The Importance of a Shared Leadership Model

I have been teaching for more than 20 years in a small charter school, Murray High School, which is completely based on a shared leadership policy. We are very successful in every measurable way.

We learned back in 1988, when our school opened, that involving everyone in the community in decision-making created ownership of the school and of the outcomes of our decisions. We spread the decision-making system out to all members of our community -- not only to teachers, but to students as well.

We have found that the students are just as interested in making the decisions that change our school, as the teachers are. In order to pull this off, we developed a consensus model, meaning that all of us have one vote, but that we won't move forward with important decisions until we have consensus, meaning that it only takes one negative vote to stop a change.

If we were based on majority rule, we would continually have an unhappy and resistant minority. If only teachers and administrators were making the decisions, then when problems arose, students would often resist. However, when students, teachers, and administrators have worked through the decision-making process together, then when problems arise, we are all aware of the process used to get where we are and we all take ownership of working out the issues.

This process has seen us through many many situations that might have divided our school community. We use it for all the big decisions. For instance, whether we would become a Glasser Quality School was a consensus decision. Our administrator could have come in and told us, "I've decided it would be a good idea for us to join the Quality School movement. Let me tell you what I need you to do." Or the teachers and administration could have told the students, "We've decided to become a Glasser Quality School, and this is what it means to you." Instead, a staff-member brought up the possibility in a staff meeting. We agreed to read some related books and to discuss them. We reached consensus as a staff and administration. We then took the possibility to the parents. They also reached consensus. Then, we took the possibility to the student body. They resisted the idea and gave several reasons for their resistance. So, we tabled the idea for a year and we worked out several things we could do to answer the concerns raised by the students.

We took them on two field trips -- one to Alabama, where the first Glasser Quality High School was declaring itself. There a group of Murray students had a chance to meet other students who "spoke Glasser." They got to meet Dr. Glasser and to discuss the possibility of becoming a Glasser Quality School.

Our next field trip was to present at a Quality Schools Conference in Detroit. Together,with students from the school in Montgomery, we showed how schools based on Dr. Glasser's ideas worked, from a student's perspective.

Then, the next year, we brought the student body together again and said that the faculty, parents, and administration were still interested in declaring ourselves a Glasser Quality School. We asked the student body to reconsider. We held, over a period of several weeks, short workshops to consider all aspects of becoming a Quality School.

Finally, at the end of the second year of investigating this change in our school, we held a vote and there were still 8 members of the student body who voted no. Another student stood up and said, "What would it take to convince you to go along with the rest of us?" They answered, "A Glasser Quality School only allows students to make A's or B's. Without C's, we don't think we could graduate."

It was decided to write to Dr. Glasser to ask if we could "grandfather" out the C gradually. He agreed and then, we were able to reach consensus. In 2001 we declared ourselves the first Glasser Quality Public High School. Since then, we have had no resistance at all to these ideas, because everyone was involved in the decision.

We hold regular community meetings with students, staff, and administration with open mikes, so we can all share what the issues facing us are and come up with methods to solve them. Another good example would be that students were observing that between a large group of girls in the school, very negative attitudes had sprung up that were affecting the environment for everyone. People were giving themselves permission to glare at each other in the halls. Threats had been passed among various girls, and Facebook threats had already occurred. Rather than having the administration "crack down" on the students involved, we invited all the girls to a discussion and asked them, "We are observing this problem. Is it a problem for you? If so, what ideas do you have for solving it?" We had to disrupt classes for about 1 hour one day, as the girls met to talk, but the end result of this disruption was that there were several plans made, with consensus of all girls and staff members, to solve the problems and everyone went back to classes feeling better. The level of crises and conflicts between the girls dropped significantly and the girls themselves were proud of having solved the problem.

In large schools, it would be necessary to divide the students into smaller groups of 100 - 150 to help them develop the skills necessary to create consensus. This would initially take some time, but it has been our observation that the time spent teaching these skills through actually making decision that affect the entire school is time saved from dealing with conflicts and especially with resistance to teacher/administrator led decisions.

Recently, I was asked to present about our school to the New York Board for Charter Schools. When the board discovered that we have had zero turnover of teachers and administration over a period of seven years, they were shocked. However, when you ask our staff if they would consider teaching elsewhere, you will get an adamant, "No way!" because it is so rare and so valuable to all of us, including our administration, to have a voice in how our school runs.

We all work our hearts out for our administration. We want our principal to be happy and to stay for a long time. We want our students to be happy. They want us to be happy. We all feel good about working together to solve whatever situations we face. We've found that setting up a system that respectfully involves 100% of the community in shared leadership, leads to success academically and in every other aspect of a wonderful school.

To find out more about our school, visit: www.k12albemarle.org/MurrayHS

And please visit the William Glasser Institute homepage:

wglasser.com