I recently visited a school that is doing it right. I want to share what I observed because everything this school is doing could be replicated elsewhere. It has no more funding than many schools and its staff is comprised of the kind of caring, hard working people who are available to most schools in the country.

Perhaps if I share what is making this school successful, you will want to emulate some of its practices. Normally, one would begin an article like this by offering evidence of the school’s success. However, I prefer to use this space to describe what is making it successful, and I’ll offer evidence at a future time. Let me just say that the proof of success comes from:

• Extensive interviews with teachers, students, substitutes, the school district superintendent, the union president, parents, and faculty members of the University of California at San Marcos.

• Visiting the school for a week and observing a calm in the building, students who are becoming more independent by the day, a faculty that enjoys coming to school, as do the students, and an environment that is unique for most public schools.

The school is the Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Lake Elsinore, California. Much of what is contributing to the success of this school would also work at a middle school or high school. I am about to list what I feel are the critical ingredients contributing to this successful effort at school reform. Over the next few months I will elaborate on each of these ingredients – how they are being implemented and why they are working.

What is contributing to the success of the RR Elementary School?

• There is a very narrow focus, but those strategies deemed important are implemented throughout the building and everyone is immersed in them. Almost every student (first grade on up) can tell you the obligations of a quality audience, the requirements for showing each other respect, the purposes of the school, and why they are learning effectively.

• Scheduling allows time for teacher collaboration and, also, the schedule is designed to create opportunities for staff and students to develop rapport.

• There is a strong partnership with the University of California at San Marcos. This includes on site opportunities for university students to gain meaningful field experiences and for the elementary school to benefit from on-going support from the university’s student teachers and its staff.

• There is a statement of beliefs, a vision statement, a mission statement, and a statement that reflects a consensus understanding of “constructivism” These were developed through a legitimate consensus process, but not one that was excessively time consuming. These statements will continue to be works in progress that are being made highly visible throughout the school community.
They will be revisited at least once a year.

• There is a theory of learning that guides school and classroom practice. It is constructivist theory of how people learn. The simple fact that the entire staff is striving to base its practices on a commonly held theory of learning is creating an alignment and consistency that is unique in schools. While I believe that the fact that it is constructivist theory is significant, it is also clear that any school that aligned staff behind any reasonable theory, even if not constructivist, would be taking a major stride toward raising student achievement.

In how many schools in this country could you walk up to any teacher, ask what the guiding philosophy of learning is, and receive a similar response from each one?

• There is strong, effective, leadership that guides and is guided by the school mission and the consensus understanding of how students learn.

• There is recognition of the need for effective, on-going communications with parents, the community, central administration, the board of education and all stakeholders. This recognition is put into practice.

• There is a long range plan for staff development and a consistency of training.

Jack Drury and Bruce Bonney of Leading Edge have been conducting staff development for the entire staff since the summer of 2005. Pat Flynn, Paul Vermette, and I have worked with the Leadership Team during two summer conferences and twice, for a week at a time, during the school year. Assistant Principal Carol Robinson (Malone), Principal Deb Larrabee (Ft. Plains), and Bruce Bonney have facilitated teams from this school at our summer conferences.

This school is something special!!! Kudos to principal Craig Richter, pioneering teachers Thenell and Gary Hanggi, Jan Mohler and all the people working with them to improve the learning environment. There’s a long journey ahead, but you’ve already come quite a distance.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

I was editing a grant application for a school district that sent teams to our last two conferences when the phone rang. “I’m with Verizon and I’d like to ask you a few questions about the service you received when your phone was out of order earlier in the week. Is that OK?”

Having experienced some problems with Verizon earlier in the week, I was glad to be able to share our experiences with a representative. Our phones went dead when strong winds knocked down a tree which fell on the power line on Monday and Susan had called the customer service number. A completely automated process led us to expect a repair person sometime the following day. However, the automated speaker also indicated the problem was not in the Verizon system and we would have to pay for the service call. After totally rearranging our Tuesday schedules to be sure someone was home at all times, we waited needlessly because no one showed.

Late Tuesday afternoon, I called Verizon again, but this time I went through the more time consuming process of maneuvering until I had a live Verizon representative on the other end of the line. This live person apologized that no one showed, assured me that a repair person would arrive the following day, and also told me that it was clearly a problem with Verizon’s phone lines and there would be no charge. The repair person did arrive the next morning, fixed the phone lines quickly and left without charging us.

Now I was being asked to respond to questions about the service we’d received.

“Yes, that’s OK,” I said, “Ask your questions.”

“Did you use the automated service or did you go through the live system?” the lady asked.

“Both,” I said.

“But which one did you use?”

“Both,” I said. “The automated system brought no results so I called and finally got a live person.”

“Please answer either that you used ‘the automated system’ or ‘a live person.’ ”

“I used both,” I insisted. The nice lady representing Verizon was not satisfied with my answer (her answer sheet obviously required that she record EITHER “automated system” or “live person”). However, she continued:

“Did a repairman come the next day?”

“The second time, but not the first time?

“But did the repairman come the day after you called?” the lady persisted, politely.

“I can’t answer that question Yes or No,” I responded. “It depends whether you are referring to our first call or second.”

“I’m supposed to just ask you whether the repairman came the next day.”

AND NOW IT HIT ME!!!

I was being administered a short-answer/multiple choice test and she was the proctor. She had been instructed to ask her questions, not interpret them. There was no space on her answer sheet for customer elaborations. I understood how my daughter felt when she took a multiple choice test in 6th grade and came home complaining, “There were at least two answers that could have been correct on several of the questions depending how you interpreted them.”

“Sir, overall were you satisfied with the service you received from Verizon?”

“The first time, No,” I said. “The second time I was very satisfied.”

“But overall were you satisfied?”

“I had two distinct experiences as a result of this phone problem. The automated response was totally unsatisfactory. We wasted a day waiting for a repair person who never showed and we were misinformed that we would have to pay. The second experience couldn’t have been better.”

“Sir, I need you to give me an overall rating of the service you received. Was it outstanding, good, fair, or poor?”

“Look, I understand that you are getting paid to read from a script and write down my responses, and you are very courteous with a warm tone so in no way am I blaming you. But I can’t answer some of these questions because there were two distinctly different aspects to our experience.

“Sir, I understand your difficulty, but could you just pick one response to cover your total experience?”

“If I have to pick one response then put me down as saying the service was totally unsatisfactory. It’s a shame I have to say that because the second experience was wonderful. However, if Verizon is taking this survey to find out if its service is acceptable to customers, I don’t want to give a response that can be used as an excuse to overlook the problems we had with the automated system.”

“Thank you, sir. Now just one more question: Which of the following sums up your thoughts about whether you will continue to stay with Verizon or switch to another company:

- will definitely stay with Verizon

- will probably stay with Verizon

- will probably switch to another company

- will definitely switch to another company

“I don’t know. I’m really neutral on this question right now. So my answer would be somewhere in between “probably will stay” and “probably will switch.”

“Sir. . .”

“I know, you have to have me select one of the four responses you listed. All right, put down “probably will switch,” but know that that doesn’t necessarily reflect what I am thinking. ”

“Thank you very much sir. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any problems you may have had with Verizon service. Have a nice Day.”

I hung up the phone and pondered the difficulty of generating meaningful responses to short answer questions. We should want to check for student understanding of concepts. Instead, we often don’t know what their understanding was of the questions we posed.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Here is my favorite poem (reprinted from the past few years). I have told my children that I could have no finer legacy than to believe that I have influenced them to adopt the philosophy of life implicit in this poem about “Cliff Klingenhagen”:

CLIFF KLINGENHAGEN
by Edward Arlington Robinson

Cliff Klingenhagen had me in to dine

With him one day; and after soup and meat,

And all the other things there were to eat,

Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine

And one with wormwood. Then, without a sign

For me to choose at all, he took the draught

Of bitterness himself, and lightly quaffed

It off, and said the other was mine.

And when I asked him what the deuce he meant

By doing that, he only looked at me

And grinned, and said it was a way of his.

And though I know the fellow, I have spent

Long time a wondering when I shall be

As happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is.

I wish you all greetings of the season. In the spirit of whatever holiday you celebrate, it is my hope that by practicing the selflessness of Cliff Klingenhagen we can all model behaviors we wish to pass along to children and, in so doing, bring happiness to our own lives.

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2007 summer constructivist conference at Grand Island, New York, within sight of Niagara Falls. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.