic of 143,866 different parts


The CMS brand promise


To provide a personalized environment of academic excellence

that prepares …



Every child….



Every day….



For a better tomorrow.

charlotte - mecklenburg schools the way forward · 2012. 11. 27. · the way forward listening,...

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