We are talking about the ARCS framework, Alignment, Representation, Culture and Sustainability in a school system. And as you would expect, I’m making lots of connections to what we do at Randolph Central. The ARCS framework is embedded in the MPPR, or principal evaluation rubric, and it will help us to think about our own leadership as administrators but is also making me think a lot this week about distributed leadership.
The idea I’m learning and thinking so much about is this idea of a community that lasts. How do we strengthen our teacher leaders, our teachers and ultimately our students so that the changes we’re implementing in school improvement are aligned and sustained well after a single leader leaves? As I analyze this, I realize that if I was hit by a bus tomorrow, our BOE and Admin teams could clearly articulate our school improvement efforts and plans to my replacement. I don’t think our teachers and students could do so as clearly and I know it would be different depending upon who’s having the conversation. Room for improvement for me and my leadership? Check. Working on it.
The ARCS framework described above will give us a common language for developing and discussing a common vision and shared leadership. This conference is helping me improve my own leadership and will help me to strengthen our leadership teams as well. Bet you all can’t wait for me to return? 😉
Community in my opinion is best defined by hospitality. Radical hospitality perhaps is a better word/concept. “Communities that practice Radical Hospitality demonstrate an active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life. Radical describes that which is drastically different from ordinary practices, outside the normal, that which exceeds expectations and goes the second mile.” The quote is adapted from a site I found on the Internet and it succinctly defines what is necessary first and foremost. A learning community that operates in such manner will become sustainable due to the practice of radical hospitality. I’ve read Alan Blankstein’s book, “Failure is not an Option….” and he talks of the importance of building learning communities that have relational trust. I believe that radical hospitality invites relational trust. Relational trust invites sustainability too! One of my favorite quotes from Lao-Tzu is, “A leader is best when people barely know she exists, when her work is done, her aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”