Expanding the Teacher's Role; Hammond's School Improvement Process

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FROM llIE Af1 UBRARY


EXPANDING


The, Teacher's Role:


~ammond'sSchool Improvement Process

In Hammond, Indiana, a
school improvement effort
gives teachers a major say in
decision making and in
shaping the programs they
believe will be best suited to
the needs oftheir students.
Though the progress ofthe
program has been uneven, the
prognosis is good.

BY JILL CASNER·LO'ITO

A
A
N UNUSUAL experiment
is under. way in the publi.c
schools mHammond, Indiana.
A School Improve-··
ment Process (SIP), which
draws on the collective energy and expertise
of teachers, administrators. students,
parents, and other community
members, is fundamentally changing the
way schools operate and enhancing opponunities
for learning.

For the first time, teachers in Ham-.'
mond can have a major say in decision
making and in shaping educational programs
that they believe will be best suited
to their students. Decisions in a wide
range of areas that were traditionally un


der the sole jurisdiction of school prin-~\'" \ ;

Jill CASNER-WTTO is research editor
for policy studies at the Work in America Institute,
Scarsdale. N. Y. This anicle was
adapted from a case study commissioned by;"',
the Work in A.merica Institute. a nonprofit ,~;
work research organization. as pan ofits national
policy study. The Teacher: Ally in
Educational Refonn. which will be published .~
in late 1988. 0/988. Work in A.merica Insti-'':~~::r......
tute.


349

Ilwlrruioft by Ntd SlID., JANUARY 1988


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I
I


cipals and central administrators -curriculum
planning and development, instructional
strategies, staffing needs and
hiring, professional development, disciplinary
procedures, scheduliilg, and so on
-are now being made by teachers and
administrators, working together with
parents and students on school-based improvement
teams.

What further distinguishes this school
improvement effort from similar efforts
elsewhere is the 'active involvement ofthe
teacher union -the Hammond Teachers'
Federation, Local 394 of the American
Federation of Teachers -and the strong
support of the central administration. In
1985 the union and the district negotiated
an agreement by which teachers, on a
school-by-school basis, may set aside elements
of their contract in order to implement
school improvement plans.

Although the improvement process is
still in its early stages, one indication of
success is the change in roles and attitudes
evident among the participants.
Both the union president and the district
superintendent remark that each side is
moving away from the adversarial stance
that has characterized the traditional relationship
between labor and management
and toward a more cooperative approach
that better serves the interests of
all parties. Although significant numbers
of principals and teachers continue to resist
change, many others support the SIP
and say that it has enhanced their roles
as professionals. Parents say that the SIP
has opened a new channel of communication
for them and offers a way to become
actively involved in their children's
schools. Students acquire new leadership

skills through the SIP and are able to assume
greater responsibilities for their
own learning ;md for the success of programs
in their schools.

THE SIP IN HAMMOND

Participants in the School Improvement
Process in Hammond define it as a building-
based method of managing schools
that can lead to significant improvements
in the quality of education. Though the
process has been implemented districtwide,
teachers and administrators emphasize
that decision making remains schoolbased.
This is in keeping with their belief
that those most closely affected by decisions
should have a major role in making
them and that reforms are most effective
when carried out by people who
feel a sense of ownership of them. The
SIP is completely compatible with the
collective bargaining process; in fact, by
involving teachers in making decisions
about policy, the SIP actually strength~
ens the bargaining process, according to
Patrick O'Rourke, president of the Hammond
Teachers' Federation.

In planning the improvement process,
participants identify certain key elements
that are necessary if the SIP is to be effective.
Among these ingredients are such
things as training, time, money; ongoing
district support, and access to current or
state-of-the-art information on which to
base decisions.

The city of Hammond, with a population
of about 100,000, is in the northwestern
tip of Indiana, sandwiched between
Gary, Indiana, and the Chicago
metropolitan area. Located in the middle


"While I was watching my P's an4 Q's, the other 24 letters got away from me. ~
PHI DELTA KAPPAN

I I
I
!
One Indication
of the SIP'.
.ucce•• I. th.
change In rol••
anel aHltud ••
evlel.nt among
th. participant••

of what has come to be called the "rust
belt," the Hammond community has felt
the trauma of plant closings and job
layoffs in the steel industry. The Hammond
school district is the eighth largest
school corporation in Indiana and employs
more than 1,600 people, of whom
about 900 are teachers and 70 are administrators.
There are 25 schools in
the district: four high schools, two middle
schools, and 19 elementary schools.
Student enrollment -which declined by
3% between 1983 and 1984 -is now
more than 13,000. Achievement test
scores have shown steady improvement
in the district since 1984. Overall results
of the spring 1986 testing program
showed that students in 11 of the 12
grades scored at or above national norms.

Like many urban school district" across
the country, Hammond has had its share
of financial problems. In 1985 the district
faced a $2 million budget deficit,
which was projected to increase to $7
million. Since then, however, that deficit
has been reduced to half a million dollars.


This feat was accomplished through the
cooperative efforts of the school board,
the administration, the teachers, the parents,
and other community members. A
team representing these groups met with
state authorities to discuss solutions to
the district's financial problems. Through
a variety of measures -fund transfers,
payment of late bills with bonds, and reductions
in administrative and teaching
staff through attrition -.the deficit was
lowered "without closing one neighborhood
school and without eviscerating any


."

•• -'~ <, .....

", t .~.r~~~'.

educational programs, and we still managed
to award competitive.~ raises,"
boasts Hammond Superili~~~t David

Dickson.;:;:?}:""

A sense of camaradene:aDa'ti'ust has
helped facilitate the Schoof~vement
Process. The SIP started as a pilot project
in 1982 in Hammond High School,
which was once a top-ranked school in
the state but which had been in continuous
decline since the early 19708. Academic
achievement had slipped dramatically,
while the rates of absences and
dropping out were rising. Racial tensions,
vandalism, drug abuse, and fighting
in the halls were rampant. Teacher
morale was at an all-time low, and the
level ofhostility between teachers and administrators
was mounting.

Initial costs for the Hammond High pilot
project were underwritten by the Eli
Lilly Endowment, the Institute for the

; Development of Educational Activities

~. (part of the Charles Kettering Founda


'. tion), the Hammond school district, and

the' Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Through the efforts of a school improvement
committee composed of teachers,
administrators, parents, students, and
community members, Hammond High
achieved a remarkable turnaround in a
~o-year period. Several measures proposed
by the committee led to visible improvements:
less vandalism and graffiti,
increased attendance, higher levels of student
achievement, and a dramatic reduction
in student failures.

Shortly after the experiment at Hammond
High, two elementary/middle
schools also became involved in the SIP.
In 1984, after the successful experiences
at the three pilot schools, the process was
extended to the remaining 22 schools in
the district;

THE SIP TODAY

The implementation of the SIP has
not been unifonn throughout the district.
This is understandable because each

, school adapts the process to its own particular
culture and 'changes at its own
pace. While some schools are developing
programs that signal a "gradual yet
fundamental shift in the decision-making
authority, others have simply put in place
the mechanisms for change and conducted
the initial training," O'Rourke ob


--served.
The mechanisms for change at each
school include an improvement committee
of 15 to 20 members, including,

teachers. administrators, parents, students,
and, when possible, other community
members. The agenda for the improvement
process is set by a smaller
core team ...:. usually consisting of the
principal, one or two teachers from the
larger SIP team, and a parent. The principal
may also serve on the larger SIP
team or may occasionally attend the SIP
meetings, when. for instance, information
on the school budget may directly
affect the committee's work. Although
Hammond school representatives have
made it a point not to set any rigid rules
concerning SIP committee membership
or meeting times and procedures, there
is one rule to which all teams are expected
to adhere: a principal should never
chair the SIP committee, because this
would merely perpetuate the traditional
top-down approach to school management.


Gary Phillips, a consultant who was
with the Kettering Foundation when the
pilot project began, continues to provide
some technical assistance to the
school district. But the major responsibility
for training staff and for overseeing
other SIP activities has been assumed
by Wayne Pechers, who in 1985 was appointed
by the district superintendent as
coordinator for the SIP.

Pechers conducts the initial training
workshop when a school first becomes
involved in the SIP. Then, in the traditional
"train-the-trainer" approach, individuals
who have completed Pechers'
workshop train others in the school community.
The initial training improves participants'
skills in consensus building,
brainstorming, creative problem solving,
and group dynamics. In addition, Pechers
and Jane Kendrick, principal of Eggers
Elementary/Middle School and a leading


'771t' I,n .hlem \\'j(h Ihese average report
(,(Iftis 1\'. it's hurd 10 get them
funded·

advocate of the SIP, have conducted ongoing
workshops in leadership skills for
principals and for SIP committee chairs.
"Several principals are still uncomfortable
in their new roles because they feel
they have lost power. What we've tried
to do is convince them that their power
is strengthened since the policies implemented
have the full sUPPQrt of the
faculty," said Pechers.

For example, one elementary school
was struggling to improve itself but its
attempts to do so had been thwarted by
mistrust and hostility between the faculty
members and the principal. At a faculty
meeting. Pechers introduced consensus
building in small groups and the use of
brainstorming techniques. What might
have been just another gripe session
turned into a productive meeting at which
the teachers and the principal at least
agreed about some of the barriers to
change and about ways to try to overcome
them.

Pechers, who is also a math teacher at
Hammond High School, is able to continue
in his teaching duties at full salary
because he has been granted "half-time
release" by the central administration to
carry out his SIP responsibilities. He also
receives a small stipend for his SIP work. ,

After the initial training at a school has
been completed, the SIP team's first task
is to develop a "vision of excellence" a
statement of what the team members
want to achieve in five or 10 years. Specific
long-and short-range goals and priorities
are determined, and then a strategic
improvement plan is developed. Often,
the teams go on weekend retreats to
a peaceful setting far removed from the
school environment to develop their vision
and start work on an improvement
plan.

A key component of the SIP is the
concept of "pyramiding," which, when
done properly, increases the number of
people who have input into decision making
and thus increases the acceptance of
new programs and policies. Pyramiding
requires that each member of the SIP
team interact regularly with five to seven
peers. This interaction consists of
communicating information about the
team's work or about a specific proposal
and gathering feedback from interested
parties who are not members of the team.
Each member of the initial group of five
to seven individuals is then expected to
reach a similar number of people, who,
in turn. contact others. In this way, a significant
portion of the school population

JANUARY 1988

'.


can be reached in a relatively short time.
The success of pyramiding varies from
school to school and depends on how
well the teams are organized and on the
school's level of commitment to the improvement
process.

In addition to the grant money received
from the Lilly Endowment and the Kettering
Foundation, in 1986 the Hammond
school district, largely through the efforts
of Jane Kendrick, received a $50,000
grant from the Indiana State Department
of Education to provide incentives for
teachers to participate in the School Improvement
Process. This money, which
has been allocated among the various
schools, can be used for whatever purposes
the SIP committee chooses, including
travel expenses for weekend retreats,
for special training sessions or conferences,
for visits to other schools experimenting
with new ideas, and for visits
to universities where research related to
school improvement is being conducted.
Some SIP teams have used the money to
pay for substitute teachers so that the
teachers on the SIP team could spend
more time participating in school improvement
activities.

In 1987 the Hammond School District
was awarded a $66,000 grant from the
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
The money will be used for additional
personnel to help coordinate SIP
activities and train participants and for
sponsoring other events, including two
labor/management conferences for principals
and teachers during the school
year.

Time is a resource as p~iousas money.
And time has been provided by the
central administration of the Hammond
school district. SIP teams can request
released time in order to meet during the
school day. Each team decides when and
how often it needs to meet. Depending
on the workload, some teams may meet
monthly or weekly -either on their own
time or, if their requests for released
time have been approved, during school
hours. Some teams that need extended
blocks of time have worked out arrangements
whereby team members combine
their own free time with the released time
granted by the district.

TIlE SIP AND THE UNION

During the early stages of the SIP, the
Hammond Teachers' Federation was not
directly involved. However, several individual
members and union leaders


PHI DELTA KAPPAN

including O'Rourke, who was also a
member of the Hammond High School
SIP committee -were active participants.
"Our feeling during those early
stages was that, with only three schools
involved as pilots, we could monitor the
development of the SIP and intervene as
an institution at the proper time, should
we feel threatened," said O'Rourke. That
attitude changed in 1985 as it became
increasingly obvious to union leaders,
building representatives, and rank-andfile
members that shared decision making
in the local schools could complicate
the process ofcollective bargaining.
More and more schools were considering
programs, such as peer evaluation,
that clearly deviated from contractual
procedures.

For the union, the SIP represented both
a threat and an opportunity. On the one
hand, the prospect of teachers, parents,
administrators, and students working together
to implement programs at individual
schools "seemed to threaten the
very institutional balance of power that
existed within the district," according to
O'Rourke. On the other hand, this new
model of shared governance was a way
to give teachers the opportunity to develop
programs and policies and thus
broaden their scope as professionals. "We
concluded that it was possible to move
in this direction by working within the
traditional collective bargaining process,
while simultaneously developing new relationships
with management that go beyond
bargaining," O'Rourke said.

In September 1985 the union negotiated
a three-year contract with the school
board that endorses the SIP and includes
language pennitting local schools to deviate
from the master contract in order to
pursue their improvement plans -providing
a specific procedure is followed.
O'Rourke believes that the language of
the contract frees individual teachers at
each school to make decisions without
union interference and without weakening
the union contract.


The procedure for deviating from the
contract is fairly complex, and I will only
outline it here. Briefly, all faculty members
at a school must reach a consensus
on a proposed program. The faculty as
a body then determines a time period not
to exceed one school year -for a
trial test of the program. Criteria are
established by the faculty to evaluate the
program at the Cii~ of the trial period.
The faculty then rates the proposal on a
scale of zero to five, with a five indicating
enthusiastic endorsement of the limited
trial test and zero indicating strong
opposition to even a limited trial test.
Ifthe procedure is followed correctly, the
union does not have the right to file a
grievance alleging that a school improvement
project violates any contract provision;
however, an individual teacher
may still file a grievance in his or her own

name. .

At one elementary school, where an innovative,
cross-grade-Ievel reading program
created through the SIP has dramatically
improved student reading levels
and eased teachers' workloads, the faculty
members followed the procedure because
the program required teaching arrangements
that violated certain work rules
spelled out in the contract. "The procedure
allowed us to meet our individual
needs at this school," said one teacher,
"without making a blanket statement for
all the schools."

In general, union involvement in the
SIP has boosted teacher support. "It has
convinced many teachers," Pechers said,
"that the SIP is not simply another fad,
but something that is here to stay."
O'Rourke, who has used general meetings
of the union as a vehicle for "selling"
the SIP and informing members of
its programs, estimates that today about
one-third of the teachers are actively participating
in the School Improvement
Process, while the remaining two-thirds
are equally divided among the skeptics
and those who take a "wait-and-see" attitude.


SUPPORT FROM THE TOP

David Dickson, the superintendent of
schools, says that his job has become
easier since the SIP came to Hammond.
Because teachers, parents, and principals
take part in the decision-making process,
the traditional mistrust and negative feelings
toward the central administration
have been significantly reduced. "There's
better communication, and the pool of ex



..


pertise has beeit broadened," said Dick-

son. A strong profession


al . . teachers,

. should

in such
. areas as

structional strategies,

policies, and he has honored most dec

sions reached by the SIP teams.

Although he has been in his present po


sition only since 1985, both teachers and

principals view Dickson as instrumental

in mobilizing the support of school board

members for the SIP. Today, three

school board members are active mem


bers of SIP teams. Jane Kendrick says

that Dickson's leadership style has al


lowed the SIP to grow by "letting the

principal and the faculty run their school

without interference from the central office
...

Perhaps the most tangible demonstration
of district support for the SIP has
been the provision of released time so that
the SIP teams can meet. Recently, however,
some SIP teams have had their requests
for released time denied by the
central administration, because certain
state rules mandate the number of days
students must be in the schools and the
number of hours and minutes thev must
spend in the classroom. Dickson is committed
to challenging such rules -many
of whil'h he considers educationally unsound
-and. together with the union's
O·Rourke. he is developing measures that
will permit SIP teams to adjust school
schedules to allow adequate time to meet

Inside the Schools


iALTHOUGH THE Ham


. mond School Improvement
Process (SIP) was imple.


mented districtwide only

three years ago, several
SIP committees have already made impressive
strides in curriculum reform. the
improvement ofteaching techniques, new
hiring strategies. and other areas. Some
of the SIP-related achievements at the
local schools are noted below.

• At Lafayette Elementary School, a
transitional first-grade/kindergarten program
was created for youngsters who
experienced difficulty in kindergarten
and needed more preparation before entering
first grade. The program, which
was researched, reviewed, and designed
by teachers and administrators working
closely with parents, represents a major
departure from the established curriculum.
Teachers also say that they are actively
involved in detertnining personnel
needs, scheduling. student placement,
curriculum development, and the selection
of textbooks.

• Meanwhile, at Eggers Elementary/
Middle School. teaching techniques and
instruction have been enriched through
the adoption of state-of-the·art methods
that address the individualized learning
styles of students. Other accomplishments
related to the SIP include: the
adoption of a course schedule in which
the time slots for various subjects are rotated
every 12 weeks in order to accommodate
the needs ofboth morning learners
and afternoon learners; the develop-
I


ment of a reading center fur teaching!
across grade levels: and the receipt of a
$20,000 middle-school recognition award
from the Lilly Endowment to plan and

carry out further improvement activities.

• At Hammond High School, where.
the first pilot program was conducted,
the SIP team screened and interviewed
candidates for the principal's position
and made recommendations to the district
superintendent and the school board.
Four other schools have followed suit,
with teams of teachers. administrators,
students, and parents interviewing and •
ranking candidates, In all five cases, the'
final choices of the SIP teams were approved
by the central administration.
• At Morton Elementary School, the
teachers and administrators have agreed '
informally to a peer evaluation program.
Pending further study, the model could.
be a,dopted at other schools. '
• At Kenwood Elementary School, ;
an innovative, cross-grade-Ievel reading'
program was created through the SIP. '
The pn'gram, which restructure.s the
dailv ~chedulc to guarantee 90 mmutes
of u'ntntcrrupted time for reading instruction,
ha, dramatically improved student
reading Ie\ els and at the same time eased
tcachc~~' v,nrkloads.
• ,~.!'Il .It Hammond High School. a
\.·(la\.·hll1~ Illcntnr program. which require'
the ,·(l,lpt.'ration of the central admini"
rat'lln. the huildinl! administrators.
ami the .lllcc·ted tl'acher~. pairs seasoned
carl'C'r tl'ac'hcr~ \\ ith new teachers who
are c'\IX'rrc'n(in~ dlftil.'ulties. -JCL
and plan their activities. "Any loss of
school days." Dickson said, "is far outweighed
by the advantages of the SIP:
improved curriculum, more creative instructional
strategies, and a positive
educational climate."

Because the SIP has been in place districtwide
only since 1984, representatives
of the Hammond school district say that
it is too early to evaluate its impact on
districtwide trends in achievement test
scores, attendance rates, and other iildi~
cators of student performance. Based on
the programs developed thus far, the
impact on attitudes, and the changes in
teacher/administrator roles and relation~
ships, the School Improvement Process
has clearly made a difference in the Hammond
school district and will continue to
do so in the future, say SIP participants.
"We have a process in place that will enable
change to occur. And all things are
possible," O'Rourke stated. .

O'Rourke's optimism, however. is tempered
by his knowledge of the forces that
work against school improvement. The
existence of federal and state laws that
limit the effectiveness of the SIP is one
obvious factor, and teacher cynicism is
another. Less obvious, however, is the
departure of key leaders who have been
strong advocates of shared decision making
and school improvement. And in
school districts -where leadership
changes occur regularly -this becomes_
an especially important factor.

At Hammond High School, the school
improvement process has lost some of its
momentum since its early days. While
several factors undoubtedly combined to
ac\.'Ount for this, several members of the
school community believe that the departure
of Elizabeth Ennis, a principal who
was committed to the SIP, was a major
one. Nonetheless, even the loss of a .
~trong leader can be viewed as but a temporary
setback.

Today there are signs that the School

Imprnvement Process at Hammond High

i~ heing revived. An alternative mathe


Illatil.'s program, conceived and designed

hy teachers. was recentlv' introduced

there. The program relies 'on such non


traJitional methods as small-group in


~tructi\ln. peer tutoring. and team teach


In\!. Students advance according to their

rn;~tery of the subject matter rather than

a-:cnrding to time spent. Said Wayne

Pcchers. "We got lazy. But now we're

r('adv to get the engines started once

again." lKl

JANUARY 1988


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