A Long Lasting Spirit of Reform

As my school building examines the idea of changing its nine-period schedule, it reminds me of my experience as a young teacher at Dover Jr/Sr High School in the 1990’s. I was fortunate to experience something unique during that time. The administration and faculty undertook the process of becoming the first high school in New York State to adopt a block schedule! The initiative was incredibly exciting and made a lasting impression on myself and our young faculty, especially when the Commissioner of Education visited our school for a special news conference on the initiative. We were cutting edge, and we were proud!

With daunting poverty, Dover was a high school that faced many challenges in the1990’s, and our administration was searching for innovative ways to deal with the issues that many poor schools face. Over twenty years later, I am still impressed with the process the principal took to make a significant change to restructure our high school.

How did the principal do it?

She listened. When teachers came to the principal about their ideas on the Copernican Plan and how to restructure our high school, she heard them. She did more research and enthusiastically pushed forward the idea of changing the schedule, knowing that a good schedule has the greatest impact on a school building.

She embraced all faculty. Administrators are used to naysayers, but this principal turned skeptics into allies. Instead of ignoring feedback from people who were critical, she put them into key positions of leadership that helped to turn their perspectives into positive ones.

She took time for the school community to reflect. This is a critical factor that is often overlooked. As a faculty, we spent considerable time identifying building strengths and areas of weaknesses. However, instead of looking at these challenges as obstacles, she taught us to see our problems as an opportunity to initiate change.

She supported all teachers. With the recent adoption of the Common Core, teachers can feel as though they do not have sufficient support to implement the changes correctly. However, our Administration made sure that the faculty was given all that they needed to be successful and feel comfortable with the restructuring. First and foremost, the administration unified the faculty and gave that new team what it needed most… valuable time. We were given, time to go on school visits and observe, time to give feedback in the process, and time to properly prepare curriculum for teaching in a block schedule. Every faculty member took extensive professional development in cooperative learning, authentic assessment, and behavioral management to have the skills needed to teach in a 90 minute block period. The planning time and professional development were invaluable in helping teachers feel secure and confident moving into the new adventure.

At a first look, the move to a block schedule seems so simple. However, this was an extensive process that took patience, careful planning, and passionate educators who committed themselves to educating all stakeholders on why the status quo did not serve our students.

As a young teacher observing this process, I learned so much about how to work with faculty, and how to create an enthusiastic spirit for remodeling and restructuring a school. Our principal showed us that positive change could happen in schools and that we could make a significant difference in how we educated our students! Our principal instilled within her faculty a passion for learning and for growing that has never left us. Today, we continue in our roles as teachers and as administrators to strive for school improvement knowing that with a thoughtful approach and process, we can make schools better for our kids! I hope that I can instill within my faculty the same passion for progress that I was fortunate enough to experience. School reform can happen with an open-minded, forward thinking team led by committed administrators.