Let It Shine

Magnificat High School hosted last week's Diocese of Cleveland High School Principal meeting. This meeting happened to fall within the school's Spirit Week, in which the school's Se-Mores (seniors and sophomores) competed against the Jun-Fre (juniors and freshmen) in various games and activities. These purposeful pairings provide authentic leadership opportunities for upper-class students, allowing the school to live out the school's mission - to educate young women holistically to learn, lead, and serve in the spirit of Mary's Magnificat - and one of its core values, collaboration. 

I left Magnificat's campus inspired that day, having witnessed one small way in which the school aligns its foundational statements to its actions. 

In today's Gospel from Luke, Jesus reminds us, "No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light" (
Luke 8:16). Similarly, Jesus challenged us in yesterday's Gospel in this way, "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). 

In other words, we cannot and must not dim the lights of our schools by saying one thing and doing another. We cannot serve God through the missions of our schools while also engaging in behaviors that go against that for which we stand. 

Since the beginning of the school year – and in many ways since I started with the diocese three years ago – we have focused on our mission statements, core beliefs, and the values/pillars/charisms that inspire our schools.

We should use our missions as the spines of our organizations: "Think of the mission as the spine of the enterprise - the essential, underlying framework of values and purpose that gives it shape and resiliency. By recasting the mission as a set of phrases that speak to the organization's purpose(s), audience(s), or populations served, this set of phrases becomes the spine upon which relevant performance indicators can be hung" (BoardSource, 2007). 

Doing this forces us to see the work of our schools as stemming from and measured by these foundational statements of our institutions. 

However, there are aspects of our schools that try to serve two masters and in doing so diminish the brightness of our lights. By engaging in practices, even small ones, that contradict our mission, beliefs, and values we weaken the intensity of the light we should be shining for the world to see. 

From discipline policies that emphasize punishment and shame to grading practices that inflate or harm students' scores with non-academic factors to cheers that demean certain groups of students to the music played at school dances to the loosening of campus security outside of the hours of the school day to lower standards for the language of athletic coaches there are many ways that we diminish our light by not adhering to the words we use to profess who we are and what we value as Catholic schools. 

As we strive to provide clarity, build coherence, and strive for consistency, let us leverage this foundational language so that everything we do allows us to live up to the high ideals of our missions, beliefs, and values/pillars/charisms.

As we find areas that misalign, like those named above and other others, let us be courageous in our efforts to remove them from our schools, make changes that fit with our professed identities, and/or add programs, policies, procedures, and personnel that enable us to advance our missions. 

As we do this, may we put the lights of our school communities on a lampstand so that they - and our students - shine brighter, and so that we may more boldly and authentically declare that Jesus Christ is the reason for our schools. 

Let's leave no doubt Whom we serve: our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. 

Take Heart

Over the past few weeks, we have focused on the importance of shared language, shared understanding, and aligned actions across our network and our local communities.

From clarity, to coherence, to consistency, we have concentrated on ensuring that the actions of our schools uphold, embody, and advance the mission, beliefs, values and/or charisms of our schools.

The more we use this language, the more that people will remember it.

The more that we talk about what this language means, the more that the community will understand it.

The more that we encourage our school communities to align their words and actions with these statements and our collective understanding of their messages, the more we will become the institutions that God needs us to be.

Much in the same way that we need encouragement to stick with something difficult - especially new ways of operating and leading our schools, let us encourage our communities to attain the levels of excellence merited by organizations bearing the stamp Catholic.

Let us presume the positive intentions of others, seeking the good in any situation and starting with ways in which we agree before highlighting areas of difference.

Let us creatively look for third options, especially in situations that seem as if there is only an either/or choice. These alternative innovations can come when we reframing challenges as opportunities to lead and minister, invoking the Holy Spirit and asking for His inspiration, wisdom and guidance.

We can encourage each other to attain the highest levels of excellence by recognizing the giftedness in each other.

We can honor each others' giftedness by striving to be authentically human - slowing down and focusing on the most important elements of our missions and ensuring that we, and others, take time to care for ourselves and those we love.

Finally, and most importantly, let us continue to turn to the Lord in prayer, not that He would answer the hopes we have for our ministries but that we would align ourselves with the hopes that He has for us. Pray for the Holy Spirit's inspiration, wisdom, guidance, and humility to follow His plan for His schools.

"Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do" (1 Thessalonians 5:11). "(R)ouse one another to love and good works...encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Take heart. 

Prove It

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:14-20).

Over the past few posts, we have focused on the importance of clarity of our schools' mission statement and beliefs (and/or values, pillars, characteristics, etc.) and shared understanding about the language contained therein.

Not only is repetition key but so also is developing the collective understanding of what these words mean and entail.

Much like this message in the letter of James, mission statements (beliefs, values, pillars, characteristics, etc.) are dead without action. 

And, for the actions stemming from these keystone messages to be consistent and not open to the potentially contradictory interpretations of individuals across our communities, we must build shared understanding about what these words mean.

As an example, take the Diocese of Cleveland's Office of Catholic Education's (OCE) root belief “Collaboration is a force multiplier.”

First, it is imperative that we repeat this language so that it sticks into the long-term memories of OCE staff. If it occupies working memory head space, chances are good that it will be pushed aside in moments of stress, busyness, or a focus on other things.

We must overcommunicate clarity and reinforce clarity and re-reinforce clarity.

Second, assuming that all OCE personnel know this belief, if we don’t take time to develop a shared understanding about what collaboration means in the OCE, then we can have varying approaches to living it out. One person might take this to mean that every email, every project, every task needs to have a proofreader, thought-partner, and/or co-generator. Another might take collaboration to mean a divide and conquer approach with clear boundaries of the separation of duties between and among OCE members. A final person might think of collaboration as telling others what they are going to do in advance of doing it – not for feedback but to put on the airs of living out the “belief” of the group.

Please take two points away from this illustration.

First, continue to reinforce the language of the important statements across your campuses. Keep repeating them. Over and over and over...and over and over...

Second, building shared understanding can result in many ways, two of which follow. One, you can spend time dialoguing about what these words mean to you, working to a collective definition across stakeholders and groups. Two, you can assess the behaviors of the community to evaluate the extent to which shared understanding exists. How many people collaborate? What are the ways in which people are asked to collaborate? How often does collaboration occur? If collaboration isn’t taking place, you can interrogate why not? What are the obstacles?

As we do this, we will prove that these words aren’t just platitudes or poetic phrasing meant to attract but not retain members of our schools. Instead, they will be the authentic manifestation of the core beliefs, values, and purpose of our ministries.

Shared language and shared understanding.

Clarity and coherence.

Faith and works.

Mission and beliefs and values and pillars and characteristics and action.

Clarity AND Coherence

Shared language in an organization helps to provide clarity as to what the community values and holds as important. Whether the explicit words of the school's mission, values, and/or beliefs or consistent evaluation forms or standardized operating procedures, using the same language within an organization contributes to greater consistency.

When people know what to expect, they more consistently hit those targets. Clarity in language helps provide direction and guidance.

Imagine the difference between "no running in the hallways" and "we use walking feet in the hallways." The latter eliminates "jogging" or "skipping" or "shuffling" that the former doesn't explicitly rule out.

In this way, shared language can strengthen organizations and communities.

In addition to shared language, though, we must also create shared understanding across our communities. This can take place by offering the rationale for something - this is why we say this in our mission, this is why we expect walking feet in the hallways - or by providing definitions and/or models of excellence - this is what we mean when we say we value "tradition", this is an example of student engagement throughout a lesson/this is not an example of student engagement throughout a lesson.

Put another way, in addition to clarity of language across our school communities, we also need coherence of understanding.

These can and often do happen simultaneously. While we consistently use the words of the mission statement in our meetings, presentations, and general conversations, we can also provide more context about what the words mean. We can also more explicitly provide the rationale that serves as the foundation for the sticky phrases used to provide direction and inspiration to our communities. We can anchor these foundational explanations in scripture (Jesus empowered His disciples when He sent them two by two), in our school's rich histories (the Ursulines and the Marianists value an integral formation), and in the hope we have for the vision of our schools (embracing the future with confidence and hope is demonstrated by our students applying to colleges and universities).

As mentioned previously, if you feel overly repetitive you're doing it right (see what I did there). If you feel like a broken record, trust that the tune is starting to sink in. If you feel as though there is no way that someone couldn't know the mission by now, remember that about 1/3 of a high school community (new students and families, new faculty/staff) is new each year (with this fraction being a bit smaller in grade schools due to the larger number of grades). Even those you have readmitted (as in added once again to your mission for another year) have varying amounts of experiences with your school's mission.

Couple these repetitive messages with explanations about the meaning of these words, phrases and statements that our schools hold sacred.

Clarity and coherence.

Shared language and shared understanding.

Clarity and coherence.

Shared language and shared understanding.

Clear

Catholic school leaders, as you begin the 25-26 academic year, take time to focus your efforts on offering clarity to your school communities. 

Clarity about the purpose of the school - the mission. 

Clarity about the preferred future for the school - its vision. 

Clarity about expectations for performance - policies, procedures, standards of excellence for teachers, staff, students, families, volunteers, board members, fans, alumni. 

From budgets that manage and direct school funding to ways in which personnel receive approval for various permissions to how teachers will be evaluated to the school's code of conduct for students, clearly stating these aspects of our schools provides guardrails within which these stakeholder groups can support the advancement of our school's missions.

As a starting point, focus singularly on your school's mission. From Mission Moments (where you celebrate something that happened that directly relates to your school's mission) during your board meetings to including it on agendas to referencing parts of it during communications to considering ways in which we can measure our effectiveness in accomplishing/advancing it, may we take advantage of these threshold moments in our schools this year - orientations, first days of school, back to school meetings, opening assemblies, kickoff pep rallies, and beginning celebrations of the Eucharist - to proclaim our schools' missions.

If you feel overly repetitive regarding your school's mission, you're doing it right. If you feel like a broken record, trust that the tune is starting to sink in. If you feel as though there is no way that someone couldn't know the mission by now, remember that at the high school level about 1/3 of your school community (new students and families, new faculty/staff) is new each year (the grade school level would be smaller based on more grade levels). Even those you have readmitted (as in added once again to your mission for another year) have varying amounts of experiences with and understanding of your school's mission.

In other words, say it again.

And again.

And again.

And...you get it.

Celebrate the successes of your missions, rally the school around their noble pursuits, use them as a way to inspire even greater levels of excellence.

In other words, just to be clear, concentrate on advancing the mission of your schools.

Concentrate on advancing the mission of your schools.

Teaching Like a Champion

Last month, over 200 teachers and administrators from 15 of the schools across our Diocese gathered for a workshop presented by the team from Teach Like a Champion (TLAC).

For those in attendance, it was a day filled with adult learning – silent solos, everybody writes, turn and talks, cold calls and many other strategies to enhance the teaching and learning in our classrooms.

One of the reflections I had throughout the day centered on how aligned these best pedagogical strategies are with our Catholic faith.

When we consider the model and example of Christ the Teacher, we should be inspired to employ the strategies that He used.

For example, much of the content from that day centered on asking questions. Christ did this masterfully. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus asked 183 questions, offered 3 answers, and asked 307 questions as the answer to a question (Weddell, 2012). In shifting the cognitive load to our students, we must question like Christ did.

Another key component that aligns with a pedagogy of Christ is the importance of dialogue in the learning process. We are made in the image and likeness of a triune God and as such learning is inherently social. Allowing students the opportunities to talk with classmates in low stakes ways honors our communal nature as humans. Frequent turn and talks provide social opportunities to test learning and fine tune answers,.

A final connection – and there are probably many more – is the importance of using names. Our presenters, Doug Lemov and Denarius Frazier, used the names of participants throughout our time together. Doing so honors the inherent dignity and worth of our students and helps to build a classroom culture that is positive, supportive, and safe. The use of names was one of the many reasons that within about 15 minutes the TLAC team created such an environment in a room filled with over 200 educators.

God's Divine Providence weaves together research-based strategies with a pedagogy of Christ.

Teaching like a champion, especially in Catholic schools, should be synonymous with teaching like a Christian.

Reference:

Weddell, S. A. (2012). Forming intentional disciples. Our Sunday Visitor.