I had the privilege of hearing Mr. DuFour speak last year on the topics of school improvement and school change as created through staff development.  I was given the opportunity to learn more about his ideas and concepts when my principal asked me to read this book at the start of this semester.  He asked me to read it because I was the co-chair of our NCA steering committee, and also a member of our school staff development team. We were looking into new ways to utilize and design staff development as part of our NCA / P.L. 221 document that we would submit to the state.  Our school looked into various materials on staff development, but found this one extremely useful in regards to the administrations role in staff development.  The NCA team and principal were able to state many of our staff development goals from the ideas presented in this book.

The content of this book can be gathered directly from its title.  It discusses the issues of staff development as they relate to the school principal, and how he is the staff developer in a school.  The book discusses issues of what school improvement really means in today’s schools, and to the teachers in that school. One of the most critical parts of the book is the section on the principal as a leader and his role in creating a climate for effective staff development.  It also lists ways of determining what qualities should be considered in adopting staff development plans or practices.  DuFour devotes a part of this book to defining the link between teacher supervision and staff development, and then ends with some alternative approaches a principal can take in regards to staff development.  As you can see, this book would come in handy for any administrator who is having problems with the concept of changing or improving their staff development plan.

Let me begin by stating that my experience in school improvement and NCA teams has led me to believe that the biggest way to make changes in a school’s performance is to have effective staff development.  It is crucial to have an effective leader within the school to act as the facilitator of this staff development, in order for progress, or change to take place.  This book is an effective tool for any administrator, new or seasoned, to use in regards to staff development.  Mr. DuFour introduces the topic of school improvement by stating the obvious: that school improvement means people improvement. He adds that the only way we are going to get from where we are, to where we want to be is through staff development.   In the first chapter, DuFour discusses four assumptions that underlie this book:

1. That the school district and school provides the best arena for school improvement.
2. School improvement means people improvement.
3. The principal is the key figure in staff development.
4. Schools seeking meaningful change must make a significant commitment to the staff development plan.
   I agree with his four assumptions and would argue that these fit any school today that is trying to promote change. I do feel that some teachers would be, and are, apprehensive about these assumptions. Therefore, they would not want to agree with them. However, teachers have to realize that change does need to take place if a school is in need of improving some aspect of itself. I would also add that I think the principal needs to come to some kind of common ground between being able to persuade people to make change, and telling people that the change must occur.

DuFour added another assumption to consider. There is obviously a financial component to the success of any given staff development plan, but in the economic state of Indiana school systems today, there isn’t always adequate funding for aggressive staff development. With this in mind, DuFour says that schools have to effectively design their programs in order to achieve their full potential. This may be more difficult than getting your staff to change. Knowing that you have limited funds for staff development really puts principals at a disadvantage from the start. Our school benefits from the staff development team. We look at the money we have budgeted for development, and then brainstorm on ways to get the most out of that money, or if need be, how to go about getting more money through grants, and so on.

DuFour next describes the principal as the school leader, and how it is the principal’s task of creating a climate for change among his staff. This was, in my opinion, one of the best parts of the book for future administrators. The book explains that leadership is more than just power and position. Even though the principal is placed above teachers on the staff hierarchy, it doesn’t mean he or she will have followers, only subordinates. I couldn’t agree more with the previous statement. It can be seen in my own building; how there are staff who are willing to follow the principal in his ideas on change, and others who only view him as their superior. These are the ones who are least accepting to change, and are the most difficult for a principal to deal with. One thing the principal cannot let happen is to back off of these people in order to avoid conflict. Instead, the principal must find away to inspire these people to follow the initiatives he has set forth for the staff. He will need to sell the idea of an “all or nothing” concept for the staff development, if change and improvement is to take place.

DuFour expresses the importance of having a vision for your school and staff, and that this vision should be developed collectively within the school with the staff. If they have ownership in the vision, they will be more likely to strive to create it. DuFour feels that the vision is the key step in stimulating change. With vision, you need to determine the values that your staff feels are crucial to your school. Once these have been established, they provide a map, of sorts, for the principal to become the change agent for the school. We have utilized these same ideas from DuFour in our building. The purpose is to get away from the lengthy, unrepeatable mission statements that schools have always had, and have all said basically the same things. We scrapped our mission statement, and now use a one-sentence vision statement that was developed by our school improvement team. We developed the vision statement based upon the values that we have for our school, our staff and our students, i.e.: our stakeholders.

The book goes on to look at how to approach effective staff development practices. DuFour explains that in the world of educational staff development today, there are many different programs and practices. But in order for one of those to be effective, they should meet the following criteria:

1. The program is purposeful.
2. The program is designed to promote and influence teachers’ thinking about teaching.
3. The program is researched-based, both in content and process.
4. The program has a realistic timeframe.
5. The program is evaluated at several different levels.
6. The program generates teacher commitment to the training.

Once a particular practice or program is in place, there is always the inevitability of teacher concerns, and discontent for the staff development. DuFour thinks the best way to resolve these types of issues is to provide a structure that promotes dialogue among the staff. One effective ways to do this, in his mind, is to create small discussion groups among the staff, where they can meet and voice concerns, or the positives that have come out of the staff development process. Our school staff development team looked at these same basic criteria when drafting our NCA / P.L. 221 document in reference to the staff development section. I see these criteria as guidelines that if followed, would ensure successful changes and improvements to take place within the school.

Finally, once the training or staff development has taken place, DuFour states that the training or development must be linked directly to teacher supervision. The principal will need to monitor the extent to which the teacher is utilizing the staff development model. It is important that the principal does this in a non-threatening way. It was discussed earlier that the principal would want to foster communication among teachers when focusing on staff development; he will want to do this with the teachers himself during the supervision process.

DuFour presents some new concepts in supervision to help the staff become more willing to adapt the prescribed changes through development. There are still pre-observation meetings between teacher and administrator, the observation itself, and the post-observation conference. However, this process should take place three to four times through out the year, suggest DuFour. This process would enable more collaboration between the principal and the teacher. I think this process sounds good in definition; however, I could imagine that due time constraints, and other duties, it would be difficult for the administrator to fulfill such obligations. An alternative approach might be to spend this type of time on non-tenured staff, and less time with the tenured staff. Or, allow more peer-supervision/collaboration among the tenured staff, to allow the principal more time to work with the less experienced staff. The principal could even have a veteran teacher work collaboratively with the non-tenured teachers to help monitor staff development issues. In any case, supervision is a direct component of staff development that must be well defined by the principal and consistently followed.

After reading this book, and then looking at the six IPSB Standards, one can easily see how the material in this book directly corresponds to the first standard:

A school administrator promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared by the school community.

As I read this standard, I think about how I used some of the same words in the description of this book, or how DuFour used the words in his writing. Words like: development, facilitate, vision, implement, shared by the school community, were all words that were common from the standard to the writing. I would conclude by saying that you could easily add the title of the book within the standard and it would still convey the same interpretation:

Standard 1. The principal as staff developer will promote the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared by the school community.