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 Welcome to the June edition of our Executive Leader Alert newsletter!
Summer is here and GLISI is ready to help you develop your leaders through leadership institutes, school improvement consulting, strategic planning, teacher and leader workshops, etc. Contact Gale Hulme (gale.hulme@glisi.org) or your Performance Consultant for more information. Click here for the Performance Consultant Directory.
GLISI will welcome 582 participant leaders across four cohorts at Base Camp and Leadership Summit in 2010 - 2011! Additionally, GLISI has a list of districts waiting for enrollment. To add your district to the waiting list, please visit our website. Thank you for your support, GLISI districts!
GLISI also wants to take the time to congratulate Brad Bryant, newly appointed Interim State School Superintendent. Brad Bryant currently serves as a member of GLISI's Coordinating Board. Remember, Title I and School Improvement Funds can be used for GLISI products and services. To learn about these GLISI products and services that support comprehensive school improvement, contact your GLISI Performance Consultant. |
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| GLISI Stakeholder Study Summary & Results |
 GLISI recently conducted a Stakeholder Survey & Focus Group using outside evaluators. The purpose of the survey and the follow-up focus group was to survey GLISI clients on GLISI's value, service, and relevance while also providing feedback for continuous improvement.
The results of the study are overwhelmingly positive, and also provided GLISI with feedback on how to improve our solutions and services to better serve you. To read the executive summary, click here.
Thank you again to all those who participated and for supporting our commitment to continuous improvement. |
| Georgia's Work Shared in Two Wallace Reports | The Wallace Foundation recently released two reports highlighting Georgia's work in education leadership. First, Education Leadership: An Agenda for School Improvement looks at the crucial issues in leadership today, such as improving principal training programs and changing district offices so they focus squarely on what principals need to improve schools. It also offers ideas and insights from prominent researchers in the field as well as from leaders in federal and state government, central district offices and schools.To read the full report and to see Ann Duffy's quotation on leadership and data (pg. 9), click here.
Second, Strong Leaders Strong Schools: 2009 School Leadership Laws reviews how state lawmakers are responding to the need for stronger school leaders. Measures to boost the performance of principals, superintendents and other education leaders were enacted in at least 23 states during the 2009 legislative season. One important spur to the 43 new laws came from the federal government's Race to the Top program, which established a contest among states for grants from a $4.35 billion fund for improving education. To make themselves more competitive, a number of states re-examined teacher and leader policies. New laws cover issues ranging from inspection of higher education preparation programs to bonuses for master principals. To read the full report and to see Georgia highlights (pg. 16), click here. |
| GLISI is Moving... |  GLISI is moving to the Fanning Institute, a Unit of Public Service and Outreach at the University of Georgia. Though our address is changing, our work will not. GLISI remains the proven choice for building district capacity and providing systemic solutions to improve education leadership as evidenced by you, our clients' achievement of desired results through partnership with us.
Provost Jere Morehead, UGA senior vice president for academic affairs, notes, "GLISI is a welcome and important addition to UGA and further strengthens our public service mission."
With a strong tradition of public service and successful partnerships across the state, the Fanning Institute will provide GLISI with new opportunities and a strong platform to continue our successful work with Georgia's public schools and national partners. GLISI Executive Director Gale Hulme is enthusiastic about the move, "GLISI has a strong team of leaders and a track record of success in the improvement of education leadership. We look forward to accelerating our mission (click here), while advancing the shared mission (click here) of the Office of Vice President of Public Service and Outreach and the Fanning Institute. Exciting work is ahead!"
Our new contact information:
Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI)
1240 South Lumpkin Street
Athens, Georgia 30602-1744
Phone: (706) 542-1108
Fax: (706) 542-1744 |
| GLISI Welcomes New Staff Addition, Mary Anne Charron |
GLISI welcomes Mary Anne Charron, former principal of Alpharetta High School in Fulton County, as GLISI's Senior Performance Consultant. Under Mary Anne's leadership this past year, Alpharetta High School earned two Platinum Awards - one for Highest Percentage of Students Meeting or Exceeding Expectations and one for Greatest Gain of Students Meeting or Exceeding Expectations. Alpharetta High School was also named as one of America's Top Public High Schools (Newsweek, May 17, 2008). Many of our GLISI districts may remember Mary Anne as a former GLISI Performance Consultant assigned to the northwest part of Georgia. "Mary Anne has worked in several states and has left every school better than it was when she arrived. We are thrilled to welcome her back in this new leadership role," noted Gale Hulme, Executive Director, GLISI. Mary Anne fills the vacancy left by Scott Cowart, an outstanding leader who has returned to the Georgia superintendent ranks in Carroll County. |
| GLISI Says Goodbye to Deb Page |
Deb Page has continued to work with GLISI as a Senior Practice Leader in 2009-2010 advancing the work of GLISI across the state. Deb, GLISI's first executive director who founded GLISI with a team of outstanding practitioners from education, business, and academia. Deb has left an indelible legacy and is now leaving GLISI to pursue her own private venture, Willing Learner, Inc..
"GLISI is pleased for Deb, and we know Georgia's school districts will continue to benefit from her expertise and passion," says Gale Hulme, GLISI's executive director. |
| GLISI Success Case: Leveraging the Balanced Scorecard in Candler County |
 With the help of GLISI's breakthrough processes, programs, and consulting, districts all over the state are improving student achievement and organizational effectiveness. GLISI Performance Consultants are documenting these results through Dr. Robert O. Brinkerhoff's Success Case Methodology.
You may have a Balanced Scorecard, but is your district using it at full capacity? See how one district used their Balanced Scorecard to improve processes, increase governing teamwork, and implement systemic changes. Candler County used their Balanced Scorecard to align the district's focus which manifested in systemic and sustainable strategies developed at the district and school level that would positively impact their organization and student achievement. The organization saw changes in student and stakeholder engagement, internal and external processes, governance and leadership while also increasing their high school graduation rate 20% in two years. To read more about how they used the Balanced Scorecard to change their district, click here. |
| Performance Tip |
 Team got the Recession Blues? Georgia districts and schools have been hit hard by the economic downturn and predictions that the economy will not bounce back quickly have left many educators in the doldrums as they fight to make budget cuts that have the least impact on students. Click here to read Recession Woes, a recent study from the Georgia Partnership on Excellence in Education (GPEE).
While investment in the improvement of leaders may seem out of the question for some, others are accelerating their efforts in talent management to be sure they have the right leaders in the right jobs at the right time. Now may be the best time to invest in your district's future.
Good leaders reframe adversity to give people hope and show them a path forward. This Performance Tip will help you lead your team from performance paralysis to performance excellence once again. To guide a discussion about the need to invest in the development of leaders now for your future, try this performance tip.
Write this topic on a sheet of poster paper for all to see: How has the current economic downturn impacted our strategy to find, grow and keep the right people? Divide your Board or leadership team into two groups. Solicit facilitators for each small group that you have prepped in advance for each small group. Provide a protocol for facilitators to follow (below is one that GLISI has used):
-Have each small group appoint a recorder and spokesperson.
-Next, ask the small groups to list all of the barriers that have resulted because of the current economic crisis - things that get in the way of investing in the development of your district's talent.
-Accept and list all ideas without judgment or comment or expansion. Simply record the list of barriers on poster paper.
-A sample list may look something like this:
Barriers:
- We're cutting positions, so no immediate job openings
- Our students don't all have the teachers they need
- Morale is down
- Many good performers have been cut
- Fewer people shouldering the same workload
- Lack of competitive edge
- Limited professional learning funds
- Politics
- Fear of criticism
- Lack of consensus on the wisdom of investing in people during the downturn
-When all ideas are depleted, facilitators read the list aloud, again without comment or expansion.
-Next, challenge the group to find the silver lining in the current downturn. Challenge them to think of solutions to the barriers listed. You may want groups to swap lists, so that the Small Group A is responding to Small Group B's list of barriers and vice versa.
-Focus attention of both groups to the front of the room. Share this quote with the groups.
"Great leaders know that significant opportunity lies in a world turned upside down."
--Dr. Saj-nicole Joni
Cambridge International Group
-Remind the groups to "Never waste a crisis." Challenge the groups to brainstorm Solutions to the list of Barriers before them. The result may look something like this:
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Barriers |
Solutions | |
We're cutting positions, so no immediate job openings |
· Anticipate the jobs we will need and groom people now to be ready
· Conduct a position analysis to determine how many openings we will have in the next 2 - 3 years due to attrition, retirements, etc.
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Our students don't all have the teachers they need |
· Take a team-based approach. Think of ways to group students in order to spread the talent we have
· Have our star teachers coach other teachers
· Grow our own stars |
Jim Collins got it right when he said, "People are not your competitive edge. The RIGHT people are." Invest in people now to be certain you have the right people, in the right jobs, at the right time - now and in the future.
*This Performance Tip was recently utilized successfully by GLISI Performance Consultant Penny Smith at GLISI's Power of 100 session and Gale Hulme with GSSA's District Leader Professional Learning group. |
| Questions? Contact us. |
 Gale HulmeGLISI
Executive Director
Click here to see pictures and bios of all GLISI staff.
Contact Gale Hulme or your GLISI Performance Consultant if we can help you shape your 2011 performance improvement plans. |
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Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement
Phone: (706) 542-1108
Fax: (706) 542-1744 |
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