Edwin Brenegar III reported results from an Education Summit in Asheville
NC.
========In part, he reported=====
Second, that the two hardest groups to reach were parents and teachers.
While we met our numbers for total attendance, we were not pleased with
the number of parents and teachers in attendance. So we have decided we
will conduct specifically focused Summits for these two groups. Probably
for teachers in Summits for individual school systems, for parents at the
individual schools.
----snipped other paragraphs, then he concluded---
My report to you has help me begin the process of preparing the report
which will go to the public in late April which will describe our actions
steps. I'd appreciate any questions or comments, especially from a
learning organizations viewpoint, as they will be very helpful to me in
preparing for our next steps.
======end-of-quotes=====
Edwin, congratulations to you and your colleagues as you held these
summits. I can believe that involving teachers and parents is a major
challenge, and yet essential for ultimate success.
Let me pose some questions about teacher participation.
1) As you reflect on the summit and teacher participation, what do you
sense the teachers who were invited but did not attend (this is an
assumption I made based on your comments) were thinking when they decided
not to attend? What mental model affected their decision?
2) What role are principals playing in this discussion (maybe dialogue)
process?
3) What role are leaders of teacher organizations (unions, associations)
playing in this process? Are they partners?
4) What role do other core learning organization disciplines play, or
should play, in this process over time -- systems thinking, shared vision,
personal mastery, and team learning?
David Wilkinson
School Improvement Specialist
Des Moines Public Schools
Davidwilk@aol.com
As you know, you have started down a meaningful and challenging path. I am
happy to engage in an exchange of information and thoughts with you.
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>