In their extensive research on characteristics of effective schools and studies of effective business practices, Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker (1999) found remarkable consistency among principals from a number of nationally recognized schools and the leadership of outstanding companies. DuFour and Eaker offer the following nine observations; correlations with Baldrige practices are noted.
Characteristics of Effective Schools
1. Excellent schools have a clear vision of what they are attempting to accomplish, what they trying to become
Baldrige Practices
A school's vision and mission are examined as part of the culture and as the desired future state of the school.
2. The day-to-day operation of an excellent school is guided by a few shared central values that define the behaviors and standards as key to a successful school
Core Values/Best Practices are described as those embedded beliefs and behaviors found in the culture of a high-performing school.
3. Excellent schools have principals who are effective instructional leaders, protectors of the vision and values of the school, and promoters of teacher empowerment.
Senior leaders are expected to set, deploy, and model the vision and values of the school and create an environment for staff empowerment and learning.
5. The curriculum of an excellent school reflects the values of the school and provides a focus that helps teachers and students “stick to the knitting.”
Teaching and learning are aligned with the school’s vision, mission, Core Values/Best Practices, expectations, and goals/objectives focused on results to demonstrate the school's effectiveness.
6. Excellent schools promote excellence in teaching
A cornerstone of Baldrige is its focus on teaching and learning strategies that result in demonstrated “value-added” performance.
7. Excellent schools monitor what is important: curriculum, student achievement, and teaching.
The monitoring processes are shared by the leadership system (staff, parents, students) and include monitoring of the school’s vision, mission, core values, results, education and training, staff, student, and other stakeholder levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and process management.
8. Excellent schools celebrate the presence of their core values with ceremonies and rituals
The Baldrige Core Values/Best Practices are the guiding principles of a strong school culture.
Although Baldrige does not specify ‘ceremonies and rituals,’ the importance of staff, student, and stakeholder levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction and positive relationships assumes that schools would plan for celebrations or recognition for attaining results.
9. Excellent schools sustain their commitment to improvement through systematic self-renewal.(pp. 4-6)
Continuous improvement is the cornerstone for achieving performance excellence, with a key requirement being the use of results to evaluate the school’s effectiveness and efficiency in meeting results.
February 24, 2006 Maintained by Web Services Content Manager: Eve Wetten
posted by AcrosticGuy @ 5:45 PM
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