• Culture: What impact does the creation of a positive school culture have on school reform?
In order to really consider this question I had to think about a school that was devoid of culture, but my mental images came up with a school with a negative culture. So in answer to the question, the impact of culture in a school environment can be huge. If the school has a negative culture in which teachers, staff, administration and students do not respect each other, do not see the vision of the school clearly and lack motivation to succeed the reform movement will not be effective.
However if a school culture is one of collaboration, communication and there is a clear sense of the vision of the school the reform movement will have a better chance to be effective.
In my experience through various schools and administrators, I do think that much of the positive and negative feelings can be pushed back to how the administration handles and operates the school. Of course staff and students have a part in that but if I use the example of the current school I work in, we are moving onto our 3rd principal since I have been there (this is my 5th year). The first year I was there a new principal had taken over after a 20 year principal had been there. The culture of the school was bound to change. He was a man with a vision. He had goals for the school and we all knew what they were. We knew what was expected of us as teachers and so did the students. He had a eye for technology integration and knew what was necessary to help move us into our new building the following year. He also had a major focus on literacy and implemented a new program to increase our literacy rates. All teachers and students were to focus on that in every classroom. When principal #1 announced he was leaving very late in the 2nd year it was incredibly hard to find a new principal, so when principal #2 arrived on the scene he was supposed to be an interim principal. He spent his first month there (July) counting dump trucks working on the parking garage for our new building and not much else. By October he was annouced as the new principal and given a three year contract. My personal opinion is that he had already made a bad impression on the staff by telling us he spent a month counting trucks rather than helping with the needs of the school. For me as a teacher he had started off on the wrong foot. He definately did not have a clearly articulated vision for the school and it was clear he was biding time. The culture of the school again changed, rather than teachers moving towards improvement our scores dropped. Technology integration decreased dramatically and student behavior was out of control. After almost two years under principal #2 our school was sent a letter by the State and Federal Governments stating that we were not making progress and that our scores were not good enough, and that we would need to make some major decisions about our schools future. With in months we had hired a new principal to start in July. Once she was hired (the first female principal in the schools history) she not only spent at least two days a week getting to know the staff and helping to create the plan for the state and federal government, she also began to roll out her vision for the school by meeting with staff. She moved into the city and became a member of the community. It is now almost time for school to open and even though she has not opened the school year, she has already changed the culture of the school. I believe the best example is the turn out at an all day workshop taking place outside of contract days. On August 24th, the school and the technology services department are hosting a one day workshop on Blackboard (our learning management system) and almost 1/2 of the staff is registered to attend. This is before the teachers are required to attend. She made it clear that teachers were to use Blackboard and other technologies to create 21st century classrooms that students would be engaged in and be active participants. Two years ago we would have not been able to hold a session like this but now we are running out of space for teachers to attend. For principal #3 by creating a positive environment where teachers know what is expected of them but also that someone is there to do serious work and will get down in the nitty gritty with them, they are more likely to do the same.
