School Leader

Why I support charter schools

Earlier this week I was tremendously honored to be named to the board of directors for the Kentucky Charter Schools Association.  It was exciting to join such a diverse and distinguished team of educators and community leaders dedicated to promoting school choice and improved student learning, and I will do my best to make a meaningful contribution to this important work.

As a career educator, I know my support of school choice and charter schools in particular puts me at odds with many of my P-12 and higher education colleagues.  But I am convinced that if more Kentuckians - especially those who work in education - really hear the message of school choice and how charter schools work they will recognize this as an innovation that Kentucky needs and that Kentucky families deserve.

Charter schools are public schools of choice.  Parents choose to send their children to charter schools.  The state education funds that would normally go to the school district where that student is assigned follow the student to their charter school. 

Charter schools are typically required to meet all of the same state testing requirements as traditional public schools, and may not discriminate in their enrollment policies (in some states, lottery systems are used so all families who want to attend a given charter school have an equal shot at enrollment; few things are more inspiring and heart-breaking than watching the hopeful anticipation of parents and students as they wait to find out if they were selected for their school of choice).  Beyond these rules, which ensure a level playing field with traditional public schools, charter schools are typically free to operate without any additional interference by the government.  They may innovate curriculum, teaching methods, school schedule, staffing arrangements, and governance policies as they see fit.

For this autonomy, charter schools also face the ultimate form of accountability.  If charter schools fail to satisfy their client families, those families will move elsewhere.  And if they fail to produce high levels of student performance, they can be shut down.  (For more on how charter schools offer a powerful mix of autonomy and accountability, see my Lexington Herald-Leader commentary on this topic).

Kentucky is currently one of only eight states that still prohibit charter schools.  This, despite the Commonwealth's history of being a national leader in education reform efforts.  It's time to change that, and I'm hopeful that, with the leadership of the Kentucky Charter Schools Association and courageous members in the Kentucky General Assembly like Representative Brad Montell of Shelbyville and Senator Mike Wilson of Bowling Green, our next legislative session will see some progress in the adoption of a meaningful charter school bill.

Choice opponents promote many myths about charter schools that are not based on solid evidence, and often contradict themselves.  They will tell you that charter schools succeed because they run off students who have discipline problems or disabilities and enroll a disproportionate number of affluent white students, but research suggests that this isn't the case.  Choice opponents will then, in contradiction of the last point, say that we don't need charter schools because they are no more successful than traditional public schools in terms of student achievement. 

The research on charter school performance is mixed, though high-quality studies (there aren't enough of these) show that most charter schools do about as well as, or better than, their traditional public school counterparts.  The truth is that, like all schools, some charter schools will be great successes and some will be abject failures.  The difference is that a failing charter school can be shut down, whereas a failing traditional public school can continue to drain taxpayer dollars indefinitely.

Choice opponents also argue that charter schools "drain money" from traditional public schools that most need additional funding.  This argument is based on a mistaken notion of where public school dollars come from and who is in the best position to decide how they are spent, and rests on thoroughly discredited idea that all schools need to improve is more money (I tackle this argument in depth here).

Finally, choice opponents in Kentucky will argue that we don't need charter schools because state law allows traditional public school districts to apply for "district of innovation" status that gives them charter-like autonomy.  But as I also argued in the Lexington Herald-Leader, while the districts of innovation law is a good thing, it is not an adequate substitute for charter schools because it denies families a choice in where they obtain their educational services (see more on this here).

And this is ultimately the argument that wins my heart for charter schools and choice.  Families deserve educational options.  Education is a public good, but why do we assume that a state monopoly that says your child must go to this school is the best way to deliver on that public good?

This has become a deeply personal question for my family.  My oldest child will enter kindergarten in less than two years, and my wife and I are wrestling with the decision about where to send her.  We have several excellent options, each of which has inevitable strengths and weaknesses.  The trick is figuring out which choice best reflects our daughter's individual needs, and meets both our values as a family and our aspirations for her future.  This makes it a challenging, and deeply personal decision.

The miracle is that we have a decision to make.  Because of our affluence, we have the option of buying a home in a community that has great educational options, and the means of affording them.  But most families don't, and so they are stuck with the school the state has chosen for them, regardless of their child's needs, their values, or their aspirations.  Many families poorer than my own pay a disproportionately larger share of tax dollars for education, and often receive much lower quality services.

And that is fundamentally unjust.  Every child deserves the kind of educational options my family enjoys - and we long for even more choices.

It is time to rethink the way we deliver our promise of a quality education for all students.  High-quality traditional public schools have nothing to fear.  And our children have everything to gain.

Let's make 2014 the year of charter schools in Kentucky.

What energizes you? Distinguishing the Enneagram personality types

Note: This post originally appeared on the Contemplative Learning Solutions website, www.contemplativelearning.org.

In our work with the Enneagram personality typing system, we emphasize that what makes the real difference between various types is not behavior, but motivation.  Many types may engage in the same behavior, sometimes quite intensely, but for different reasons.

Take "hard work," for example.  Many of the types may be observed as being hard working and task oriented.  But the Enneatype One works hard because it's the right thing to do, and he's trying to bring order and improvement to the world through his work.  The Enneatype Three, on the other hand, tends to engage in hard work because of her competitiveness and drive to succeed.  These differences are subtle, but help distinguish each type.

We have found, though, that some clients and students resist this approach to typing themselves.  We think this happens for various reasons.  Sometimes the individual is unwilling to acknowledge his own personal motivational patterns, perhaps for embarassment or fear of vulnerability.  In other cases, the person can't distinguish which of their many different motivations is actually strongest.

Both of these are fairly normal and understandable responses.  The truth is, we are all at least somewhat motivated by the core desires of every type.  We all want to do the right thing (Type One), for example, and we also all want to be successful (Three), we all want to give and receive love (Two), etc.

At a recent training event, one of the participants suggested that we think of the core desire that motivates each type as motivating energy.  Asking people, "What energizes you?" is perhaps a bit less threatening, and easier to identify, than asking them to ponder the question, "What motivates you?"

This seems like an excellent idea.  We all get our “energy” from different sources.  Our motivating energies help can shape how we understand our life’s purpose, and can provide both a source of strength – and a hindrance – to the work we do “on the job.”  When we tap into our motivating energies, we feel more relaxed, experience a little bit (or a lot) of euphoria, and work activites tend to feel like they require less effort.  When we feel deprived of our motivating energies, we feel more frustration and stress, and less fulfillment in our activities.

In response to the question, "What gives you energy?," here are some examples that might correspond to each of the nine Enneagram types

• Being organized?  Perfecting and improving things? (Type One)
• Helping others?  Giving love and feeling loved? (Type Two)
• Getting things done?  Feeling successful?  Being recognized as an achiever? (Type Three)
• Feeling different and unique?  Making a deep and lasting contribution? (Type Four)
• Having the answers? Looking for and finding the answers? (Type Five)
• Looking out for others?  Being proactive and prepared? (Type Six)
• Having fun?  Engaging in lots of different activities? (Type Seven)
• Feeling strong and free?  Being in charge? (Type Eight)
• Relaxing and being at peace?  Having harmony with others and in your environment? (Type Nine)

We welcome input from readers on other questions, or revisions to these questions, that might help bring further clarity to the motivating energy for each Enneagram type.

Note: See our series of type profiles specific to the role of school leader here.

The Enneatype Nine School Leader: The Peace Seeker

Note: This post original appeared on the Contemplative Learning website.

Our series of profiles exploring how each Enneagram personality type typically functions in the role of school leader comes to an end with a look at the Type Nine.  We think of this affable, easy-going, and generally positive personality as the Peace Seeker.  Driven by a deep need for harmony and inner and outer peace, the healthy Type Nine school leader has the capacity to build powerful, united coalitions of parents, teachers, and students around meaningful, long-term improvement goals.

Like some other personality types, the Peace Seeker is a relative rarity among school administrators.  Perhaps because the Type Nine prefers to stay out of the spotlight, often defers to others, and is generally avoidant of conflict, the Peace Seeker may desire other, lower-profile educator roles such as classroom teacher, media specialist, or guidance counselor.  The healthy Nine’s skill at bringing people together and mediating conflict, however, makes the Peace Seeker a potentially strong candidate for leadership roles.

The core motivation behind the Enneatype Nine personality is a desire to achieve a large measure of inner harmony.  The Nine tries hard to create an internal equilibrium that feels safe and comfortable, and will arrange her external world to facilitate this peaceful state of mind.  On the other hand, the average Nine will tend to flee from situations that threaten this sense of inner peace.  This drive for harmony and fear of conflict or disequilibrium can be a powerful dynamic for the Enneatype Nine school administrator, leading to highly-effective behaviors of personal self-management and organizational improvement, or to damaging tendencies like avoiding conflict or disappearing from view.

When Peace Seeking Leads to “Checking Out”

This dynamic is one reason leadership roles like school principal can pose challenges for the Enneatype Nine.  Schools are rife with difficult-to-solve curricular and instructional problems and managing those issues often sparks deep interpersonal conflicts.  Without good strategies of personal management, the average Nine can find such problems overwhelming , and will often sidestep addressing the conflicts altogether.  Like unhealthy Sixes, the Nine will experience such challenges as dangerous threats to his well-being and safety, and will often react in self-protective ways.

Every Nine has a unique strategy for “checking out.”  A checked out Nine school leader might immerse himself in busy work, attending to low-risk tasks that consume inordinate amounts of time (such tasks abound in the life of school administration) rather than confront the real challenges facing the school.  Or she may hide out in her office, avoiding work tasks altogether and surfing the internet or playing computer games, convincing herself that she deserves a break.  The effect is the same, regardless of the Nine’s coping strategy: the average or unhealthy Peace-Seeker school leader avoids the root problems and is often out of sight, leaving the school adrift and teachers and staff members alone to deal with pressing issues.

Calm Within the Storm

But healthy Nines find ways to create inner balance and harmony in the midst of challenging external situations.  These Peace Seekers utilize their gifts to discern the sources of conflicts and school-wide problems.  Their easy-going nature frequently makes them a supportive, unthreatening source of feedback, guidance, and direction, even when they are in overt positions of authority.  For example, healthy Nine school principals have a gift for helping teachers identify weaknesses in their instructional practices in ways that make the teacher feel safe and confident, rather than criticized and threatened. 

Enneatype Nines tend to eschew the attention of others, and healthy Nine school leaders use this to their advantage, using sincere humility to allow others a chance to shine and lead, and to unite differing, sometimes conflicting perspectives around a common mission and purpose.  From their place of inner harmony, healthy Nines can exercise great patience in establishing long-term goals for school improvement, steadfastly “hanging tough” through difficult times and inspiring others to maintain their focus, keeping the end result in mind.  In this way, Nines appear like healthy Threes, becoming simultaneously more action oriented and group focused.

Practices for Wholeness

The most important duty of personal wholeness for a Nine is to be aware when she is feeling a need to check out.  Reflective practices like journaling and mindfulness meditation can build one’s capacity for awareness.  From this place of mindfulness, the Nine can recognize conflict brewing and proactively respond in ways that are personally and organizationally positive.

Sometimes this means actually taking a break, but Nines must learn healthy ways to do this and maintain a positive purpose for doing so.  Rather than to avoid the problem, Nines should seek strategies that help them cultivate real inner calm and prepare them to move outward toward engaging the world.  Prayer, mindfulness meditation, and body-based practices like yoga, running, or even taking a brisk walk can give Nines a chance to temporarily retreat from perceived danger, but to do so in a way that builds their capacity to lead and take action.

The conflict-ridden world of leadership poses significant challenges for the Type Nine, but with self-compassion and discipline, the Peace Seeker can become a powerful personality for leading and improving schools and districts.

For a complete list of Enneagram resources, check the Enneagram links on the left-hand side of this page, and visit our Services page to learn about the wide range of CLS workshops available for leadership and professional development.  For previous type profiles, click here and scroll to the bottom of the post.