July/August 2002
Fuel for Reform: The Importance of Trust in Changing Schools
By David T. Gordon
As states and districts work to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act, they must remember one important fact: the people in schools and their working relationships can make or break reform. For that reason, cultivating social trust among teachers, between principals and staff, and between school professionals and parents is essential to improving schools.
That is just one lesson learned from a decade of school reform in Chicago. In this article--the first in a series about research on Chicago schools--Gordon examines the work of University of Chicago researchers Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider on "relational trust" in schools. Such trust is marked respect, personal regard, and a belief in the integrity and professional competence of colleagues. Collegiality with accountability replace old models where teachers are isolated in their practice and relatively free to do as they please.
After developing their idea of relational trust, Gordon reports, Bryk and Schneider take the bold step of seeking empirical evidence that links trust and academic achievement. By examining the changes over time of schools where trusting relationships did or did not prevail, they demonstrate how the quality of working relationships in schools largely determine whether reform efforts have any chance to succeed.
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"Wide Open and Welcoming"
At the Burley Elementary School in Chicago, principal Nancy Laho has presided over a decade of improvements. Laho is a strong leader with a clear vision for her small, diverse school that includes a literacy focus and a flourishing bilingual program. But she also brings teachers on board, reaching out to her staff for ideas, giving them the tools they need to succeed, and dealing head-on with incompetent or uncooperative staff. Laho and teachers have also invited parents to play a bigger part in school life and their children's success. The result is a school where trusting is prevalent--and student achievement is significantly higher it was than a decade ago.
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For Discussion
Learning to Ride Rough Waves
Principal Nancy Laho talks with the Harvard Education Letter about what she's learned about communicating with teachers and parents.
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New and Noteworthy
New Reports Examine Roots of School Violence
This article summarizes the findings of two new government-sponsored studies on violence prompted by the rash of deadly school shootings in the 1990s. What are the characteristics of the perpetrators? What warning signs should school practitioners be aware of?
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