This year, I am collaborating with 2 other colleagues and our director to further develop a unique independent study program at Innovations Academy, a five day K-8 public charter school situated in San Diego, California. The HLC (Home Learning Community) is a program within the school that meets two days each week, in three multi-age classrooms and serves 60-65 students total. Unlike other home school programs that mandate curriculum; the HLC supports personalization of learning by empowering each child and family to learn at home in the way that best fits their needs.  My colleagues and I are developing what we believe is a more equitable form of partnership with parents, because we view them as the primary teacher and ourselves as consultants.   To participate in the program, parents need only submit learning logs and work samples periodically throughout the year. We have designed our logs to be as open-ended as the law will allow. Because of its flexibility, this program attracts a diversity of learners representing all walks of life culturally, religiously, socioeconomically and philosophically. We respect and value this diversity, understanding that with it comes a rugged individualistic nature expressed by each family participating. Over the past few years, we have been working diligently to create a sense of community among the families enrolled and build a common framework not found in other homeschool charter programs, since homeschooling is not a cohesive movement, but rather a choice exercised for a variety of reasons.  Students become a true learning family, forming meaningful and lasting relationships with each other. The projects at school are born from the deep passions and interests of the learners themselves, so they are co-designed, not exclusively teacher designed. Individually, students are encouraged to discover and develop their own unique interests and capacities.

Now, we have added a personal learning plan for each student; a tool aimed at increasing intrinsic motivation and meant to empower students to take responsibility for their own individual learning in a more structured format  not only at school, but also while at home. Cain, in The Rise of the Group Think, points out that human beings both need one another and need privacy. “Our schools should teach children to work with others, but also to work on their own for sustained periods of time (2012, p. 5).” The challenge is that as we collaborate with parents and students to achieve this balance, we continually struggle with defining the boundaries; because the personal learning plan we propose reaches beyond the walls of the classroom. While seeking to connect home and school in new innovative ways, we continually consult amongst ourselves as educators about where and when our involvement in each family’s home learning journey is appropriate. The personal learning plan requires a level of commitment best demonstrated when families experience the benefits for themselves, rather than just participating in adaptive changes we deem beneficial. The challenge this year has been how to present the learning plan in a way that makes it relevant to each family’s learning journey.

The Dream

Over the past couple of years, we have had numerous conversations amongst ourselves and with our director about the validity of implementing a learning plan and our dream for doing so; not one dictated by State standards, but one with room for individual learning styles and philosophies.  Though we knew we wanted it to be open-ended to honor the individualistic nature of the program, we also wanted the process to be structured enough to help each family construct and hold themselves accountable to their own goals, irrespective of individual philosophies or teaching approaches. Ultimately, we believed that going through the process of creating a learning plan together with children and parents would provide a focus and give students the skills to design their own learning. A vital component of learning would be the ability to assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses. When this is done in the context of goal setting within a deep interest or passion, the relevance becomes immediately obvious to even the youngest or resistant learner. We wanted the learning plan to belong to each family, to empower them, to inform their daily choices and to help them discover their deep passions, interests and talents. It’s an educational experiment; a work in progress to make the dream a reality, one where the cycle of consultation, action, consolidation and reflection for my colleagues and I is in constant motion. In addition, it will take an adaptive form of leadership that will require us to collectively reach for new frontiers of learning ourselves as active participants in the process. “Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive (Heifetz, 2009, p.14).” This form of leadership requires from each of us the resolve to continue with a change effort that we deeply believe contains the capacity to help the families we serve to thrive.

The Challenge

 A couple of years back, we made a collective commitment to minimize or completely eliminate teaching by coercion. But that has been with our students. How do we do inspire rather than coerce parents and families? We had created learning plans with some of our students at school in the past, but the learning plan only becomes a vital living document when the connection between school and home is strong.  It requires the eager participation of the families themselves. They need to take ownership of the process. They have not authorized us to lead this change effort and without proceeding mindfully, we run the risk of losing their participation in the program at all.
Essentially, we wanted to foster intrinsic motivation for engaging in the process rather than force it on families. But our efforts seemed to create a change that was almost imperceptible. In addition, there comes a point where a goal or idea risks losing momentum. Were we moving too slowly with the change for it to be effective as Hunt warns can happen in The Art of Idea?  Were we too concerned that because the learning plan is a process, its idea would not withstand scrutiny?  After all, “People are [sometimes] scared to float or accept an idea that’s not shrink-wrapped in its completeness (Hunt, 2009, p.33).” In the end, we determined that prioritizing the learning plan was essential for strengthening the program’s ability to improve student learning and decided it was time to lead decisively.
At first, we encountered passive resistance. Many students and families voiced support for the idea, but only a small handful of families actually took the time and effort needed to make a learning plan. Their lack of action seemed to suggest unwillingness at first glance. However, upon closer examination, we determined that a few key factors might be serving as unnecessary obstacles. Since we went through the process of making and using a learning plan ourselves as participant observers, we gained firsthand knowledge not just of the benefits, but also of the obstacles. This knowledge helped us to focus on determining  what structures we could implement that would better support families, all the while realizing that our efforts might also need to gently pressure a few to try this new process.  After all, some of our families had been with us for many years in the program without the learning plan. How were we going to achieve a balance between support and pressure, all while allowing time for the assimilation of this new approach to our program?  Evans in Seven Secrets of the Savvy School Leader specifically suggests that to ignore this balance and time would not only lead to alienation and the waste of resources, but also would only serve to “intensify opposition and impede implementation (Evans, 2010, p. 55).”  With that in mind, we narrowed the obstacles to three key challenges and hoped that by addressing and/or minimizing them with the entire group, we would provide the right balance of support and pressure. The obstacles we identified are: time, parent motivation regarding accountability and money.

The Change Initiative

The change effort this year has revolved around addressing time and parent motivation, because we felt that they pose the greatest obstacles. We will address equity issues related to money next year in the context of the school budget and its connection to the five day program.  For now time, motivation and support for accountability are within our immediate ability to leverage. In response to the need for more time to plan, we changed the schedule for the year in order to create more space for families to work on learning plans. We now host a Family Learning Plan Week three times a year, held in September, January and May. During those weeks, we don’t hold classes with the students, but rather facilitate parent workshops designed to provide tools to design or work on learning plans collectively. Concurrently, we provide mentorship classes for children, so that the parents have time to quietly reflect and consult with each other, using protocols to guide discussion. It has been extremely helpful to have the full support of our director, who allocated the funds necessary so that we could hire mentors to guide art, drama and engineering labs for the children’s mentorship classes.   In addition to the workshops, teachers meet individually with each student and family for an extended period of time to consult about the learning plan at some point during the week. In September, students and families design a learning plan. Then, because it is a living document, they have an opportunity to revise it as needed during the week in January. In May, students and families reflect upon the year and work with the teacher to create a collaborative progress report; one that represents student, parent and teacher voice. Every family in the HLC now has a learning plan, posted on Google Docs. This is a marked improvement from last year.

In addition to the time, parent motivation regarding accountability remains an obstacle to utilizing the learning plan because it spotlights when families deviate from their own learning goals or more accurately get distracted by daily living. As teachers, we expend tremendous effort to develop meaningful and supportive partnerships with parents in order to improve the learning experience for children.  We seek to increase motivation regarding accountability with this partnership through a spirit of accompaniment. Ultimately, we consider our role to be that of supporter in the learning that goes on at home, not the judge. And yet, we want to capitalize on the personalized learning opportunity for each student that a partnership with parents can afford.  How and in what capacity can our involvement be a support? How can we make ourselves available to all families and provide constructive and helpful feedback? Mostly, we wonder how the learning plan has informed the quality of their choices at home. Have our change initiatives increased motivation for parents and student to hold themselves accountable to the standards that they set for themselves? 

A Single Step

One single aspect that we have neglected in the process is to get direct, anonymous and systematic feedback from parents and students about the learning plan and the support structures we have implemented. Since we have such open lines of communication with them, this has been an understandable oversight. But because they are major stakeholders in the change effort, I feel this is an essential next step to moving forward.  It has become evident to me that the feedback we have received over the years, to which we are very responsive, has been from the most vocal families or possibly tainted because it is never anonymous. It is time to provide every family with an equitable and anonymous opportunity to express their insights about the time we have provided and the support we seek to give. Our program cannot move forward unless we are all moving in the same direction. The learning plan has the potential to serve as the vessel for a group of eclectic and diverse people to move together. However, without direct feedback about the learning plan itself, we run the risk of ending up as Johnson (2007) explained, “No one asked; no one told.  As a result, the school’s instructional capacity remained static, no more than the sum of individual teachers’ strengths and deficits (p.11).” Could this happen to our group? What is the value in a learning community where each family remains on its own island? That is exactly what many homeschooled families often seem to prefer. And yet, the families that come to Innovations Academy HLC seem to be seeking something more. The process of creating and implementing a learning plan, though very personal has a collective component through group consultation and brainstorming, networking for resources and shared mentorship possibilities. Therefore, since the plan is at the heart of the change effort for continuing to grow our program, it seems crucial that we receive feedback about it before moving forward. That’s why I created a survey for the parents and students.

The feedback we have received seems to indicate that there is room for growth in one important area.  Apparently, parents would like more access to me concerning curriculum and learning plan choices. Initially, this was not easy feedback to receive, since I believe that one of my strengths is establishing very open lines of communication with parents. After analyzing the survey more closely, I realized that this is still the case, at least in regard to their child’s experience in the classroom. This feedback addressed the support for the home learning element of the program.  Since the bulk of my teaching experience has been in public school settings, this would require a fundamental shift for me.  I thought I had made the shift already. However, based upon this feedback, it seems that although theoretically I have, in practice there is room for growth. Also, it takes a substantial amount of time to support each family and to explore the sustainability of different approaches. Therefore, I have decided to implement the following changes now, even though more completed surveys keep arriving daily.

 

• Begin home visits with each family to provide an authentic, non-family member audience for each student to share his/her learning passions and interests, as well as to celebrate parent successes so that together we can build upon them in the learning plan. A parent’s job often seems so undervalued in modern society. Then I plan to post reflections and photographs from the visit to the Learning Plan, so that each family will hopefully return to the Google Doc eagerly.

• Posting questions and general wonderings on the Google Doc learning plan for each family to consider, monthly. The Google Doc is shared with me and I hope that by actively engaging them in a written dialogue, I am giving them an authentic audience for their work.

• Begin an interactive journal with each child, targeting the learning plan in the dialogue. I have done these types of journals in the past, but not with the same intention and focus.

• Revisit and analyze the results of the survey with my colleagues the week following spring break. Let our findings inform plans for the end of the year family meetings.

Creating a common framework like this enriches the relationship between parents and teachers, which only improves the quality of education for each child. But with each step we take moving forward, we must continually tread the path between judge and supporter of the learning that is going on at home, ever mindful that we are invited into their learning journeys as a guest; that it is a privilege to be there.  I have enjoyed many of these change efforts in the past in other educational settings. What I wonder now, is how can I use them to help strengthen a family’s resolve to make the most of the learning plan process, since this whole change effort hinges upon family participation.
In the end, this is a learning journey not a learning destination. It might only be through continued consultation, action and reflection over the next year with parents and students that we will be able to notice the effects of these change efforts which, though focused on improving student learning, are more about process than product, thus immediately less quantifiable. “Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions. Sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades (Heath, 2010, p. 44).” This change effort is large in the context of this program’s reality, requiring adaptive changes from the families involved. It will not be with a great leap forward, but with collaborative smaller steps made together as a learning community that lasting, effective change will occur. All the while, we must remain mindful of what Heifetz explains as the productive zone of disequilibrium which is the space where people are uncomfortable enough to desire change but not so anxious as to become paralyzed by it (2009,p. 29).

 

Moving Forward Together

Therefore, as we take our next steps forward, I am very excited to engage parents more fully in the conversation. This means that in addition to the anonymous survey, we will engage parent and student representatives in a consultancy protocol. Some valid questions we will pose to such a group include:
1. What could we change about the presentation of the learning plan so that it can inform our learning journey more effectively?
2. What are some obstacles that make utilizing the learning plan challenging?
3. What would help support families to better use the learning plan as a living document; a road map to guide daily learning choices?

For the consultancy groups, I have invited families successfully using the learning plan and those who seem to struggle or even passively avoid it. As Heifetz (2002) explains, it is by taking into account the “validity of other viewpoints” and by incorporating them into the plan of action that the quality of our change initiatives will improve (p. 78).  In addition, our director will be joining us to provide feedback.  Unfortunately, because of schedule conflicts, this meeting has yet to take place, but is planned for the near future.  My hope for the consultancy is twofold. First, I anticipate that my colleagues and I will receive valuable feedback, and second, that the discussions themselves will provide a framework for parent reflection that falls within Heifetz’ productive zone of disequilibrium. Sometimes, the importance of having different thinkers from different backgrounds makes a group unstoppable.  “Working with people of different backgrounds doesn't just give the group a different point of view; it makes you reassess your own. This is extremely powerful because we are all trapped in what we've previously learnt (Hunt, 2009, p.71-72).” Eagerly, I look forward to hearing other viewpoints and the deeper reflection I expect it will inspire in me.  Also, since my colleagues and I view both students and parents as professionals in regard to their home learning, it is time to build upon this trust relationship with a more official collegial partnership. Barth (2006) explains the need to develop this type of relationship when he speaks of the conditions necessary to enact lasting change in the school setting. We must be willing to accompany each other on this journey and that means among other things, the willingness to listen and receive feedback.

Reflections on My Own Growth

As one of the leaders in this Home Learning Community, so much of my own growth and development in this process has been about developing a new definition of leadership, one firmly rooted in the importance of building relationships. Inherently, I believe that we accomplish more together and when in leadership capacities, we do better to see people as inherently noble creatures. “Situations, more than individuals, are what produce the difficulties, even though it almost always looks as if it is the individuals who are fouling up (Farson, 1996, p. 130).” A mark of good leadership then is not to fix people, but to remove obstacles and to create situations that allow people to realize and demonstrate their full potential. We are asking parents and students to make adaptive changes, to more systematically hold themselves accountable. When we build bridges of understanding to foster relationships, then we learn from each other, gain insights from new perspectives and effectively face the challenges of change together. Strong leadership also means demonstrating the courage to bring differing perspectives to the same table for consultation. In this case, it means getting more feedback from parents and students, formally. It means demonstrating a willingness to be an active participant in the change effort such as sharing my own family learning plan successes and failures with the group, as well as remaining open to receiving feedback that might be difficult to hear. With that in mind, one of my greatest insights after having gone through this process, is finding within myself the authentic vulnerability that even when challenged, I can still listen with an open mind and heart, ready to ask “‘what’s working, and how can we do more of it,’ not ‘what’s broken, and how do we fix it’ (Heath, 2010, p.45)?” That’s because I am in a place where the culture encourages students, parents and teachers to push into new frontiers of learning and where doing so is safe and supported.

Barth, R (2006, March). Improving relationships within the schoolhouse. Educational Leadership, 63(6), 8-13.
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