Dan Proskauer: Vision and Leadership for Newton Schools!

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Instilling the Culture of a Learning Organization

The main mission of NPS is to teach, but to be effective the organization must be open to learn.  At every level we must be looking for opportunities to measure our performance.  We should embrace external measures and we should not undertake any initiative without deciding in advance how we will measure the results.

A learning organization is always looking for ways to improve.  These ideas can come from within and from outside.  In order to enable the outside world to help the learning organization, transparency is required.  NPS should proactively share data and share performance against metrics.  This will engage the greater community and bring countless great minds to bear.

One thing that has been consistent lately in Newton has been resistance to outside measures and outside ideas.  MCAS, state curriculum frameworks, STEM metrics, you name it.  We could be the poster child for a “we-know-better attitude” embodied in the recent report from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s 21st Century Skills Task Force (http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=4429).  For an excellent critique of this report, see the Boston Globe’s Op-Ed piece http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/11/29/before_21st_century_skills_teach_basics/.  We must be unafraid of being measured and unafraid of being helped.  The mantra should be "How can we do better?” not "Go away, we know better". 

I am reminded of what I heard on Parent Night at Day from my 7th grader's history teacher, a very engaging energetic man who has been an inspiration to my son and many others.  In describing the curriculum he listed the topics they will be covering and what approaches he favors as well as areas he feels are worth extra emphasis.  He also mentioned MCAS and said, "This is not a focus, but don't worry - your children will be well prepared for the test."

What I took away from this enlightened viewpoint was an understanding of the state frameworks, the MCAS test and a confidence that his treatment of the topics would encompass what is required while leaving room for appropriate exploration and inspiration.  I did not hear denial, defensiveness or arrogance.  I did not hear subdued acceptance of the inevitable.  It is this positive weaving in of the state frameworks with the additional content and style that Newton is fortunate to be able to offer that we need more of.

This openness must carry forward into any new initiatives we undertake (as well as those in-flight).  We must determine, in advance, how we will measure the success or failure of an initiative.  Some initiatives should fail – in fact if nothing we try fails, we are not trying hard enough!  We should be able to explain what we are doing, what is working, what is not working and how we will modify our approach based on this data.  An organization that operates in this transparent and data based fashion gains respect, confidence and positive momentum with both internal and external stakeholders.