How to slow down to build a districtwide vision
When do schools and students thrive? When a district’s educators share a standards-aligned vision for teaching and learning, says Superintendent Krish Mohip on the latest episode of District Administration’s “A Good Lesson Podcast,” with hosts Amy Dujon and Quintin Shepherd.
“I always come back to the instructional framework,” says Mohip, leader of Proviso Township High Schools District 209 near Chicago. “What are we saying instruction looks like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like?
“And what is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the student? And how do we work as a system to improve those things?”
Mohip started his career as a teacher in Chicago Public Schools and was later the district’s chief schools officer. He also served as Illinois’ interim state superintendent and CEO of Ohio’s Youngstown Public Schools during a state takeover.
Developing a shared vision requires leaders to slow down (rather than trying to accomplish everything on their own) and work with their teams to drill down into how lessons begin, how they end, and “how much of the cognitive load should be transferred to the students” and when learners need to see the experts—their teachers—solve problems.
Mohip also lets research and established best practices drive the process. His district has landed on the “gradual release of responsibility” as its instructional North Star. “I never want to experiment on students,” he notes. “Their journey through education is too important to me to take a risk and try to do something that’s not proven.”
Speaking a common language around instruction tied to state standards gives teachers “bounded autonomy,” Mohip adds.
“There are different on-ramps and exits for people, but at the end of the day, as a district, we have to erect those barriers to say, ‘This is the lane that we’re traveling, and we’re going to give [teachers] autonomy and creativity within these spaces,'” he says.
Proviso Township’s educators make learning objectives clear and relevant by ensuring students know how they will show mastery as teachers gradually give learners more control.
“It’s going to get loud. It might get messy, especially if you’re in the younger grades, and that’s OK,” concludes Mohip, who did about 2,000 classroom visits last school year. “When I go into a classroom, and it’s still and quiet, I’m always wondering, ‘Well, how much learning is actually happening?'”
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