EPISODE 177

Stop trying to “Improve” your school

Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want to Miss:
  • The reason that so many school improvement efforts don’t work is that people are focused on improving a broken system rather than building a better one.
  • School Improvement often means duct-taping together a system that is irredeemably broken. Buildership means building a better system altogether.
  • The reason that school improvement is often so painful is that the very notion of “improvement” means that people have to admit that what they are working so hard at isn’t working and needs to be “improved.”
  • All too often “improvement” means a slightly less awful version of the thing that is already not working. Is that what we really want for our schools and students? 

We use the word "improvement" a lot in education. We write school improvement plans, we work hard at student improvement, and we focus on improving our own skills every year through PD.

But, on today's episode, we're going to talk about why focusing on "improvement" may be actually holding you back from achieving your goals for students and for yourself.

If you feel like you aren't making the progress you really want to make in your school, maybe you need to stop focusing on "improvement" and focus on something bigger than improvement #LikeABuilder.

Check out these highlights:

  • Why focusing on “improvement” actually sets us up for failure
  • The baggage that comes with the word “improvement” that may be undermining your efforts
  • Why “improvement” makes people feel like failures.
  • How “improvement” actually makes it harder for people to let go of what they are currently doing and try something new.
  • Why “improvement” keeps you focused on the past instead of building a new future.
  • How to get off the “improvement” hamster wheel and actually start seeing huge gains and transformation in your school or district. 
Links mentioned in this episode:

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