I was speaking with the superintendent of a mid-sized district in the Midwest this week. He is an old friend and we had not had a chance to connect in some time. He was updating me on developments in his districts and we were sharing thoughts on all manner of tangentially related topics.

“Response Fear” is a sometimes irrational skepticism of survey respondents who fear their loss of confidentiality. We can all imagine a scenario in which a feared boss uses survey data to explore the hearts and minds of his or her team. When conducting surveys with teachers and staff, it is important not to marginalize this fear as it is, in some organizations, a well placed fear. However, it is also one of the biggest factors (along with apathy) that hamper response rates of staff surveys.

Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center is a middle school on the west side of Indianapolis. MSD of Wayne Township Superintendent Dr. Terry Thompson has overseen an impressive series of building initiatives which, most recently, included rebuilding the school into a state-of-the-art facility. As part of that makeover the school also got a new principal. I had chance to speak with Sheri Marcotte this past week. She is an experienced and impressive educator. I asked her to comment on lessons learned in her first year at her new school.

School leaders face many challenges in today's education environment. As school districts are just coming to grips with the accountability components of No Child Left Behind, our new administration promises to create even more requirements for public schools. Meanwhile the realities of improving student achievement remain as prevalent and underfunded as before.

I took my children to the first day of school yesterday morning. It was a new school for all of us and our proud and excited kindergartner’s first day of school ever. I have to admit that I felt nervous as did my wife and second grader (the kindergartner was too excited to be nervous). We had moved to a new school and knew very little about what to expect. How did drop off occur? How did the little ones get, physically, to the classroom? Where we allowed to go with them? Where did the newly purchased supplies go?

Many of my clients are anxious to learn about how their teachers really feel. Principals typically feel as if they know whether teachers are generally pleased or not with their current lot. But, if their teachers are unhappy, just how unhappy are they? If their teachers are highly committed, how highly committed are they? And most importantly, if school leadership is focused on a massive school improvement initiative, how successful can they be if their teachers are marginally committed to the school?

In my work with schools I have seen all forms of resistance to change. In some groups of educators their focus on the status quo is difficult to spot. The untrained ear hears rational, logical arguments for current methodologies and current approaches. We can be quickly lulled into tranquility ... and loss of action. In other groups, the overt resistance to new initiatives is so obvious that it can be identified immediately.

School turnaround experts are becoming ever more popular in certain parts of the country. A recent NPR report on the use of Turnaround for Children in the Bronx provides an interesting overview on the situation creating this need as well as some insight into their approach.

The keys to success are clear (especially when studied in hindsight):

Many school and district administrators I speak with spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to connect with parents. The research clearly indicates that parental involvement is critical to student success. And so, educators create elaborate (and often time consuming) ways to increase parent interaction with the school.

Climate and culture within a school is often underrated as a cause of failure among our schools. Indeed most leaders spend far more time focused on instructional related matter, personnel issues, bus schedules and even lunch duty. While these are all important aspects of running a school, many leaders spend little time truly understanding and actively managing school culture.