Boards, Administrators, and Teachers Grapple with the Need to Innovate

Many have suggested definitions with deeper meaning. A former independent school board member offers this one: “the operative version of creative thinking — ideation put to action.” 

 

So how do independent school stakeholders perceive their roles in innovation, and what obstacles do they face in creating school communities that meet future needs? This past spring, NAIS’s Innovation Task Force — a group of a dozen independent school leaders — interviewed board members, administrators, and teachers to probe their stories, motivations, and frustrations. Some of the ITF’s findings follow.

 

 

The board’s role in innovation is unclear. Boards tend to focus on hiring the head of school, considering enrollment strategies, and meeting their fiduciary responsibility to the school. Consequently, many board members believe that innovation comes by hiring a head with the sensibility and motivation to lead a team’s growth and maintain the school’s relevance into the future. 

 

Yet the difficulty of maintaining the independent school revenue model amid relatively flat incomes signals the need for the board’s involvement, according to the interviews. Admittedly, many boards aren’t set up to address these overarching economic issues. For one, boards often don’t have the visionary talent that understands the future needs of education.

 

Many boards desire thought-provoking examples of schools with strong financial models to help them realize their own long-term sustainability, and they are looking for a repository detailing evidence of schools’ successes. Boards want to know the best practices for independent schools to follow.

 

Unfortunately, the slow-to-change accreditation process is a source of frustration. For instance, all the discussion around 21st century learning isn’t always carried forward through the accreditation process in tangible examples that can help the board and school leaders understand what needs to change in their schools. Even though system-wide innovation may not be happening, board members see it bubbling up from the teacher ranks. To prepare schools for change, boards need to rely on a team of administrators with adaptive leadership skills. These leaders can create a culture that empowers faculty to move innovation from the ground up. 

 

One board member pointed out that revolutionary change typically happens for two reasons: there’s a crisis, such as immediate competition and dipping enrollment, or a passionate head of school starts driving the change. 

 

 

The head’s preeminent role in fostering school-wide innovation is clear. According to interviews, the head must map out innovation’s purpose: to help all learners grow and thrive in life as well as to ensure sustainability for the school. 

 

Heads need to model innovation, speak it, and embrace it — otherwise it will be confined to mere pockets. Two ways for heads to create favorable conditions: Develop a risk-taking, optimistic mindset themselves, and urge faculty to take risks in their teaching methods. Heads seek support of their boards to introduce an innovation mission and educate the community about it. Conversely, innovation becomes difficult when parents haven’t embraced such a stated mission and leaders don’t communicate it clearly with families and staff members. Administrators underscored that everyone must be moving in the same direction for the school to make rapid change. 

 

Understanding schools’ internal relationships and dynamics can help maximize opportunities for progress. One school drafted a relationship chart, depicting the links between its departments, activities, and positions of responsibility. Now when administrators embark on campus renovation projects, everyone, including designers and architects, can capitalize on the intersections — rather than operate in silos.

 

Cultivating external relationships pushes innovation beyond traditional boundaries. For example, schools might weave real-life business challenges into the curriculum — and nurture partnerships with area colleges, libraries, other nonprofits, and businesses as they do. One school uses design challenges or national competitions so students can apply what they’re learning in projects. In these scenarios, students must present solutions to professionals — not just their teachers. Meanwhile, administrators can encourage teachers to develop relationships with businesses and nonprofits. Combining forces, sharing research problems, and creating competitive and collaborative projects can pave the way for effective problem-solving, one leader noted. In doing so, a public purpose for innovation emerges. 

 

“Innovations and experimental projects can change everything about the way you teach…. We need to go faster and get more teachers on board for the kids.” 

 

Teachers typically have the most visible role when it comes to innovation in schools. Perhaps then it’s not surprising that tension points seem to be most apparent in their arena. Most teachers want evidence of what works in the classroom — not try new things willy-nilly. But best practices are not necessarily so anymore. Many teachers don’t feel they have the time, resources, or support of leadership to be innovative. Moreover, schedule relics from ages past continue to block the path to innovation, including a school year based on the agrarian calendar and Carnegie units established during the Industrial Revolution. 

 

Many teachers yearn to experiment, learn, and collaborate. Some are finding ways to do this. With leadership’s backing and a school culture built on experimenting and teaching creativity, collaboration, and robust learning skills, one teacher spearheaded a Middle School Medieval Faire as a culminating cross-curricular event drawing students, teachers, and parents.

 

In the unit preceding the faire, students apply their learning about medieval times by creating artifacts and sharing them with peers. They teach each other while discussing what daily life was like then, and consider how the innovations of handwriting and bookmaking are similar to today’s inventions in the digital revolution. When students play the roles of peasants and servants, the abstract concept of societal hierarchies comes to life. Acting out these parts also teaches students about empathy for those who were at the bottom of this societal structure. The unit caps off with the faire filled with medieval food, music and dancing, jousting activities, feats of strength, chivalry, and a feudal government.

 

In another example cited in the interviews, one teacher with tremendous latitude has thrown out the fourth-grade science curriculum and lets students “do science.” After the fourth-graders complete purchase orders for supplies, they start building on each other’s ideas. A recent class participated in the NASA Student Space Flight Experiments Program, and students shared their work with scientists worldwide. One of their projects will be launched into space. The classroom rule in operation: You can’t share unless you have had a really big failure. As a result, students came to understand that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. This teacher tries to impart the same values to colleagues to spread innovative teaching as widely as possible. 

 

In distilling interviews with key stakeholders, it’s clear that for innovation to have impact, it must be a social endeavor rooted in the mutual trust of all members in a school community. Everyone owns a part of the journey. As the work evolves in schools, NAIS will cover the topic in depth in the Spring 2017 issue of Independent School magazine. We invite you to share your stories. Email us at [email protected].

 

To learn more about the Innovation Task Force’s work, visit my blog on NAIS Connect and check out this video.