Successful Innovation in S. D. What Does the Research Say? Laptop Leaders’ Academy 2009 Dr. Timothy M Mitchell

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Successful Change The work on understanding educational change has benefited recently from a number of policymakers and practitioners who working together have brought about substantial improvement in public schools. The knowledge base of change is becoming more profound and accessible.

Successful Change The answer lies in individuals, especially in interaction with others, to arm themselves with the knowledge of the change process, to engage in reflective action, and to test what they know against the available knowledge in the literature on change.

Building Capacity The need to build capacity in the areas of knowledge, resources, and motivation to create sustainable educational change initiatives is becoming more apparent. Stated simply “capacity building with a focus on results” Fullan

Building Capacity Fullan defined capacity building as an action based and powerful policy or strategy that increases the collective efficacy of a group to improve student learning through new knowledge, enhanced resources, and greater motivation on the part of people working individually and together.

Building Capacity To create conditions for success you need to help others find meaning, increase their skill development and personal satisfaction in making contributions that simultaneously fulfill their goals and the goals of the organization

Building Capacity The best way to improve a school or district is by developing the people within it

Research-Kotter Noted that the most common errors:  allowing too much complacency;  failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition  underestimating the power of vision  under communicating the vision

Research-Kotter Noted that the most common errors:  permitting obstacles to block the new vision  failing to create short-term wins  declaring victory too soon  neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture

Research-Kotter “A Sense of Urgency” The #1 Problem-creating a sense of urgency and that’s the first step in a series of actions needed to succeed in a changing world

Research-Waters/Marzano Second-Order Change – Is perceived as a break from the past – Lies outside existing paradigms – Conflicts with prevailing values and norms – Requires the acquisition of new knowledge – Requires resources – May be resisted

Research-Waters/Marzano Recommendations: – Know the implications of your initiatives – Maintain a united front – Keep the big ideas in the forefront – Use what is known about acceptance of new ideas – Communicate with “Sticky Messages” – Manage personal transitions (Bridges)

Research-Waters/Marzano Top Gun Navy Fighter Pilots

New Research South Dakota public school districts that are the most innovative and those that have the ability to sustain school reform and organizational change have greater professional development capacity.

Purpose of Study To examine public school district superintendents’ perceptions of individual innovativeness, organizational innovativeness, and innovation behaviors.

Research Base The process of adopting new innovations has been studied for over 30 years, and one of the most popular adoption models is described by Dr. Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations (2003).

Research Base He first published the theory of diffusion of innovation in Since that time, he has updated and changed his theory and has published the most recent edition (5th Edition) in Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system.

Definitions Individual Innovativeness: The degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than the other members of a system (Rogers, 2003). (Handout)

Definitions Organizational Innovativeness: The degree to which an organization is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than another organization (Rogers, 2003).

Definitions Innovation Behaviors (Perceived Attributes): Most of the variance in the rate of adoption is explained by five behaviors: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability (Rogers, 2003).

Adopter Categories The individuals in a social system do not all adopt an innovation at the same time. It has become useful and efficient to describe each individual adopter in a system in terms of his or her time of adoption. Adopter categories are used as the classification systems for members of a system on the basis of their innovativeness. Each adopter category consists of individuals with a similar degree of innovativeness.

Adopter Categories The first category of adopters is innovators (2.5%). These are the risk-takers and pioneers who lead the way. The second group is known as the early adopters (13.5%). They climb on board the train early and help spread the word about the innovation to others.

Adopter Categories The third and fourth groups are the early majority and late majority. Each constitutes 34% of the potential adopting population. The innovators and early adopters convince the early majority. The late majority waits to make sure that adoption is in their best interests.

Adopter Categories The final group is the laggards (16%). These are the individuals who are highly skeptical and resist adopting until absolutely necessary. In many cases, they never adopt the innovation.

Superintendent Characteristics – Age – Gender – Years experience – Educational level – Professional development practices – Professional organizational membership

Conclusions The largest adopter category of South Dakota public school district superintendents is early majority and according to Rogers (2003) they tend to have a high degree of opinion leadership, are respected by their peers, and they are the individual to check with before adopting a new idea.

Conclusions There exists a strong positive relationship between innovative public school district superintendents and innovative public school districts. Respondents in this study perceive leadership capacity is needed for a public school district to be innovative and organizational capacity is needed for a public school district superintendent to be innovative.

Conclusions Most South Dakota public school district superintendents perceive themselves as highly innovative on an individual innovativeness survey. They also perceive their public school district to be innovative yet rate the public school district lower on an organizational innovativeness survey than they rate themselves. They also perceive their school boards as exhibiting innovative behaviors on a regular basis in a variety of situations.

Conclusions Younger public school district superintendents perceive themselves and their public school districts as more innovative than older public school district superintendents.

Conclusions Public school district superintendents that perceive themselves as innovative are found in public school districts with larger enrollments, greater financial resources, greater professional development capacity, and teachers with more years of teaching experience. They are more likely to be female.

School District Characteristics – Enrollment – Financial resources – Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Status – Professional development capacity – Average years of teaching experience – Percentage of teaching staff with advanced degrees

Conclusions Public school districts exhibit more innovation behaviors if they have greater financial resources and a larger percentage of teachers with advanced degrees.

Conclusions Public school district superintendents that perceive their public school district as innovative are found in public school districts with larger enrollments, greater financial resources, greater professional development capacity, and teachers with more years of teaching experience. These public school district superintendents have a higher educational degree level and more professional organization memberships.

Recommendations for Practice This study has shown that leadership is critical in innovative public school districts and that resources are needed by public school districts to develop leadership and organizational capacity to sustain innovation. Policy makers should note that investment in building capacity in leadership and organizational capacity is a critical factor in fostering innovation.

Recommendations for Practice Public school district superintendents need to consider the importance of building their own leadership capacity through professional development, securing advanced degrees, and establishing intra- personal networks through memberships in professional organizations.

Recommendations for Practice This study indicates that funding is critical in innovative public school districts and resources are needed to sustain the teaching staff, to provide professional development activities to build leadership capacity, and to provide professional development activities to build organizational capacity.

Recommendations for Practice This study indicates that the size of the public school district, the amount of available fiscal resources, the investment in professional development activities, and the experience level of teachers can be factors in promoting innovation in public school districts. Policy makers and public school districts need to pay extra attention to these factors and be prepared to invest resources in these areas as they try to promote innovation in public school districts.

Recommendations for Practice This study indicates that public school district superintendents with higher educational degrees and a greater involvement in professional organizations perceive themselves as more innovative. Public school districts, policy makers, and federal agencies need to invest in life-long learning for public school district superintendents and provide the resources to join professional organizations.

Recommendations for Follow-Up “The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive”-M. Fullan  Love your employees  Connect peers with purpose  Capacity building prevails  Learning is the work  Transparency rules  Systems learn

Thank you! Questions and comments