A culture of greatness: Montgomery High maintains a culture of continuous improvement by emphasizing shared leadership and a common vision, and by valuing results and relationships.

"Today I'd like you to consider the following question, 'Are you a great teacher or a good teacher?'"

The question hung in the air as conversations ceased and quiet settled over the room.

"If you're a great teacher, how do you know and how do you sustain that greatness over time?"

"If you're a good teacher, how can you become great?"

These thought-provoking questions are an example of how the Montgomery High leadership team maintains a culture of continuous improvement. The questions were inspired by the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins (2001), which opens with the statement, "Good is the enemy of great." The questions were asked during a professional growth activity that set the stage for comparing our school's current reality with research-based high school reform strategies.

Montgomery High School, part of the Sweetwater Union High School District (the largest secondary district in California), is located in San Diego county just north of the border with Mexico. It is one of the district's most culturally rich high schools. The majority of families in the community speak a language other than English at home, and about 30 percent of the students are classified as limited English proficient. Montgomery is a schoolwide Title I program (51 percent of families qualify for free and reduced price lunch). In 2001, a drop in test scores resulted in II/USP designation.

Montgomery's II/USP designation was the catalyst for major reform. As the new principal, Karen Janney chose to use the required external evaluation component of II/USP as a positive opportunity for identifying target areas for improvement. This culture of embracing growth opportunities has led the school through subsequent WASC accreditation and Coordinated Compliance Review visits with a positive attitude and an eye toward continuous improvement.

Our school is on a steadily improving path to success. We have seen significant growth in the number of students entering the University of California/California State University system and in enrollment in Advanced Placement courses, as well as an increase in the number and type of Advanced Placement courses being offered, and consistent improvement in our Academic Performance Index scores.

Guiding principles

The key to Montgomery's success has been a shift in culture that emphasizes schoolwide processes, strategic planning and shared leadership. This evolution in culture over the last three years has been driven by Montgomery's guiding principles, which were derived from our mission, vision and values. Our guiding principles are:

* Common vision and focus.

* Shared leadership and responsibility.

* Valuing results and relationships:

* Continuous reflection and improvement.

Common vision and focus

We can only move forward as a school if all parts of the system are moving in the same direction, toward the same target. Our district's vision is centered on three areas--closing the achievement gap, accountability on state-mandated tests and our Compact for Success. These areas were the framework for our school vision.

Establishing the common vision and focus required our staff, with the assistance of the II/USP external evaluators, to take an honest look at both what we do and how we do it. Examination of school improvement research (McREL, 2003) verifies that before the school improvement process can begin, leadership and staff must look at what is currently in place and working well. Individual, team and department successes must be acknowledged and built upon. Through this process we were able to narrow our focus and create our Comprehensive Single Site Plan and strategic objectives.

During the 2003-2004 school years, we examined our vision and focus again through the lens of the WASC and CCR criteria, investing time in determining the matches and gaps between where we were and where we wanted to be. This work resulted in revisions to Montgomery's Comprehensive Single Site Plan, which continues to provide the blueprint to maintain the culture of continuous improvement.

Our vision was developed through a series of staff activities and refinements. Once a clear vision was established, it became Janney's responsibility, as principal, to be the "keeper of the vision." She does this through:

* Reminders in her weekly staff newsletter.

* Holding professional dialogues centered on current research and theory at monthly prep period meetings and professional development hours.

* Sharing professional articles that support the vision and focus.

* Modeling that vision in her day-today interactions with the school community.

* Maintaining accountability by requiring agendas/minutes from department meetings and pull-out days, as well as regular administrative classroom "walk-throughs" accompanied by a corresponding reflective question or evidence-based feedback.

Shared leadership and responsibility

Unique to Montgomery is the organization of our governance groups. The "balance of leadership" is a distributed leadership model that improves communication, maintains accountability and creates a culture where it is unacceptable to disengage from school improvement.

Instead of a handful of staff members sitting on multiple committees, the expectation at Montgomery is that departments and teams assign a different representative to each of the many leadership groups on campus. Each group has a specific role and each representative is responsible for keeping his or her department informed of topics of discussion and decisions made by the group he or she represents. Time is regularly set aside on the agenda of each group's meetings for updates from the other groups.

The schoolwide organizational structure and shared leadership approach promote empowerment, cooperation and innovation. Each group is given responsibilities that address a piece of the schoolwide reform puzzle and is encouraged to propose solutions or ideas to address identified needs, complaints or concerns. While needs are primarily focused on instruction and student achievement, organizational, facility or budgetary issues are also addressed.

Valuing results and relationships

The shift in culture extends into the classroom as well. A driving force behind our recent reform efforts has been the increased use of data to make informed decisions. Teachers are encouraged to use both formative and summative assessments to guide classroom instruction.

For example, our science department, which has posted significant gains on recent state-mandated tests, has been aligning its assessments according to the California Science Standards. Once aligned, each teacher completes an item analysis to determine areas of non-mastery and create differentiated instructional tools. Successes are shared between department members during informal discussions and formal pull-out days. Examination of this data has also led the department to adopt several common teaching strategies for enhanced student achievement.

Schoolwide data collection and analysis occurs on several levels. In support of the Comprehensive Single Site Plan we schedule regular examination of site data. This includes peer observations each spring and fall that document implementation of targeted instructional strategies. Schoolwide observation data is then disaggregated by department and used to guide decisions regarding curriculum, planning and effective delivery of instruction.

Montgomery High School uses 15 achievement measures to monitor trends and growth in identified areas. The achievement measures monitor accountability in areas such as completion rates for courses required for college entrance, number of SAT qualifiers, number of graduates attending state colleges or universities, and the California Standards Test results. This data is shared and analyzed schoolwide and used by departments to delve even deeper into issues related to mastery of standards, department goals and implementation of processes designed to improve results.

Positive relationships between all segments of the school community are an integral part of the culture at Montgomery. One avenue for improving relationships was to personalize the instructional environment. This was accomplished through 9th and 10th grade teams, two California Partnership Academies and two newly developed career pathways.

These smaller learning communities are purposefully structured to create connections between students, school, their curriculum and careers. Data from our academies show that the more intimate environment of smaller learning communities and the personal attention they provide increases student success.

In addition, Prep for Success (a required "elective") was developed to assist incoming 9th graders with the transition from middle to high school. Working within the confines of the master schedule to provide common preps for team and academy teachers is a practical means by which administrative leadership has demonstrated support of these special programs. Relationships and communication are further enhanced through the assignment of an assistant principal and counselor, acting as liaisons, to each department and team.

However, we believe the culture that is nurtured through the "little things we do" has had the greatest impact on relationships and has been the most effective in making staff feel valued. For example, every staff meeting opens with "cheering others on" (Blanchard and Bowles, 1998). This is an opportunity for staff to publicly acknowledge the assistance or success of their colleagues. The person making the acknowledgement also writes a note to the recipient and the individual's name is included in the FYI published by the principal each week.

In addition, Janney has an open-door policy, is extremely visible on campus, sends birthday cards to all staff members, holds a holiday breakfast during which the administrative team puts on a holiday show, and takes the time each morning to stand at the sign-in sheet and greet staff members as they enter, asking about family members or important events in their lives. This personal touch goes a long way in making staff feel valued and appreciated.

At Montgomery we have found that stronger relationships create greater group responsibility and individual accountability. This atmosphere of increased collegiality allows for a safe environment to ask critical questions and confront the difficult answers as we continue to improve our practices.

Continuous improvement and reflection

The continual cycle of improvement process is implemented at Montgomery whenever decisions regarding schoolwide issues need to be made:

* Proposal of idea or thought-provoking question that supports Montgomery's vision and mission.

* Engage in collegial discussion, investigation and examination of related data and brainstorming by staff.

* Results of brainstorming are presented to leadership groups who are responsible for narrowing the selection and refining the concepts.

* Revisions are brought back to staff for discussion and final adoption, if approved.

One of the most significant results of the continual cycle of improvement at Montgomery High has been the staff development program that was implemented two years ago. The process began with a question posed by the II/USP external evaluator, "How can Montgomery improve its instructional delivery system to improve student achievement?"

The School Leadership Team reviewed data and proposed a series of in-services targeting research-based instructional strategies, including Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE), mastery teaching and learning, Teacher Expectation and Student Achievement (TESA), reciprocal teaching and learning, note-taking/ summarizing, differentiated instruction, assessment, standards-based lesson planning and Literacy Across the Curriculum.

Influenced by the culture of continuous improvement through schoolwide processes, the staff made a commitment to complete the in-services and begin implementation of the strategies within two years. At the end of each year a survey about the staff development program is conducted and the results used to refine the program for the following year. For example, a change this year will be the increased use of model lessons and peer study groups focused on the selected instructional strategies.

An integral piece of our staff development program has been the participation in peer observations by staff and the implementation of an academic coaching program. Both components serve to monitor implementation of the agreed-upon teaching strategies.

Another role of the academic coaches, each of whom has a release period, is to support teachers to improve their professional practices through professional dialogues, weekly observations and presentations at in-services. The coaches and the observations reinforce the schoolwide commitment to continuous improvement through shared responsibility and accountability.

As more and more mandates impact our daily operations, it would be easy for staff to become overwhelmed and frustrated, feeling that there is "yet another thing to do." Our proactive approach from the onset of our school improvement journey has been to help staff see the connections between the expectations of the various local, state and federal requirements. With those connections identified, our next step was, and continues to be, recognizing areas in which there may be gaps between our current reality and our vision.

Montgomery's journey from good to great uses as its roadmap our guiding principles. These principles have fostered the belief system that has promoted the development of a systematic, schoolwide approach toward reform. The approach is embedded in the balanced leadership design, the Comprehensive School Site Plan and a positive view toward outside evaluation.

Taking personal responsibility

Staff members are encouraged to take personal responsibility for improving student achievement and the school culture and climate at Montgomery. Through long-term planning and valuing the successes of each individual, senior leaders support these efforts as everyone moves forward on their own personal journey of improvement. Each individual's impact on student achievement is the ultimate measure of success for Montgomery's journey from good to great.

References

Blanchard, K. and Bowles, S. (1998). Gung Ho! Turn on the People in Any Organization. New York: William Morrow & Co.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Walters, T., Marzano, R. and McNulty, B. (2003). Balanced Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells us About the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement. Colorado: McREL.

Karen Janney is principal of Montgomery High School in San Diego County and the 2004 ACSA Secondary School Administrator of the Year. Lori Morris is a resource teacher at Montgomery High, where Nancy Stubbs is assistant principal.