Director's Blog

During this semester my professional reading is the book, “Taking the IB Diploma Programme Forward” edited by Mary Hayden and Jeff Thompson and published by John Catt Ltd. last year (2011). The book is a collection of essays about different aspects of the International Baccalaurate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). The International School of Belgrade is an IB World School and our curriculum for grades 11 and 12 is the IB DP.  I’ll be blogging about many of the pieces in my principal’s blog.

The first article is entitled, “Growth of the international school market in China and its potential implications for the IB” by long-time international educator and consultant, Barry Drake. He spent 17 years in Hong Kong and really knows China. The most interesting part of the article for me was not the expected growth in China, but Drake’s statistical description of the international school market. It got me thinking about how “international” is ISB.

The definition of an international school is disputed. I liked ” (1) students and staff are representative of a number of different cultures and ethnic origins, where the (2) IB and/or a number of different courses are offered and where the (3) ethos is one of internationalism as distinct from nationalism.” With our nationality cap, all three IB programmes, the first two are very clear and ISB definitely is an international school. With the third statement, it is a bit more difficult to define, but with our students focused on different national systems of university entrance, we have to not be focused on any one nationality. I feel our curriculum offerings reflect this with many languages offered, and a mix of IB and AP (and other) classes offered.

Another measure of our “internationalism” is our accreditation with the Council of International Schools (CIS). We were re-accredited in April of 2011 and it is based on a set of standards. CIS grants accreditation to international schools based on three principles:

1. Demonstrates and actively promotes internationalism in its students
2. Applies the CIS Code of Ethics
3. Undertakes an external school improvement process

Dr. Drake looks at the number of international schools worldwide and the growth of schools. He writes that CIS lists 642 international schools. This number is much smaller than the ISC Research website, a group that specializes in maintaining a database of international schools. They list 6,353 schools in 236 countries with over 3 million students and almost 300,000 teachers. The vast majority of these schools are found in Asia with Europe having the second most international schools.

There are various degrees of “internationalism” with schools. Our school is one of the most international, with 2/3 of our students being globally mobile expats, our teaching staff 60% overseas-hired, English language of instruction, and the original international curriculum (IB) offered at the school. I’ve worked in “international” schools with a mostly host-country national population and many local teachers, that by nature, are culturally more inclined towards “nationalism” rather than “internationalism.” Most of the host country nationals however, are the upper class of the country and will study abroad for their university, but many returning to their home country.

It was interesting to read on the ISC website, there are seven international schools in Belgrade. Of the top of my head, I would say they are counting the British International School, Britannica, Chartwell, Prima, and INSB. There is also the Anglo-American, a new one, Brook Hill, as well as Prima International School. Both Crjnanski, and Boskovic offer the IB DP, and they may also be included in the total. That is not including the French, German, and Russian schools in the city.

Drake finishes the article with the staggering growth numbers of international schools in the world and especially in China. The ISC website lists 329 international schools in China and 168 in Hong Kong. China is expected to reach 581 schools by 2020 and Hong Kong to reach 312.

Why so much growth? A rising middle class wants to put their children in international schools to give them a competitive advantage with their careers. Most of the new international schools are different from before, in that they are for-profit and locally owned. Most of the students are host country nationals because the number of globally mobile expats is not growing as fast as international schools. One thing about new schools however that is not different from the older international schools, is they usually hire teachers from the US/Canada/Australia/UK/New Zealand. This seems to be what the parents want and is the reason they will pay high tuition. Finding enough quality, trained, teachers willing to travel will be difficult for all schools and makes recruiting even more important for ISB.

I am happy to be at ISB and our cultural diversity in our students is the key to us being international. It will be important for us to maintain this diversity, even in a tough economic climate of  dropping expatriate families in Belgrade. I also see a lot of these new schools in Asia have huge enrollments. I feel that big schools are not the best environment for most teenagers. ISB is a great size for teenagers because it allows all students to make a significant contribution to the school. Students are asked to participate in a range of extra curricular activities. I’ve been in smaller schools and that is not good either for most teenagers, as they need the social stimulation and academic competition in the classroom.

How Children Succeed is a new book out by Paul Tough. The book discusses the importance of the non-cognitive or people or soft skills in the success of students, especially in university and beyond. Schools spend a lot of time teaching, measuring, and reporting the cognitive side of education, I think because it is easier than measuring things like resilience or perseverance. But, Tough explains that it is these character traits that will be a bigger factor in determining the future success of our students. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Tough on the Amazon.com web site.

Q. How did writing this book affect you as a parent?

A. My wife and I became parents for the first time just as I started reporting this book, and our son Ellington is now three. Those are crucial years in a child’s development, and I spent a lot of them reading papers on the infant brain and studies on attachment and trauma and stress hormones, trying not to get too overwhelmed.

In the end, though, this research had a surprising effect: it made me more relaxed as a parent. When Ellington was born, I was very much caught up in the idea of childhood as a race–the faster a child develops skills, the better he does on tests, the better he’ll do in life. Having done this reporting, I’m less concerned about my son’s reading and counting ability. Don’t get me wrong, I still want him to know that stuff. But I think he’ll get there in time. What I’m more concerned about is his character–or whatever the right synonym is for character when you’re talking about a three-year-old. I want him to be able to get over disappointments, to calm himself down, to keep working at a puzzle even when it’s frustrating, to be good at sharing, to feel loved and confident and full of a sense of belonging. Most important, I want him to be able to deal with failure.

That’s a difficult thing for parents to give their children, since we have deep in our DNA the urge to shield our kids from every kind of trouble. But what we’re finding out now is that in trying to protect our children, we may actually be harming them. By not giving them the chance to learn to manage adversity, to cope with failure, we produce kids who have real problems when they grow up. Overcoming adversity is what produces character. And character, even more than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting success.

I listened to a pod cast from the National Public Radio program, This American Life, interviewing Mr. Tough and some other stories about school programs focusing on these character traits. It got me thinking of what we are doing at ISB in these areas. I know that we do talk with the students all the time about these things, and many of them are covered in the Learner Profile. I also feel that much of this comes from our families and these skills are developed at home. It would be more critical with a school population, for example, in a lower socio-economic demographic.

I think we can do a better job of systematically identifying and teaching the skills however, for success and a portion of our students are lacking in  these. For example in the podcast, they discuss a program in Chicago, Illinois schools that teaches at-risk students skills for success at university instead of focusing on solely on raising SAT scores. Many of these are common sense, but very important. Two things students can do they mentioned was for them to sit in the front row during university lectures, and introduce themselves to the professor and take advantage of office hours of the professors. In the US, we have the highest drop out rate of university students in the world. Only 58% of students graduate within 6 years of enrolling. I think some of this is caused by our focus on preparing students to get into university and not preparing them for coping with university life. I also think that more students go to university than in other countries, and many who drop out, would not have enrolled in other countries. It is something for me to think about, especially when we are working with our high school students. 

I will definitely download the book and perhaps get a group of our faculty together to come up with a system of looking at these skills. Perhaps in adapting our Learner Profile.

For international schools it is important to integrate quickly into the group, the new teachers and students. We have many new students every year, usually up to 1/3 of the student body. With so much transience, an adventure trip outside of school is a great way for students and teachers to bond and form stronger relationships. This will facilitate more collaboration during the school year and hopefully, allow students to learn more.

I spent the past couple of weeks organizing trips for each of the grade levels. It was time consuming negotiating with the travel agencies, planning itineraries, collecting money and permission slips, collecting materials for team-building activities, etc. In the end it was all worth it as you can see above, the 36 teachers and students attending this particular trip, really forged stronger relationships.

We focused on activities the entire group could do. We had two long hikes interspersed with cultural activities. The cultural aspects of the trips allowed the students to appreciate our host country of Serbia. Back at the hotel, we worked on mental team-building activities like creating a banner with traits of the Learner Profile, etc.

In reflecting upon the trips, these need to be put in every year. Ideally the cost could be put into the tuition. I also recommend having them be close to school and inexpensive. Our students travel a lot during the year for the CEESA sports and activities events.

As the Principal, I am in charge of keeping a positive and calm learning community and the retreats go a long way towards this.

We asked for feedback from students and teachers to improve the trips for 2012-2013 and got the following:

• During homeroom yesterday, I talked with the grade 10 students about their experience with thetrip. They were very positive about the trip and had an excellent time. They thought the program was good and rated the hotel accommodations and food as awesome.  Transportation was fine, they were happythey could go swimming and enjoyed the activities and the visit to the monastery.

  Their suggestions for improvement: They think the trip should be longer. They would like a one-week trip. Curfew should be later Need a little more free time built in, and more swimming time
  They felt the 9th graders were a little out of control and wanted the teachers to be stricter with them. They were unahppy with the behavior of the 9th graders at night at the hotel (noisy, running in the halls…) They felt some students were disrespectful to the culture. One example was by not dressing properly for the monastery visit. They think a little more info beforehand about this kind of thing would have helped. But all in all, very happy with the trip and want a longer one!

Today I am taking part in the annual Board of Trustees Retreat.

As a member of the Senior Administration Team, I am not a member of the board, but I need to work closely with them to support the school Director in his work, and the smooth functioning of the school. I am required to attend the Board Retreat and the open meetings of the Board. Several times a year as well, I make presentations to the Board. In June of every year, I present the student learning data (IB scores, MAP, etc.). I’ve also presented on the student laptop computer program, our foreign language offerings, teacher evaluation program, EAL program, etc. I also sat on the Board Policy and Governance Committee three years ago.

Today I am focusing on documenting my understanding of Board Governance. In this blog post, I will be featuring the key points on a functioning board.

• In the photo above, outside consultant, Ms. Adele Hodgson, is facilitating the retreat day. Ms. Hodgson works as a consultant with over 100 schools. This is a great way to start the year for the board. The purpose of the retreat is to help the board members understand their roles, and set the year’s goal for the Board, focusing on the strategic plan and our Mission and Vision statements. We use the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) International Trustee Handbook: A Guide to Effective Governance for Independent School Boards.” The other key documents for the day are the ISB Strategic Plan and Climate Surveys.
• Adele pointed out the state of international schools in the world. There are 6,037 international schools, with over 3 million students and close to 300,000 teachers in 236 countries. The market is worth 18.5 billion pounds which is growing 5-10% per year. Recent growth is from for profit schools, especially in Asia and the Middle East.
• Adele highlighted that international schools are leading the way in student-centered education. Companies appreciate the “products” of international schools: Young people who are independent thinkers, good managers of information, team players, and digitally literate.
• International School Boards should have the following committees:

1) Finance & Risk Assessment  2) Governance/Strategic Planners 3) Marketing & Development 4) Policy

• Adele recommended the work of Meredith Belbin. He has written much about board management and teams.
• Board members need to be cheerleaders of the school. They are not a conduit for complaints.
• Adele went over the board’s agenda, the one area where schools struggle is risk assessment and risk management. She also pointed out having benchmarks with schools that are similar to our school. This could be dealing with salaries and benefits, programs offered, tuition, etc.
• It is good for school boards to compare 3-4 different self-evaluations and design an evaluation that fits their particular school. It is also good for the Senior Administrative Team to evaluate the BoT. Key points are evaluating the BoT against board goals, communication to stakeholders, and effectiveness as a team.  Also, evaluating the survey
• There should be two evaluations, one in December (1/2 year) and one in May. The first evaluation would be informal and the second formal.
• It is good practice to have the Business Manager of the school give a presentation on the budget to the BoT for the first meeting every year.

There were much other topics discussed and much about the specific context of the International School of Belgrade. These are not included in this public blog post.

My big take-away is Board of Trustees training cannot be skipped for a successful school year.

Each week I write a letter to the parents that is posted in our school newsletter, The Dragon Dispatch. I use it similarly to the blog with more of focus on updating parents on school events, helping them with parenting suggestions, and focusing on student achievement. Below is my first Dragon Dispatch of the year, which is published every Friday. I lead with the video of our Upper School’s opening ceremony.

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaddles/2402990826]

Dear Upper School Parents,

We had a successful start to the school year! We implemented a new timetable this year and it went relatively smoothly. It is always a challenge to assess the needs of the new students, adjust to unexpected enrolment changes, and then fit the schedule to best meet the needs of the students.

Parents should mark their calendars for Tuesday September 4^th from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM for our Upper School Open House. Parents are invited to come and meet all of the teachers. The teachers will be explaining their program and answering questions you may have regarding homework, technology, etc. It is a very valuable evening for helping parents supports their children in learning. More details will be forthcoming.

The other event you should be aware of is the student retreat. Grades 6-12 will be going on different  (per grade level) bonding trips from Thursday September 6 – Saturday September 8. The High School trips will be one night stay and returning on Friday evening, and the Middle School trips will be two nights and returning on Saturday. The purpose of the retreats is to the students to form closer relationships with each other and their teachers.

Adolescence is many times the most turbulent stage of the human life cycle. Adjusting to new classmates, a new grade, schedule, etc. can be emotional for teenagers. They may be venting a bit at home as they work through finding their place in their social group and figuring out the different teaching styles and subject areas. The best thing a parent can do early in the school year is to listen. It is tempting to try to problem solve, but it is best to wait for a while and see how the situations play out. Of course, if it is a serious issue a student is experiencing, we are always happy to help you and the student.

Finally, below is a short video of our opening ceremony from Monday. The students planted a White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) tree while the student body watched in our new beautiful amphitheatre. The message to the community was that the learning students do in the upper school will help them blossom and grow into productive, happy, citizens who will try to make the world a better place for humanity.

Regards,

Bill Kralovec

We had a guest speaker a couple of days ago, Dr. Dennis Copeland. He is an Elementary Principal at Randolph Township, New Jersey Schools; he is also on a Board of Education for another school district. He is a former HS Principal as well, 13 years total in administration. His talk was entitled “The Change Process,” and I was impressed with his organization and ideas. One item I liked about the talk, was that he had a clear understanding of what he believed in, especially with his use of educational or leadership theory. His style of leadership is “Servant Leadership” and he defined clearly his leadership ideas.

• 1)      Clarity (Bolman and Deal – 4 frames)
• 2)      Decision Making (Senge – 5 disciplines Systems Thinking)
• 3)      Communication (Covey – 7 habits)
• 4)      Data Use (ASCD)

• Seek first to understand, then be understood (COVEY)
• 4 Frames Political (power)  Symbolic (rituals) Human Resource (people involved) Structural (systems, processes)
• Data / Research / Best Practices
• Systems Thinking – personal mastery / team learning / shared vision / mental models

There are five parts to the change process.

1)      (most important) – clarity What are your non-negotiables? – Who Am I? Where Am I going? I believe…

2)      Decision-Making – It is important to let people know how you reached a decision. You will make decisions with your head and your heart.

3)      Communication – Who should be informed before, during, and after? You should put it on the white board.  Bring in your brain trust.

4)      Data Use – (best practices, use data to justify the decision) “Your school is only as strong as your weakest students.” Dr. Copeland suggested the following resources to keep up with the latest educational research.

American Educational Research Association

They have a national conference every year.  Teachers College out of Columbia a daily list serve with new research study TC Record.edu  – HGSE.edu  – Harvard Graduate School of Education with a list serve every 2 weeks – Journals PDK (Phi Delta Kappan.org) – ASCD.org – EdWeek.org (Education Week) also has a list serve

5)      Shared Leadership – It’s okay to let go! Find your supporters (who is on the bus?)

Dr. Copeland definitely opened my eyes to using more research to drive my decisions. I will subscribe to the list serves that he suggested. I will also do a bit of research with his models of decision making. That is something that I can improve on, being a bit more organized with making decisions and documenting the process. It will also help me anticipating problems.

In the second day of the course, we spent time discussing Michael Fullan’s book, Educational Change at the Local Level.  The book was published in the early 1990s, but Dr. Konzal, our instructor, says that he cannot find a better book about educational administration that is more recent. The class members agree that even though the book is over 20 years old, many of the same issues and characteristics of education have not changed. Each group was assigned a chapter to present to the class.

My full notes on the book can be found in a later blog post. I will be posting them to Scribd so I can refer to them later. This blog post is just selected items to reflect upon from the presentations.

The Student – This was our group’s assignment. The surprise was in the studies referenced in the chapter, it showed that only about 20% of the students in any class participate actively in class. And during a school day, only about 1 and ½ hours of time is spent by students cognitively focused on academic learning. The big point of the chapter was that in the 1970’s and 1980’s, students did not have input into what and how they were learning. Researchers saw improvement with the advent of cooperative learning and individual-centered learning techniques. This was before the internet and today education is even more individualized.

The other interesting study from 1980, classified students into four groups, with only the first two groups having contact with the teacher. Most importantly, students change categories to match the teaching style of the teacher.

• 1)      Attention Seekers – 20%
• 2)      Intermittent Workers – 36%
• 3)      Solitary Workers – 32%
• 4)      Quiet Collaborators 12%

The most interesting chapter was about the Principal. After hearing the group’s presentation, I went back to the class website and read through the chapter closely.

• Educational Change – Everyone feels misunderstood during the process of change. The role of the Principal has become more complex, less clear, and busier during the last 10 years.
• Studies of the 80’s and 90’s of how a Principal spends their day – lots of individual meetings, rapid change of activities; spent lots of time with “putting out fires” and not reflective thinking. Too many things to do and couldn’t keep up with the pace and try to be all things to all people. Lots of energy spent to sense of order; maintaining resources; etc. not much strategic learning.
• Action over words and the Principal is part of the change and involved in the planning despite of lack of expertise in every area.
• Principals were judged by what they brought to the school. Leaders tend to focus on areas that they are strong at. Good principals spend 41% on program improvement and 34% building management.

In a 1989 study of 1,200 principals, effective ones were engaged in the four strategic interactions with teachers.  Very few (10%) in the various studies were found to be effective.

• Resource Provider – Mobilize resources and district support to help achieve academic goals
• Visible Presence
• Instructional Resource – give advice and expertise to teachers
• Communicator

Principals are middle managers, with the supporting and interacting with the teachers on one side and appeasing and reporting to the school director and Board of Trustees on the other.

Principals are so busy that they  spend a lot of time managing and not much time reflecting and doing, “transformational leadership.” Managing means designing and implementing plans, getting things done, working effectively with people. Leadership relates to the mission, inspiring, and direction.

Principals do have the freedom to think creatively or in unorthodox ways in running a school. The “system” tolerates both highly innovative principals and rigid, orthodox, “do not rock the boat” principals.

Principals need to spend some time in every department and be familiar with what the departments are doing. If he/she gives the HoD a carte blanche, then he/she is not being effective.

The personality and leadership style differed with effective principals. The important item was the activities they were engaged in. It seems the magic number is over 40% of your time spent improving curriculum/instruction and 30% spent managing. This is easier to do on the elementary level and gets harder in high school.