Effective Consultation and Support: SERRC Consultants Role in Supporting District Leadership Teams a

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Effective Consultation and SupportSERRC
Consultants Role in Supporting District
Leadership Teams and District Coaches

• OISM Support Training
• August 24 25, 2006
• Janet Graden, University of Cincinnati
• (janet.graden_at_uc.edu)

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Topics for effective district-level consultation

• Different role when supporting district-level
  change versus building-level
• Core knowledge, skills, and behaviors that apply
  across consultation
• New skills and perspectives when applying
  knowledge, skills, and behaviors to supporting
  district-level change
• Tools, processes, mechanisms for support of role

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Goals for today

• Helping frame and re-think role as district-level
  consultant
• Understanding key foundations and research-based
  skills and strategies
• Supporting continued planning for personal goals
  and actions to build fluency with district-level
  consultation
• Understanding the support network and tools for
  SERRC consultants

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Thinking about whats different in providing
district-level support

• Big Ideas
• Being a change facilitator
• Problem solving coach/consultant
• Change facilitation (v. agent) entails
  collaboration, ownership at the local level for
  sustainability
• Relationship building is imbedded in the role
• Supporting skill acquisition and implementation
  accuracy of core OISM components
• Assessing needs, providing feedback, and matching
  strategies to needs
• Maximizing outcomes through using tools for team
  self assessment and planning
• Modeling skills
• Providing emotional and leadership support
• Other?

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New challenges in district-level focus for
support

• More/different players
• Familiarity with district, roles, initiatives,
  history, political considerations
• Enhanced importance of collaborative and problem
  solving processes and skills applied to systems
  level issues (may be sensitive areas)
• Importance of selection and support for
  district-level coaches they more directly
  support building change and have key roles
• Other?

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Importance of SERRC Consultant support for
implementation

• Important findings from implementation research
• Effective implementation requires change in
  practices
• Well-documented gap, across disciplines, between
  what is known (science) and what is done (policy
  and practice)
• What closes this implementation gap?
• Supported change in school practices - essential
  implementation outcome is change in practitioner
  behavior (schools dont change, people do)
• Information alone does not produce change
• Effective practices effective implementation
  student outcomes
• Effective implementation requires
• High Quality Professional Development
• Technical support/assistance
• Opportunities to practice (20-30 times to
  fluency)
• Coaching/feedback
• Supporting systems change is logical, but not
  linear, requires skill, structures, use of local
  planning team

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Successful strategies in scaling up (NASDSE, 2004)

• Focus - model and components easy to understand,
  important
• Speed - see short term results to support long
  term objectives
• Coherent - elements work together
• Comprehensive - integrated, not added on
• School-level ownership and buy in transfer of
  knowledge to school and transfer of authority to
  site
• Support - resources including tie, training,
  coaching, policy alignment
• Leadership - participatory leadership, setting
  high standards
• Quality assurance - monitoring practices and
  outcomes, communicating results
• Build constituencies to support change - district
  support, networks
• How do these strategies relate to OISM
  implementation?

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Scaling up and Tiers of Support
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OISM has these components built in to the model
and support structure

• Focus
• Speed
• Coherent
• Comprehensive
• School and district ownership and buy in
• Support
• Leadership
• Quality assurance
• Build constituencies to support change

• Strong, visual model
• Immediate results, supporting longer term
  objectives
• Interrelated core components
• Academics and behavior, tiers, integration
  throughout
• School and district ownership and buy in
• State/SERRC/regional networks
• Built into model, a core component
• Data-based problem solving a core component,
  tools support practice
• Networks and communities of practice

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Given this change in role and within this
structure, discuss and record to share

• What challenges do you anticipate facing in
  providing district-level support?
• What supports are available to assist with these
  challenges?

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Lets think of foundations already in place for
your district consultation role

• Knowledge and skills
• Coaching Self Assessment Tool
• Knowledge and skill domains
• OISM components
• Problem solving with data to improve outcomes is
  core skill at district level
• Effective systems consultation and change
  facilitation (may require some new learning)
• Behaviors
• Consultation and leadership behaviors

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What implementation research tells us on
knowledge and skills needed for effectively
facilitating change

• Change facilitation knowledge
• Research-based change models and practices
• Skills and behaviors
• Experience with school-level implementation of
  the initiative components is essential for
  consultants (research-based finding have to
  know before can teach/support, experienced
  coaches had better practice outcomes)
• Consultation effectiveness, including
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Problem solving
• Effective team practices
• Leadership behaviors and strategies

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Key learning for effective change facilitation
and systems-level consultation

• Understanding change process from research-based
  model
• Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM, Hall Hord,
  2001) concepts of Personal Concerns and Levels of
  Use
• Use for assessing readiness and needs and
  matching strategies to needs

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Understanding Personal Concerns in change

• Remember, change only occurs when individuals
  change behaviors
• Reactions are normal, can be anticipated
• Listening for concerns and relating to this model
  can help to reframe reactions are not
  resistance but are understandable within this
  framework
• Research links strategies to concerns/needs

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Responding to Personal Concerns

• Concerns
• Self Concerns
• Looking at change from personal perspective how
  affects user
• Task Concerns
• Interested in how to learn about and master the
  change, how to incorporate new skills and reach
  fluency
• Impact Concerns
• Interested in effect on learners, sharing with
  others

• Strategies
• Needs information, examples, seeing in practice,
  discussion, concerns validated, understood,
  responded to
• Needs practice opportunities, on-site feedback
  and coaching, networking opportunities
• Provide opportunities to celebrate, share,
  network, publicize results

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Understanding Levels of Use in change

• Along with concept of Stages of Concern (person
  variables), Levels of Concern provides way to
  organize where users are on the continuum of
  fluency of implementation (novice, beginning
  competence, proficient)
• Allows matching strategies to what
  individuals/schools need based on where they are
  with implementation

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Supporting fluency in Levels of Use

• Level
• Non-use/thinking about use
• Use novice (mechanical), to routine (fluency
  attained) to mastery, to integration (with other
  skills) and adaptation

• Support Needed
• Information in chunks, understanding what
  involved and benefits
• Novice users need direct, on-site support, tools
  and resources fluent users need encouragement,
  opportunities to share proficient users need
  networking and tools to keep on track

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The power of coaching( of Staff Demonstrating
Mastery and Application, from Joyce Showers,
1995)

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Research findings on effective change consultants
(Fixsen et al., 2005)

• Consultants viewed as competent by those who they
  are helping are seen as
• Knowledgeable
• Skilled
• Able to teach what they know to others
• Supporting practice during initial implementation
• (higher levels on these ratings related to better
  consumer outcomes)

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Effective consultant skills and behaviors

• Uses effective teaming strategies and practices
• Promotes effective team practices
• Identifies and utilizes existing team member
  expertise
• Promotes ownership by team
• Understands, models/uses, and clearly explains
  problem solving
• Models and uses collaboration
• Develops trust
• Establishes and promotes collaborative
  relationships
• Communicates effectively
• Listening
• Acknowledging concerns and supporting problem
  solving for concerns
• Valuing and validating concerns
• Establishing and maintaining credibility
• Consistency and follow up
• Sensitivity

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Some important entry strategies for beginning
district-level support

• Clarifying roles partnering with experienced
  consultant and/or SERRC Director for initial
  meeting(s)
• Establishing collaboration in relationships
• Using OISM tools
• Using the collaborative planning process
  modeling its use with school data
• Focusing on the data and outcomes
• Understanding important school culture and
  history contexts - learning of district history,
  initiatives, leadership, roles, policies, results
  (Report Card, AYP)
• Set up structure and calendar for support use
  more frequent contact in initial planning

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Leadership behaviors (Fullan,2005)

• Resilience
• Flexibility
• Persistence
• Adaptability
• Passion
• Commitment
• Respect for others opinions
• Tact in conflict management
• Will to persevere (uncertainty and chaos are
  predictable!)

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Leadership!
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Personal planning and shared discussion for
continued consultation development

• From Coaches Self Assessment Personal Planning
• What are some core skill areas that will apply to
  district-level support?
• What is your general level of district-level
  consultation skill (advanced/experienced,
  skilled/some experience, novice/needs
  experience)?
• What are some areas for continued growth and
  development with support?
• What is your plan for development?
• Shared Discussion
• What are some common areas for development and
  some strategies for support?
• How can you partner/network with more experienced
  consultants to support development?

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Scaling Up Innovations (Rand, 2004)

• Initial implementation, with training and
  support, can occur within 2 years
• Stabilization of innovation typically takes up to
  6 years
• Scaling up requires extensive implementation
  support and building capacity at all levels

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Common school culture challenges to scaling up
innovations (NASDSE, 2004)

• Time to train to fluency
• Current practices in serving students (how
  students are divided)
• Current roles (how defined)
• Lack of collegiality culture of separateness
• Lack of shared leadership (administrative only v.
  team/shared leadership)
• Establishing trust
• Reform fatigue

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Planning for consultation situations

• Group discussion
• From experienced consultants, identify some
  common issues that arise at the district team
  level, e.g.,
• Curriculum issues, particularly for reading and
  discussion of scientifically-based curriculum
• Communicating ideas effectively with all
  audiences, not primarily special education
• Urban issues? Rural/small district issues?
• Sharing successful strategies
• Experienced consultants share what worked
• Identify key strategies and link to
• knowledge and skills,
• OISM components and tools

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Some key points to remember

• You have a key role in supporting OISM
  implementation
• You have many skills already in place
• You have a well-developed model, support
  structure, and tools to support you in this role
• The work is worth it positive results in school
  improvement and student outcomes!

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Stay focused on whats important!
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References and Resources

• Fixsen, D. Naoom, S.F., Blasé, K., Friedman, R.M.
  Wallace, F. (2005). Implementation research A
  synthesis of the literature. Available at
  www.nirn.org
• Fullan, M. (2005). Resiliency and sustainability.
  Educational Leadership, 59, 16-20.
• Graden, J.L., Stollar, S.A., Poth, R.L. (in
  press). The Ohio Integrated Systems Model
  Overview and lessons learned. In S.R. Jimerson,
  M.K. Burns, A.M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), The
  handbook of response to intervention. NY
  Springer
• Hall, G.E., Hord, S.M. (2001). Implementing
  change. Boston Allyn Bacon.
• Joyce, B. Shower, B. (1995). Student
  achievement through staff development. NY
  Longman.
• NASDSE. (2004). Scaling up Experiences of state
  departments of special education. Available at
  www.nasdse.org
• Rand Corporation. (2004). Expanding the reach of
  education reforms. Available at www.rand.org
• Stollar, S.A., Poth, R.L., Curtis, M.J., Cohen,
  R.M. (2006). Collaborative strategic planning as
  illustration of the principles of systems change.
  School Psychology Review, 35, 181-197.