Maintaining the status quo - Transactional change- Transformational change

The third book read of my spring break is entitled, Five Levers to Improve Learning- How to prioritize for powerful results in your school, by Tony Frontier and James Rickabaugh.

What struck me most about the ideas in this book, were the ideas that each school and each leader in essence choose the changes that will happen for students in their respective schools. Planning happens in three very different ways. Planning for maintaining the status quo, planning for transactional change, and planning for transformational change.

The five levers of change they discuss are; structure, sample, standards, strategy and self.

Maintaing the status quo in any of these areas, still takes a certain amount of conscious preparation and planning on the part of the school leader. Transactional change is often visible and takes a significant amount of planning, but at the end of the day...if we have engaged in transactional change efforts, but student's do not have significantly different learning experiences/results, we have to ask ourselves if anything has really changed?

Unfortunately, there are still some schools where, "as long as no one complains", then administrators and teachers just quietly coexist. This sad reality prevents the entire field of education from making meaningful improvements. If I think about this for too long, I am disgusted and angered by its implications.
On the other hand, in high-achieving, thriving schools...the skills of the teacher, the engagement of the students, and the rigor of the curriculum are the most effective strategies in achieving transformational change.

School reform and innovation in education can happen, if the right levers are prioritized and the critical questions for prioritizing are at the forefront of all decision-making:

(1) What is the student learning outcome we are trying to influence?

(2) What levers will have the most direct impact on influencing that outcome for students?

(3) What is the magnitude of change necessary to obtain the results we seek?

It is inevitable that some type of change must occur in order to see increased levels of student

achievement and performance. Do you need a leader that can help with ongoing management of the status quo? Are there transactional changes in process and procedures that need to be addressed? Or are there tough, transformational changes in our current understanding of our work and our overall relationship to this work that need to be improved upon?

Navigating change whether you are leading change in your classroom, department, school, district, or state....is always complex and rarely easy.
Each serves a purpose, each yields different outcomes.

Is it worth it?

There is no more rewarding profession in the world, than that of an educational leader.