Whole-System Change Does it Work?

Chula Vista Elementary School District was one of the participants in a research study by Learning First Alliance in 2003, who looked at how they approached whole-system change. According to the case study, "Decentralization and System Reform", by Wendy Togneri and Lisa F. Lasarus, the school board hired Dr. Libia (Libby) Gil as superintendent in 1993, hoping to stimulate change and promote better performance through inspiration and support (Togneri and Lasarus, 1993).
This change was based on the theory of decentralization, and included decreasing the district level staff and projecting a new sense of purpose. The Ball Foundation was one of the consultants that they used to improve their literacy achievement.

• Built a collective vision among stakeholders
• Developed a district-wide system of accountability to insure that measurement tools to assess goal outcomes were consistent.
  
• Set expectations to support principals as key to school-level reform.
• Began school-level reform.

The research study explains how they developed a systemic redesign process to support principals, teachers, and students. But I wanted to know how it is going now? Do they evaluate their system? What progress and benefits do the stakeholders see as a result of the redesign?

I chatted with my friend and former colleague, Christyn Pope, an Instructional Focus Specialist at Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School (CVLCC), about how the district changes benefit her learning community. She discussed how the district currently re-evaluates in order to continually improve the system. They work with Targeted Leadership Consulting and The Ball Foundation to ensure that the coaching and strategic planning reflect the districts goals and evidenced-based instructional practices. Chula Vista Elementary School District currently employs a Community of Practice Cohort which ensures that communication between the schools and the district is reciprocal and that collaboration and support is valued.
Leadership teams within schools include the principal, administrative leads, and grade level representatives. These teams have open lines of communication. The teams are organized into school leadership teams, which meet in cohorts monthly. The cohorts meet to foster communication through professional development, standards based planning, networking, and developing action plans for schools. These cohorts allow for continual evaluation of their system and foster motivation.
Christyn seems satisfied with the way the district works now. As a former San Diego City Schools administrator, who worked under the top down iron-fisted redesign in early 2000, she appreciates the consistency of language and goals that CVESD has and the management system allows cross-level communication. She said that many of the stakeholders, teachers, students, parents, principals, board members, are encouraged and value the change in the schools.

If the current SDUSD were to develop a district-wide change policy, they should look to their neighbors, CVESD, for inspiration.