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The Governance Corner

A forum for discussing issues in Independent School governance in the second decade of the 21st Century

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Governance and Mission

4/4/2013

4 Comments

 
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I recently attended a meeting with a group of Heads of School who were attempting to “brand” themselves as a collective. The phrase that was most often repeated was that they were all “university preparatory schools”. In virtually every case, this phrase was enshrined in each of their individual mission statements and there is no question but that the vast majority of parents who dutifully paid their fees each term had “university preparation” in their minds as a key reason for enrolling their child.

However, for most of those schools, there was no concrete evidence in the least that they were effectively preparing their students for university. They may very well have been doing so, but actually had no verifiable proof that this was the case. They had reams of admissions information (“90% of our grads get into the university of their choice” etc.) but little or no performance data once they were there. If fact one similar school in another part of the country once confided in me that when they actually tracked their graduates, over one-third of them either dropped out or changed their academic major after their first year of university. As a “university preparatory” school, they were clearly falling short!

You may see this as a shortcoming of the school's administration and leadership, but in practical terms what it is, is a failure of governance.

More than any other single function, the role of the Board is to be the guardian of the Mission of the school. Discussion should take place at every meeting to explicitly address issues pertaining to the fundamental values of the school. It should be the on-going task of the Board to review the Mission, Vision, and Strategic Objectives of the school each year, and to set goals annually in order to close strategic gaps where they exist.

Sometimes mission statements miss the boat. They fill themselves with high-sounding phrases such as: “to provide a safe and supportive learning environment” or “to educate the whole child” or “to foster interdependence and the self-esteem of learners”. These are great sentiments and admirable approaches to learning but they are not ends in themselves. It is the responsibility of the Board to concern itself with measurable ends.

Using the above example, the individual Boards of these schools, if they believe that a prime facet of their mission is to prepare students for university, should be holding the Head and leadership team to account with respect to providing data that demonstrate that the school is achieving this goal. This is good governance.

A number of years ago, I was leading the strategic planning process for a very successful girls’ school. At one point, the Head commented that she had been approached by the Head of the neighbouring boys’ school to see if he could enroll some of his senior students in her AP Physics and Economics classes. His school was an IB school and some of his U.S. bound students needed the credits for advanced admissions. The Head commented that she saw this as a great opportunity to both demonstrate the quality of the school’s programme, and the advantage of offering AP credits over IB.

There was general agreement until one lone Board member spoke up and said: “Aren’t we a girls’ school? Doesn’t our mission say that we believe in single gender education for girls? Wouldn’t we be going against our beliefs to admit boys, even for a single course?” The issue immediately became dead in the water. The Head thanked the Board member for reminding her, and her leadership team (and the rest of the Board, although she was too polite to point it out), about the need to be consistent with the mission of the school. It was a great moment for governance.


4 Comments
Mark Brown link
4/4/2013 08:24:04 am

Hi Jim,

Your post reminded me of a project I did while studying at the University of Buckingham with regards to school leadership. My research paper was entitled "Leading the Transition from Good to Excellent in Independent Schools".

With apologies, I'd like to just take a piece straight from that project as commentary to your piece. Though I don't have nearly the wisdom that you do in school governance I can confidently say, as I wrote in this piece, that weak, forgotten, or useless school missions are the antithesis to quality education.
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The most defining characteristic of any leading business, sports team, institution, government, or successful leader may be their clarity of purpose. In schools, this can sometimes be found in the school’s mission statement: “Words are the currency in which schools trade; [they are] devalue[d] at our peril”. While defining a clear mandate, writing it, and sticking to it may seem a rather obvious step to success, it is missing from many institutions.

As a faculty member at [a school I used to work at], I knew with certainty that our goal was ‘excellence in boys’ education’. Some may view this mission statement as narrow in scope. However, that narrowness was its greatest strength. I knew, without a doubt, that the decisions I made on day to day basis would be judged against this ‘excellence’ criteria.

In schools that lack a clear mandate, everyday decisions are, by necessity, driven by the philosophical leanings of individuals and not the mandate of the institution. This leads to academic discord while creating an environment of second guessing and questioning of colleagues and school leadership that is ultimately damaging to the school.

Weak school mandates are potentially just as damaging as mandates that are unclear. School goals such as ‘creating an environment conducive to learning’ and ‘encouraging high academic standards’ do little to inspire faculty. As Peter Ireland wrote, “anyone to whom it hadn’t already occurred that high standards and the welfare of children are important is unlikely to change as a result of reading a slogan on a board”. These types of mission statement do little to inform everyday educational practice and should be avoided.
Excellent schools have a defined and clear mandate that inspires the faculty. This mandate need not be long and verbose. In fact, the opposite is most effective: “Keep it snappy, short, focused, and get on with it”. The key is not simply having the mission statement; virtually every school has achieved that much. Rather, the challenge for the Head is to communicate the vision, ensure its continued implementation, and support everyone who strives towards that vision. In the words of Colin Powell: “We had to make sure that we took the new mission and drove it down to the last private in the ranks. Whoever came in an emptied the trash can at night had to understand the vision.”
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*With reference to Peter Ireland at the University of Buckingham.

Reply
Tina Outerbridge
4/8/2013 09:45:50 am

In reading this post, I see that you put the sole responsibility of a school authentically living it's mission on the Board and Leadership Team. Although I agree with this, I also think that educators (teachers) also play an important role in letting the Leadership group know when their governing antics go against the mission. If no one says anything then how will they know? Sometimes, the Board and Leadership Team are so far removed from what is happening that they can not see the unbalance.

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Mark Brown
4/8/2013 08:58:35 pm

Hi Tina,

I love your question and I look forward to Jim's response as well.

I believe that a true Leadership Team will spend so much time in classrooms and with teachers that they see, day to day, the mission being lived by teachers and students.

That said, I did just use the 'true' adjective in front of Leadership Team. As you hint, some Leadership Teams' "governing antics" have absolutely nothing to do with the mission of the school. This leaves teachers in a difficult and precarious position - particularly those teachers who truly keep students #1.

Perhaps this is where the Board needs to come in. I'm not sure, though, how this can be communicated to school governance when most of the information they receive comes through the Leadership Team itself.

Maybe Jim can weigh in on your question and what can happen/should happen when a Board's oversight is not seeing the whole truth in the hallways and classrooms of a school.

Reply
Jim
4/10/2013 01:21:50 am

Hi guys,
Great comments. I think that you are right Tina, the faculty and staff do have an important role in holding both the admin's and Board's feet to the fire with respect to honouring the Mission. Sometimes school leaders get caught up in their own hype (never my of course!) and you see a divergence between what they say is happening and what is actually going on in classrooms.
If you look at my post on accountability - Monday's musings - you will see that I believe that the Board has a responsibility to all stakeholders and needs to have a process through which they can do reality checks and not be totally dependent on the Leadership Team for all of their info. Having said that, the more open dialogue that there is with everyone in the room, the better for the health of the institution.
When Stacey ran the diversity focus groups a couple of years ago, there were some hard truths which emerged (along with a bit of nonsense). At least it was clear how people thought. That was the value of the surveying that we did last springs as well. The real test of a Mission is if you can link it to concrete outcomes and demonstrate how it is being put into effect.

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    Dr. Jim Christopher
    has been working with Boards and Heads on Governance issues for the past 15 years. He is a former Superintendent of Schools, ED of the Canadian Association of Independent Schools and Canadian Educational Standards Institute and is the author of a number of books and articles of education and governance. His latest book, Beyond the Manual: A Realist's Guide to Independent School Governance is available on iTunes or at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/388729

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