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Foreword

By Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour

Dr. Anthony Muhammad has become a prominent voice for educational researchers and practitioners who have concluded that schools will not meet the unprecedented challenge of helping all students learn at high levels unless educators establish very different school cultures from those of the past. Structural changes—changes in policy, programs, schedules, and procedures—will only take a school so far. Substantive and sustainable school improvement will require educators to consider, address, and ultimately transform school culture—the assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and habits that constitute the norm for their schools.

In the second edition of Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division, Dr. Muhammad provides readers with access to an updated research base and reflections on the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (RTTT), and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). He challenges readers to seize the new opportunities for improving school culture as states and districts respond to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Dr. Muhammad continues to draw on and expand on his study of thirty-four schools from around the United States—eleven elementary, fourteen middle, and nine high schools—to describe the competition and underlying tension among four different groups of educators in a school:

1. The Fundamentalists preserve the status quo. They were successful as students in the traditional school culture, and they resent any attempts to change it.

2. The Believers are committed to the learning of each student and operate under the assumption that their efforts can make an enormous difference in that learning.

3. The Tweeners are staff members who are typically new to a school and are attempting to learn its prevailing culture.

4. The Survivors are those who have been so overwhelmed by the stress and demands of the profession that their primary goal becomes making it through the day, the week, and the year.

No one who has ever worked in a school will be able to read Dr. Muhammad’s descriptions without conjuring up images of specific colleagues who fall into each category. He points out, rightly, that in an organization as complex as a school, there is rarely a single “norm” that staff members embrace universally. There are, instead, competing assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and diverse opinions regarding such basic questions as, What is the fundamental purpose of this school? What are my responsibilities as an educator? What is the school we should strive to create? In this book, Dr. Muhammad provides strategies and guidance for transformational leaders to employ as they address the behaviors and professional learning needs of the members of each group while shaping a healthy school culture.

There is much to admire in this book. For example, Dr. Muhammad does not denigrate the members of any group. He describes educators as intelligent and concerned and acknowledges that each group is acting in accordance with what it perceives as its best interest. He emphasizes that a sense of moral purpose and the desire to help all students learn do not ensure an individual teacher is effective. He recognizes that an individual’s commitment to preserving the status quo does not make that person an ineffective classroom teacher. He found very effective classroom teachers among the Fundamentalists and very ineffective teachers among the Believers, despite their good intentions. He does not depict the tension between the factions in a school as a battle of good versus evil, but rather as a struggle between real people who are merely acting in accordance with their view of the world. He is, however, emphatic in his conclusion that without changing the prevailing assumptions in most schools and ultimately changing “the way we do things around here” (page 19) educators cannot fulfill their stated purpose of helping all students learn. Thus, he sets out to help readers understand those different worldviews and offers suggestions regarding how those views might be reshaped and changed over time.

The willingness to do more than stress the importance of culture, but to present practical ideas and recommendations for influencing the existing assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and habits in a school is another of the book’s strengths. Dr. Muhammad uses the research of organizational theorists to examine the different reasons people resist change. He then offers specific strategies for addressing each reason. He acknowledges there is no magic bullet that causes instant transformation, but instead advises school principals and teacher leaders—transformational leaders—regarding how they can slowly, incrementally influence assumptions and expectations until they create new norms for their schools.

Finally, the book is particularly powerful because the author has not merely studied the challenge of changing a school’s culture; he has actually done it in an extraordinarily successful way. Dr. Muhammad, a former Principal of the Year for the state of Michigan, led a staff in transforming a high-poverty, high-minority school with a toxic culture of low expectations and a tradition of miserable student achievement into a nationally recognized school that serves as a model for successfully closing the achievement gap. When Dr. Muhammad states that a “dysfunctional or toxic school culture is not insurmountable” (page 22), he does so with the absolute conviction of someone who has been spectacularly successful in taking on that challenge.

Be forewarned that this book is provocative. Dr. Muhammad offers bold statements, and it is very likely that you will not concur with all of his observations and conclusions. You will, however, be required to think and to examine your own beliefs.

For too long, educators have given lip service to the idea of creating schools where all students learn at high levels. For too long, we have devoted time to developing pious mission statements rather than aligning our practices with that mission. For too long, we have tinkered with the structures of our schools and focused on projects or goals that have no impact on student learning. For too long, we have ignored the elephant in the room and avoided the crucial conversations regarding the assumptions, expectations, and beliefs that underlie our practices. Dr. Muhammad issues a passionate call for all educators to confront the fierce urgency of now and to take meaningful steps that breathe new life into schools and the students they serve. We urge you to read this book and heed his words.