Running head: GROWING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH POSITIVE CULTURE

Growing Student Achievement Through Positive Culture: Digging into Regent Park Scholars

Academy School Culture and Climate Using Failure Is Not An Option Deep Analysis

Scott Schnitzer

Oakland University
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Abstract

Using Failure Is Not an Option by Alan Blankstein, I have dissected the six principles discussed

in the book to examine Regent Park Scholars Academy’s culture and climate. By digging deeper

into the principles of the school, it is my goal to examine the strengths and areas of improvement

to build a strong school culture and climate at Regent Park. Blankstein (2013) states “Leaders

who tap this clear sense of purpose in themselves and others are addressing the beginning of

what we refer to in this book as the courageous leadership imperative” (p. 4). Overall, Regent

Park has a culture that has strengths and areas of improvement. In order to achieve this positive

school culture and climate, the leadership and staff must find commonalities to come together on

that promote student achievement.

Keywords: culture, climate, principles

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Growing Student Achievement Through Positive Culture: Digging into Regent Park Scholars

Academy School Culture and Climate Using Failure Is Not An Option Deep Analysis

Introduction

Regent Park Scholars Academy is a K-8 charter school through National Heritage

Academies located in Detroit, Michigan. The staff population fluctuates by roughly 30% on an

annual basis. As of this past year, over 50% of the staff found new jobs during and after the

school year began. Along with a fluctuating staffing issue, the student population at Regent Park

is very transient as well. Based on the rate of homelessness in the community, family needs, and

financial difficulties in the inner city, the population will change yearly. Regent Park is home to

700+ students. Enrollment varies throughout the year. Absenteeism and tardies are a huge issue

as well. Two years ago, the school went through a leadership transition, along with many

tragedies. Gun violence, staff members coping with family tragedy, and a changing leadership

had a huge impact on our overall school culture. In the past two years, our principal has begun to

establish new visions for our school. She has begun to work on improving school culture, but

then there is always the push back from staff that supported the old leadership team. No matter

what new, inviting proposal the leadership team brought forth, staff did not want to support it.

The leadership team began to give more options to the staff on how to handle different situations,

and they allowed staff to have more of a say in decision making. Nevertheless, staff continued to

have push back.

Principle 1: Common Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals

The main area that drives school culture and climate is student achievement. By digging

into student achievement, we must look at the school’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Regent

Park Scholars has a mission that states “Regent Park Scholars offers the families of Metro
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Detroit a K-8 public school with a challenging academic program and a school culture that

values integrity, academic excellence, and accountability, where each student is given the

opportunity for success.” We as an educational community work hard to achieve this mission,

but there are parts that we need to continue to improve. What stands out to me is the idea of

culture being defined in our mission. In order to achieve all that we want in our mission, we must

begin to transition to place student achievement at the forefront of our minds!

If we want to achieve the type of school our mission and vision says, then we must do

what Blankstein (2013) states “Creating a high-performing team that is able to shape school

culture and guide improvements in instruction is the key to sustainable student success” (p. 80).

We must look at all components of the school, and it must relate directly back to student

achievement. It must relate back to what we are working towards in our mission, and we must

ensure we are putting our students first. Any decision must be made with our students at the front

of our minds. Blankstein’s quote above says that if we do this, then we begin to create the culture

and instruction we are striving for in our mission statement.

While looking at our mission and vision, there are some components that we, as a school,

need to reevaluate. Chapter 5 in Blankstein’s (2013) book discusses what a good mission and

vision looks like. As a school, we have established what we want to do, but we need to establish

benchmarks of how we will know that we are succeeding. Lastly, we need to state how we will

ensure success for our school. Our overall mission has potential, but in order to make it a great

mission, we must be able to answer all questions asked by Blankstein (2013).

As a school, instead of knowing every word in the mission, we need to focus on

keywords that ensure all stakeholders understand what we want to accomplish, how we are going

to get there, and how we are going to measure that success. If we begin to dissect our mission
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and vision as a staff on a regular basis, and become more familiar with it, more focus will be

placed on student achievement. Building our school culture that has integrity at the forefront,

ensures that students and teachers alike, administrators and parents as well, and even the

community as a whole, will begin to see that we are focused on student achievement and

growing our students to exemplify their full potential!

Examining our vision, we are striving “to create a K-8 public school that is highly

regarded for its academic excellence”. In order for us to achieve this vision, it is essential that

our school demonstrates a positive school culture and climate, which reflects our mission. But, if

we want to reach our full potential of our vision, we must develop the culture in a way that is led

by student achievement. When evaluating the full potential of Regent Park Scholars, the culture

has come a long way, and it seems to be on the right track toward fulfilling the mission and

vision. Stakeholders must work together to ensure all decision and actions reflect a central focus

on what is best for kids.

Blankstein (2013) states that an effective vision “is realistic, clear, and compelling; it

requires broad-based buy-in, describes intended change, and guides action” (p. 95). When

looking at Regent Park’s vision, there are missing components. If we want to ensure that we, as a

school community, are living up to our mission and value, we need to work with all stakeholders

to create a vision that goes along with Blankstein’s thinking. Our vision starts by being realistic

and clear, and it possibly can get some buy-in, but it does not state the intended change. In a way

it can be used to guide action, but, lacks the there clear wording to meet the definitions in Failure

is Not an Option.

When looking at our values and goals, we are working towards building a stronger

culture and a stronger community in and out of the school. Our values include behaving with
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care, do the right thing always, take ownership of learning, make our schools the best choice for

parents and students, and act with discipline to sustain academic successes. The inner city is not

a place for the faint hearted. It is a place that requires thick skin, and overall it requires way more

work than most people could imagine. The students come to us with so many different life

experiences, home situations, and the need to be loved, cared for, and genuinely valued. Parents

in the community struggle with building the home to school relationship due to their own

education issues. Our goals and values are trying to bring all of this together along with so much

more.

When looking at these five core values, Regent Park follows some of them, but there is

room for improvement on others. When looking at the first, behaving with care, teachers strive to

care for students, and there are many teachers who go above and beyond for our students. There

are other teachers who need to understand the community in better ways to help themselves care

and behave in a different manner. The second value, do the right thing always, is an

improvement. Teachers do what they want to make themselves look good at times, but there are

many times that teachers need more coaching on how to handle situations. They need coaching

on how to manage their students. We need to offer these teachers development plans that help

them take ownership in their classrooms. The other three values are much of the same. It is on

our leadership team to promote these values. It is important that the leadership team and teacher

leaders to discuss these values with staff on a regular basis. If we begin to discuss the values

more and dive into them with teachers and staff, we begin to promote our brand and what we

want to achieve as a school.

Our goals for the 2016-2017 school year go along with items already discussed

throughout the first principle of this analysis. We are looking at building a positive school culture
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that promotes a retention of teachers; we are looking to boost parent satisfaction scores on our,

and finally we are hoping to boost staff satisfaction on the staff survey as well. All three goals

are off to a good start, but there are areas that need focus more than others.

While we are looking to bring our parents into the school more, we are also trying to

make the connection in encouraging educators to reach out to parents more. Every year our

parents take a satisfaction survey which allows us to see how we are doing. One goal that we

have for the 2016-2017 school year is to raise our Highly Satisfied rating with parents by 10%.

Blankstein (2013) says “Goals also serve a more pragmatic purpose. They provide a detailed,

short-term orientation for us in relation to our vision” (p. 105). Raising parent satisfaction

provides a short-term goal for increasing parent-school connections. We can achieve this goal of

greater parent satisfaction by increasing student achievement, and providing opportunities for

student growth. When all of this comes together, staff feel like they have done their jobs as

teachers. This then raises the positivity of the culture and climate.

When it comes to our staff, we have not had nearly as many resignations as we have had

in previous years. Our number has risen in the past couple of weeks, but it is not close to where it

was last year at this time. Our annual turnover report for same time last year is down. This is a

positive to see. However, staff members are starting to get into the downshift, tired, worn down

mindsets. It is imperative that we find ways to re-engage our staff to help them gain the focus

back into their line of vision. We need to find a way to celebrate the successes we have already

made and the successes we are on the road to achieve. By doing this, we will have a majority of

our staff with satisfied attitudes. We need this in order to achieve our final goal of boosting staff

satisfaction on the staff survey, as well. It is a long shot, but with the right attitudes and Failure is

Not an Option mindset, anything is possible.

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Principle 2: Ensuring Achievement for All Students- Systems for Prevention and

Intervention

School climate and culture is also impacted by how students perform in school. When

students fall behind by multiple grade levels, it brings more stressors to educators. They begin to

doubt they can service every child to help each of them achieve his/her full potential. Blankstein

(2013) discusses various beliefs that hold teachers back from growing student achievement.

When looking at Regent Park, many of the beliefs discussed are prevalent in the school culture

and climate. When these beliefs impact teaching, it impacts student achievement, and overall it

impacts the culture and climate.

When looking at the three beliefs, all educators in one way or another feel the stressors of

the beliefs stated. “Teachers may not believe that a school can succeed with all students. The

teachers may not feel personally competent to succeed with all students. The teachers may

believe that new reforms aren’t worth pursuing” are the three beliefs that Blankstein (2013)

explains (pp 116-121). When looking at Regent Park, the first belief stands out in the sense that

there are students in fifth grade and middle school that do not know basic math facts. Teachers

struggle with how to address individual skill gaps while trying to stick to curriculum. If teachers

provided more differentiated instruction and team teaching, then this issue would be less of a

concern. Every student would be getting the services that he/she needs; therefore, his/her

achievement levels would go up.

School culture ultimately suffers from these three beliefs when teachers are upset with

the culture and climate of the building. If the climate is stressful and negative, then these beliefs

are thrown into the mix, it makes teachers hate coming to work. When looking at Regent Park,

this is a huge factor to the culture and climate.

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Blankstein (2013) explains “The most effective schools provide a ladder of opportunities

for struggling students” (p. 131). At Regent Park Scholars, there are many opportunities for

struggling students. We are always working on Tier 1 and 2 in the classroom and in small group.

Some examples we do are small group rotations where a team teacher is working with a small

group of students on building blocks. The main classroom teacher discusses skills from the

curriculum, and dives deeper into those benchmarks. Our school has a set time for

Workshop/Intervention. This time allows students to focus on reading skills with the teacher.

Each teacher has a set curriculum they teach, but the program is said to raise reading scores

dramatically when implemented effectively. It will be interesting to see how the results turn out

at the end of this year.

Throughout the rest of Principle 2, Blankstein (2013) defines more about RTI and

struggling learners. In the inner city, we are constantly faced with students who come with so

much on their plates. It is imperative for us to get to know each of our students and focus on

his/her set of needs. When we do this, we set up our students for success which also works

towards meeting our mission, vision, and goals as a school. We use our value to guide our

thinking and we work towards building a stronger culture and climate with all stakeholders.

Principle 3: Collaborative Teaming Focused on Teaching for Learning

At Regent Park, this principle holds the most validity. Over the course of the past four

years, National Heritage Academies has worked very hard to ensure all schools are collaborating

not only with teachers in my own school but also with teachers in the same geographic area. My

school may collaborate with three to five schools around us. This allows us to see how other

schools are using various curriculum strategies, how we want to work towards assessments, and

many other topics.

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As a whole I have to say collaboration is becoming a strong point at Regent Park

Scholars. Blankstein (2013) states “Collaboration is a means to an end: enhancing teaching for

learning” (p. 143). The reason this stands out to me in the text is because it’s something we do at

my school almost every day. Throughout the week, students take Common Assessments. At the

beginning of the next week, each grade level sits down to discuss his/her data. This is a huge part

of what Blankstein (2013) explains, and it is also part of ensuring that each student is getting

exactly what he/she needs to be successful in school.

In the past, I can say that we have walked through each of the types of cultures

Blankstein (2013) defines in his book. However, we are slowly making our way to the

collaborative culture. As of this year, we work in grade level bands, so Kindergarten and 1st

grade are band mates, 2nd and 3rd grade are band mates, and then 4th and 5th grade are band

mates. This allows us to not only meet with our grade level teams but also meet with our

teammates in another grade. During these meetings, we discuss curriculum, what we are

teaching, look at data that helps us increase student achievement, as well as potential areas of

professional interest as a team and school.

When looking at these different components of collaboration at Regent Park, I noticed

that most grade levels follow the expectations that are set by leadership. There are other teams

who take it steps further to ensure that they are truly working towards raising student

achievement levels. While I said that this is becoming a strong point at Regent Park, there is still

room left to grow. Many people are still trying to stay in that individualistic culture where they

guard and maintain their autonomy. There are other teachers who want to establish collaboration

that initiates a culture of positive teachers and results in higher student achievement.

Principle 4: Data-Based Decision Making for Continuous Improvement

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Data is used as one tool to measure staff satisfaction at Regent Park. It is just one of the

many uses data is used. There is so much data that drives every decision at our school, just like

any other school. The bi-annual reporting comes out twice in the school year to show how the

staff has answered various questions based on strengths and areas of improvement needed. As of

this past spring’s survey, the staff satisfaction results came out with an overall satisfied level of

49%. This is our sixth year being open, and each year the satisfaction has fallen. It would be a

great thing to see some changes to these scores!

One way we are looking at raising these scores is through our staff engagement team. The

committee is headed by me, and each month we do various activities for the staff. Sometimes we

have staff outings, others times we provide gifts to the staff. I have also talked my way into

having jean days more often. These ideas have all come off of the data we have received from

the survey. The leadership team is furiously working day in and day out to achieve the results

they would like to see on the survey. It is clear that there will always be the couple that have to

throw in the negative side, but the leadership team is working wisely together to overcome these

small feats!

Another way we use data is to drive student achievement. We use the standard

NWEA/MAP test results and M-STEP data, but we also have other assessments that drive our

weekly data decisions. The Common Assessments that we take drive our ELA instruction. We

use our data in weekly grade level team meetings; during our grade band meetings, and finally

when we meet with our At-Risk team to discuss interventions. It is a great tool that helps drive

effective and engaging instruction. Not only are students receiving the main curriculum, they are

also experiencing tier-2 interventions that help boost them to grade level.
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When we begin to boost student achievement levels, teachers feel more pride in their

work, and in turn culture and climate change. When we think back to the mission and vision of

the school, using data is an effective way to achieve what we are trying to do in both the mission

and value. Blankstein (2013) states “ The more depth and breadth of involvement of the

stakeholder within the learning community, the more likely and widespread the implementation”

(p. 168). At Regent Park, our goal is to raise our reputation of the school in the community. We

also are looking to provide a higher quality of education to the scholars and families of Regent

Park.

By creating various events, such as Parent University nights, where parents come to learn

more about the school, we provide opportunities for parents to learn about our data, learn how to

support students on their homework, learn to write a resume, and other growth opportunities for

families. The Parent Nights also encourage to build the school to home bridge. This allows our

families to interact with the staff more, and in turn it boosts student achievement as well as staff

morale.

Overall, data plays a major role in the decision-making process at Regent Park. It drives

teacher instruction which leads to higher staff satisfaction and higher student achievement. By

using the data, we bring in all stakeholders and begin to decide on how to proceed. There is

feedback to be offered on all sides, and eventually we begin to see correlation between our data

and our mission and vision.

Principle 5: Gaining Active Engagement from Family and Community

Inner city schools have the biggest issues with understanding engagement and what it

means to our families. At Regent Park, family involvement is a very touchy subject. It is also

something that has multiple meanings. In order to boost staff satisfaction and the school’s
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culture, we must help our staff understand what it means to be engaged. There is so much to the

word engaged, and most teachers feel engaged means that the parent is visible in the school and

in the classroom.

Connecting back with Principle 5, we also have our parents take a survey bi-annually to

track their happiness with the school as well. As of this past spring, our parents had a satisfaction

rate of 85%. When we look at this number, we are glad that the parents feel this way; however,

when we look at the comments that are given in the feedback portion, they represent something

totally different. It has been up to our parent engagement committee to come up with ideas to

boost parent satisfaction as well.

As of last year, our school began a Powered Parent Committee. This committee was

established as a PTO for Regent Park. We changed the name up to seem more appealing to our

families, but we also changed it because we want to empower our parents! Being that it was only

our first year, we had a revolving population attend the meetings. Some days we had a roomful

of parents and other days we would only have a couple of parents. The PPC was something that

seemed to gain favor and helped bring more parents into the school. This is something we hope

to continue going into this school year, and in turn we hope the results boost staff satisfaction,

parent satisfaction, and student achievement.

Blankstein (2013) states that schools should “create schedules, policies, and programs

that take into account students’ home-life situations” (p. 193). This is very true for Regent Park.

While there are those that stick to the teacher mode and rarely back down, overall, our school

creates policies and programs based on student/family needs. We schedule our Powered Parent

Committee meetings twice a month, a meeting in the morning and a meeting after school. Our
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after-school events are scheduled later in the afternoon to try and encourage more parents to

attend.

One way I would like to see parent engagement change at Regent Park is encouraging

more parents to come into the school to be visible to their child(ren). There are studies that show

that the more visible parents are, the more willing students are to show their best work. Student

achievement is directly correlated to parent involvement. In order to be successful at

Blankstein’s (2013) fifth principle and also successful at achieving our goals as a school, we

must boost our parent engagement and involvement. Another way that we could boost

involvement is through more hands-on and student-led events. This year we are incorporating

core subject areas into parent nights that allow scholars to demonstrate their learning to their

parents and families. We are also doing more whole family events that encourage more active

participation by all members of the family.

Principle 6: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity

Leadership has been a touchy subject over the past couple of years at Regent Park. Two

years ago, the former principal left on medical leave. We went a couple of months without a

principal. There were multiple deans that helped run the school, but there was not a set leader in

the building.We had an interim principal come in, but she had the challenge of being the interim

at our school and also run her own school. As the year went on, leadership changes began to take

place. Not everyone was satisfied with this, and staff satisfaction took a major hit.

This year has started out to be a huge success due in part to our newly formed leadership

team. There have been multiple changes over the past two years, but the changes that have

occurred have only been for the better. Our principal has begun to build a leadership team that is

fully engaged and committed to the success of students, teachers, and the school. The leadership
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team also consists of two behavior specialists for grades K-4 and 5-8. The behavior specialists

support leadership by means of using conflict-resolution and cool down time. The next step of

the leadership team is the teacher leaders. Teacher leaders are utilized as a go-to for teams. We

have four teacher leaders, a K-1, 2-3, 4-5, and Middle School.

Blankstein (2013) explains that “Outstanding leadership is not just the province of

individual icons and heroes” (p. 222). When looking at the new leadership team we have at

Regent Park, we definitely have a team that is put together of various individuals. These

individuals can either help or harm the culture and climate of our school. For the first five weeks

of school, the newly developed team seems to be sitting well with all sides of the community.

The behavior specialists have really been pushing to ensure students are in classes and staying

focused. Teacher leaders are relieving deans of some extras with teachers, and deans are able to

help coach teachers to ensure everyone is successful.

Overall, Blankstein’s (2013) principle six is a success to Regent Park as of recent, but it

has not come without adversity and low morale in the school. As a school, Regent Park has dealt

with highs and lows. The school has seen various leaders, and leadership capacity. Leadership

has many forms, and while looking at this new form of leadership, I feel that the school has

become one that will help us be recognized by the company and community as a leading source

of education. By doing this, the leadership team is also ensuring the staff morale and the culture

of the building becomes more positive and that student achievement continues to rise.

Conclusion

While conducting this analysis of Regent Park Scholar’s culture and student achievement

levels, Blankstein (2013) has led the discussion between me and my principal. There are many

aspects to creating a positive culture that promotes staff satisfaction and student achievement.
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Failure is Not an Option has provided me with six guiding principles to analyze the different

components of my school. The strengths of Regent Park Scholars include principles two, three,

and four. Principle five and six are improving, and principle one is a work in progress.

By completing this analysis, I would say that my school and leadership team is very

committed to the community and stakeholders of Southeast Metro-Detroit. While there is a lot of

room for improvement, the school is on the right track to succeed at the mission and vision of

Regent Park and National Heritage Academies. While no school is perfect, I will continue to be

an advocator for our school and its success in the community.

After analyzing all parts of the six principles, I feel that following the suggested

recommendations in each section provides opportunities for Regent Park to increase these area of

improvements to successes. Our leadership team has developed a plan, our teacher leaders have

communicated it, and now the staff does the work of implementing it and controlling the culture

and achievement levels through collaboration and data. When all is said and done, working with

all stakeholders promotes a positive school culture, high staff satisfaction, and finally all of that

comes together to promote and achieve high student achievement.

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References

Blankstein, A.M. (2013). Failure is not an option: 6 principles that advance student

achievement in highly effective schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.