{"id":814,"date":"2011-03-29T11:55:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T15:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=814"},"modified":"2011-04-20T11:57:18","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T15:57:18","slug":"the-broderbaldrigemontgomery-county-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?p=814","title":{"rendered":"The Broder\/Baldrige\/Montgomery County Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since his recent death, David Broder\u2019s eulogies seemed to cite a common insight about his unique success as a reporter. He could move back and forth between in-the-clouds<\/em> issues faced by policymakers in Washington, and the on-the-ground<\/em> issues faced by practitioners around the country \u2026and at both \u201clevels\u201d his stories seemed to capture their meaning for the people involved.<\/p>\n

Broder\u2019s dual focus played a unique role in the development of this Sabusense<\/em> site\u2019s content about the journey of the Montgomery County Public Schools that led to its recent recognition as the recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award<\/span> for \u201cperformance excellence through innovation, improvement, and visionary leadership.\u201d And, at the same time, to its acknowledgment as a finalist for the Broad Prize for Urban Education<\/span> as one of the five best large districts in the nation for improving student performance while narrowing academic achievement gaps.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the story that several articles that Broder wrote in 1999 and 2000 \u201chelped\u201d write.<\/p>\n

When you are a \u201cbig picture\u201d thinker viewing problems from a 20,000 ft<\/em>. perspective, one of the slow-to-recognize truths that emerges is that, regardless of the different relationships and patterns your \u201cbigger picture\u201d enables you to see, you are still looking at what\u2019s happening everyday \u201con the ground.\u201d\u00a0 And it\u2019s often hard to connect the two.<\/p>\n

That’s why several articles that Broder wrote in 1999 and 2000 produced a light-bulb moment that helped me make sense of a problem I was having making that connection.<\/p>\n

Because of his deep interest in education and effective governance, he had visited two \u201cBaldrige\u201d-using school systems —\u00a0 the Brazosport School District<\/span> in Texas and one school in the Pinellas County Schools in St. Petersburg, FL. \u2013 the\u00a0 Azalea Elementary School<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In Brazosport he saw how Baldrige<\/em> processes had influenced the thinking and actions of those usually thought of as the \u201cTop\u201d of the system. At Azalea, he reported on the thinking and actions of those usually thought of as at the system\u2019s \u201cBottom.\u201d (This \u201cTop and Bottom\u201d thinking is a problem in itself because a naturally<\/em>-connected system doesn\u2019t have a \u201ctop\u201d and \u201cbottom.\u201d This misperception is addressed elsewhere on the site.)<\/p>\n

But in both, a reader could understand both policies and programs in term of their meaning for kids and the adults who interacted with them every day.<\/p>\n

At the time I led AASA’s Quality Schools Network<\/em>, and was on the Executive Working Group of National Alliance for Business\u2019 BiE IN (Baldrige in Education Initiative). In both roles, I had been struggling with how to address the bipolar perceptions of what the Baldrige <\/em>process was — i.e., some saw it as something to impact what the system <\/em>does, and others to impact what the kids<\/em> do.<\/p>\n

One product of those struggles and ruminations was development of a thought piece that I hoped might help others think about why it was so hard to understand how the Baldrige<\/em> process might relate to their needs – Making Sense of the Baldrige<\/a> A View from 20,000 feet<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize at the time how Broder\u2019s insights would impact the scope and nature of my own work for the next 13 years when I shared that paper with the Montgomery County MD Public schools then new\u2014superintendent, Jerry Weast. But from our initial interactions developed the unique role I’ve played in subsequent years as an embedded learner in the system, described elsewhere on this site. (Catching them doing something right<\/a><\/span><\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This role offered an opportunity to observe \u201cboth ends\u201d of the system simultaneously through a single lens that focused on a common level of action that drove the stories of how they were trying to make a difference. (Making Sense Through a Systemic Leadership and Management Lens<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to look back now at how that year 2000 thoughtpiece began and ended.<\/p>\n

It began with:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who care about children today, and those who care about how they must<\/em> be to survive tomorrow, get excited when they see certain things happening in school systems that say they are \u201cdoing\u201d or \u201cusing\u201d Baldrige. They see \u201cresults,\u201d not only test scores but in changed relationships and roles, especially for children and teachers.<\/p>\n

Quite naturally this excites them because they would like to see that happen in all<\/span> schools. But when they turn to finding out what is causing<\/em> those effects, they run into an interesting barrier to understanding what people mean when they use term \u201cBaldrige.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are trying to make sense of what they are seeing happen around \u201cthe Baldrige<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 And while they like what they see, they can\u2019t quite connect it into a coherent, meaningful picture that can explain why<\/em> it\u2019s happening. And without the meaning that understanding provides, effective collaborative action is impossible.<\/p>\n

Specifically, schools are being asked to \u201cbuy-in,\u201d and totally accept, something called \u201cBaldrige\u201d by significant others who can\u2019t clearly tell them what this \u201cthing\u201d is. Baldrige advocates point to classrooms, or school sites (and in only a very few cases districts) where significant and different results are apparent.<\/p>\n

These \u201cresults\u201d are not only test scores, but the way children joyfully take control of their own learning, and teachers creatively find they can meet needs of all children, not just some.<\/p>\n

What, beyond faith, is the connection<\/span> between those observable results and a set of paper \u201ccriteria for performance excellence\u201d being advocated by business and government? And, oh yes, aren\u2019t those \u201ccontinual improvement\u201d tools and processes that are integral parts of this approach the same ones that used to be related to that \u201cfad\u201d – TQM?\u00a0 Moreover, with all the pressures on school\u2019s today, who\u2019s got time and resources to compete for an \u201cAward?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Making Sense of Baldrige<\/em> paper then concluded with:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that at this point in its application to schools, a structure or infrastructure that connects teaching-as-a-process<\/em> to learning-as-a-process<\/em> is still missing. The question now is how this thing called \u201cBaldrige \u201d can serve to create a way of thinking and interacting<\/span> that can enable a school system to make a difference in results for all children by enabling its people to make a difference in the results for each.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then the paper \u201cpromised\u201d in a footnote that there would be answers to that challenge in a subsequent section.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The next section of this In-Process think piece addresses how a school district could leverage the Baldrige processes to develop an Integrated <\/em>Learning Management System<\/em> — an infrastructure, or scaffold, that would support its continual improvement from the inside-out.<\/p>\n

This infrastructure would be driven by each person\u2019s intrinsic need to continually improve their own capacities to make a difference for children, rather than by the extrinsic pressures that present conflicting demands for \u201cchange.)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well it\u2019s taken 12 years to fulfill that \u201cpromise\u201d but that\u2019s still a good description of the nature of what the MCPS developed to bridge and sustain interaction between its \u201ctwo ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while unfortunately I don\u2019t have David Broder\u2019s reportorial skills, I\u2019ve used what he taught me about how to make sense of the actions of people trying to make a difference through seemingly disconnected policies and practices to tell the story of its development as a single story that doesn\u2019t have \u201ctops\u201d and \u201cbottoms\u201d but as a connected whole. It\u2019s a story in process, but for those interested, leads to much of it are embedded already throughout this site.<\/p>\n

And what I\u2019ve been learning is that this type of coherent story-telling isn\u2019t as easy as David Broder made it seem. But that\u2019s why we honor him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since his recent death, David Broder\u2019s eulogies seemed to cite a common insight about his unique success as a reporter. He could move back and forth between in-the-clouds issues faced by policymakers in Washington, and the on-the-ground issues faced by practitioners around the country \u2026and at both \u201clevels\u201d his stories seemed to capture their meaning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}