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Family
- Community - Classroom
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A great school is directed by goals and expectations that are commonly known and clearly understood by all members of the school community.
An evaluation of the goals and objectives of a school must measure at least three aspects of goal setting: the broad expectations of the school as an institution, the expectations of each individual student in the school, and the community's understanding and support for the goals and expectations.
No matter what the business of an institution, one of the axioms of leadership and management is that the health and productivity of the institution depends on a clarity of purpose that is understood by all who contribute to the effort. It is not likely that a school will satisfy any of its constituents if the various players are in pursuit of different outcomes. So, it is incumbent on the leadership of each school to create a set of expected outcomes that satisfy the parents, the State of Wisconsin, the administration and school board, the faculty, and the support staff. When this is adequately done, then the consensus is strong and all plans, resources, and activities can be directed at these outcomes. This set of consensus expectations must, of course, be pertinent to the grade levels of the school. At the same time, they should be sufficiently explicit to allow a knowledgeable observer to conclude that the school has or has not succeeded in meeting the expectations. Regular reports to all interested parties ought to be standard operating procedure.
Surely, these expectations should describe such things as expected success rates as measured by the specified capabilities after a normal tenure in the school, the limits of tolerance for special standards of success, the amount of standardization verses individualization of the personal curricula, the extent of extra-curricular educational offerings and the levels of participation therein, and other matters of concern to the various investors of time, effort, and money.
Expectations of individual students may be of even greater importance to school effectiveness. It has been regularly and widely demonstrated that Great Schools set individual expectations that are both reasonable and rigorous. While this principle applies to overt behaviors as well as academic development, the subject here is only the latter of these.
As a general rule, each class group has a set of general learning expectations that presume "normal" ability and prior attainment by each member of the class. While these "normal" expectations are appropriate for many students, every teacher knows that the presumption is a fiction and that each of the children departs somewhat from the theoretical norm. It is, therefore, imperative that there be appropriate learning goals for each individual student in the school. Perhaps the most important point is that the personal goals for each of the students must produce a pattern that conforms to the general expectations of the entire school. As with the expectations for the school, the goals for each student have meaning only if progress is monitored, documented and systematically reported, so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators work from the same information.
Finally, this assessment must look at the extent to which the stakeholders and participants understand the goals and expectations of the school. Goals and expectations that are not communicated for conversion into real plans and activities have no meaning. Goals and expectations that are not shared have no efficacy.
A great school is housed in buildings that are adequate for all of the learning activities implied by the goals and expectations, and are safe and attractive places to work and learn.
Some aspects of this criteria are very subjective and a community could figure out ways to do an assessment without a lot of structured analysis of goals, expectations, and curricula. For example, one could appraise whether the physical facilities are sufficiently attractive by asking a jury of taxpayers to tour the school and render an opinion. In another case, one could do the job by questioning samples of the student body and the workforce about their feelings on the matter. In reality, the facilities are what the users perceive them to be.
Safety, too, can be assessed in many rather perfunctory ways. The search for lead, asbestos, and other toxic substances, the identification of structural defects, the testing of heating and cooling systems, the sampling of air quality, and other such assessments can be readily performed by competent technical personnel. Such technical work can be combined with a collection of known anecdotes of illnesses and accidents to yield a fairly useful, even if cursory, appraisal of defects and deficits.
Assessing the adequacy of the buildings for the learning program will, however, involve significantly more thought and more work, too. The most important point to remember is that this job cannot be done until the goals and expectations for the school have been defined in very concrete form. For example, a community may have no need for a gymnasium if the goals and expectations repudiate any education for healthful exercise patterns, the constructive use of leisure time, or the development of healthy lifestyles.
On the other hand, a community that expects its school to teach these things well, while also teaching water safety skills and lifesaving techniques, will need both a gymnasium and a pool. Feelings about class size, extra-curricular activities, fine arts, performing arts, and even curriculum diversification will affect the specifications for an appropriate building. So will such matters as the age distribution of the students and the practical availability of alternative facilities in the community. In a nutshell, a Great School will provide adequate housing for all of the requisite activities.
A great school is a well-ordered and hospitable environment in which all feel welcome and free from violence and other threats.
Even if all of the objective criteria of a Great School are generously accommodated, the school will not perform as intended unless the people in the school behave in a trustworthy and considerate manner that obviates fear and insecurity. School leadership must pay particular attention to this criteria because the popular media has created a widespread impression that too many schools suffer from too much disruptive and destructive behavior. Citizens want to know about the climate in their schools; and, if the news is bad, they want solutions rather than explanations.
A Great School will feel more like a caring home than a production enterprise. Every one of the students will find it to be a hospitable and safe environment in which isolation or estrangement is simply not possible because purposeful contact with caring adults is continuous. Each learner will feel known and accepted by authoritative adults determined to observe, protect, and assist.
As in a caring home, the school must carefully balance the rights and interests of each individual with those of the entire community. Clear rules of conduct are commonly known, effectively promulgated, and rigorously enforced with consistency so that there is no tolerance for disrespect of others, dishonesty of any sort, abuse or assault of others in any form, theft or damage of property, or disruption of the learning processes.
The goal of a Great School is an ordered environment that supports learning, requires disciplined behavior, and nurtures an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It is essential that the school provide the students with the security of such an environment. The school's adult community must be constantly informed of the status of the school's work because this situation cannot be maintained without manifest support from that community.
Both the code of conduct and the procedures for swiftly processing infractions must avoid all taint of injustice and unreasonable regimentation. On the other hand, they must deliver certain repercussions for violators. The need is like that in the adult community: both qualities are necessary so that the code and the enforcement procedures are continuously credible. Only then is the environment sufficiently predictable to be a source of security and an effective teacher of disciplined citizenship as is expected of a Great School.
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