Julie Storer: Improving Leadership Skills

The last two days have been so full it's hard to keep track of all we've done, but I've tried to reflect on my notes at the end of each day to make sure it all sinks in...on Monday we started with our first small group discussion of our problem statements that we are here at the Institute to work on. Then we spent the morning session with another powerful presentation by Richard Elmore on Organizing for Improvement. After the break we met with Ron Ferguson of MIT and founder of The Tripod Project for School Improvement. He addressed the imperative nature of considering content, pedagogy and relationships equally to affect school improvement. The final session was our first "case" discussion as a group in which we took an actual problem statement of a former Institute participant and evaluated it in paired groups, then as a whole. This was led by Kay Merseth and she relentlessly challenged us to apply all that we had studied to this point in framing our solutions.

The early discussion today helped us to break our problem statements down even further as we prepare to present them for our Model Consultation session tomorrow. The first morning session turned the focus on us as we worked with Robert Kegan, the Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard GSE. He directed us as we examined our own "immunity to change" - from the discussion after his presentation this seemed to be one of the most powerful areas we have addressed from the standpoint of improving our own leadership skills even as we work to improve the academic skills of our students. After a second case presentation led by Kay we listened to Frank Levy (MIT) as he gave us the econimist's view of How Computers and Offshoring are Changing Job Skill Requirements. We finished up with one final brief session on revising our problem statements in light of today's new information.

In addition to the presentations from the incredible Institute staff I have gained significant insight in the follow-up conversations with other participants just walking to lunch and visiting after the sessions. The diversity of the group would make you think that we all have different problems, but what it comes down to is improving student performance by improving instructional practice and I think that is where we will spend most of our time for the remainder of the Institute.

Julie Storer