There is a sweet spot in public education. What is a sweet spot? When you are in the sweet spot, you feel it and when you are not, you know it. A sweet spot does not happen often, and I have known schools and educators to have gone decades between such sweetness. Some never find their true sweet spot though they get close. Other educators seem to find themselves in sweetness more often causing me to think that a sweet spot is a creation rather than a random occurrence.
To mix some metaphors, the sweet spot in schooling is a time when all the stars align, and every day feels like sunshine. Children, teachers, principals, and parents are on the same page and are happy being there. All the tangibles and intangibles of schooling seem to harmonize. The usual obstructions and distractions of school operations – transportation, campus maintenance, food service – are of no consequence. The usual human tensions ease and do not impede successes. There is agreement on goals and people collaborate on how to achieve them.
To paraphrase the characterization of a perfect golf swing in Bagger Vance, it is when the player reads all the elements of nature and the swells of the ground and finds the exact arc and speed to swing a golf club to cause the perfect golf shot. In a school sweet spot, teachers understand the personal and learning needs of each child, each child is open to being taught, parents are keenly supportive of their child’s education, all personnel in the school are harmonized on the success of each child, and the community focuses on providing all the resources needed for high-quality teaching and learning.
In the sweetness, student achievement is improved if not high. Beyond academic test scores, achievement in the arts, athletics, and student activities enjoy equally visible successes. School and community pride glows.
Sweetness is not perfection nor is school an Eden in the sweet spot. There are hiccups and problems, but they do not derail the harmony. And that harmony may be the critical attribute of the sweet spot. Everything and everyone harmonize.
Sweet spots do not last long. Public education is dynamic and its elements are constantly changing. An unforeseen event, a change in key personnel, and a change in laws and mandates – a shift in the stars – can cause a sweet spot to disharmonize. Like in the crumbling of empire, some elements of sweet success continue but the totality of sweetness slowly erodes.
What do we know?
First, everything above is true. Sweetness happens. Every year you can name schools that are in a sweet spot and list the attributes of harmonized success that make those schools different. These are not necessarily schools that receive national Blue Ribbons or are named top schools in the state. Those criteria are mechanistic and not sweet. Most sweet spot schools are Blue Ribbon and state honored schools in the making.
Second, as Crash Davis in Bull Durham taught us, “don’t mess with a winning streak.” A winning streak is a delicate harmonization. It can be brittle and fickle.
The reality is this – just as school sweet spots are created, they also are deconstructed. Deconstruction is either the eventual dissolution of the harmonized elements or the employment of mechanistic efforts to artificially sustain sweetness. In a perfect world, a school in a sweet spot would keep all the children, all the faculty and staff, all the administration and school board members, all the revenues and resources, and all the infrastructure that live in the sweet spot in place forever. And they would be free of every unforeseen and tragedy that occurs in life. But that is not the nature of public education nor of life. Time and unforeseen occurrences mess with the winning streak and it ends.
Crafting a sweet spot.
Just as it takes two to tango, it takes partners to craft a sweet spot in a school. There to two concepts that are hot topics when a school is NOT sweet – culture and climate. Climate is the feeling tone of the school, its daily weather. It is related to school morale and spirit. Culture is the effect of commonly held beliefs and values, traditions, and goals, and how these bind everyone and everything together. When a school is in its sweet spot, the partners work at being highly efficient with low levels of friction. A school’s climate or morale is positive and high when its culture meets the daily demands and challenges of its complex interactions. People trust their systems.
Trust is not easily given or earned in schools today. It takes work and significant trial and error and persistence to achieve. Education is replete with theories of teaching and learning, human relations and professional development, and school improvement. Every theory has its practices. And any or all these theories and practices are available for educators in a school to implement. Which ones a school adopts is not necessarily important, the importance is agreement on and commitment to what they adopt.
In school environments, principals are the “princes or princesses” of the school district. Superintendents and central office staff may have higher rank, but it is the relationship of principals to faculty, staff, students, and parents that matters. The proverbial “bucks” of school start and stop are the principal’s office. Thus, the crafting of a sweet spot begins and ends with a principal. These are several aspects of sweet spot craftsmanship that can move a school toward its sweet spot.
- Everyone understands the dual concepts of professional freedom and responsibility. No one person leads or changes a school alone. A principal understands the theories of freedom and responsibility and uses these judiciously and broadly. A principal builds a shared belief that every adult in the school has the freedom to do their job as best they can AND the responsibility to do their job as it fits into the total design of the school. When teachers, coaches, custodians, food servers, bus drivers and all others feel the principal’s trust in them to do their job well and that they are respected because they do their work responsibly, the climate of trust builds on itself. Trust is a key to every sweet spot.
- Principals know each adult in their school by name and take time to talk with each person during their shared school day. When the principal knows your name on sight and talks to you personally, you are inside the sweet spot. Greeting drivers as they bring their buses to school, checking with cooks as morning snacks and lunch are prepared, talking with custodians during their first sweeping of school halls in the morning, sitting with a secretary to talk not standing and looking down – this is easy and common sense. The benefit is more than worth the time it takes.
- Leaders build cadres of leadership. Waiting until every member of the faculty and staff is committed to a new initiative or plan is ridiculous – unanimous approval can be impossible. Effective leaders develop working groups or cadres who are intrinsically committed to a change. Initially the principal is a key player in the cadre but gradually releases responsibility to faculty and staff leaders in the cadre. The cadre will garner new and more members over time. Given a sizable faculty, it is possible to have several non-conflicting cadre groups at work simultaneously. Cadres create sweet spots within the sweet spot.
- The first order of a sweet spot is to move the school assessment needles. A sweet spot without educational improvement goals is just a picnic or a party. It is a feel-good time. With goals, sweet spots can significantly move the measurable qualities of school achievements. The forward momentum of goal setting is a powerful tool for focusing school faculty on essential improvement. It spurs professional development, data analysis, and data-based planning, and gives everyone a visible target for their work efforts. And when the target is reached, moving the needle is a cause for school-wide celebration. Moving assessment needles keeps the sweet spot alive.
- The best sweet sports put children first. It is possible for school leaders and faculty to focus and collaborate to achieve faculty or staff goals that result in the glow of a sweet spot. Given today’s less than favorable public opinion about schools, efforts to improve faculty and staff compensation, benefits, and work life are important. Successes in these areas create professional satisfaction. Though it is possible to draw connections between working conditions and the quality of child education, these accomplishments lack the glow of being child centered. The more powerful sweet spots arise with the improvements in child education. It is a fact; without children there are no schools.
The Big Duh!
Public education is arduous work. There are thousands of moving pieces in a school, and everyday there are points of friction and confrontation. People and programs can appear to be at cross purposes. It takes leadership and consensus to sort these out to create efficient and effective schools. When all the pieces are moving and working well, schools can achieve a sweet spot. Recognizing a sweet spot while you are in it is rare yet real. Sweet spots are a time of distinct of ease, clarity, and mutual presence not the moment. There is clarity of vision, cumulative forward momentum, and a readiness to solve problems.
We can create sweetness! It is a choice.