The Art of Powerful Questions

As promised - here is the World Cafe article that described strategies for creating powerful questions.

What Matters #2

What Matters #1

Present: Lisa Beaulieu, Carol Bissanti, Karen Freedman, Donna Morelle, Ryan Pearson, Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

The group welcomed Carol Bissanti. She has joined the group to facilitate planning and implementation of the World Café as a kickoff to Town Wide Learning Community efforts. Carol shared information about the World Café model. She shared World Design Principles included in the World Café Shaping Our Futures Through Conversation by Juanita Brown with David Issacs and the World Café Community.

Principles include:

Principle 1: Set the Context
Principle 2: Create a Hospitable Space
Principle 3: Explore Questions that Matter
Principle 4: Encourage Everyone’s Contribution
Principle 5: Cross-Pollinate and Connect Diverse Perspectives
Principle 6: Listen Together for Patterns, Insights, and Deeper Questions
Principle 7: Harvest and Share Collective Discoveries

An outline of the work was also distributed. The group discussed issues and details of our World Café as follows:

The makeup of the team needs to be a microcosm of the community. Carol challenged the 20-60-20 rule that was included in the Complementary Learning article from Harvard advising engagement of the 20% of the community likely to be early supporters of Town Wide Learning. The World Café model encourages diversity of thought and respect for different opinion. Collective intelligence of the group results in positive results for the community by taking advantage of a cross section of multiple voices.

There are commonalities in the World Café model and specifics are driven by purpose and questions. For example, most World Café experiences generally include three rounds of questions with discussions lasting between 20-30 minutes. This can be modified based on the needs of the group.

Another aspect of the World Café can include solicitation of ideas from participants related to existing resources in the community and other like ideas. This type of input is not part of the Café table discussions; it is written and collected to serve as a type of environmental scan. For example, we could ask about existing partnerships that could serve as a foundation to town wide learning.

The group also discussed Town Wide Learning for all residents versus Town Wide Learning for student achievement. This conversation generated potential questions to help participants define the scope of Town Wide Learning. Carol reminded us that while we have been discussing this concept for a while, the World Café will be the first time that others will be introduced to the idea.

The purpose for our efforts could be to create an opportunity for learning partners to work together to create more learning opportunities. It would allow us to capitalize on resources related to a common goal.

The idea of reconvening the District Strategic Planning Team prior to the World Café to share this idea was also discussed. It would help to reengage those partners and serve as a sounding board for the feasibility of our World Café plans.

The group discussed potential questions. Carol’s blog posting of 9/29 provides modifications of those questions suitable for discussion and an outline of the work we need to accomplish at the next meeting on October 6th from 6:30-8:00 pm.

The group set a tentative date for World Café January 9, 2009 with the goal of determining specifics for the World Café prior to the holiday season.

Points for Consideration

Hello Town Wide Community Committee Members.



I appreciate your warm welcome. Most of you have indicated that you received my email of 9/24. At our next meeting we should be able to focus on the following three interdependent details:

1. The Cafe Purpose
2. The Cafe Participants
3. The Potential Questions

Points for consideration:

Purpose: What are our intentions at the Cafe?

*Do the following goals capture your intentions? What revisions to these goals would better highlight your intentions?


---To develop a common vision of a community that collectively supports student learning and/or Town Wide Learning

---To collect information relative to community resources as they exist and what gaps exists with regard to the ideal?

---To create an atmosphere of trust and commitment around this initiative

---To gain a sense of appropriate "next steps"

Participants: Based on your intentions, who are the appropriate members of the community to invite to this initial cafe?

* Do you need a "tight group" of community members to begin this initial conversation or should a "wide base" of community members be involved?

Potential Questions: What questions would best align to your purpose and to energizing the cafe participants?

* Do any of the potential questions align and/or what revisions to the questions would best serve your purpose?

1. What would it look like if all community representatives partnered with schools to take mutual responsibility for student achievement?
2. How do I envision my role in a community where all adults clearly assume collective responsibility for every student’s success?
3. What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents?
4. What are the opportunities/dilemmas in developing a partnership between all community members and the school department on behalf of the town students and residents?
5. What would it look like if every member of the community contributed to the education of our youth?
6. If our success was completely guaranteed as a Town Wide Learning Community what bold steps might we choose?

Let's be prepared to deal with the details of these three components at our next meeting on October 6Th.

Congratulations on the RI Foundation Grant...Welcome, Carol!

I wanted to personally thank everyone for their efforts toward the successful grant award from the RI Foundation. As a result of the grant award, we are able to commence planning for our World Cafe in which we will invite community partners to a dialogue about the Townwide Learning Community.

As part of that venture, we will have the pleasure of working with Carol Bissanti, an experienced Rhode Island educator and World Cafe facilitator. Carol joined us at our meeting last night and guided us through an initial conversation about the World Cafe.

I am happy to welcome Carol to our work and to our blog.

Parent University

Happy September, Everyone!

At one of our summer meetings, Rosemary mentioned the concept of a 'Parent University'. This year the Boston Public Schools will be launching a 'Parent University' in an effort to increase parent engagement. I thought you might be interested... Enjoy!

Search Institute Training of Trainers

Hello Everyone,

I found this training opportunity on the Search Institute website. It is taking place in Massachusetts.
http://www.search-institute.org/open-enrollments

Search Institute Essentials Of Asset Building, Training of Trainers.

Check it out!

Rosemary

Community Organizing

First, I really have to thank Rosemary, Tom and Lisa for keeping up the posts on the blog. Even though I haven't been posting, I have been reading your posts and doing a lot of reflecting offline.

I hope I can add to the discussion today with feedback about a research publication I found on the Harvard Family Research Project web site. The research discusses lessons learned from community organizing -- and two concepts in particular resonated with me. One, I think the differences between 'parent involvement' and 'community organizing' are relevant to our work. Second, I believe there is application to our work on the Town Learning Community in the quote below.

Specifically, the quote theorizes that an obstacle to systemic improvement of student achievement is the act of "individualizing" issues. By developing relationships and connecting people, schools provide opportunities to identify systems issues that are not the result of an individual, but rather problems that are the responsibility of the organization to develop solutions for.

"Education organizing invests in building relationships among parents as the foundation of action. It focuses on “relational power,” which is the power to act collectively in order to make system change (Cortés, 1993). All too often schools individualize systemic problems (C. Brown, personal communication, October 3, 2003). For example, a student might be faulted for poor performance when in reality the problem also lies in a lack of qualified teachers and instructional materials. Organizing counters this individualizing trend by bringing people into relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues. Through one-on-one conversations, group dialogue, and reflection, parents and other residents develop a strong sense of community, and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change. In contrast, parent involvement approaches that focus on individual skill building rarely provide opportunities for dialogue about common problems. The absence of these opportunities often precludes parents’ working together for school improvement."(Giles, 1998)

If you think this applies to our work moving forward, a theory of action about the Town Learning Community might be:

"If we provide opportunities for people to develop relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues, they will develop a strong sense of community and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change, resulting in more students achieving the district's standards."

I've provided the link to research on the Harvard web site on the Message Board. I'd also like to suggest that we all read the research since it's rather brief and use it for a text-based discussion at one of our meetings. Through such a discussion, we might talk about the research, this proposed theory of action, and how to test its application to our work. We might also discuss whether this could help to form the basis for a focus question in our World Cafe forum.

World Cafe

I found a website that talks about the World Cafe for those interested in learning more about it.

When there are things that 'I know I don't know' (like what a World Cafe was prior to this Spring) I love having some reading material to help me frame the subject, or as I've been known to say : 'Find a bucket to sort it into.'

See you tonight!

Town Wide Learning Community Meeting Summary

Hi Everyone, Here is the meeting summary. Let me know if I missed something. I will bring hard copies to our next meeting. I don't know if I am missing the obvious, but I can't seem to figure out how to attach a word document. See you soon, Rosemary

Town Wide Learning Community Meeting Summary

Lisa Beaulieu, Tom Kenworthy, Karen Freedman, Ryan Pearson, Donna Morelle, Dee Gould and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

The group met on June 2, 2009 at 7:15

Discussion: The steering committee discussed a time period to convene the larger group in the town wide learning community effort. Choosing a target time will enable the committee to plan for timely implementation.

Action: A target time was set, in late September, for the first convening of the larger group to discuss the Town Wide Learning Community.

Discussion: The application to the RI Foundation for organizational development was discussed in detail. An essential question concerning what the steering committee should know and be able to do before we convene the group, was discussed. We discussed how the application will help us to prepare for the work ahead. The organizational development grant could be used to help the steering committee educate ourselves. There is a wealth of information on community involvement. Building a common language and understanding among the steering committee members is important. Hiring a facilitator could help to organize the steering committee. Donna, Lisa and Tom attended a professional development experience for school leaders called World Café. This model could be used to engage the larger group in the town wide learning community discussion. During the May meeting the team discussed possible process questions to consider including:
What do children need?
What can we do?
Where do we need help?

Donna offered the school improvement fund to seed some efforts related to town wide learning . These school department funds will be a good match to include in the grant application and demonstrate local support and commitment to this idea.

The professional development grant still needs to be discussed.

Action: Lisa agreed to draft the application to the RI Foundation. All other steering committee members will review and provide feedback. The grant will be submitted to the RI Foundation by June 30, 2009.

Discussion: The group continued to discuss what building a town wide learning community would mean. The town wide learning community would create a culture of learning in Cumberland. The model would recognize that learning just doesn’t happen in school. The process could start with current community relationships within Cumberland Public Schools. There could some type of celebration of learning as a kickoff event. Dee shared examples from Chicago and Boston. The anniversary of the high school is coming up and this event could be tied to that celebration
The Complementary Learning report from Harvard was discussed. The report contained many excellent examples to help inform our efforts in terms of leadership, leveraging resources, and building partnerships. The 20-60-20 rule was of interest. This rule advised that in terms of change, 20% of stakeholders will be on board right away, 60% can be brought along and 20% may never buy in. We need to start with the first 20%. Interestingly, this report also differentiated between family engagement and community involvement. The report held a very traditional approach to family involvement which included support for the school and homework help. Community involvement meant meeting the needs of youth beyond what the school can do. This definition of community involvement was also shared by Jude Pelchat from the Annenberg Institute at an earlier meeting with the steering committee.

The group looked at “the list” to determine next steps. We discussed a sorting activity with the list to include active partnerships, geography, power and influence. Several other names and groups were added to the list including: Youth sports and booster clubs, town stakeholders, faith community, Craig Bloomer of the Boys and Girls Club, Mike Crawley, Darlene Wood, Neal Anderson, Cumberland Youth Commissioners, Dan Yorke, Ralph Jasparro and Clifton Boyle.
The Cumberland Local Education Fund was also discussed. The town wide learning community can provide opportunities to establish and or strengthen bonds with local groups such as the fund and the Office for Children Youth and Learning.

Action: There is still a wealth of information to review and incorporate in our work. It was agreed that we would meet regularly to achieve the fall meeting goal that was established at the beginning of the meeting. Donna, Tom and Rosemary will meet to review and analyze SALT data as it relates to town wide learning.

The next meeting of the group will be June 24, 2009 from 6:30-8:00 in the Superintendent’s conference room.

Building the townwide learning community

http://www.valleybreeze.com/Free/BIZ-boyle-retires-w-Hed-shot-C-W-and-OBS

Good Morning:

As we consider leadership strategies for building the town wide learning community, I would ask us to consider approaching Clifton Boyle. He is a Cumberland resident, former Cumberland industrial arts teacher, first principal of Woonsocket Career and Tech School, and a Superintendent. He rose through the ranks at JWU and was founder of the doctoral program in education leadership. Tom and I (and now Rich D.) are all recent graduates. The article from the Breeze is linked above.

Ralph Jasparro is a Cumberland resident, JWU professor, former Superintendent and overall a very accomplished educational leader. I spoke with him about this effort to gauge his interest in participation. He was interested but I believe it was after I submitted names to the list.

A shared leadership model, that we've discussed, with education leaders, business/community leaders and parent leaders could lend itself to the so-called "big boy/girl" approach.

I know we have a full agenda for next time yet it would be helpful to define the role of the steering committee in terms of leadership, guidance and support for the group. I think it will help us to get to "yes" with the people we ultimately decide to ask to step forward.

Rosemary

National Partnership requirements

Hello Everyone,

The link for district requirements in the National Partnership is below. The annual fee is $300, however it is waived if the districts completes a survey. There are staffing and other budgetary requirements as well.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/distreq.htm

Rosemary

Great read...really got me thinking!

I just finished reading a great paper that summarizes lessons learned at a 2007 professional development institute sponsored by the Harvard Family Research Project; "Closing the Achievement Gap: Linking Families and Communities Through Complementary Learning."

"Complementary learning" is explained like this...
Educators, policymakers, and families increasingly agree: schools cannot do it alone. Children need multiple opportunities to learn and grow—at home, in school, and in the community. Complementary learning is a comprehensive strategy for addressing all of these needs and ensuring success for all children and youth. Complementary learning is the idea that a systemic approach—which intentionally integrates both school and nonschool supports—can better ensure that all children have the skills they need to succeed

Sounds familiar, doesn't it!

Well, I was also struck by the conclusion of the paper...

Regardless of terminology, the institute presenters and participants tackling these challenges are part of a growing national momentum for educating children in a more connected, comprehensive, and equitable way. As we all continue to innovate and build knowledge, we look forward to learning from them, sharing their knowledge, and helping to facilitate the national dialogue about educating children from a holistic, whole-community perspective.

The entire paper can be found at the following link. I would welcome your thoughts.

http://www.hfrp.org/complementary-learning/publications-resources/complementary-learning-emerging-strategies-evolving-ideas

Professional Development Grants

Here's link the professional development grant from the RI Foundation as discussed this evening.

http://www.rifoundation.org/Nonprofits/GrantOpportunities/SmallGrants/ProfessionalDevelopmentGrants/tabid/394/Default.aspx

Nice meeting tonight. I can't wait for more!