Does Your School Need a Back-to-School Reboot?

For those of us in the K-12 community, late summer represents a fresh start. Schools often use the time before students return for professional development and training. Teachers come back to the classroom with new ideas, new lesson plans and new initiatives to put into practice.

But what happens to last year's initiatives? And the ones we implemented before that? Too often, core practices and promising programs get lost in the shuffle as new ones are put into place. "Initiative overload" can cause teachers and school leaders to lose sight of the fundamental practices that have the greatest impact on their goals and mission. When this happens, it's time for a reboot.

That’s exactly what Maricopa Unified School District after the pandemic. They focused on a few core initiatives, including Thinking Maps, as part of their district recovery plan. Learn how they did it in the case study: Driving District-Wide Transformation with Thinking Maps.

The Problem of Initiative Atrophy

Teachers are constantly being asked to do new things in the classroom. Changing curriculum standards, evolving federal and state testing practices, newly adopted software or textbook programs, and other district mandates all require teachers to implement new ideas and practices in the classroom.

Change is hard. It requires extensive practice and ongoing reinforcement to become self-sustaining. But schools rarely provide ongoing support for new initiatives beyond the initial training. Perhaps that's why the majority of initiatives fail to have any measurable impact on classroom practice or student outcomes.

The average school rolls out half a dozen or more new initiatives each year, mostly through "one and done" training sessions for the teachers and staff impacted. As new ideas are implemented each year, they crowd out initiatives from previous years—a phenomenon known as "shiny new object syndrome."

This means that many promising initiatives are never given the opportunity to take root and come to fruition. It takes two to three years of consistent implementation for a new classroom practice to become fully realized and self-sustaining. Teachers need time to gain proficiency with new programs and strategies and figure out how to integrate them with everything else they are doing in the classroom. That's when the real impact on student achievement can be seen.

Learning Forward’s new Standards for Professional Learning emphasize the need for sustained, ongoing professional learning and systems of support in driving change at the classroom level. Learn more: Alignment to Learning Forward 2022 Standards for Professional Learning.

Rebooting Core Initiatives for the New School Year

So what's the answer? First, schools should carefully consider how many initiatives they are going to support. When a new program or idea is presented—the "shiny new object"—school leaders should consider how it fits into the bigger picture of the school's mission and vision. What does it replace? How does it fit with other things teachers are being asked to do? The best results are often seen when schools commit to doing FEWER things, but doing them well.

Next, schools should consider all of the programs and initiatives that are in current use and identify the ones that have the biggest impact on results. These are the ones that need ongoing, sustained support.

A back-to-school "reboot" for these core programs can help schools stay on track. Instead of introducing something new, take time to refocus on the core practices that make your school great. This reboot may include:

• Providing training for new staff
• Re-introducing core concepts during staff meetings and teacher training days
• Making online training materials and lesson planning resources available to teachers
• Scheduling time for in-class coaching and modeling by trained teacher leaders or instructional coaches
• Encouraging ongoing peer discussion and sharing of strategies during team planning or collaboration meetings

Many Thinking Maps schools use the first eight weeks of the new school year as an opportunity to strengthen their Thinking Maps implementation and reintroduce core concepts to teachers and students. This reinforces correct use of the Maps for students and teachers who are already familiar with them and helps new students and teachers get up to speed. Taking the time to "reboot" their Thinking Maps practice each year ensures ongoing fidelity in the implementation and supports a deeper understanding of how to use the Maps to improve learning. Thinking Maps schools that continually refresh and renew their practice see better results over time. (Read the Lucia Mar Customer Highlight to see this process in action.)

Building a Strong School Culture

A back-to-school reboot can help you build and reinforce a strong school culture. The beginning of the school year is a great opportunity to think about your goals, values, and mission as a school community and the essential elements that create your school culture. This includes not only educational programs but also the policies and practices (formal or informal) that build strong relationships, foster positive communication, and enable collaborative problem solving and idea generation.

A strong school culture does not happen by accident. It has to be carefully built and sustained. Part of this process is thoughtful consideration of how different school initiatives fit into your goals and values as a school. Over time, the initiatives you choose to support will shape the culture and character of your school. Nurturing the initiatives that support the culture you want to achieve will allow them to become self-sustaining.

Is it time for a back-to-school reboot at your school? Has your school become a hodge-podge of new and old initiatives that are inconsistently applied? It may be time to take a step back, reevaluate the initiatives you have in play, and provide more support for those with the greatest promise. A mindful approach will help you avoid "initiative overload" and ensure that the programs and practices you support are building the culture you want.

Thinking Maps Learning Community (TMLC) subscribers can find more back-to-school resources in TMLC Navigator. Here are some places to start:

• Leading Your Community Back to School
• Creating a Classroom Culture
• The Eight-Week Rollout in Year One and Beyond
• Taking the Big Picture