Institution-Building

31 May 2012

Introduction

Indus completes nine years, and in this very short span we have every reason to be

proud of our achievements - a family of three IB schools, an equal opportunity school for

the under-privileged, the Leadership School, ITARI, two IELCs, leadership branding, and

reputation for whole-education and inclusivity. And it does not stop there. Indus Bangalore

is ranked the second best international school in the country with Hyderabad as tenth. I

am certain Pune will be on the honour roll this year. Such achievements would not have

been possible but for the camaraderie, commitment, and leadership displayed by you.

Our unbounded success would never have come unless we had imbalanced

ourselves. However such meteoric rise has come with a price: personalization of

leadership, attrition because of perceived insecurities, at times a disconnect between

students and teachers, role confusion amongst teachers - teach the subject or teach the

child, and a sense of ownership.

Great schools cannot be based just on charismatic leaders. Over time there is a

danger that Indus may identify itself with a few leaders. When they go the organization

loses its identity. Leaders are architects; they design schools around mechanisms that

perpetuate the core purpose and values of the school.

It is now time for us to pause, consolidate, reflect, and conduct an honest self-

appraisal. To be good is not enough; we must become great. To be great involves

institution-building on the strong foundations we have created.

The Meaning of Being Great

What does it mean to be great? A clear understanding will help in defining the end

state we seek. Great schools have distinct characteristics:

1. They are different to others and these differences are non-negotiable; they

have signature strengths that others do not possess. Our differentiators stand

out:

 The purpose of education is to prepare an individual to succeed in life andbe

an engaged citizen. This philosophy has still to receive wide acceptanceby

all stakeholders.

 Leadership development in a structured manner as it has to be learnt like

any other art and science. We define leadership as the ability to lead oneself

first, then others. To lead oneself, one must first serve others.

 Whole-education but not at the cost of academic excellence based on the

principle of inclusivity. Despite every effort it is taking up to five years to

implement this concept.

 Strong social orientation to make a difference.

 Jointmanship with parents.

 A professional faculty that believes in teaching the child and not just the

subject.

2. A distinct organizational culture that guides work ethics; personal and

professional relationships with teachers, students, and parents; and self-

development. Culture is the collective total of vision, beliefs, values,

assumptions, and habits that affect the way we think, act, decide, and solve

problems. Like any organization we too have our share ofshortcomings, but we

can take pride in promoting a culture oftransparency, and personal growth for

the staff and faculty. There are few organizations where intellectual dissent is

encouraged; we are one.

3. As opposed to being personality-driven, great schools are driven by well tested

systems and processes. These affect all aspects of school life from

curriculum, to pastoral care, to administration, and teacher development. In the

last nine years these systems and processes have been documented and

shared to rule out personalization. Regrettably, they still have to take root. This

delay may be explained by our traditional belief in hierarchies, and the fact that

schools have never been accustomed to corporate governance.

Aligning Vision and Actions

In a world of constant change, chaos, and uncertainty, fundamentals are most

important. The fundamentals of every organization are its core ideology and values. At

Indus it is leadership and the values of love, empathy, discipline, and respect. Together

they give us direction, continuity, and identity. Both are enshrined in our vision.

The Indus vision is sacrosanct; it is our mantra, it is timeless, it is our mandate. To

be great we must preserve the vision at all costs, and practice it every day. The first step

in aligning values with actions is for all teachers and students to have a clear

understanding of the values. The real test would be for an outsider to be able to infer our

core ideology and values in one day’s visit. Understanding gives us our GPS location.

The second step is to correct misalignments. I would like you to reflect on whether most of

our actions in the past are in sync with our values? Do we practice the values we preach?

This alignment strategy can succeed provided well-practiced mechanisms are in

place in schools. These are highlighted in the succeeding paragraphs.

Action 1: Discipline

Our differentiators are non-negotiable. Although student and teacher discipline

does not feature in the list, I would like to include this. No individual, institution or society

can become great unless it is self-disciplined. In the context of learning and self-mastery

discipline plays a pivotal role. This explains why student and teacher discipline are

prerequisites for academic excellence.

Action 2: Goal-Setting by Faculty and Students

For all-inclusive schools like ours, goal-setting is important for improving academic

and leadership performance - goal-setting by both teachers and students. One without the

other is meaningless. Goals that are SMART, along with detailed plans, should be set at

the beginning of the session and reviewed every quarter.

In the manner teachers provide an assessment for learning for individual student

assignments; they should also review the progress students have made in achieving their

goals.

Action 3: Balanced Score Card

Balanced Score Card is a system, consisting of strategy, people, processes, and

technology. We have introduced this quality evaluation model in a progressive manner;

this session in Indus Bangalore, and next year in our schools in Pune and Hyderabad. The

Balanced Score Card will go a long way in aligning the schools behind a shared vision of

success, accountability, and focus on international benchmarks. The system ensures

doing right things (strategies) and doing things right (results).

Action 4: Formal and Informal Feedback

Success = Practice + Feedback

Assessment for learning

Constructive feedback and ability to receive negative feedback from parents and superiors

Established structures for feedback: monthly faculty meeting, academic meetings by

Heads of School / Coordinators and Heads of Departments. These must be held without

fail.

Receiving brutal facts from students and teachers once every six-months.

Preparation of agendas and minutes of meeting.

Action 5: Instituting Best Practices

Class Lesson Plan

Part of teacher’s professional growth plan

Prepared department wise with everyone’s inputs

Relevance

Student-talk time 70 %

How to promote think-time?

Student practice and short test of taught content. Students solve the problem on the

board and others comment.

Differentiated Learning

Calendar Routine

Action 6: Teach the Child and not Only the Subject

Purpose of education is preparation for life and to be an engaged citizen. In turn,

this demands the need to go beyond traditional 3Rs. Teachers should equip students with

survival skills for the 21^st century - 5 Cs. For example, how will you teach critical thinking

and creativity through mathematics, physics, and history?

Action 7: Capacity-Building of Faculty

The are there mantras to build the capacity of teachers for student learning

1. The only way to improve student learning is by improving teaching and teacher

dispositions.

Content

Student

Learning

Pedagogy

Dispositions

2. Performance is not what you know (content), but what you can do with what you

know (application in life) - RELEVANCE

3. Self-development is a prerequisite for professional development

10 % of working time to be used for self and professional development

Succession planning

Deep selection

Experienced teachers (with reduced teaching load) to be placed as coaches to improve

classroom teaching

Insider promotions

ITARI is playing a key role. Two themes for professional development will be selected

every year.

Supporting Beginning Teachers

With the growing number of international schools, there is an acute shortage of

trained teachers. There are cities like Hyderabad that do not have adequate teacher

infrastructure. Most teachers have to be imported. Under these circumstances, it is

advisable to offer a career in international career to aspiring postgraduates and graduates

fresh from university.

But this is a challenge!

It is customary in most schools to throw beginning teachers into the deep end of the

pool without a life line. They are expected to fend for themselves. Consequently, they

either leave or get demotivated. See Figures 1 and 2 below. Beginning teachers are like

trained pilots but not the captain of the aircraft. It takes about 4 years for a first pilot to

become operational.

We need to abandon the fallacy formula Effort + Intelligence + People = Success. We

need to acknowledge that there is a difference between subject knowledge (content) and

pedagogy (how to teach content).

ITARI should prepare a policy on the recruitment and training of beginning Teachers.

Action 8: Standardization

We are a family of schools and our strength will lie in strong branding and ensuring

quality is equitably distributed in all schools and all departments of school routine.

Standardization of all systems and processes is, therefore, essential. Such an approach

also helps in raising new schools with quality, interoperability, and professionalism. The

following areas are being standardized:

 Curriculum documentation to include policies, international benchmarks,

curriculum overview, lesson design, and daily lesson plans.

 School calendar

- academic session, subject period allocation, teaching

deployment loads, organization of leadership camps, support classes, and

preparatory classes in hostels.

 HR policies and recruitment processes.

 Discipline policies.

 SOPs in administration, pastoral care, and organization of sports.

 Text books.

 Organization of Investiture and Graduation Ceremony.

Conclusion

I would like to end with a historical perspective of high performing schools that

contribute significantly to institution-building. Institution-building cannot be done in

isolation. We must find out what themes, policies, and practices are responsible for best

performing schools around countries that are best performing. Research and studies show

that the following four success factors account for the best education in schools:

1. Quality of teachers lies at the soul of the world’s best school systems. Qualityis

defined as:

 Subject mastery.

 Aptitude for active student-engagement.

 Individual attention to weak students and providing them assessment for

learning.

 Mentoring students and even career counseling.

2. Constant and determined efforts by schools to benchmark the best in the

world, and deciding to get all students to those standards.

3. Annual academic goal-setting by teachers and evaluation of success.

4. Quality assurance with enormous amount of diagnostic andformative

assessments in classrooms.

Group Reflection (60 Minutes)

1. What is the No1 problem you are trying to solve in the classroom? What policies,

practices and structures may need to change in classrooms and school to solve this

problem?

2. When systems and processes have been tried and tested, then why is the tippingpoint

for new schools around four years?

3. Come up with three most significant misalignments pertaining to each of our four

core values?