Summary
Under the leadership of Superintendent Katie Brochu, Whitfield County Schools took the following steps to set the district’s directional focus and better serve its rapidly changing student population.
- Shift from focus on teachers and test scores to students as customers of learning
- Personalized and project-based learning
- Ongoing professional staff development
- Collaborative development of vision statement and common goals
- Incremental technology integration, based on funding availability
While achievement levels have risen throughout the district, Dr. Brochu stress that “test scores are a byproduct of our focus on real learning.” The district has the support of its veteran teachers, parents, and students, and Dr. Brochu continues to work on broadening understanding of technology’s role in 21st-century learning.______________________________________
Case Study: Whitfield County Schools
Challenge
When Dr. Katie Brochu became the superintendent of Whitfield County Schools, Georgia (U.S.), in 2005, her outsider perspective and previous experience as superintendent in two very different districts allowed her to take a fresh look at the needs of Whitfield County’s 23 schools and 13,500 students. The district had a great reputation but was facing some new challenges. The demographic makeup of the community had changed substantially as Latino families had moved in to work in the local carpet industry, and in less than 25 years the student body had become 35% Latino. According to Dr. Brochu, “The district was not sure it was doing right by the new population. However, I sensed a conflict between wanting to maintain our status—looking like a great school system—and the reality of how we were serving our students.” Although Dr. Brochu found a widespread belief among her new staff that Whitfield County was doing an excellent job, when she spoke with a wide range of stakeholders—from front office staff to teachers and administrators to community members—she realized there was no common vision that was honored as the directional focus. “It became clear that there were strongly held personal beliefs but very little collaboration,” said Dr. Brochu. “So I met with the school board to discuss the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ situation we were facing.” Also, when Dr. Brochu arrived in the district, three new schools were under construction, one of which was a career academy, but very little thought had been given to technology infrastructure or technology careers.
Solution
Dr. Brochu’s previous experience as superintendent and her work with the Schlechty Center for School Reform had helped her understand students as customers as well as the importance of personalized learning and how to “move from good to great,” in her words. She brought in George Thompson of the Schlechty Center to work with 50 staff members in mixed roles for three days. As the groups responded to questions about the district’s direction, they came to acknowledge that a long-term vision was lacking. A lot of competition among schools emerged, and there was a reluctance to share best practices. “It was all about teachers and test scores,” said Dr. Brochu, “not about students and learning.” The groups went on to develop an initial vision statement and then returned to their schools or departments to refine the vision, and brought it back again for further discussion as part of a rigorous ongoing process. “We had some really tough conversations about matching beliefs to actions,” said Dr. Brochu,” but when the board approved our vision statement, that was a really significant moment. That was when we said this is what we are going to live by and every decision has to go back to these beliefs. If it didn’t, we had no place for it.”“To me, this early work was the most critical. It allowed us to build a district design team—which is still in place—made up of people from all groups and locations in the district.”During this time, the community supported the district by passing a funding-raising bond to handle several major projects, including $10.3 million for technology and infrastructure.Although many in the district assumed they would use the funding to purchase televisions for the corner of each classroom, Dr. Brochu worked to increase understanding of newer educational technology such as whiteboards. She countered objections that the funding did not stretch to whiteboards in every school: “I said if we have funding for one school, let’s start there.” Whiteboards are now a very normal part of daily instruction in Whitfield County. “We have certainly had to work on using technology to support instruction, but I think we have turned the corner. Now you can see many more students using technology in project-based learning—designing and inventing their work.” As part of a streamlined professional development program, in 2008 the district began taking groups of teachers to High Tech High School in San Diego to look at project-based learning and real-life exploration that extends beyond the school day. “It used to be that we sent people to whatever event arrived in our mailbox,” said Dr. Brochu, “but now every dollar we spend on professional learning goes right back to support the vision. This is helping us build a critical mass, a common language, and common beliefs.”