A Model of: Cultivating Student LeadershipChArLeS ViLArdi, PrinCiPAL

BY THE NUMBERS

885 Students

56% White

10% African-American

34% Hispanic

21% Students with Disabilities

10% English Learners (EL)

73% Free/Reduced Lunch

95% Attendance Rate

WhAT is our strategy?At Skyline Elementary School, we made dramatic shifts in school culture and student achievement by focusing on student leadership and building a growth mindset. Through an emphasis on improving culture and the thoughtful implementation of Leader in Me philosophies and practices, Skyline increased its school grade from a “C” to an “A” in the 2013–14 school year, and has sustained this performance over time. In that same year, improvements in school culture and student leadership led to a 10% improvement in student reading scores, proving that a strong culture lays the foundation for powerful academic growth.

hOW did we build this strategy?EXPLICITLY TEACHING EFFECTIVE HABITS

In her landmark book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck defines a growth mindset as follows: “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” At Skyline, educators work together to build a culture that fosters this empowerment in students. We use the Leader in Me philosophy to guide this work, explicitly teaching important skills like teamwork, accountability, adaptability, and self-direction.

The Leader in Me is a program that has adapted Stephen Covey’s well-known Seven Habits of Highly Effective People for use with children. We began our work with this program by conducting a semester-long faculty book study of the program’s core book: The Leader in Me. Through this book study, we built our own capacity and understanding of the habits as they apply to our lives and work, and we related the habits to the work we were already doing with students. After completing the book study, we decided to go deeper into work with The Leader in Me, and our entire faculty committed to engage fully in the complete, two-year Leader in Me training.

SKYLine eLeMenTArY SChOOLCAPe COrAL, FL

At Skyline Elementary School…a strong culture lays the foundation for powerful academic growth.

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SKYLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCApE CORAL, FL

By taking their leadership skills beyond the school walls and engaging with the community, students learn the power of generosity, engagement, and social action.

Before we begun to share the Leader in Me habits with students, our faculty needed to work on applying the habits in our own lives. This change profoundly impacted the culture across our school, even before we began to teach the habits to students. For the first two years of our implementation, we focused our work on helping students to learn and understand the habits. In years three and four, we emphasized helping students to live and apply the habits at school and at home.

Skyline is now taking this work to the next level, helping students to practice the “eighth habit”—Finding Your Voice. This habit involves reaching out to the community and sharing the habits on a larger scale. One example of “Finding Your Voice” in action is student service learning in after-school clubs. This year, all after-school clubs are tasked with finding a way to give back to the community. The Run Club hosted a marathon that raised money for a student with cancer, while the Book Club collected books for donation to a local hospital. By taking their leadership skills beyond the school walls and engaging with the community, students learn the power of generosity, engagement, and social action.

HAVING STUDENTS LEAD THEIR OWN LEARNING

At Skyline Elementary, we believe that having students track their own progress and growth can make a huge difference to student engagement and academic growth—and the data strongly supports this. Robert Marzano’s research has shown that having students track their own progress was associated with a 32 percentile point gain in achievement, while our own school grade moved from a “C” to an “A” after we increased student responsibility for their learning.

Students at Skyline keep track of their learning, growth, and feedback in data notebooks. To support continuity and clarity for students, the format of these notebooks is consistent across our school. In their data notebooks, students track individual reading goals that relate to class and school reading goals. They also track other personal and academic goals, record their leadership experiences, and document achievements that have been recognized and celebrated. In recent years, we have adapted the data notebooks structure to focus in greater depth on linking goals to the strategies and plans students will use to achieve these goals. Students and teachers meet together in weekly or biweekly conferences to check in on goals, share strategies, and revise students’ plans for their own learning and growth.

Data notebooks allow students to take ownership of their own learning and work toward success in a systematic way. We use data notebooks to guide and support Student Led Conferences, allowing students to articulate their successes, challenges, and next steps and take responsibility for their academic growth.

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BUILDING MISSION STATEMENTS

During the first week of school at Skyline, every class creates a shared mission statement. This mission statement is used to build class culture and purpose throughout the year. In addition, every student and teacher creates his or her own individual mission statement, and records this mission statement (along with a plan for achieving it) in his/her data notebook.

We revisit our mission statements frequently. For example, every Tuesday, classes hold class meetings that begin with students reciting the class mission statement. Students and teachers also revisit each student’s mission statement during meetings about student learning goals.

CREATING STUDENT-CENTERED TEAMS AND CLUBS

Teachers at Skyline facilitate a wide range of after-school and in-school programs that provide students with enrichment, community, and leadership opportunities. Some of our special clubs that meet during the school day include WSKY, a morning news program by and for students, and the Student Lighthouse Team, a student-council like leadership team in which students represent their peers and make real changes across the school. The Lighthouse Team engages in authentic school improvement projects, such as a recent change to facilities that involved researching costs and coordinating with school leadership and the custodial team to update the school’s physical environment.

In order to participate in clubs and teams at Skyline, a student must complete an application and go through an interview process. Interviews are conducted by existing members of the team, providing students with real world experience that reflects the process they might encounter in the workplace.

CELEBRATING STUDENTS WITH LEADERSHIP DAY

Each year, Skyline students host visitors such as families and community members for a “Leadership Day.” Every aspect of these events is led by students, who greet visitors, help to guide them around the school, and offer school tours. Highlights of past Leadership Days have included student speeches about their use of the Leader in Me habits, a student-presented show choir and dance performance, and student-led tours through the school garden. Attendees at Leadership Day also have the opportunity to visit classrooms and see the Leader in Me habits in action throughout everyday school activities. While Leadership Day is a great opportunity to share our school’s model and mission with the larger community, its primary purpose is to give Skyline students another opportunity to build their skills as leaders.

During the first week of school at Skyline, every class creates a shared mission statement. This mission statement is used to build class culture and purpose throughout the year.

SKYLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCApE CORAL, FL

1587 Route 146, Rexford, NY 12148 | (518) 399-2776 | www.leadered.com | info@leadered.com

FOLLOWinG uP on this strategyRELEVANT RESOURCES

The Leader in Me: How Schools Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Timeby Stephen R. Covey, Sean Covey, Muriel Summers, and David K. HatchFrom the creators of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this book shows schools how to foster the character traits students need to achieve their potential and become leaders with integrity

Mindset: The New Psychology of Successby Carol DweckThis seminal work describes the importance of a “growth mindset” to learning and achievement, showing how student attitudes toward learning are the greatest predictors of success.

Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teachingby Robyn R. JacksonThis book outlines how any teacher can develop a “master teacher mindset” by rigorously applying seven key principles to his or her teaching.

The Four Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goalsby Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim HulingThe authors of this book draw on their work with hundreds and thousands of employees and large companies to identify the four disciplines that help organizations achieve their goals.

The Seven Habits of Happy Kidsby Sean Covey, Illustrated by Stacy CurtisThis student-facing book of illustrated stories helps to teach the Leader in Me habits to young children.

SKYLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCApE CORAL, FL

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