8 April 2010
Code of Ethics Standards
Standard 1: Professional Conduct
Standard 2: Trustworthiness
Standard 3: Unlawful Acts
Standard 4: Teacher/Student Relationship
Standard 5: Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Use or Possession
Standard 6: Public Funds and Property
Standard 7: Remunerative Conduct
Standard 8: Maintenance of Confidentiality
An educator should comply with state and federal laws and local school board policies relating to confidentiality of student and personnel records, standardized test material, and other information covered by confidentiality agreements.
Ethical conduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• Keeping in confidence information about students that has been obtained in the course of professional service unless disclosure serves professional purposes or is required by law.
• Maintaining diligently the security of standardized test supplies and resources.
Unethical conduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• Sharing confidential information concerning student academic and disciplinary records, health and medical information, family status/income, and assessment/testing results unless disclosure is required or permitted by law.
• Violating confidentiality agreements related to standardized testing including copying or teaching identified test items, publishing or distributing test items or answers, discussing test items, and violating local school system or state directions for the use of tests or test items.
• Violating other confidentiality agreements required by state or local policy.
The Leader in Me—Chapter 8
Stephen R. Covey
“If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get the same results.”—W. Edwards Deming
Questions to consider for Chapter 8
1. What are The 4 Imperatives of Leadership?
2. Why do the majority of change initiatives fail?
3. How can you successfully implement and sustain change in your school?
I love the quote on page 185 which clarifies even further that the change process is not an easy one. We often get frustrated when change is difficult and things don't go smoothly, but according to DuFour, we should view these difficulties as "by-products" of serious reform.
ReplyDeleteI agree but I also think that one of the strongest reasons that change is hard is that we are all in a comfort zone. Even if that zone is not the easiest or most effecent way to do something we continue in it because we are all creatures of habit. I think change for the sake of change is not a good thing, but I also beleive that not "rocking the boat" is the lazy way around taking care of a problem. When change is needed it must first be "sold" to the participants. I could make sweeping changes on paper, but if my staff and my community does not buy into the change efforts then I've waisted some paper and ink. I think we have to be flexible and willing to listen to the ideas of others and to make as many people as possible "mutually accountable" for the changes that are takin place.
ReplyDeleteI like the quote from page 166 when Covey states, "Trust must be present for desirable change to happen in a school". That trust has to be present in your staff, your students and your community. Covey says that trust is step one and I agree. The people in your school must beleive in the changes that you are making in order to feel like they will have a voice in the results. I agree that change for the worse can and usually does happen quickly. I also think that it takes two times longer to recover from change for the worse than from a good change. That is why you have to earn and keep the trust of the people who will be most affected by the changes.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with step four, unleash talent. You may never know what talents you have if you don't give your staff, students, and community the same degree of trust that you ask from them. The old saying that it is easier to get forgiveness than permission is sometimes very true. As a leader in my school I think we should have enough trust in each other that permission is easier to get and that forgiveness is not necessary when the goal is to help our students who depend on us.
I think the majority of change initiatives fail because of two reasons:
ReplyDelete1. As time goes on, people begin to lose focus and revert back to what comes naturally to them. We must remain committed to the change until the new behaviors, attitudes and practices become so ingrained that they become habit and we don't have to concentrate on them. Even after a change has been successfully initiated, it is necessary to revisit the core components from time-to-time to maintain the new "edge" that we have gained. Almost like the need for a championship team to still concentrate and work on fundamentals.
2. We often don't give enough time for change initiatives to be successful. A new program or process will be implemented, and after just a year or two it will be decided that the new idea didn't work, and it is abandoned. Research has shown that the real benefits of significant change initiatives or program implementations don't begin appearing until up to three or more years after the program or initiative has been implemented.
I must agree with Mr. Parker in regards to failed change. I do feel that change comes easier for those who have been involved in the decision making process. It's easy to say that it's not difficult for me to change or try new initiatives. For others, who are not so open, I feel that it would be easier for them to try new initiatives if they were involved in making the decisions for their students, classroom, school, or district. It goes back to people must feel appreciated and worthy to offer suggestions. I think leaders should strive to build a relationship with various types/personalities. Leaders need all walks of life on their TEAM. Effective leaders possess the qualities of sometimes creating great leaders out of the un-leading or maybe even the unwilling. Again, this is just my opinion and what I gather from learning more and more from working with both adults and children on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteWe are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle- This quote by Aristotle sums up why it is so hard for members of our learning community to change. We have practiced and modeled what we have observed in our past. Reluctance to change is a natural occurrence. We get in a comfort zone that protects us from criticism of change. Dynamic leadership and true belief in what you are doing is evident to our shareholders. Not being committed to change is much worse than not changing at all. It will create ambiguous expectations for those that are placed in charge of carrying out the task we ask them to do. I remember playing golf with Mr. Carr one day while he was still Principal at Appalachian and he was talking about ARI PAL. I went into the round of golf not knowing one thing about the topic, and after finishing the round believing it was the best thing since the pencil and paper. He was that committed to the initiative that I came back to Hayden telling everybody how great ARI PAL was. The moral of the story is that you have to believe in what you are selling or your customers won't by it.
ReplyDeleteThe 4 Imperatives of Leadership are: Inspire Trust, Clarify Purpose, Align Systems, and Unleash Talent. Although he implied that these were sequential steps, I know that it must be an ongoing process. It is a process that must continue. To me the hardest part is sustaining change. We want to mark it off our list as something accomplished and move on to something else, but we must not just drop it.
ReplyDeleteI love the quote on page 187, "Excellence does not happen overnight. Excellence is a journey we will be on for the rest of our lives." Too often we in education do not fully comprehend this concept. We tend to jump on the latest fad which promises "research-based results" rather than carefully reviewing what we are already doing, and tweaking what is working while eliminating or totally revamping those things that are not contributing toward excellence.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this is because of changes in administration at the school, district, state and the national level, each of which bring their own ideas for achieving excellence. Or perhaps, it is because education leaders tend to jump through the necessary hoops in order to secure adequate funding - not for extras, but for the necessities to continue the education process at the most basic level.
(Consider this view in light of the current national trends such as 'Race To The Top' competitive grants and the federal shift towards competitive grants to secure Title I funds for schools serving high poverty populations.)
As we discussed this chapter in our book discussion, I considered the relevance of trust. I thought again of that as I read Steve's, Mark's, and Brian's comments.
ReplyDeleteWhen a new idea is presented, and I have hesitancies over it; I can be led to attempt it, if the leader is one I trust.
I recall a statement a friend once made about actions of a person. She said, "He may not always do right, but it will not be because he wasn't trying to do right."
Trust is as Covey holds essential to the success of change.
I like the quote in chapter 8: "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." Sometimes I hear teachers say,"I have always done it this way and it works just fine." I know that change can be difficult, but are not the rewards worth it? I believe that they are. I want my teachers to not just be good. I want them to be great.
ReplyDeleteThe 4 Imperatives of Leadership are as follows: Inspire Trust, Clarify Purpose, Align Systems, and Unleash Talent. In order for a school to successfully implement change, leaders must be able to execute the Imperatives of Leadership. These Imperatives will make it possible for leaders to take schools to any great level of achievement.
ReplyDeleteI believe some of the reasons that change initiatives fail may relate to the following:
ReplyDelete•administrators mandate the changes
•fear of the perception of incompetence
•tried it before and it didn’t work
•don’t have time
•lack of knowledge.
If we can eliminate these barriers before the initiative is implemented, I believe change can take place and be productive.
In Covey’s 4 Imperatives of Leadership, the first step is to inspire trust. I feel that trust is the foundational component to change or to be an effective leader. A leader who possesses the character trait of trustworthiness can cultivate a culture of change because of an easier buy-in from all parties. Naturally, we are all inclined to follow the path of someone you feel you can trust and rely on to lead you in the right direction. I especially liked the model of the “Pyramid of Influence.” That pyramid consists of modeling, relating, and teaching. We are all in a state of modeling, or leading by example, constantly whether it is in a positive or negative way. The relating level is where you build and deepen relationships. Those that feel understood, accepted, and valued are much more teachable or more open to change.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl We all struggle with change. Change is needed to promote growth. The leader of the school must have a vision that can be clearly communicated to the faculty, staff, parents, and community stakeholders to effectivley promote change. The leader of the school must believe that schools are for student learning and every decision made must reflect that belief for change to be successful. The leader must trust in the Human Resources at his or her disposal and call on those resources to assist with change. The leader must always be an avid listener and an effective communicator of his or her ideas or an idea that he or she supports. A leader of change must be proactive and anticipate problems that could derail positive change. Leaders of change must be risk-takers. Sometimes change fails and successful leaders of change will recognize this and take steps correct problems.
ReplyDeleteOf the 4 imperatives - inspire trust, clarify purpose, align systems, and unleash talent - I believe that aligning systems is critical to success for changes that create improvement. So much energy is wasted trying to "keep up" systems that we think are expected because they've always been there or no one has clearly said, "Let's all go in this direction together." Once systems are aligned to the goal, then trust and purpose and ultimately talent can explode in wonderful ways, resulting in improvements that truly can change the lives of our students!
ReplyDeleteThe 4 Imperatives of Leadership are Inspire Trust, Clarify Purpose, Align Systems, and Unleash Talent. One principal that I appreciated in chapter 8, page181, was “the hope for implementing the leadership theme is to become a leader of leaders, not a leader of followers. Leadership is the highest of all arts.” Administrators and teachers are the leaders of their environment. It is easy for us to say we want to be leaders of leaders – but it is often difficult when we see those leadership characteristics. When people begin to have independent thoughts and actions other leaders frequently want to pull back on the reins and regain control. Leading a group of leaders requires guidance – not control.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Phyllis S. I appreciated the statement on p. 181 about a wise principal becoming a leader of leaders not a leader of followers. Leadership is the highest of all arts. It is the enabling art. I believe that while leaders instigate change, it takes the efforts of many individuals to make it happen. Because of the complexity of human nature we often become captivated by the praise we receive for our successes when we should focus on making each stakeholder successful in their efforts to implement the desired change. As leaders we should not be concerned with who gets the credit, but that the desired change happens.
ReplyDeleteLeadership must be earned. I believe that a great leader first had to be a good subordinate. A leader must be decisive in his decisions while fulfilling his duty, vision and experience. A leader must focus his staff on a common goal and encourage them by his own dedication to acieving it. One must not discourage initiative or spirit among the staff, but promote a voluntary attitude towards achieving a goal. In other words,develop an environment in which people want to do something instead of having to do it.
ReplyDeleteChange is inevitable in all aspects of life. I believe that as leaders it is our duty to promote needed changes that will result in positive outcomes. It is imperative that we sell the need for change to those parties that will be affected by the changes.
ReplyDeleteIn education , we must sometimes change. In most cases change is diffcult to many people. It will be an easier task when the leadership is also on board and helps with the smooth transition of change. I believe that change is good if presented to all with a positive approach. When we went to a new reading program we as administrators had to keep telling our teachers that it didnot matter what type of program we brought in the great teachers we had would make the difference. We are changing each day in our lives and must be able to adapt to be sucessful in both our personal and professional lives
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, many change initiatives fail. As is clearly stated in Chap. 8, "most often it is a matter of too little or too much" that causes failure. I believe that Step One: Inspiring Trust, of The 4 Imperitives of Leadership, is a vital foundation of any new initiative. "If a teacher or administrator only talks the talk, and does not walk the walk by exhibiting primary greatness, others will see right through them - especially children." I know of a particular situation in another system where an administrator cannot be trusted with his word, therefore, the staff and students do not respect that person or the position.
ReplyDeleteAs effective leaders, we must say what we mean and mean what we say. When people know that they can count on us to be true to our word they will be much more likely to follow our lead. This can hold true to all aspects of our life; professional, personal, and spiritual.
Changes often fail because people refuse to take the initiative to implement new ideas. New proposals are often started because it looks good on paper. Many of these changes are mandated with little or no professional development activities. People become frustrated with the lack of training and abandon the new idea once they realize that it is not being enforced from the top. The faculty must believe that the new idea will make their students better. The instructional leader must also believe it and at the same time be able to sell it to the stakeholders. Administrators should participate in professional development activities with the faculty. Hopefully, everyone will see the importance of getting on board. It is also important to monitor the changes. Many people will revert back to their old ways if they feel like the changes are not important to those who have passed them down the pipe.
ReplyDelete“As tough as creating change may be, it is only fair to warn you that the real challenge is not in creating change as much as it is in sustaining change.” This quote found on page 85 really jumped out at me. As educators, we have all seen many changes come about in the educational system and so many of them have shown the potential to positively impact student achievement but because of any number of reasons, the change is not sustained and things go back to the way they were. I think that understanding more about why change efforts fail will help each of us as we try to bring about change in our own building or situation. Reading more about Marzano’s research as well as Covey has impacted my thinking about Leadership.
ReplyDeletePeople can be creatures of habit and many times because of this people are reluctant to change. When changes occur the challenge comes by being willing to accept the changes that are needed and sustaining change. I think that in both making changes and then working to sustain the necessary changes the stakeholders need to understand why there is a need for the changes. For change to be successful in the school, the focus for change must be clear to all stakeholders and strong leadership must be applied.
ReplyDeleteI love the unleash talent idea, and I think our schools have done a good job of that with building teacher leaders. I've decided that for my school, that is the essential element to implementing change: to allow teachers to lead as much as possible. It's hard to let go of the control that we as administrators are used to, but it is essential if we want to actually want to accomplish change.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most damaging myths that aspiring school administrators often learn is that the change process, if managed well, will proceed smoothly.-DuFour and Eaker. This qoute reiterates that all stateholders must feel like they were included in the decisions for making changes and be involved in the process.
ReplyDeleteNo one likes change but if we align the systems and learn that alignment precedes implementation we will see progress.
I believe the key to change is when all of the stakeholders are a part of the decision. A great leader will gently guide the process, but I do believe that everyone involved must buy into the idea. If they are part of the process then they own it. To change pedagogy, I think that we must constantly monitor the success or failure of the change and reflect on it.
ReplyDeleteChange is needful & difficult. According to Covey, change can be implemented and sustained if we realize that it isn't one size fits all. Change must be unique to the needs to the school. It must be driven by the data. Again, address the needs to the individual school. Change must also develop at a steady, balanced pace. These three things are critical.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has been said in a majority of the previous posts - everyone affected by the change needs to be involved in the process. Then, everyone feels a sense of ownership and responsibility in what is taking place. I think that we must also realize that not everyone will implement change at the same pace. We must provide a support system to address the needs of each individual person all along the way.
ReplyDelete“If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get the same results.” (W. Edwards Deming pg. 180) I believe we all can agree to that. Even with new material, more strategies, we sometimes fall back into the way we are accustomed to work/teach. We should always be thinking of new ways and always keep the end in mind. We must stress the quote on page 165 "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." Jim Collins, Good to Great
ReplyDeleteFor a initiative to be successful, you need buy in. When the staff has input and sets a goal, there is no end to what they can accomplish. When given the choice between a committment to faculty collaboration and an administrative mandate, expect more success from the collaboration.
ReplyDeleteIn "Failure is NOT an Option", Blankstein lists the following as "obstacles".
ReplyDelete• We don't like change.
• We want to be told what to do.
• We don't have time to change.
• Rewards and punishments don't work.
• Tests/Grades are why our students need to learn.
• What the state says we have to do gets in the way.
• We like last year's solution to this problem better.
• Unsure of wants/needs or which is which.
• We can't agree.
• We're waiting on the next great... team, speaker, workshop.
With all these "immovable objects", inertia takes hold and we become content to "not make waves" and "keep from rocking the boat". It is these members of your faculty that you need helping you convince the others that we're in deep water with a leaky boat... and the only people that we can count on is each other.
I agree with the comments that Ken Parker made. We have to give change time to be what comes naturally and not revert back to the old ways too soon. Change takes time to be successful. When teachers and others in our schools are invited to be involved in changes being made, they are more likely to be willing to give changes time to succeed. We owe it to those working for and with us to have them involved in the process of making changes in our schools. Then the changes made will have a better chance of being successful.
ReplyDeleteCovey is on target with the idea that trust enables change. Trust is first, last and in between.
ReplyDeleteGood leaders have the ability to change to the benefit of the situation while great leaders know when to change to each situation. This ability can improve the leadership qualities of administrators greatly.
ReplyDeleteGoing from good to great means getting out of your comfort zone. So many people have the potential but use excuses to keep from going for it all. Having the wisdom and surrounding yourself with wise advisors is key to leadership but also going from good to great.
ReplyDeleteThis is a powerful chapter. The progessive framework of Inspiring Trust, Clarifying Purpose, Aligning Systems, and Unleashing Talent is very simple at its core. To instiute change as a leader, we must first inspire trust in our constituents. This can often include being vulnerable. No one has all of the answers. It must be a collaborative effort among stakeholders who continuously work on all four steps simultaneously. Once change is implemented, sustaining the change can be even more challenging.
ReplyDeleteThe four Imperatives of Leadership are Inspire Trust, Clarify Purpose, Align Systems, and Unleash Talent. There are a number of reasons why change initiative fails but it is the lack of balance (too little or too much) of those reasons. However, as pointed out early in the chapter, lack of trust has a huge impact on how successful the change initiative is. To implement change in our building, we would need a clearly stated, teacher developed mission statement. With that in mind, we could implement the principles defined throughout this entire book, as well as the four Imperatives of Leaderhsip defined in this chapter. In addition, we would make a concentrated effort to establish a high level of trust between all stakeholders-administration, faculty, staff, students, parents and community.
ReplyDeleteI believe ethics standard 8 ties in with school culture. Many of us are guilty of discussing students around the lunch table. This is very damaging. People don't respond to everyone the same way, but you can influence someone's judgment negatively. If your school culture is a positive one, the amount of inappropriate discussions of students behavior or academics will be reduced. As with any other standards, this must be exhibited first with administrators and be strongly disseminated to support staff as well. If it is viewed as wrong, most teachers will treat it as wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn page 174, Covey talks about the principals that implemented leadership themes and did so by assembling a team of decision makers and mentors. These people were respected by their peers. But the key was to implemented a structure of collaboration among teachers and leaders. This way the schools were team-oriented by design. Collaboration is the key for effective decison making in schools to implement new programs and ideas.
ReplyDeleteChange is like the weather some people invite and enjoy it, while some people hate it. The bottome line is that you have to be prepared for both. Change will only come when you prepare for it.
ReplyDeleteOf Covey's 4 Imperatives of Leadership: inspire trust, clarify purpose, align systems, unleash talent; inspiring trust must happen before you can successfully follow through with the next three. Trust is especially important when change is taking place in a school and it requires the cooperation of administrators, teachers staff, students, and parents alike. In order to encourage everyone to work together to make positive changes, first establish trust, then clarifying purposes, aligning systems, and unleashing talent will follow much easier.
ReplyDelete"But we've always done it this way" seems to be the mantra of some educators. Change is hard for everyone. But to move forward change is necessary. Being prepared and really looking at results will help ease the discomfort experienced by those reluctant to change.
ReplyDelete