Firepit Ponderings

The nature of our profession often creates times where you find yourself reflecting on what it is that you do or are doing. In my case, whilst sitting at my firepit, this reflection took shape around considering what it is I am doing at Dayton, and whether the vision I have in my head is realistic in terms of what I really wanted the school to become within the Dayton community. Eventually, I left the firepit and went into my study to find some old papers I was examining back in 2012 after reading about a principal at the time, Darwin Spiller Spiller. Back then, Darwin was known as the ‘Power Principal’ and under his leadership in 2010, Stults Road Elementary School was named as a National Title 1 Distinguished School, and it continued to be one of highest performing schools in Richardson Independent School District for a few years. Booting up my computer, I was able to track down some historical data and understand why Darwin’s journey and subsequent story had piqued my interest all those years ago.?

?The first was that he was a part of the PLC (ALLTHINGSPLC) project with Solution Tree. ?The second was that Darwin, at that time, led the school through a transformation as a failing low-socioeconomic school to one of the highest achieving. Darwin essentially took his staff and students on a similar journey to that of Bellfield, and what I was attempting to do in my former school at the time. Darwin later moved from Stults Road and served on Dr Rodney Watson’s team that oversaw 11 elementary Apollo 20 campuses in an effort to turn around their schools. I do recall ringing Darwin, not an easy task given the time differences, and managed to catch him as he was out shopping. At the time, he said he had answered the call because he “knew this Aussie guy, who sounded interesting, was trying to contact him” (I had left messages at his school, via email and on his phone. One of the advantages of ADHD is you tend to hyper focus at times).?

?We spoke for a very long time and what struck me about our conversation was that, despite the system differences, the challenges that he faced in moving Stults were very similar to what I was facing at the time in the school I was leading. A quick search for him now finds that he has become Dr Darwin Spiller Executive Director of Title IX Compliance and Investigations at Richardson ISD and is still a prominent figure in education in Texas.

Coming back to my original firepit reflection, I dug deeper into my paper archives and located what I was searching for, information on Aligned Instruction Systems which, at the time, was based on work being done in a district in Rhode Island called The Providence Public School District (PPSD). What caught my attention was that the district had worked to build a structure similar to what I did at my former school and what Rachael and I are working to do, on a very small scale at Dayton.?

An Aligned Instruction System, as I understand it, is essentially a set of organised strategies designed to create dramatic, positive improvement in student outcomes. Establishing and operating an effective Aligned Instruction System is not just about trying to make an established system work better, it was designed with the intention of giving teachers the freedom to teach within an environment that trained, supported and promoted evidence-based practices and expectations for quality instruction.

The Providence Schools chose to develop their own core curriculum, involving teachers, principals and district administrators. They believed, and rightly so, that this collaborative approach would have the greatest long-term impact because they were building on a foundation that had been previously laid.?

Our world at Dayton is considerably smaller, it won’t involve district administrators or other school staff and principals, it will just be us. Not because Rachael Lehr and I have an elitist attitude, or want to promote a level of snobbery about what we are doing, it is simply because the curriculum documents, and the scope and sequences we develop will be contextually relevant for our kids in our community.?

Our curriculum will provide staff?with a level of clarity that assists us to reduce potential knowledge gaps.?It is what our reporting and assessment will be linked to, which will all be underpinned by the larger curriculum outlined by the SCSA. This is work all our staff will contribute to, in an effort to reduce planning time for everyone as we move forward.?It will be a lot of work initially but save hours in future years.???

?While it appears, having located the updated information around the Providence Schools, that things have changed (something that is not surprising given the time that has passed and possibly more because of the way District Initiatives move within the US), the underlying principles that sit within the elements that they identified at the time, still hold true.?As school leaders at Dayton, this is what Rachael, and I will work hard to achieve in order to enact the school vision.