Should Schools Focus on Developing Relationships or Test Scores?

I just read an article titled “What if schools focused on improving relationships rather than test scores?” where the author discussed the journey of a teacher who experienced two school districts. In District A (the one she left), the teacher reports that test scores were the only focus and measure of teacher effectiveness which ends up alienating both school leaders from teachers, and teachers from students. In stark contrast, District B focused on developing relationships as an accomplishment that would eventually lead to student achievement. In these schools, like many I’ve worked in, the students were living in high poverty areas and were fighting through many challenges that most of us can’t even imagine. In District B, the article notes the superintendent believes that “good teaching begins with forming relationships with kids.” 

I couldn’t agree more with this. And I’d like to add, that good leading in schools begins with good relationships with teachers. As a former district behavior analyst, I had the pleasure of meeting, training, working with and learning from hundreds of educators and educational leaders. When I say leaders, I mean folks who exerted influence, regardless of their position. One of the greatest of these leaders was Dr. Scott Neil.  A former Principal and nationally recognized expert in the area of school turnaround with a focus on Data-Driven, Scott has led the turnaround of five different urban schools in Florida over his 25-year career in education. He has also worked with over 50 schools and districts across ten states in both rural and urban settings. 

I remember working with him to turn around the struggling school he was leading. While he had the academic side of the house down as the result of coaching through gurus like Dr. Joe Bondi, he needed my support with developing and refining behavioral systems. That year he moved the school from a “C” to an “A” and was asked to go into another struggling school to reproduce what he did. He asked me to join him in his school, and I happily obliged. On the first day we met with staff in the library. I vividly remember the faculty verbalizing feeling unsupported by the previous administration. In response, Scott said “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And what he went onto convey was that he was there to remove barriers and support them. And he did. Together, we identified Quick Wins (I actually co-authored a book with this title inspired by him), and every day he walked the campus, greeting students and teachers, thanking staff for being at their duty posts, and walking through the classrooms to recognize and shape what teaches and students were doing right far more than what they were doing wrong.  

Along with the behavior tech he’d invested in, I was able to support Scott in his mission by using principles rooted in Organizational Behavior Management to get the School-wide Positive Behavior Supports up and running.  Scott didn’t come in and say “you need to move those test scores or else…” He gave the teachers what they needed, including giving them a sense of Psychological Safety. By focusing on developing and strengthening relationships through Quick Wins, that year, the school that had been on a downward trajectory went from a “C” to an “A”. 

As a former athlete who maintained the minimum GPA to remain on the football team, Scott nearly flunked out of school. An entrepreneur at a young age, he rallied the troops to help him catch up on his 26 missing assignments, in one day. As Scott tells it, “So I called all my friends and I divided up my assignments across 6 guys, promising I’d buy them Old Milwaukee for their trouble. At that time, we called Thursday nights “Slursday.” Amazingly enough, his friends came through, and Scott got all his assignments in. But he’d forgotten one small detail. “The teacher nailed me because all the assignments were all in different handwriting!” 

After injuring himself playing football for a Community College, he ended up getting a job at a summer camp where he found he had a knack for working with kids. This led him to pursue a job in education where he received mentoring from John Drag who taught him about developing great relationships and fostering trust. Eventually Scott went on to be a Principal and Executive Director of School Renewal where I worked with him to manage school turnaround. “When we worked together,” Scott reflects, “I thought I wanted to become a superintendent. But when we got to the district office I was disillusioned. The school district was a round hole but we were square pegs.” 

Once he finished his dissertation on school turnaround, Scott determined that he needed to get to the principals before they became established if he was going to maximize school turnaround efforts. That’s where he found New leaders which is a national non-profit and I knew I was in the right tribe. “Everybody had the same mission to do what’s best for the kids who needed it the most. I built an incredible network of principals across the country and I began consulting across schools.”

When I asked Scott what he thought was really need in schools, beyond developing good relationships, he listed these points:

·        Students need to learn now to think critically and problem solve. 

·        Students need to learn how to collaborate

·        Teachers need to effectively plan to allow students do engage in the above 2 points

·        Leaders need to protect planning time for teachers

·        Leaders develop leading and lagging indicators and constantly reinforce growth

When pushed more about what school leaders should focus on, Scott pontificated:

“It comes down to human behavior. We need to have goals, feedback on goals, and learn from our mistakes. To prepare school leaders they need to understand it’s not just about data, and test scores. It’s about building relationships. The first six weeks ago we are going to take care of the behavior issues so people feel safe and empowered. When I started in our last turnaround together, I had asked the secretary for the top 6 students who were misbehaving. And then I met with each student and told them if you want to be popular you are going to have to do well in school and get good grades. With your help I put in systems that ensured they were getting rewarded for their good behavior, but not their misbehavior. Soon, the kids would begin trying to get good grades. The teachers needed to play within the same system. And I supported them with it. School are like soil. Nothing will grow in toxic soil. As a school leader, I gave everybody a voice.  A lot of times the teachers have the answers, but nobody listened. I didn’t just listen, but I acted to support them.” 

I was fortunate to learn from and collaborate with Scott on school turnaround. We even started the first turnaround team in a Florida district where he focused on the academic side of the house, and I focused on the behavioral side. Beyond his ability to develop a positive culture, what impressed me about Scott was his methodology. Though he wasn’t a behavior scientist and didn’t use behavioral terminology, his approach was very scientific in nature. We even collaborated on a journal article titled 5 Steps to Create Sustainable Change. Scott recognized, that school grades would not improve without relationships. He knew that, if teachers were going to bring out the best in their students, they needed to have good relationships first. And if he was going to bring out the best in the teachers, he’d need to develop good relationships with them first. Scott created a culture of learning and student achievement that grew out of these relationships. If you want to grow and sustain student achievement, developing relationships is a must.

If you’d like to find out more about Scott, check out Lead180.com. He offers toolkits that make it easy for teachers to design good instruction. And if behavior is plaguing your school and getting in the way of student achievement, at Brett DiNovi & Associates, we have a team of highly qualified behavior analysts and registered behavior technicians that are here to help; moreover, we are trained in principles of Organizational Behavior Management that allow us to assess, plan, train, and coach struggling schools in a way that improves behavior, relationships, and student achievement. Check out this video and others by BDA for simple tips for improving relationships and achieve success.