Cage Busting Leadership by Frederick M. Hess - Initial Thoughts

I've just downloaded my copy of Cage Busting Leadership by Frederick M. Hess, and as I make my way through the prelude I'm already troubled by the metaphor of school systems serving as a cage. I'm equally troubled by the premise that the cage needs to be busted out of by district leaders in order to create schools that serve students well. I would never pretend to be naive to think that obstacles are absent from our discussions as we try to build systems that serve both the students and the adults within a school system. I'm not sure how helpful it is to liken a school district to a cage, or talk about contracts or laws as obstacles. In my district contract, law and regulation have often kept the students from suffering tremendous educational harm. Without this modicum of protection many of the programs that we value such as art or music would have been cut due to the dire financial straits of our municipality.

I was initially struck by what Hess describes as the outline of the book. "This is a book that draws from all of those stories to help current and aspiring leaders understand what the cage looks like, how to bust it, and how to help cultivate and sustain powerful cultures of teaching and learning that are equal to their ambitions. " I guess I was struck by the irony of trying to both bust culture, and build culture at the same time. It seems to me that the work of educational researchers like Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schenider speak to the vital importance of creating schools that work based on the idea of relational trust. I love how Parker Palmer speaks about this in his 2008 interview with Krista Tippit (listen to the entire show, but skip ahead to 11:27 - 16:43 of the interview to hear his thoughts regarding relational trust.) It's hard to build relational trust by busting up anything, nevermind something as important as school culture.

Only 5 pages into the book, after Hess makes an analogy between present educational reform efforts and Sisyphus he also make the following statement, "Stop rolling the boulder." This is followed up by: "This is a book for superintendents, principals, school board members, teacher leaders, and district and state staff who have been rolling that boulder too long, and are drained, frustrated, and puzzled at why their good work and furious effort is yielding such limited results." Do we really know whether or not our efforts have yielded limited results? I can only speak about my experiences, and those of my school district. As far as results are concerned we can actually tell a different story than what's reported in the newspaper or in the press release from the DOE. In fact, our recent report card from RIDE describes our students' reading growth as stagnant. However when we look at our students a little closer we see that the 11th grade cohort has seen their reading scores grow from 59% proficient/proficient with distinction in the 4th grade to 82% proficient/proficient with distinction as 11th graders. If we look a little closer at the 11th grade cohort of students that have stayed with us since the first grade they actually performed at 89% proficient/proficient with distinction. I'm not sure if our experience supports this notion of limited results.

In getting back to the Sisyphus metaphor, we try really hard to diminish this idea that we're rolling a boulder up a hill only to frustratingly watch it fall back down the hill. We actually try to build collaborative relationships to address the fact that sometimes we ARE actually moving a boulder up a mountain. Just as importantly we try to build a culture in which ideas are valued, and not an individual's personality or charisma. We are fond of saying, "Check your ego at the door." This helps us look at problem solving in a much different manner, and individual personalities are not the driving force behind our next steps as a school district.

Hess soon writes, "You don’t do cage-busting instead of mentoring, coaching, and inspiring, but so that you can do these things better. Cage-busting helps make it possible for you to be the leader you aspire to be." I'm not sure if I even slightly agree with the premise for his statement. If leaders are involved in mentoring, coaching, and inspiring is there even a cage?

As I got deeper into the first chapter titled, "It Doesn't Have To Be This Hard", and I was struck by the irony of the chapter title. One of the conversations that we often have in our district is that "if it were easy wouldn't we have already done it." Of course the "it" I'm referring to is this complex idea of creating work cultures based on relational trust. I don't think anyone comes to a public school system and willfully bangs their head against a wall everyday. My point is that it actually is hard work to create systemic opportunities to address the needs of the students and the adults that we serve everyday. As I read each page I'm actually bugged by the oversimplification of the complex institutions that we serve.

These are just some of my initial thoughts as I dig deeper into the book. I look to engaging in a professional learning community with any of you willing to take a risk and share your own thoughts...