Abstract:

Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina NBCT, describes how Richardson appropriates Sternin’s idea of studying “positive deviance”: those few individuals who thrive in a failing system. Richardson gives case studies of districts and schools where the method was used to identify positive trends like teacher leadership and developing a support system for new teachers.

Citation: Richardson, J. (2004). From the inside out: Learning from the positive deviance of your organization. Oxford, OH: National Staff Development Council.

Full Text:

By Joan Richardson
2004 (157 pp., paperback)
National Staff Development Council
NSDC #B224
$20.00

Reviewed by Bill Ferriter
Wake County Public School System
Raleigh, NC

Jerry Sternin, currently a visiting scholar at Tufts University and an international consultant, may have discovered the key to educational reform in the rice paddies of Vietnam. As a Save the Children director for 16 years, Sternin's focus was on ending malnourishment in the impoverished communities of Eastern Asia.

What he discovered was that despite incredible challenges, there were always a few families who were able to successfully feed their children regardless of the failures of their neighbors. These people, Sternin said, were examples of positive devianceŠ "People whose behavior and practices produce solutions to problems that others in the group who have access to exactly the same resources have not been able to solve."

In her book From the Inside Out, Joan Richardson details a yearlong study by the National Staff Development Council examining the potential that Sternin's concept of "amplifying positive deviance" could hold for school systems. Six schools and districts from across America were identified because of their ability to outperform surrounding schools and districts with similar student populations.

Richardson and the NSDC studied these institutions looking for practices that set them apart. While each had unique cultures and characteristics, there were many commonalities. First and foremost, each had established routines for drawing from the potential already present within their organizations.

"They reach inside themselves," Richardson says, "to identify what they know and pull out that information so there are no secrets about what works for their students...Rather than relying on each individual teacher to do that work by herself, these schools and districts have structures that enable teachers to learn about the successful work of others and to spread information about successful practices throughout the organization."

Inside Out goes on to highlight some of the most effective efforts of each school and district. These efforts include:

Developing School-based Inquiry Teams: Columbus Park Preparatory Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts has established cadres that meet once or twice a month to focus on challenge areas that have been identified by the staff. These teams follow a "clearly-defined inquiry process for their challenge area," which includes, "identify a focus, brainstorm solutions, synthesize solutions and develop an action plan, pilot the solution, evaluate and reassess."

Cadres focus on any issue affecting the Columbus Park family. Topics that have been successfully addressed by looking for solutions from within range from literacy to absenteeism. The results have been powerful and permanent. Teachers have "experienced how to build success for their students."

Implementing Common Planning and Consistent Instruction: New life was breathed into Ladd African-Centered Elementary Shule in Kansas City, Missouri when teachers began to spend productive time in weekly grade level meetings. At these meetings, teachers engage in discussions "about students, curriculum and instruction." Teachers have learned to view their peers as allies and experts — individuals who have professional knowledge and abilities to be shared and valued.

While this emphasis on common planning and practice was intimidating at first, it has become an essential part of the culture at Ladd. Richardson writes, "What ultimately occurred...was a seismic shift from operating a school that was convenient for adults to a school that was focused on children." According to Ladd teacher Denise Brooks, "Ladd has a single-minded goal that we would do whatever is needed for a child to succeed."

Allowing Data to Drive Instruction: Reform efforts at Freeport Intermediate School in the Brazosport (TX) Independent School District began with a convicting question from a parent at a school board meeting. "Why, the parent wanted to know, were affluent students on the district's north end of town doing better on the statewide assessment than poor children at the south end of town?"

After defining a clear, eight-step system for identifying strengths and weaknesses that had been effective for some teachers within the district, Freeport began to expect all teachers to follow this data-driven approach. The steps of this process include:

• Disaggregate data, including test results.
• Develop an instructional calendar
• Deliver the instructional focus, based on the calendar
• Assess student mastery of the standard taught.
• Provide additional instruction for the students who did not master the assessment.
• Provide enrichment for the students who mastered the assessment.
• Provide ongoing maintenance of standards taught.
• Monitor the process.

Former Brazosport superintendent Gerald Anderson, who led the district through the transition to data-driven instruction, has written that "This instructional process enables administrators and teachers to base their planning and instructional decisions on fact, diagnose problems, and work together to close gaps in student performance. Data are never used to punish, only to point the way to success."

Developing a Support System for New Teachers: The Mason City Schools in Mason, Ohio recognized that maintaining the consistency and quality of instruction across their entire district meant providing support and guidance to novice teachers, a large part of this fast-growing district's teaching population.

To address this need, Mason City developed district level positions known as "curriculum leaders." These leaders (there are now 12, covering the core elementary and secondary content areas, plus leaders for technology, gifted/talented and early childhood) "provide ongoing content-focused staff development for all teachers, with a particular emphasis on the newest teachers," and, "are responsible for spreading good practices throughout the Mason system...They identify teachers who are more successful than others and make sure their practices are shared."

Encouraging Teacher Leadership: The Starkville Public School System in Starkville, Mississippi has worked to develop the leadership potential of teachers through the creation of a Teacher Leadership Conference. This conference, which is held annually in the fall, brings together 18-20 teachers from across the district to discuss and form action plans on issues ranging from curriculum development and public relations to support for beginning teachers and collaboration.

This conference has led to unprecedented professionalism within the Starkville Schools because it encouraged collaboration and communication. "Teachers were encouraged to be proud of what they had achieved and to share their successes with others...By the end of each conference, Starkville had created another small community of teachers who valued sharing what they knew and learning from others."

Utilizing Shared Assessments: Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois has made common assessments an important part of their instructional program. Teachers working within the same department write and give the same tests to their students several times during each marking period. The results from these tests are analyzed to determine which students have mastered objectives and which students need further reinforcement.

More importantly, however, the use of common assessments has caused teachers to look carefully and collectively at their craft. Common assessments encourage teachers to, "jointly examine the results of their practice and be attentive to the fine points of student achievement. Once common assessments are in place, the doors to their practice are wide open. No longer are there any secrets about the achievement of students."

While each of these schools and districts has taken different steps towards meeting the needs of their students, the common thread is an honest effort to identify and amplify the "positive deviants" within their systems. Looking for successful practices already in place and spreading those practices has lead to unprecedented success.

Positive deviancy has the potential to reinvent education on a broad scale because it is an approach that is often embraced by all members of a school community. "Positive deviance," Sternin writes, "works because it doesn't impose solutions from the outside. Instead, it taps into local wisdom, uncovering solutions that already exist, and passes these along to the majority as a strategy for action...positive deviancy is an extremely respectful approach because it focuses not on how a community is failing, but where it is succeeding."

In an educational culture where coercive accountability models seek to label schools as failures and where outside experts consistently suggest "quick-fix" approaches for struggling schools, positive deviancy can bring renewal. From the Inside Out provides a look into Sternin's concept through engaging, real-world examples of schools that have successfully amplified the positive deviance within their organization. It is an empowering title sure to encourage ongoing conversations about school reform in America.

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