Change is hard. It’s hard enough when you’re trying to break a bad habit or work toward a new goal. But leading change in your organization? That can feel impossible. Learning to Change is a show that’s about making change easier—for individuals and organizations—through learning. Bringing 20 years of education experience to leaders, managers, and executives, host Melissa Emler talks with people who have led change through learning in their organizations. Each episode is a tool for helping you and your organization create a culture of learning so that you can get unstuck, move forward with confidence, and achieve your goals. Learning to Change will help you break down barriers to learning and make learning the cultural DNA of your team.
I’m in a group chat with several of my favorite fellow educational leaders where we help each other work through issues stemming from a variety of topics. But one recent question posed to the group really got to the heart of so much of what is facing educators in the United States: Fear.
Fear has a profound impact on public education, often holding back progress and innovation.
From curriculum choices, to developing a supportive school culture, to the fear instilled by standardized testing for both students and teachers, fear in educational environments limits critical thinking, disengages students, and keeps teachers stuck with outdated methods and practices.
Overcoming these fears involves fostering a supportive environment that encourages risk taking, values diverse viewpoints, and prioritizes the well being of both students and teachers.
But it is possible to create change in our educational systems and there are three essential Ps that can help us do it.
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE TO HEAR:
Why Permission is crucial to cultivating an environment where students and teachers can innovate
Why teachers need Protection from punitive consequences in order to take risks and create opportunities for growth
How Policy Reduction helps educators be more agile and responsive in implementing new ideas
Questions for educators and leaders to help identify where and how to bring more of the 3 Ps into schools
LEARN MORE ABOUT MELISSA EMLER AND MODERN LEARNERS:
Modern Learners
Modern Learners Community
3 Jul 2024
26. Revisiting the Immunity to Change Map
Navigating the complexities of organizational change and personal growth can be challenging. Often we find ourselves stuck, unable to move forward because we haven't truly embraced the power of learning. But by fostering a culture of learning in our organization, by prioritizing the personal and professional growth of the people in our organizations, we can overcome the obstacles that hold us back.
As Modern Learners embarks on our project with the New York State Department of Education, we know that working with educators and administrators to reimagine assessment is asking for a lot of growth and change.
One of the first exercises we’ll do with the seventeen schools participating in the PLAN Pilot Program will be to lead them through the Immunity to Change map, developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey.
Today, I am revisiting the Immunity to Change framework and outlining this process that helps people and organizations find the clarity that they need to make real change happen.
And feel free to grab a pen and a piece of paper and follow along with me as you listen!
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE TO HEAR:
Why a commitment is not the same thing as a goal or an outcome
How the Immunity to Change map helps parse out behaviors from the emotions that drive them
How to identify and test the assumptions underlying your competing commitments
RESOURCES:
Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock Potential in Yourself and Your Organization, Lisa Lahey, Robert Kegan
LEARN MORE ABOUT MELISSA EMLER AND MODERN LEARNERS:
Modern Learners
Modern Learners Community
19 Jun 2024
25. The PLAN Pilot Work with the New York State Education Department
I want to share an exciting project that Modern Learners will be doing. We’ve been selected by the New York State Education Department to be the Technical Assistance Center for the PLAN Pilot work.
This is a big deal.
PLAN stands for Performance-Based Learning and Assessment Networks. The work of the PLAN Pilot is to create a network of schools that will explore assessment strategies that foster high quality instructional opportunities where the learner is at the center of the learning experience.
I believe this work has the potential to be the most impactful work that my team will do in our entire careers. Supporting a state that has standardized tests in place as a graduation requirement with the work of reimagining their assessment system is wildly exciting. And a little bit scary.
The idea of the Regents Exams going away is unimaginable to some. However, New York’s Blue Ribbon Commission has been planting the seeds for that work, and in a call last week, it was mentioned that the Blue Ribbon Commission would be beginning discussions as early as June 2024.
Though our project is separate from the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission, it is intended to help New York plan and prepare to support the schools in the event that the Blue Ribbon Commission charts an alternative path to graduation.
The primary objectives of the PLAN Pilot are three-fold.
To build capacity and knowledge. The pilot seeks to build a strong, shared knowledge base of performance-based learning and assessment among students, educators, families, and communities. There is a lot of information that needs to be elevated in relation to this work, because shifting our brains from thinking about the Regents Exam as a graduation requirement to more of a performance-based assessment will raise a lot of questions and uncertainties. So we will build capacity and knowledge to help calm fears and build more certainty. This involves developing assessment literacy so that stakeholders understand and can effectively use performance data to enhance teaching and learning.
Professional learning and support. I’m really excited about this because educators will engage in high-quality professional learning experiences. I believe that in all systems, everyone is a learner. We have to stop being teachers first and become learners first in order to experience the shifts in the field that we’re hoping for. These include school-based and network-wide trainings, professional developments, and participation in a community of practice. The collaborative environment will be designed to increase and continuously improve the capacity to develop and use high-quality, performance-based approaches to learning and assessment.
Systemic change and sustainability. The pilot aims to establish a sustainable and systemic change in educational assessment by supporting schools in creating transition plans and budgets that ensure the longevity of performance-based learning and assessment practices. This involves working with technical assistance centers like the ones we at Modern Learners will be hosting and building to provide ongoing support and resources. We want to support schools and districts with operationalizing the systems that will need to be implemented in schools.
By having a Technical Assistance Center, you can build out supports that can help multiple schools at one time and do so in a way that is strategic, predictable, and consistent. That is our goal.
The PLAN Pilot imagines that we will have enhanced learning opportunities where the focus is on creating authentic learning experiences that engage students more deeply and meaningfully. Performance-based assessments allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills through real world tasks and projects, which are more reflective of their learning and their abilities.
The next outcome that we believe we will see is a fostering of more equity and inclusivity by tailoring learning and assessments to meet students where they ar...
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