I saw this following article in my daily SmartBrief email and it struck a nerve with me:
HR vs. Leadership Development
I am in the midst of a re-organization of how we strucure and view the role of the Department of Catholic Schools in Los Angeles. In thinking about it for quite some time, my thoughts are that individuals within the office need to have a specific area of expertise that is their central focus. This is as opposed to how we are currently structured where individuals 'supervise' schools and pick up duties on the side.
The reason this article struck me in particular is that I have come to see the role of the Director of Personnel (which is the current title for our 'HR' person) as a Leadership Identifier and Developer. This is not the title, obviously, but you get the point. I know other Catholic school offices around the country do things differently but for us we don't do many of the strict HR functions that are outlined in the article. That is for the pastor to do at the local site. The purpose of the person in our office is to identify potential leaders for the future and then create (in collaboration with others) a program that will develop skills within each of them so as to bring high quality leaders into our schools.
There are other areas of 'expertise' that we are looking at as well - Catholic identity/catechesis, curriculum/instruction, data/assessment, fiscal management, enrollment management, technology integration, etc...And I will get to those over time but thought I would share the article to see if anyone had thoughts to share. That is, after all, what a blog is all about, right?
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Faith, Excellence, Stewardship
So this is one of the two key summaries of what we are doing in Catholic schools in Los Angeles. It centers on Faith, Excellence and Stewardship and the other one will center on Growth, Leadership and Innovation. It will take me a few posts to summarize all six areas. Although there is some overlap they all do require a bit of explanation.
I will begin with Faith, Excellence and Stewardship, which are not unique terms by any stretch in Catholic education but they are used to ground us in what is most essential to focus on each and every day. Just like principals and teachers, we can get caught up in the immediate fires that pop up every day and lose sight of the big picture. By having a set focus, it keeps us grounded and aimed in the right direction. I will provide a brief summary of each in the next week or so but these themes will be re-visited throughout the blog. Today I will start, as we always should in Catholic schools, with Faith.
Faith
The reason we do what we do and the reason we are what we are. Faith must be at the core of each one of our schools. As we delve into other areas of focus for our schools you will see that there is a lot of flexibility and innovation that we encourage at the school site level. This is essential if we are to grow our Catholic schools and continue to educate students in the coming decade. But with that approach to innovation it is equally essential that we maintain the core of who we are as educators - the Catholic faith as defined by Christ the educator.
When Catholic identity is strong at a school it is tangibly felt when one walks on the campus. It is so much more than a simple religion class - it defines how adults work with students, how discipline is conducted, how coaches work with athletes, and how adults interact with other adults. Ours is a redemptive faith so it lends itself perfectly to educating young students in how to behave and how to learn and grow from mistakes.
Another key aspect of Faith is that the sense of shared community and values is what creates the Catholic culture that leads to such astounding results. The great Catholic schools work to ensure that every adult on campus is focused and concerned about each child on campus. So when the third grade student is running down the hallway and making too much noise, the sixth grade teacher can lean out of her classroom and correct the student by name.
One fear that I have is that some of those in Catholic education want to downplay the faith component of their school. I have heard this most frequently from school board members and parents on the marketing teams but it needs to be said that it also sometimes originates with teachers and/or the principal. The idea is that somehow, by downplaying the role of faith in the school, it can better appeal to prospective parents. In my experience this tends to occur more frequently at higher income schools. The problem with this thinking is two-fold (well, there are many problems but I will cite two): one is that the one aspect of our schools that is exclusively ours is our Catholic faith. Other schools, most notably charter schools, have co-opted many of the aesthetic aspects of Catholic schools. So local and autonomous governance, uniforms, strong discipline, and rigorous academics are all found in many charters. But while Catholic schools have all of these aspects, they also have faith and that is something that charters can't co-opt.
The second problem with the diminishing of Catholic identity at a Catholic school is that faith is not some add-on that contributes to our success. It is the essence and primary reason for our success. If we don't have faith throughout our schools then we are simply charter schools that charge tuition and we will never win that competition.
Again, much more on this as the blog moves forward and I especially welcome your input and feedback on these topics as I am just touching on them cursorily.
I will begin with Faith, Excellence and Stewardship, which are not unique terms by any stretch in Catholic education but they are used to ground us in what is most essential to focus on each and every day. Just like principals and teachers, we can get caught up in the immediate fires that pop up every day and lose sight of the big picture. By having a set focus, it keeps us grounded and aimed in the right direction. I will provide a brief summary of each in the next week or so but these themes will be re-visited throughout the blog. Today I will start, as we always should in Catholic schools, with Faith.
Faith
The reason we do what we do and the reason we are what we are. Faith must be at the core of each one of our schools. As we delve into other areas of focus for our schools you will see that there is a lot of flexibility and innovation that we encourage at the school site level. This is essential if we are to grow our Catholic schools and continue to educate students in the coming decade. But with that approach to innovation it is equally essential that we maintain the core of who we are as educators - the Catholic faith as defined by Christ the educator.
When Catholic identity is strong at a school it is tangibly felt when one walks on the campus. It is so much more than a simple religion class - it defines how adults work with students, how discipline is conducted, how coaches work with athletes, and how adults interact with other adults. Ours is a redemptive faith so it lends itself perfectly to educating young students in how to behave and how to learn and grow from mistakes.
Another key aspect of Faith is that the sense of shared community and values is what creates the Catholic culture that leads to such astounding results. The great Catholic schools work to ensure that every adult on campus is focused and concerned about each child on campus. So when the third grade student is running down the hallway and making too much noise, the sixth grade teacher can lean out of her classroom and correct the student by name.
One fear that I have is that some of those in Catholic education want to downplay the faith component of their school. I have heard this most frequently from school board members and parents on the marketing teams but it needs to be said that it also sometimes originates with teachers and/or the principal. The idea is that somehow, by downplaying the role of faith in the school, it can better appeal to prospective parents. In my experience this tends to occur more frequently at higher income schools. The problem with this thinking is two-fold (well, there are many problems but I will cite two): one is that the one aspect of our schools that is exclusively ours is our Catholic faith. Other schools, most notably charter schools, have co-opted many of the aesthetic aspects of Catholic schools. So local and autonomous governance, uniforms, strong discipline, and rigorous academics are all found in many charters. But while Catholic schools have all of these aspects, they also have faith and that is something that charters can't co-opt.
The second problem with the diminishing of Catholic identity at a Catholic school is that faith is not some add-on that contributes to our success. It is the essence and primary reason for our success. If we don't have faith throughout our schools then we are simply charter schools that charge tuition and we will never win that competition.
Again, much more on this as the blog moves forward and I especially welcome your input and feedback on these topics as I am just touching on them cursorily.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Plan
The plan for this blog at this point is to focus on Catholic education and, specifically, what the ADLA is doing with regard to growth, leadership, and innovation. I will take different areas of focus and various initiatives and share about them on a regular basis. Those of you who have found your way to this blog are encouraged to comment - in my mind the main point of this exercise is to engage in an extended discussion with people who have a similar passion for Catholic schools.
I will also comment on stories and issues that arise regularly. While the focus of the blog will be on Catholic education, I will also comment on issues that are relevant in tangential ways or those that are of interest to me. I should also probably note here that the views I express in the future are always my own and should be interpreted as such.
Finally, the reason I am moving in this direction, and why I am very excited to be doing so, is because of the potential for more engagement across the country. I wrote a book published by NCEA in 2011 (interestingly enough entitled Changing the Ending, which you can find on the sidebar of the blog) that laid out many of the ideas I will be exploring further here. But because of the advent of social media (follow me on Twitter @kbaxter56) I realize that blogging is most likely a more effective means to communicate and engage with a variety of people across the country. I have been following blogs for close to a decade now but I was never really sure what I had to offer in that arena until now. This doesn't mean that I won't still try and write more books but simply that this medium can be equally, if not more, effective in wide communication with people who share my passion.
I will also comment on stories and issues that arise regularly. While the focus of the blog will be on Catholic education, I will also comment on issues that are relevant in tangential ways or those that are of interest to me. I should also probably note here that the views I express in the future are always my own and should be interpreted as such.
Finally, the reason I am moving in this direction, and why I am very excited to be doing so, is because of the potential for more engagement across the country. I wrote a book published by NCEA in 2011 (interestingly enough entitled Changing the Ending, which you can find on the sidebar of the blog) that laid out many of the ideas I will be exploring further here. But because of the advent of social media (follow me on Twitter @kbaxter56) I realize that blogging is most likely a more effective means to communicate and engage with a variety of people across the country. I have been following blogs for close to a decade now but I was never really sure what I had to offer in that arena until now. This doesn't mean that I won't still try and write more books but simply that this medium can be equally, if not more, effective in wide communication with people who share my passion.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Blog Title - Why Changing the Ending?
The title of this blog comes from a Notre Dame study that was released in 2006. It was titled, Making God Known, Loved and Served and it was in response to the USCCB document that was released in 2003, Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium. The report from Notre Dame was a response to the bishops' call to support Catholic schools and it laid out a number of steps that Notre Dame, and other institutions of higher learning, could take to support K-12 Catholic schools.
It is a good document and worth reading if you haven't done so already, but the ending summary is where the title of the blog, and the motto of our work in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, comes from:
It is a good document and worth reading if you haven't done so already, but the ending summary is where the title of the blog, and the motto of our work in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, comes from:
"Will it be said of our generation
that we presided over the demise of the most effective and important resource
for evangelization in the history of the Church in the United States? Will it
be said of our generation that we lacked the resolve to preserve national
treasures built upon the sacrifice of untold millions? Will it be said of our
generation that we abandoned these powerful instruments of justice that provide
educational opportunity and hope for families otherwise trapped in poverty?
Surely not. Instead, when the story of Catholic schools is written, historians
will look back on our age and marvel that against great odds, we
changed the ending.”
The key to the message is that all of the faithful need to commit to the vision. Catholic
schools cannot just be a resource that Catholic educators want to see continue. They have to
be viewed by the Church at large as a vital ministry of the parish and there has to be a
commitment to seeing them continue to not only survive but thrive.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Entering the Blogging World
I have been contemplating for some time about starting a blog. I know that many of my colleagues in Catholic education have been commenting for sometime now so I am fairly late to the party. That being said, I think the issue that has finally driven me to start the process is the Newtown, CT tragedy last Friday. It has impacted me in a way that no other news story has since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
I think one of the reasons the situation has impacted me so profoundly is because I view the situation through two lenses: as a parent and as an educator. My wife and I have six kids and we specifically have a 6-year old daughter who is in the first grade. It is hard to look at her and her friends the past few days and not think about the 20 children who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
And then as an educator, having spent my career in elementary education, I can't help but go through the students who have gone through the first grade in schools where I have served. Especially in Catholic schools, with the penultimate year before First Communion, it just seems so senseless and there are no words to express the grief and the impact it has had.
So, while that horrible situation is the impetus for me to start blogging, my intent is to focus on key issues in Catholic education and how it can be sustained, and grown, over the coming decades. In the Archdioceses of Los Angeles, we know that we are grossly under-serving the Catholic population with our K-12 Catholic schools. The challenge is how to address the access issues while ensuring that the quality of the product remains extremely high.
My hope is that through laying out some of the initiatives and goals that we are implementing in LA, and consequently getting feedback from those who are so inclined, a clear, optimistic and attainable future for Catholic schools will be apparent.
I think one of the reasons the situation has impacted me so profoundly is because I view the situation through two lenses: as a parent and as an educator. My wife and I have six kids and we specifically have a 6-year old daughter who is in the first grade. It is hard to look at her and her friends the past few days and not think about the 20 children who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
And then as an educator, having spent my career in elementary education, I can't help but go through the students who have gone through the first grade in schools where I have served. Especially in Catholic schools, with the penultimate year before First Communion, it just seems so senseless and there are no words to express the grief and the impact it has had.
So, while that horrible situation is the impetus for me to start blogging, my intent is to focus on key issues in Catholic education and how it can be sustained, and grown, over the coming decades. In the Archdioceses of Los Angeles, we know that we are grossly under-serving the Catholic population with our K-12 Catholic schools. The challenge is how to address the access issues while ensuring that the quality of the product remains extremely high.
My hope is that through laying out some of the initiatives and goals that we are implementing in LA, and consequently getting feedback from those who are so inclined, a clear, optimistic and attainable future for Catholic schools will be apparent.
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