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Learning Moves...Leadership that Influences the Desire for Change

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Learning Moves...Leadership that Influences the Desire for Change

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It's all about leadership. She [the principal] came in here with a vision and the rest of us followed suit. She came with a vision. She changed patterns, she changed mentalities, and she changed perceptions. Students started buying into it. Teachers started buying into it. They started being proud of it.

Assistant Principal, James Pace Early College High School, Brownsville, TX

Leading schools to become places where all demographic groups of students 1) benefit from a positive transformational culture, 2) have access to challenging academic curricula, and 3) receive effective instruction that results in engagement and mastery is not easy. Fiscal resources are important but are clearly not sufficient. A report by Stanford researchers indicated that some of the nation's largest achievement gaps are found in some of the wealthiest districts (Sparks, 2016). Many of these wealthy districts boast about their well-paid and highly qualified teachers and principals; however, they do not come close to generating equitable learning outcomes for the diverse groups of students they serve.

Previous articles described the characteristics of schools that achieve excellent and equitable learning results. As well, we have described the elements of the coherent educational improvement system that helped the schools nurture these characteristics across classrooms, grade levels, and disciplines. Our studies of high- performing urban schools suggest that leaders are not likely to achieve widespread, sustainable evidence of excellent and equitable learning results without developing these school-wide characteristics. As well, success is unlikely without the development of a coherent educational improvement system that includes attention to each of the five elements.

Additionally, we believe our readers need to understand the day-to-day leadership challenges that influence whether or not schools escape the quagmires that characterize so many urban schools.

This article focuses upon the first of these leadership challenges: building the desire to change. One might think that anyone would be eager to embrace an effort likely to reduce the frustration and despair found in some urban schools. There are, however, many school leaders who could describe disturbing situations in which teachers, support staff, administrators, and even parents and students resisted, sabotaged, or fought aggressively against change efforts that promised to bring superior results. Muhammad (2009) explained that people resist change when they are not provided with a clear rationale. Many leaders fail to enact change when stakeholders do not perceive a compelling reason to engage in the hard work of changing ineffective and sometimes, counterproductive behaviors, routines, or practices. Often leaders fail to offer a compelling "why."

This table shares a list of reasons leaders in typical urban schools utilize to encourage changes in behavior, programs, or systems. As well, the list includes some of the spoken or unspoken stakeholder responses that suggest leaders have failed to influence the desire to change.

Common Reasons Offered by Leader's For Why Change is Essential

Common Responses
from School Personnel

Common Responses from
Parents and Students

We have to improve student
test scores.

"Test scores aren't a real measure of what's important." "We care about student learning, not test scores."

"They're just looking for more ways to prove that we're failures." "Those tests were created for middle-class kids." "Our kids were never intended to succeed on those tests." "I'm probably going to end up dropping out just like my older brothers. Why should I worry about test scores?"

We need to change in
order to meet federal
and/or state mandates.

"The state has been threatening "If the state chooses to do anything, it will likely be you [the principal] who gets fired. We'll be fine "I didn't become a teacher because I wanted to achieve AYP." because we have a contract." this school for years and nothing happens because they don't care about these kids."

"The state doesn't care "Who cares how the state rates this school? about our community. Why should we care about what the state wants?"

"Everybody already knows it's a lousy school."

The superintendent
expects us to
accomplish this.

"We'll have a new superintendent again in a year and a half and this will be forgotten." "The superintendent doesn't even know where this school is. She certainly doesn't know what our kids need."

"The superintendent doesn't care about our community. The school board only cares at election time."

This proposed change is research-based.

"The researchers never met our "Nothing ever works at this school." kids and our parents. It probably worked in some affluent suburban school with abundant resources."

"How could researchers know what would be best for our children and our community?"

You need to do this because I am the principal.

"That's what the last principal said, and the principal before him, and the principal before her. They're all gone and we're still here."

"The principal just wants us to make her look good so she can get a better job in the suburbs."

As we have endeavored to coach and support leaders in many typical urban schools, we have seen leaders, overtly and covertly, put forth these reasons for action. As well, we have heard these and similar responses from many stakeholders.

Stakeholders need to believe that they are being asked to change their practice for a worthwhile reason. In high-performing schools, leaders articulated and regularly reinforced noble reasons for change. For example, at James Pace Early College High School in Brownsville, Texas, administrators emphasized that they were "in a battle for the education of each individual child." As the quote at the beginning of this chapter illustrates, administrators sought to help school personnel see a vision in which they were "winning- one goal, one mind, one child at a time."

The importance of the leader's vision has been described extensively (Cotton, 2003; Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Walhstrom, 2005; Murphy & Torres, 2015). These studies emphasize, and our studies of high-performing urban schools confirm, that leaders must not only have a vision of a desired state, but they must also lead others to share that same vision. Leaders in very high-performing urban schools succeeded in getting a critical mass of stakeholders (teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, and students) to see and desire a vision of educational excellence and equity: a vision that included a positive transformational culture, challenging academic curricula, and effective instruction that will lead all students to high levels of engagement and mastery.

Having a great vision is essential, but not sufficient. Leaders must also help everyone who plays a role in accomplishing the vision, see the vision as appealing and worth the requisite effort.

In order to lead their schools to attain strong learning results for every demographic group, leaders must influence a critical mass of stakeholders to rally behind a powerful reason for change. None of the leaders we interviewed claimed that they had succeeded in getting every stakeholder to modify practices, routines, or structures in the ways they hoped; however, the leaders had clearly convinced a sufficient number of stakeholders to do so, thus building the necessary momentum for change. In each high-performing urban school, it was easy to find large groups of teachers, parents, and students who spoke proudly about the direction their school had taken and the vision for excellence that motivated their efforts. Having a great vision is essential, but not sufficient. Leaders must also help everyone who plays a role in accomplishing the vision, see the vision as appealing and worth the requisite effort. Leaders in the high-performing schools we studied framed reasons for change that resonated with various stakeholders.

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Leadership Moves...Leadership that Influences the Desire to Change.

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It's all about leadership. She [the principal] came in here with a vision and the rest of us followed suit. She came with a vision. She changed patterns, she changed mentalities, and she changed perceptions. Students started buying into it. Teachers started buying into it. They started being proud of it.

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UDL: A Call to Action (4-part Series: Dr. Katie Novak)

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UDL: A Call to Action (4-part Series: Dr. Katie Novak)

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The Myth of Average:  Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty

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Shelley Moore: Transforming Inclusive Education

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When I am presenting on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an education framework routed in offering options to students to help them take control of their own education, teachers often tell me they have been doing it already for years. I ask them to explain.

What follows is often a description of Differentiated Instruction (DI). Like UDL, DI is also an education framework based on providing options to students. However, there are some critical differences that differentiate (pardon the pun!) the two frameworks from one another.

The Dinner Party Analogy

I like to explain the differences by asking teachers think about hosting a dinner party. Let's say you have invited over thirty guests. Several of these guests have food allergies, another few are gluten-free, some are vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and your brother is exclusively Paleo. You want to be the perfect host, and you want to accommodate everyone.

Scenario 1: You decide to make individual meals for each guest so that each of them has the perfect dish. That is a lot of juggling to do. In the end, you are exhausted from all of the cooking, made a few mistakes because it is nearly impossible to get everyone's individual meal perfect, and didn't enjoy yourself. At the same time, you are frustrated that some of your guests preferred other's meals when you had made a special dish JUST FOR THEM.

What I just described is the dinner party equivalent of DI. DI is presenting options, but those options are directed by the teacher. For example, you may take one group of students aside and ask them to read an extra piece of literature because you can tell they are more advanced than their peers. You ask another student to draw a picture instead of writing an essay since you know writing is challenging for him. You are presenting options, but those options are governed by you and it's possible you haven't chosen the right options for the right students. You are burnt out from trying to create so many individualized lessons.

Scenario 2: Let's go back to the dinner party. Rather than preparing thirty individual meals, why not put out a buffet? Include lots of variety, but let the guests choose what is best for them, what they believe will work with their individual diets, and satisfy them. You don't witness guests peering at other's dishes wishing they had been made the same thing. You are relaxed and engaged. You have saved your energy for interacting with your guests, instead of wasting it preparing imperfect options.

UDL offers students a "buffet" of options. The options are offered by the teacher but they aren't individualized for specific students. Through the UDL framework, students are intended to become self-directed learners and choose the options that work best for them, not the other way around. With UDL, students learn to take responsibility for their learning. They are learn the "why" of learning as we turn on the affective network of the brain by providing multiple means of engagement. They learn the "what" of learning as we ignite the recognition network of the brain by providing multiple means of representation. And they learn the "how" of learning as we turn on the strategic network of the brain through multiple means of action & expression.

If you are feeling exhausted by creating individualized learning plans for each of your students through the DI framework, you are not alone. UDL can help you provide options but allow you to maintain your creativity and energy while developing a classroom full of curious, self-directed learners. It isn't a framework you can implement overnight, but once you see it working its magic in your classroom, you will become just as hooked as I am.

To learn more about the UDL framework, and read up on concrete examples of how you can implement it in your classroom, explore our guide to UDL and feel free to pick up a copy of my book, UDL Now!

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When I am presenting on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an education framework routed in offering options to students to help them take control of their own education, teachers often tell me they have been doing it already for years. I ask them to explain. What follows is often a description of Differentiated Instruction (DI).

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Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose: Dan Pink

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Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose: Dan Pink

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RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

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The Shift from Engagement to Empowerment: John Spencer

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The Shift from Engagement to Empowerment: John Spencer

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The Shift from Engaging Students to Empowering Learners

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When it comes to implementing UDL in your classroom, 'slow and steady wins the race'. You cannot attempt full implementation all at once - particularly if you are just new to the UDL framework. Luckily, implementing UDL strategies in the classroom is a process that can be implemented in manageable steps throughout one or more school years. In one of the course videos, teachers already implementing UDL in their classrooms suggest to "simply start - start small - but just start." These teachers are confident that when you start seeing the results they have seen, you will build on your early successes and be well on your way to full UDL implementation.

Here is a suggested timeline for teachers who are interested in forming a school or district team and supporting each other in implementing UDL strategies in the classroom. The timeline is merely a suggestion - one of the tasks your UDL implementation team should complete in early discussions is to establish a realistic timeline that will work for your team members.

September

Form Team

Begin learning about UDL and Backward Design

Explore appropriate classroom software and hardware options

Order basic technology

Locate and schedule online resources and/or speakers for inservice

October

Identify learning styles, interests, abilities of students and discuss how that information might change your practice

Identify learning styles, interests, abilities of team and discuss how your learning style might impact your teaching

Establish methods for team to collect and share resources

Arrange for technology installation as required

November

Learn to separate goals from methods used to demonstrate learning

Learn to identify the focus of a goal in order to determine what can be varied

Focus on clarifying and communicating learning intentions

Learn to use the BC IRPs

Learn to create and use rubrics

Monitor and follow-up with technology installation and support as needed

January

Explore multi-media resources available in your district, community, and online

Start developing a collection of key websites

Join and learn to use ARC-B

Learn about copyright: alternate format, public domain and creative commons

March

Examine curriculum for barriers

Learn more about scaffolding student access to printed text

Learn more about scaffolding student writing

Begin implementing supports

Share successes and challenges with team

June

Evaluate progress

Plan for next year

Learn about action research

Explore additional tech options

Explore funding options

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When it comes to implementing UDL in your classroom, 'slow and steady wins the race'. You cannot attempt full implementation all at once - particularly if you are just new to the UDL framework. Luckily, implementing UDL strategies in the classroom is a process that can be implemented in manageable steps throughout one or more school years.

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The CAST team includes about 40 talented employees, including world-class educators, learning scientists, instructional designers, literacy experts, policy analysts, UX and graphic designers, software engineers, and a first-rate administrative and executive staff.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Coming soon! UDL Guidelines 3.0

The UDL Guidelines are a living, dynamic tool that is continuously developed based on new research and feedback from practitioners. In 2020, CAST launched our most recent effort to update the UDL Guidelines, with a specific focus on equity. There has been a strong call from the field-both practitioners and researchers alike-to more fully develop the Guidelines to address critical barriers rooted in biases and systems of oppression. The current update aims to respond to this call and to work toward fulfilling the promise of the Guidelines as a tool to guide the design of learning environments that more fully honor and value every learner.

Since our launch in 2020, we have been committed to a community-driven, inclusive, and transparent updating process. As part of this effort, we are:

Collaborating with an Advisory Board, a UDL Guidelines Collaborative, and a Young Adult Advisory Board to guide our work

Conducting focus groups with a diversity of participants to learn from their perspectives, lived experiences, and feedback

Reviewing the research on the UDL Guidelines research pages to understand the balance of different research fields, methodological approaches, epistemological approaches, and author positionalities

Conducting literature reviews of equity-oriented research that connect to and extend the Guidelines, such as disability studies and critical pedagogy studies

We are excited to share this next iteration of the UDL Guidelines in 2024. If you are interested in receiving our UDL Guidelines 3.0 newsletter to stay updated on our progress and to share your ideas and perspectives, please complete this brief form.

Review the Summary

Explore the Full Draft

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST.

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Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network

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With the U.S. Department of Education conducting digital accessibility compliance reviews, our partners at Texthelp created this useful webinar to shed more light on why the audits are taking place and the importance of constantly improving when it comes to accessibility in K-12 and Higher Education.

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Home - Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network

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With the U.S. Department of Education conducting digital accessibility compliance reviews, our partners at Texthelp created this useful webinar to shed more light on why the audits are taking place and the importance of constantly improving when it comes to accessibility in K-12 and Higher Education.

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What is CAST UDL Exchange?

It is a place to browse and build resources, lessons and collections. You can use and share these materials to support instruction guided by the UDL principles.

UDL Exchange includes

UDL Resources

Materials such as websites, documents, images, presentations, audio, video, etc. that support implementation of UDL.

UDL Lessons

Lesson plans that address the variability of all learners through the application of UDL.

UDL Collections

Sets of resources/lessons organized around a theme to support UDL practices.

UDL Exchange Tools

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It is a place to browse and build resources, lessons and collections. You can use and share these materials to support instruction guided by the UDL principles. Materials such as websites, documents, images, presentations, audio, video, etc. that support implementation of UDL. Lesson plans that address the variability of all learners through the application of UDL.