Real World Partnerships in Tupelo, Mississippi

Bruce Daniels

he mission of the Tupelo Puldic Scl~~ols

Various programs is to create, develop,

help bring Tupelo nurture, and reinforce the success of people. To SLIP-

businesses and port the fulfilliment of this mission, the following belief staten~ents were formulated in our strritegic planning

l Every person can learn. l Success is the scl~ool’s business.

l Every person has worth. l Our business is growing people. l Success occurs best in a nurturing environ-

ment. l Success begins in the home. l Success is enhanced by community sup-

port. l Successful education benefits all. The goals of our strategic plan focus on cre-

ating a culture for developing and nurturing suc- cess through climate and experiences, ~1s well as recognizing, rewarding, and celebrating the suc- cesses of those we serve.

A strategic plan is a dyn:imic process of rein- forcing success and reassessing failure. It allows us to use our resources to maximize our strengths, correct our weaknesses, and change our direction to realize our mission. Many of the progranis in the Tupelo Public School District enable and encourage us to move forward in implementing our strategic plan and to make progress in realizing our mission.

Association for Excellence in Education

The Association for Excellence in Education CAEE), established in February 1983, is an organi- zation of niore than 400 contributors, equally divided among Tupelo-area businesses and in- dustries, area service organizations, and incli-

vi&al members, who are working in partnership with our schools to improve public education in Tupelo. The association funds specific projects and initiatives in the Tupelo scl~~ols that will proniote improvecl quality for the students.

AEE is a positive, supportive influence in Tupelo’s local education programs with a proven track recorcl of success. Since 1983, approxi- rmately $1 million has been raised and usecl to fund needed programs and equipnient. Proposed projects can be fundecl by AEE only if there are no other revenues by wl~icll they can be financecl promptly by the school clistrict. Therefore, many wortllwliile encleavors are supportecl that otlier- wise woulcl remain unfunclecl.

Grants from AEE have supportecl teaching by provicling for teachers sabbaticals ancl allowing Leachers to visit other scliools ancl attencl various conferences across the United States. These prac- titioners have observecl ancl been involvecl in innovative programs, which they then brought hck to Tupelo and effectively irmplementecl. Experiences ancl insights gainecl on these visits are regularly shared with peers so they can IX integrated into local efforts.

Major projects that have been supported hy AEE during its ten-year existence inclucle:

l Technology education-purchase of com- puter hardware and software to equip ;I teclinol- ogy laboratory at each elementary scliool site;

l Teacher scholarships-incentives for teach- ers to conlplete aclditional coursework ancl graduate work in their field of certification;

l Small grants for teachers-grants of up to $500 to support efforts of indiviclual teachers in the classroom;

l Tupelo Writing Project-a summer writing program for K-12 teachers that encourages the inclusion of writing in all content areas;

l Orff Music-integration of the arts into the elenientary school curriculum through the music of composer Carl Orff;

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l Whole-language clevetopment-support of the Bitt Martin/Pathways to Literacy Conference, for years one of the country’s teacting literacy workshops for teachers, which was held in Tu- pelo for the first time in summer 1992.

Industry/Education Activities

The Industry/Education Day concept began for the Tupelo schools in the late 1970s. A day was set aside each spring for classroom teachers Co visit various industries in the Tupelo-Lee County area. Over the span of a few years, teachers had the opportunity to visit several industrial sift3 to observe how knowledge was being applied in the workplace; they then could take the valuable insights that they had gained during the visits back to the classrooms with them.

The initial Industly/Eclucation Day concept has evolvecl over time. Today, not only do teach- ers regularly visit local businesses and incluscries; business ancl inclusrry managers anct employees also spent] time in the schools working with and advising various buitcting teams and teacher and administrator groups.

In Tupelo, we are attempting to take our classrooms ancl teachers into the real wortcl and bring the real world into our classrooms. Our intent is not to replicate on-the-job training pro- grams of area business and incluslries. However. we do feel we have a manclate fo provicle critical- thinking and problem-solving skills along with a firm foundation Lhaf will allow our studencs to thrive in their chosen firtcls of endeavor. If our schoots are Lo carry us into the next century suc- cessfully, we must change the nature of the work students do in the classrooms. The most direct ancl effective way to accomt~listl this is to invite workers anct managers in the “real wortcl” who cl0 twenty-first century work into the classroom with teachers-and to place teachers into the workplace where that kind of work is going on.

LINKS Program-Church Street Elementary School

Four teachers at Church Street Etemenlary School-Sherry Pittman, Carol Wright, Patty Permenter, ancl h/lartha Senter-are involved in a pilot project caltecl LINKS-Learning Is New Knowlectge Shared. As Carol Wright said:

We hact in our minds that we wantect to teach chilctren [for] more than one year. Then, on Inclustry/Education Day, a local inclustly manager questioned the practice of schoots in changing stuctenls every year. Essentially every teacher started each fall with an entirety clifferent group of students. After several months, when

the teachers became familiar with the children, it was time to change again. The industry manager explained that if his company changed crews and manag- ers every nine months as did the schools, it would go out of business.

This exchange between the teachers and a local industry leader encouragect the teachers to try LINKS. In the LINKS program, one teacher’s class is composect of half first-level students and half second-level students. titer the second year, the children move to their next teacher, who teaches a combined class of thirct- and fourth- level students. The two teachers and their classes form a team, and a “family“ is macle by pairing the two teams together. The children remain in the same family for four years. Plans are currently under way to serve all kindergarten Lhrough fourth-grade stuctents al the Church Street site in such a family environment.

Teachers are quick to point out some advan- tages of LINKS. The “ownership” of the children shared by the reachers ensures a deep caring for and commitment to all the students. Crossing grade levels gives the opportunity for non-graded learning, cross-level tutoring, and an ever-avail- able audience for the chilclren. Because of shared norms of student behavior, teaching philosophy, anct instructional methoclotogy, the studencs wilt be in a consistent teaming environment. Having the same teacher for two consecutive years en- sures that each child wilt be in a more secure learning climate. The program gives the smdents a sense of belonging. When older children are in the same groups with younger ones, they tend to adopt ;I teaclership rote. Parents and teachers have longer to interact, and the teachers make every effort to know the chitclren in all the classes 10 ensure that the transition from one reacher to the next wilt be smoother.

A multimedia information laboratory chat includes ;I publishing center, video station, and reference center, along with volumes of chit- dren‘s literature, encourages students to obtain, use, and communicate information. LINKS is changing the way we serve our stuclents, as welt as the nature of the work we provide for them.

Quality Plan of Organization

The Tupelo Public School District has embarked on a new system of operations to minimize bu- reaucracy and LO be more people-oriented. AC- cording to Superintendent IMike Walters, total cluality management (TQM), which is based on the idea of continuous improvement, is a syscem- atic way of ensuring better service throughout the system. The beneficiaries of such a system will, of course, be the students.

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After the district strategic planning process had begun, there was a clearer vision for a new school district. It was evident that the current bureaucratic structure would not help in realizing that vision. “But,” said Walters, “we clid not know what needed to he done.” Several of the planners had heard of TQM and how organizations had realized extraordinary results through its imple- mentation. Several Tupelo business ancl industrial leaclers who were using qualily management techniques were askecl to share their knowleclge of the system with the school clistrict. The school board officially recognizecl an Inclustry/Eclucation Council formed in 1991, which is coniposecl of school aclministtators ancl managers of local busi- nesses ancl industries engagecl in TQM. The busi- ness people told the school leaclers what they neeclecl from the schools to be successful. More- over, they pleclgecl their support to help the schools realize their vision.

Total quality management often involves a plan used throughout an organization to improve both the products manufactured and the pro- cesses used to make them. In schools, the pro- cess is the teaching, ancl the product must he the work createcl in which the students can engage. This relatively new concept-the brainchild of Phillip Schlechty. presiclent of the Center for Leadership in School Reform-is versatile. More- over, it works in almost any type of organization because it fosters continuous improvement and worker input-two factors of special importance in a school system.

TQM for the Tupelo Public School District will focus on service lo the classroom ancl the involvement of everyone in the clistrict in a sys- tematic way. People at all levels will be involvecl in clecision making that affects their work lives. Rules, roles, and relationships will be reclefinecl so that the system hecomes “win/win” for eveiy- one involvecl. Ownership in the system ancl ii total commitment to quality by all district em- ployees will make schools more enjoyable, excit- ing places in which to work. Children will surely reap the rewards.

In powerful, successful schools, those with the greatest expertise in teaching and learning are the teachers themselves. Many teachers in 0~11 schools have more knowledge and skills relative to instruction than those in formal leadership positions. In the past, eclucation reforms have failed to recognize that “top-clown” reform mea- sures have little chance of success unless incli- viduals who ultimately have the responsibility for implementing the reforms also have a firm under- standing of their roles and an opportunity to provide input into the reform efforts.

It has become obvious that organizational changes are best accomplished when school principals and teachers are the inventors of

change. New leaclership styles must be clevel- aped in leaner, more responsive schools; this new direction in leaclership requires training bolh administrators ancl teachers. Our schools are only as good as those who work in them.

Business ancl inclustiy in America have beg~~n to realize that to succeed in a global economy, they must make quality the key issue. We have an establishecl cadre of industrial ancl business experts who are sharing their cluality manage- ment techniques with our principals ancl leach- ers, effectively teaching what inclustiy has learnecl about being competitive in the market- place. Schools must learn those lessons. The recently cleveloped Tupelo Public Schools Learn- ing Institute is the primary vehicle that will take 11s into the twenty-first centLily.

Tupelo Public Schools Learning Institute

A gift of income-producing property valuecl at $3.5 million from Mr. ancl Mrs. L.D. Hancock in the summer of 1991 has enclowecl a new concept for the Tupelo schools. The Tupelo Public Schools Learning Institute is devotecl to provicling continued professional development opportuni- ties for all clistrict employees. The Learning Insti- tule is the schools’ school, where clistrict cduca- tars can enhance their professional skills ancl share clecision-making opportunities with their peers. This will be the means for our professional eclucators to create and clevelop a moclern in- structional program that will establish in Tupelo lhe schools of the twenty-first cenlury.

Through Learning Institute activities, we can ensure that our teaching is gearecl towarcl an establishecl curriculum that is alignecl with the neecls of stuclents who will compete in a global economy. Enhancecl technical training will greatly benefit business ancl inclustry; at the same time, it

will offer aclvantages to indiviclual stuclents by applying theory to practice in learning-by-cloing activities that incorporate both academic ancl vocational skills.

Existing curricula ancl instructional tech- niques must be reviewecl and revised constantly to ensure that we teach more ancl teach it faster, and that we teach higher-orcler thinking skills along with the basics. Through the Learning Insti- tute, we can integrate our curricular offerings more fully to make the classroom more like the real world, which is not so neatly compartmental- izecl as the typical school day. It is essential that we help young people learn to use their minds well to become thinking citizens, workers, ancl family members able to make souncl juclgments for themselves. We must prepare them not only to learn, but to learn how to learn.

Some examples of activities and programs in which teachers and staff members engage on a

62 Business Horizons / September-October 1993

strictly volunteer basis through the Learning Insti- tute during the 1992-93 academic year include:

l Bill Martin/Pathways to Literacy Confer- ence-a summer conference attended by 200 Tupelo teachers;

l Quality Schools Workshop--a summer workshop focusing on quality concepts for teach- ers;

l Tupelo Writing Project-a three-week sum-

mer project in which teachers learn to promote writing in their particular content area;

l Cooperative Learning Worksho~l sum- mer workshop in which teachers learn to employ cooperative group concepts in their classrooms;

l Reality Therapy/Control Therapy--a coun- seling techniclue developed by William Glasser that allows individuals to examine, evaluate, and esplain their behaviors;

l Teacher Effectiveness Training and Peel Coaching-two staff development activities that provicle teachers with the tools that they neecl ta m:tke rational decisions in the classroom ancl to work together to serve students better.

Other Site-Based Programs

Many other site-specific partnerships-either with various businesses and industries or through activities initiated by the Learning Institute-have cleveloped throughout the past school year. The use of technology has increased throughout the district.

A pilot foreign language program is being used in two of Tupelo’s elementary schools. Stu- dents Understanding Neighbors (SUN), supported by a grant from AEE, exposes students in kinder- garten through fifth gracle to Spanish as well as the culture of Mexico ancl other Spanish-speaking countries. The SUN program is clesigned to be an integral part of the schools’ regular instructional program. Spanish language ancl culture are com- pared and contrastecl with those of the United States through the stucly of art, music, social stud-

ies, physical eclucation, mathematics, and lan- guage arts. The choice of Spanish was influencecl by the precliction that by the year 2000 one of four Americans will be speaking Spanish, as well as by the potential for increasecl economic ex- change in the future. Eventual job success in business or inclustry may well clepend on the abilily to communicate with Spanish-speaking people arouncl the world. The SUN program represents :m early effort to promote this ability.

IHigh school teachers are examining possibili- ties for integrating acaclemic and vocational courses such as clrafting, geometry, diversified technology, ancl physics, among others. The ef- fective integration of these ancl other offerings will provide stuclents with more opportunities to he sllccessfcll.

S chool leaders are continually looking for new ways to introcluce chilclren to the real world. We want to stimulate our teachers

constantly to invent new knowledge work that will engage their students. Every year shoulcl IX better than the one before. Because we are in the business of learning, we can draw from many experiences, critiquing last year to determine how we can make the learning experience for our students a better one this year. The Tupelo Public School District is an innovator, and those of us involvecl in it want to upgrade our method- ology, facilities, ancl other eclucational tools con- scantly to provide new challenges and opportuni- ties for our auclents LO succeed. 0

Bruce Daniels is an assistant superinten- dent in the Tupelo Public School District, Tupelo, Mississippi. The Tupelo district is a partner district of the Center for Leader- ship in School Reform, whose headquar- ters are in Louisville, Kentucky.

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