Over 100 educators descended on Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 27^th to attend a week-long institute sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education addressing the issues of school reform and leadership.  Thanks to the bi-partisan group Raise Your Hand Texas (RYHT), who covered their tuition, travel, and lodging, one-fifth of the administrators at the institute were from the Lone Star State.  Two local school administrators, Dale Martin, Early College High School Principal of Splendora ISD, and Heath Lucas, Assistant Principal of Piney Woods Elementary, were both selected by RYHT to attend this year’s institute. 

Raise Your Hand Texas is an organization of “business and community leaders, parents and tax payers, dedicated to strengthening and improving our public schools. RYHT believes a difference can be made in public education by celebrating the outstanding work done by Texas teachers, administrators and students; defending public schools against criticism that is unfair or inaccurate; and strengthening public schools by seeking additional state resources and making commonsense suggestions that will provide a safe and effective learning environment for all Texas Children.”

The creation and nurturing of an effective learning environment was the major component of the Redesign Institute, said Martin.  “When you put 100 of the most passionate and highly motivated school administrators in the country in the same room in front of some of the most prestigious thinkers on the subject, amazing things happen.  First, we learned that we are all facing similar issues.  We were also taught that no matter what your role is in the system, if you aren’t directly improving the instructional relationship between students, teachers, and the work of school, then you are simply overhead.  That was the most sobering message of all,” said Martin.

In addition to the conventional lecture format, principals participated in small group sessions called consultancies.  Principals were encouraged to bring “problem statements” that described challenges they were currently facing to these consultancies where other administrators asked clarifying questions and made recommendations on solutions. 

“We are a couple of years into a redesign program in Splendora but we still lose an unacceptable number of children between 9^th and 12^th grade, said Martin.  “The consultancy process made me rethink my problem and isolate some strategies that can be applied to solve this challenge. It was definitely the most pragmatic part of the institute.”

Both Mr. Lucas and Mr. Martin look forward to sharing what they learned in Harvard with their peers and colleagues for the benefit of their students.