A willingness to adopt the habits of a healthy school culture - one that values collaboration and problem-solving - will lead to improvements in student performance, a motivational speaker told hundreds of Mid-Missouri educators this week.
"Healthy school cultures have different habits than toxic school cultures," said Anthony Muhammad, a former educator and author.
Prior to writing several books - including "The Will to Lead and the Skill to Teach" and "Transforming Schools at Every Level" - Muhammad worked as a principal in Southfield, Mich., an impoverished district on the outskirts of urban Detroit. During his tenure there, student proficiency on state assessments more than doubled, and he was named Michigan Middle School Principal of the Year.
Between Thursday and Friday, Muhammad addressed educators from all grade levels, including building administrators, as part of the Jefferson City School District's professional development program. Teachers from the Southern Boone County School District also attended the conference at the Miller Performing Arts Center.
Until recently, Muhammad noted, teachers essentially operated as independent contractors. But new state and federal accountability measures mean schools are now examined and judged at the building level, he said, noting that is demanding teachers to collaborate more often.
"For years we didn't have to act like an organization ... we've been a collection of one-room school houses that share the same parking lot," he said. "News flash: Schools are now measured collectively. And we're being asked to behave like a group, for the first time in our history."
Muhammad said that shift from "me to we culture" has been challenging.
Muhammad told listeners occasionally policies have evolved beyond the point where they make sense or support the main mission - educating kids - and he asked Jefferson City listeners to evaluate their own practices one by one.
As a young principal in an impoverished district where nearly every student struggled with literacy, he noticed 35-cent fines prevented kids from borrowing library books. Students were barred from doing their homework in after-school detention. And the punishment for missing class was suspension.
"Wouldn't it be great, if when you stole a bag of Snickers candy bars, the punishment was to get a whole bunch more?" he mocked.
In a "toxic" school, teachers believe student success is possible, but they predicate it with the idea that students first must be attentive, willing to learn, able to comply with rules and have some prior knowledge. Also, in a toxic culture, complaining runs rampant.
"You'll hear people complain about the same things over and over again. It's therapeutic. But whose responsibility is it to fix the problem? Not the person doing the complaining," he said. "There's a place in every school dedicated to complaining. The teacher's lounge. Over time, it's become the culture of the profession."
Muhammad advocates a give-and-take philosophy between teachers and administrators that stresses communication and humility.
As a teacher, he said he had a natural affinity for educating adolescents. But he struggled as a principal.
"Leading adults was a skill I had to learn," he said. "The transformational leader is determined to lead a person toward better behavior, rather than satisfied with identifying and criticizing current behavior. Identifying people's flaw is not true leadership."
He's worried the new teacher evaluation models tend to fixate on teacher behavior.
"Administrators don't have to look in the mirror," he argued. "And, (teachers) probably knew they were struggling in that area before we told them."
He asked listeners in the auditorium to create a list of qualities they'd like to see in the perfect leader. Qualities such being pro-active, enthusiastic, patient and collaborative rose to the top of the list. Teachers also want their principals to be non-judgmental, confident, empathetic, supportive and flexible. Not to mention knowledgeable and great at communicating.
"It sounds like a job for Superman," Muhammad said.
Because schools are now teams, he said it's important for educators to have broad-based philosophical discussions about what their core missions are.
He noted at Levey - where 75 percent of students lived in poverty and 80 percent lived with single mothers - his staff decided that preparing students for post-secondary education, instead of factory work, was going to be everyone's main goal, because studies have shown that no one benefits more from college educations than blacks.
"So that's what we decided," he said. "We organized ourselves into strategic teams."
When teachers would become frazzled, he would walk them outdoors so they could stare up at Regency Towers, a nearly public housing development.
"These towers have been here a long time. These are your customers," he told them. "If you don't want to work here, that's fine, I will write you a positive recommendation letter for a new job."
But he said his staff couldn't afford to wallow in blame or despair.
"A frustrated staff is a highly unproductive staff," he said, noting that frustration arises when people feel anxiety over an inability to accomplish the tasks at hand. "Frustration is the root of toxic culture. It causes people to deflect blame on to others and create covert alliances with people with similar feelings."
Instead of describing the problem - complaining - and deflecting it away, Muhammad asked listeners to consider reflecting on problems in order to seek solutions. He said in the former situation, people are not as interested in solving problems as they are in expressing their emotions. In the latter, they focus of fixing the situation.
"When you're being reflective you are trying to understand the problem, investigate its roots and ask, "Why?' Your thinking is more strategic," he said.
He said complaining is a learned habit, and habits take about 21 days to change.
"I'm going to ask you for a 30-day moratorium on complaining," he said. "It's a coping mechanism to address frustrations and it's hurting kids."
He noted it takes trust and negotiation to create a healthy organizational culture.
"Administrators, you have to exhibit a level of humility and open yourself to critiques," he advised. "And, teachers, you may be holding new administrators responsible for things they didn't do. You have to be optimistic enough to give the new person the benefit of the doubt."
Andrea Stegeman, a first-grade teacher at Callaway Hills Elementary, said she enjoyed the humor Muhammad injected into his remarks. She appreciated his openness to allowing teachers to air their opinions, even when they are challenging.
Laura Luebbert, a 20-year veteran who works at Callaway Hills, took minor exception with his idea that teachers' lounges can be "toxic."
"It's the place where you can get support from other staff," she added.
But she's noticed that her work - she's an art teacher - has become more collaborative over the years. "We're using Positive Behavioral Intervention Support ... the same discipline program throughout the school. It focuses on positive reinforcement," she added.