0 When Change Depends on Many

Posted by Atsumori. Category:

It's quite easy to sit at home during the summer researching and making positive change for the matters I'm in charge of--essentially the classroom efforts.  I can shift the schedule, revise units, and access materials to invigorate the curriculum program for my students and grade-level. However, it is much more difficult to impact programs that are run by multiple individuals because that takes time for advocacy, shared planning, and coordination.

Recently I had an idea that I believe would positively impact a large group of students. I expressed the idea only to realize it would impact three or four existing programs, multiple educators, and others in the learning community. The change, while I believe positive for children, would take many, many hours of coordination. Hence, it's an idea I'll put on the back burner. Sadly this idea has been in the waiting line for about ten years now.

A few years back I had a similar idea. Fortunately that idea found its way to a really hardworking individual who spent countless dollars, hours, days, and months to grow the idea in ways that  had the impact I imagined and more--a very positive effort.

How can we collectively analyze the environments we work in, and make decisions with regard to program revision, retirement, and replacement?

I offer the following suggestion:

1. Identify the programs in place at your school.
2. Make a list that demonstrates the program name, mission/goals, who it serves, staff involved, and how much it costs.
3. Determine a way to assess each program's strength. I imagine this assessment would include student surveys, family surveys, and staff surveys related to the program's goal, time, and activity as well as other indicators such as achievement scores, attendance, engagement, and behavioral indicators.
4. Assess each program, and determine if the money and time spent on the program is worth the result.
5. Clearly revise the program offerings by building those programs which serve children well, and replacing programs that are ineffective or outdated. 
6. Institute a yearly review with a similar process.

At times, it may be true, that programs exist just because no one makes the time for that analysis, and people are reluctant to upset school routines. But, if we do make the time for program analysis, we may find that we gain extra dollars which we can use to develop our collective efforts and contribution with greater strength to teach children well. 

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