Running head: A CRITIQUE OF SWARTZ CREEK HIGH SCHOOL USING BLANKSTEIN

A Critique of Swartz Creek High School using Blankstein’s Six Principles

Oakland University
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Abstract

Alan M. Blankstein’s book, published in 2013, Failure is Not an Option: Six Principles that

Advance Student Achievement in Highly Effective Schools was used to critique Swartz Creek

High School. I used the six principles of highly effective schools for this review. Looking at

Swartz Creek, I have found that we have strengths in principle 1, 2, 3, 5 specifically in the area

of mission statement, interventions for students, some collaboration, and family community

engagement. We need improvement with principle 3, 4, 6 using data correctly to drive

instruction and having a plan for sustainability. There has been changeover in the district and

school so we need to reestablish some things and follow through with what we say we are going

to do. It is difficult to get parental involvement at the high school level so we must find ways to

bridge the gap.

In an effort to improve on the good things going on my focus for this review will look at Swartz

Creek High School and determine what principles we will need to improve on in order to have a

highly effective school.

Introduction

Swartz Creek High School is located in the Swartz Creek School District in Genesee

County. Swartz Creek Community Schools has a population of 3,729 students. Swartz Creek

High School has around 1300 students in 9th – 12th grade. We have a staff of 87 members from

aides to teachers to administrators. Currently over 50% of our population qualifies for free and

reduced lunch. The demographics of Swartz Creek High School is 88% Caucasian and 10%

African- American.

There have been many changes in the Swartz Creek Community School District with the

hiring of a new superintendent in the last 19 months, a new principal and assistant principal 13

months ago. The superintendent made the following changes for the 2018-2019 school year:

1. Creation of a new mission & vision statement based on teaching staff input from

survey.

2. No more half days for professional development. All staff works an hour longer

Monday-Thursday and all PD are scheduled for Wednesday after school.

3. Book study on Discipline with Dignity- how to build relationship with all students.

With the above changes, one focus of our district is to build relationships with students through

learning techniques from Discipline with Dignity, relationship building activities the first month

of school and/or using the extra time after school. The purpose of this paper is to critique how

Swartz Creek High School teachers are using their extra time after school to build relationships

and advance student achievement using the six principles listed in Alan M. Blankstein’s Failure

is Not an Option (2013).

Principle 1: Common Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals

Within Swartz Creek School District, our leadership team starts with our central office

heads plus all the administrators. Swartz Creek had a mission and vision statement from past

administration. Since our superintendent has been in office, he has been looking at ways to

change it to what we believe in. During one of our administration monthly meetings in April

2018, he took us through a process of what do we believe in. We had an entire paper with words

on it. Step one: we had to circle our top 5 words in one color by what we believe in our personal

life, another color of what we believe in our work life. Next, we had a sheet with several

questions and we had to answer them by circling words. Each staff member shared out what our

top five words were. It was very interesting to see that majority of us had the same top 3 words:

family, faith, and excellence. Our superintendent and assistant superintendent took this activity

and gave it to the entire staff during our June 2018 professional development to end the school

year. Blankstein (2013) states that developing a Leadership Team is the first step in creating a

common mission, vision, values, and goals for your district. Our leadership team is comprised of

all central office staff and all building administrators.

When we came back to school in August, our superintendent and assistant superintendent

created our new Mission statement using the top five words from the district: SCCS is a family

committed to excellence, instilling the values of integrity and compassion, and encouraging

every individual to embrace challenges through continuous learning. In Chapter 5 of Blankstein

(2013), it talks about having a common mission statement that is clear. In Swartz Creek, our

entire district has the same mission statement based on what we believe. In retrospect, our entire

district had ownership in creating this new mission statement. With the mission of our district,

how it was created was based off most of Blankstein (2013) implementation guidelines. He
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states it’s critical that the process involve representatives from all stakeholder groups- teachers,

paraeducators, (instructional assistants), administrators, community members, students and

parents. (p. 90-92) Our superintendent did a great job in involving majority of the stakeholders

needed to complete this process.

According to Blankstein (2013), page 91 Figure 5.1, states five things to have for an

effective mission statement. When looking at Swartz Creek Mission statement it is clear and it

provide for failure (how do we respond when students don’t learn?). I don’t know if Blankstein

would consider our mission effective: are specific (what exactly are students supposed to learn?)

and is it measurable (how do we know students have learned?).

Effective values are few in number; direct and simply stated; focused on behaviors, not

beliefs; and linked to the vision statement Blankstein 2013 (p. 103). Swartz Creek doesn’t have

a vision statement per say but our values are: family, excellence, integrity, compassion, and

continuous learning. Those are the five words our district came up with and incorporated them in

our mission statement. Blankstein (2013) talks about having a leadership team drive the work of

the mission, value, vision and goals. I believe Swartz Creek is heading in the right direction of

having an effective mission and values.

Our district is very good at using SMART goals and the format. Blankstein point out:

Effective goals are both specific and measurables. Goals should focus on the results rather than

on the process or the task. (Blankstein, 2013, p. 106). Our central office leadership team is

excellent at pushing information using the SMART format through administration and then we

push it to our staff. Our central office leadership is also great at conveying their goals (SMART

format) to all stakeholders (staff, parents, students, & community). In regards to the high school,

we are not a 100% transparent but it is a lot better since the change in administration staff.
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Principle 2: Ensuring Achievement for All Students: Systems for Prevention and

Intervention

A committed school faculty, can do a great deal to enhance the life of every child. When

acting in concert to create a reclaiming environment and to build system to prevent failure,

school communities dramatically enhance the likelihood for student success (Blankstein 2013 p.

112). Our intentions are great but our approach in using this program with fidelity is still

lacking. Swartz Creek high school implemented a new program this year called Link Crew.

This program is designed to partner our incoming freshman with a student mentor (junior or

senior). Data showed that our incoming freshman had a hard time adjusting to high school. This

was one way to cut down on the adjustment period. We took it a step further by having all

freshman lockers in one wing of the building. This caused a few problems from our other

students because: locker far from 1st hour, classes on other side of building. This was new for the

student population in the Creek. Overall this change has worked in curbing our 9th grade

discipline. Last year we implemented a program called ‘Reaching Higher” for our troubled

students. We did four small cohorts of students in each grade. This program was geared for our

struggling students looking at attendance and academic history. We targeted students who were

on the verge of failing for the semester. Reaching higher is dedicated to helping young people

live healthier, happier lives by a character-building leadership training program which inspires

and prepares students to succeed and to reach their potential. This program increases students:

self-confidence and self-esteem, teaches goal setting strategies to use in their personal or

academic lives, learn effective stress and coping skills, enhance public speaking and

interpersonal communication skills, and strengthen decision making abilities for school and life.

Our program leaders have gone through an intensive training on how to deal with students in
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today’s world. We found out at the end of the school year that this program would work better if

we had our own staff run the program. Our students are familiar with our staff. Our school has

gotten away from giving zeros. This is a hard concept especially for high school teachers. This

will allow students a chance to make up those assignments and become successful. We are in

the process of creating other programs to ensure all of our students are successful. Blankstein

(2013) states that effective systems of prevention and intervention ensures that no student slips

through the cracks. They are designed so that majority of students benefit from careful,

continuous monitoring. They have mechanisms in place to ensure the early identification of

struggling students (p. 135). With our Reaching Higher Program, we are using Blankstein’s

principles to ensure student achievement and moving towards a highly effective school. At the

end of the marking period, we give students a small survey of multiple choice and fill-in

questions for rating the session. We in turn take this information to improve for the next session.

Four Cs: Practices that promote connection verses disconnection Blankstein 2013 (p. 126-127) is

a great tool to use when we have our collaboration time after school. Having this handout is way

to show staff how to turn a negative into a positive.

Principle 3: Collaborative Teaming Focused on Teaching and Learning

At Swartz Creek high school and throughout the district, we have taken on a new

approach with collaboration. This year we have gone away from having early release days to

banking all of our time Monday – Thursday an extra hour. Staff have an extra four hours a week

to collaborate and get into teams to be creative. We have teams based on content, grade level,

leadership, interdisciplinary, and etc. (Blankstein 2013 pg. 149-150). Even though it is early in

the school year, teachers appreciate having this uninterrupted time of 60 minutes to meet. This
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time has allowed staff to work with students in so many ways and offer tutoring and/or clubs for

students. Our central office staff is great at coming up with protocols and processes for

facilitation. They practice these protocols at our yearly professional development days and our

administration leadership meetings. The same protocols are trickled down to each building.

Blankstein (2013) describes four types of school culture: individualistic, balkanized,

contrived collegiality, and collaborative (pg. 145-148). Since I am fairly new to the building I

can only give my opinion. The high school is a mix of balkanized and contrived collegiality. On

our staff, we have two-three cliquish groups that consist of our strong union group and an older

group that has been together for years at this building. According to Blankstein (2013, p. 147)

contrived collegiality staff appears to collaborate but they don’t focus on deeper issues related to

teaching and learning. Our head principal has done a great job in trying to break down the walls

of our cliques. We are becoming more of a family and building trust as a team. In the past, staff

felt like administrators were out to get them and there was no trust. Changes has taken place at

the top and matriculated into the buildings at changing the culture. If we change the culture of

the adults, we can change the culture of our students. Last year, teachers met on their preps and

lunch in a rush format to collaborate on teams. Teachers had a small window to eat lunch, grade

papers, prepare for their next class, and/or call parents. With our new format, there is time to do

great things. Two of our book studies for this year is Discipline with Dignity & Warm

Demander. We collaborate for our weekly book studies and have questions and activities to

follow what we have read. Teachers are able to express the good and the bad of their classroom

and from the reading. Having such a large school is a benefit that we can create many different

groups to work with. Blankstein’s (2013) Implementation Guidelines (p. 157-160) points out 8

steps for collaborative teaming. In comparison to the 8 steps (Blankstein 2013), Swartz Creek
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high school is implementing number 1: team organization, 3: managing meetings, 6:

communication protocols. We as a school have a long way to go when it comes to monitoring

team progress, decision making (when we make a decision stick with it and follow through),

sharing the workload evenly, and commitment of team members to go above and beyond. Often

pointed out in Chapter 3, real challenges to collaboration such as a lack of time, become reasons

for abandoning the effort altogether. With our staff having the extra four hours per week, we are

about to stop using the excuse of not having enough time for collaboration. We will continue

working on changing our culture to become the best school for our students.

Principle 4: Data-Based Decision Making for Continuous Improvement

In the last year, our high school has started to look at data more. In the past data was only

looked at by our four department heads. The number one priority for school communities is to

start with purpose. (Blankstein 2013 p. 164) Swartz Creek is focusing this year on using our

math, reading, and discipline data to drive instruction. (Blankstein 2013 p. 171) states in order to

successfully use data to drive continuous improvement, schools need to answer three important

questions:

1. What data should be collected?

2. How should data be used?

3. Who should be involved?

In the Swartz Creek School District, our superintendent has created a data week 4 times per year.

In each building, our Multi-Tier System of Support (MTSS) leader conducts meetings with all

the core teachers. Since our high school is so large, our meetings are spread out in 6 days over

two weeks. Our Math and English teachers go over STAR data and classroom observations.
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The science department started with grades and classroom observations. This is still a new

process for our staff. Teachers are responsible for bringing their own STAR data to the

meetings. This past week we started our first set of data meetings and we had about 1/3 of our

teaching staff came to the meeting unprepared (without their STAR data). It was very

disappointing because teachers were made aware of this a week before. It is hard to have

authentic data meetings with teachers if they had not done their homework of coming to the

meting prepared. At the beginning of the school year, our principal shared our discipline data

from the 2017-2018 school year. We are a MIBLSI/PBIS district and use the data housing

system SWISS to compile all of our referral data. What’s great about this system is:

 Male vs. Female

 Morning vs. after lunch

 Different locations

 Different hours

 Classroom vs. Cafeteria

 Content Area vs. Teachers

Some of our teaching staff were upset by the data we shared. They felt we were calling them out

and we were not. We highlighted staff who had less than 3 referrals for the year. Our district

goal this year is building relationships with students. We shared that those few teachers share

the same students as teachers with over 15 referrals. We discussed as a team what did the data

reveal? How should this data be used? (Blankstein 2013 p. 171). Principal John E. McKenna

(2009b) (Blankstein 2013 p. 179-180) says it best that he had to build relational trust to help

teachers move past their fear that data might show they weren’t good teachers or that data might

be used against them by school administrators.

Principle 5: Gaining Active Engagement from Family and Community

Our high school communicates with our parents during our open house. The open house takes

place during the second week of school. Parents come to the school for one hour and meet with

each of their child’s teacher for 7 minutes. During this 7 minutes, teachers give a short bio of

who they are, what is expected in their class, and what will be taught. It is a good idea but I feel

7 minutes is not enough time. Parents are not able to ask questions and have dialogue due to the

next group of parents are coming. If we could change it, I would have each session at least 15

minutes and more of a meet/greet session with expectations. Blankstein talks about engagement

being meaningful for parents.

During the summer of 2018, our Superintendent changed all of our school’s handbooks

by placing less emphasis on disciplinary infractions and creating handbooks that are more

positive. (Blankstein, 2013 p. 205) This is one strategy that Blankstein uses for engaging parents

in genuine partnerships.

“Many schools mistakenly believe that communication flows only in one direction – that

as long as they’re getting information to parents, they’re doing their part.” (Blankstein 2013, p.

204) In the short time I have been at Swartz Creek High School, I can say we do a great job in

communicating with our parents and community in a variety of ways: websites (district &

individual schools), social media (each school has staff members that are responsible for sharing

information on Twitter, Facebook), ITC, emails, phone calls, school messenger (robocall for all

our parents where we can call, send email, voice and/or attachments). Our parents have access

with us by email and phone calls. I am unsure if we survey our parents throughout the school

year. What’s unique about our district is that our parents and community have no problem with
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coming to the school, coming to the board meeting, or meeting with the superintendent/assistant

superintendent to voice their concern: positive or negative. What we lack is having a survey to

analyze and have that real hard/soft data to drive our engagement at the school.

Other ways we have created engagement for our families and community is this past

summer we started a feeding program (breakfast/lunch) for all students to partake in. We also

offer a feeding program afterschool 5 day a week where students can get food before they get on

the bus, go to practice, or eat while they stay after school for tutoring.

As we continue to improve our engagement with family and community, we should follow

Blankstein’s (2013 p. 205) questions:

1. How many parent volunteers does your school have?

2. In what capacities are those volunteers used?

3. How many community members participate as members of teams for various

improvement’s activities in your school?

Principle 6: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity

In order for any program to work, administrators have to create sustainability by creating

instructional leaders (Blankstein 2013 p. 212). Principals “have to be [or become] leaders of

learning who can develop a team delivering effective instruction” that encompasses “five key

responsibilities:

1. Shaping a vision of academic success for all students based on high standards

2. Creating a climate hospitable to education

3. Cultivating leadership in others

4. Improving instruction
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5. Managing people, data and process to foster school improvement

These five key responsibilities are synergistic with the six principles that guide student

achievement. (Blankstein 2013 p. 213)

In order to have long-term success schools must focus on three key words: leadership, capacity,

and sustainability. In this chapter, Blankstein (2013) talks about administrators who fly solo and

do not receive help from their staff will not achieve success. It is very hard for administrators to

let go of the power. There mentality is it is their school, their way or the highway. As student

expectations are changing we as leaders must adapt as well. We want our teachers to be great

instructional leaders in the classroom but we do not share that power with teachers outside of the

classroom.

During this critique I notice that our teachers given the power to be instructional leaders. This is

coming from the top down to empower all staff members to be instructional leaders and help

shape the culture and student achievement in the building. Sometimes this can have a negative

effect when you empower a negative teacher. In my opinion, when we as educators learn how to

hold our colleagues to high expectations, like we hold our students, we would see tremendous

change. At Swartz Creek we have many different committees that represent the core of our

building like our department chairs & MTSS team. These groups work together as a unit to

represent the school. They in turn take all concerns/recommendations and meet with the

principal. Then the information is pushed out to all staff members so we are on the same page.

We still have individuals who are not on board and want to do things their way. We must stay

focus and work the team and push forward. All of our staff members have the opportunity to be

a part of any committee and play a vital role in the direction of the school. Blankstein (2013)
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talks about when staff members feel they have a voice thing matter and people will take

ownership in whatever initiative the school is doing.

Conclusion

Having this time to review our mission, interventions, and data procedures while looking at

Failure is Not an Option: Six principles of highly effective schools, Blankstein 2013, has pointed

out some keys weaknesses that we need to work on. I would love to see how things change and

reassess at the end of the calendar year. One key principle I would recommend us looking further

into is how we analyze data and what data sources we are using. If we could get staff to get over

the fear of data, our school would be even greater. When you look at our academic gap at

Swartz Creek, the data says we need to close it. By looking at the hard and soft data we could

create ways to help our low achieving students and make them successful.
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References

Blankstein, A.M. (2013). Failure is not an option: 6 principles that advance student

achievement

in highly effective schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.