The Node of Change

We’ve all heard inspiring tales of individuals who took the initiative to innovate and improve the experience for each of their students. Similarly, sweeping statements, grand gestures and ambitious agendas are commonplace in speeches from school leaders in their efforts to rally communities behind an undoubtedly worthy cause. The reality is that behind each of these headlines is a well-intentioned, unusually capable person who inspires our imagination and demonstrates what is possible. They often succeed in affecting essential change for a time, but later encounter trouble sustaining the incredible individual effort required to create and sustain their new reality. Even if they are able to enlist a cadre of capable, like-minded revolutionaries, it is incredibly hard to organically reach the point where the number of participants make the old guard feel like outliers.

The issues affecting these valiant, but ultimately failed attempts to create change are ones of perspective, strategy and experience. The most critical elements of any lasting and widespread change agenda are the Node of Change and the Pace of Change. The node represents the smallest atomic unit that can successfully change and remain changed independent of other parts of the system. The pace represents the speed with which these nodes can effectively change across the system. The proper pace is seldom all at once or one-by-one, but more often an accelerating rate that starts small and builds momentum over time until the whole system has changed.

Our experience in working with over 40 leading schools of all types across the nation clearly indicates that to create sustainable, scalable change, we must look at the school as the node of change. Attempts to implement transitions to blended environments that target a single subject or grade level are too narrow to gain sufficient traction, change the culture, and drive broad changes in behavior. Similarly, sweeping district-wide initiatives seek to change too much too quickly and invariably get bogged-down by a litany of small factors that prevent change from taking hold. Similarly, anticipating the right pace of change is critical so that each phase includes a growing group of change nodes and creates a virtuous cycle that builds momentum and accelerates the change dynamic. Striking the right balance is the difference between success and failure as we bring every school into the 21st century and keep them there on 21st century budgets.

Though our work we have developed a short list of essential elements at the school level for effective changes to take hold and sustain themselves long after external change agents are removed from the equation.

Demonstrate commitment
There is no better way to ensure the untimely demise of a blended learning implementation that to anoint it with the dreaded moniker, “Pilot”. The term conveys a stark lack of commitment and implies an ephemeral nature as few words can. Language like “Phase 1” or “Initial Rollout” makes a world of difference in how collaborators regard the initiative, though it is also important to characterize the effort as an evolving journey. This helps reserve the right to make changes or adjustments to the model in subsequent phases which should be obvious yet remains hard to do. As with most great undertakings (marriage, parenthood, gardening, one’s daily commute, etc.), it is impossible to be guaranteed an outcome prior to embarking on the journey. However, it is by establishing a worthy goal, developing a well-informed plan, and motivating participants through committed leadership that most great things happen. So too goes the design and implementation of Blended Classrooms.

Enlist the whole school
At their core, Blended Classroom implementations drive a cultural shift in the environment within a school. This cultural shift can only occur if a large portion of the school is participating in the change and taking ownership of the outcome. This group of participants must be big enough to create a community within the school that can lead through action and collaborate to develop or adapt effective practices within the new model. This dynamic often prevents single grade level implementations from being successful and spreading to other parts of the school because the group of initial participants is not sufficiently broad to reach the tipping point.

Engage stakeholders up front
It seems obvious, but definitions of “engagement” vary and the list of stakeholders in school environments can be lengthy and diverse. The key is to focus on core participants in creating the classroom experience and give them a voice at the table as the design process unfolds. This fosters a sense of ownership among teachers and administrators alike and enables the result of the design process to reflect the interests of the faculty. As such, the Blended Classroom will become unique to each community and its implementation will be viewed as a shared accomplishment. It is also critical for the leadership to demonstrate engagement and execute a proactive communications plan so that stakeholders feel informed.

Care for the end-to-end experience
Many single subject attempts at blended learning can achieve some level of success, but ultimately fall short in creating lasting change within a school. The key driver of this phenomenon is the disjointed school experience it creates for students. Teachers may be able to live and even thrive within a single subject, but students quickly become disoriented when presented with such a dramatic difference between one subject’s blended learning environment and the traditional experience in other courses. The difficulty for students arises from the dramatic difference in expectations of them in the two learning environments. The support available in the Blended Classroom further highlights the shortcomings of the traditional environment and can accelerate frustration among students straddling both worlds. There is also evidence that, in these schools, the schism between blended and non-blended teachers and classrooms can be corrosive to morale and culturally divisive.

In conversations with district superintendents across the country, it is the frame of reference for conceiving change that most accurately predicts the outcome. Ironically, it is the ability for individual schools to, with some support, design and implement their own flavor of a Blended Classroom that is most scalable across districts of all shapes and sizes. Fortunately, thanks to inspired leadership from the Department of Education through the Race to the Top-District competition and great work from organizations like America Achieves, a rich body of incentives and support structures are available to help school leaders chart a course toward sustainable, personalized learning for every student.

Shelli Taylor
Chief Operating Officer