The Gaze of the Superintendent and Seattle School Board - Part One

I have SOFG (Student Outcomes Focused Governance) guru, AJ Crabill, on my follow list on Twitter. 

He tweets things like:

the tools students need to be successful, the impact of connection on navigating geopolitical challenges, & the role of education in maximizing the potential of individuals in a global sapiosentient society.

Okay. 

Today he was linking to his article on some of the districts he works with and how it was important for Board's to keep strictly on district goals and guardrails.  I was surprised to read:

You will most often hear it suggested that a school board’s greatest power to impact student learning is setting policy. I used to believe this. My experience, however, has taught me a more consistent reality: culture trumps policy every day.

Shades of the Moss Adams report on how the district runs from what? 15+ years ago:

If you don't change the culture of a bureaucracy, you change nothing. 

But here's how Crabill defines "culture:"

When the culture of the school board — the set of all behaviors taking place by school board members and by the board collectively — is in conflict with the policies of the school board — the set of all written documents approved by a majority vote of the school board — it leaves school system staff with the unenviable task of choosing which to follow. More often than not, staff will honor the school board’s behavior over the school board’s writings. Said differently, school boards that want to inspire improvements in student outcomes will best accomplish this when what they do (culture) matches what they say (policy).

First, this makes it sound like the Board is all-powerful and that's generally not true. 

I also get confused with the use of "behavior" rather than "action" which is more the case for a board. Behavior seems to carry a negative connotation right from the start. 

But, the culture that Moss Adams was talking about was the culture that lives within JSCEE. In some ways, I think that's more important to change administrative culture versus Board culture. 

I worry about this example from Crabill about showing process on Goals at Board meetings:

The superintendent then ensured that the criteria for being honored each month became explicitly linked to the board’s adopted Goals. It quickly became common for the recognition of dozens of students and their families to dominate the opening 30 minutes of school board meetings. 

Crucially, this meant that many students who had never been honored — students who started off further behind but who had shown significant growth, rather than just students who were already very high performing —  became the stars of the show. This motivated the school communities to pay explicit attention to the school system’s Goals and highlighted the school board’s unwavering commitment to the community’s priorities. Over time, these recognitions began to redefine the narrative around what success looked like in the school system, making clear that contributions to the Goals were the highest honor.

Because if the only students to be honored in SPS are Black boys, that's going to be an interesting part of every Board meeting. As well, Mr. Crabill need not worry that "students who were already very high performing" in SPS being noted; the district and the Board rarely say anything positive about HCC students. Ever. 

Meanwhile, down at JSCEE, is anyone -anyone at all - tracking what is happening on the ground?

That's Part Two.