DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES

WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
We have consumed educators with making sense of vague and voluminous standards. Theyve had to
shoulder the burden of layers of testing for students, who now take as many as 20 standardized tests per
year. Teachers and school leaders find their performance rated on complex...formulas and now report rising
stress levels, resulting in churn among principals and teachers fleeing the profession (Goodwin, 2015, p. 1).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction. Do you agree/disagree with the excerpts
observation, does this idea actually have real-world implications; how would (or should this) this be
implemented in school buildings?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
A recent review of 17 years of performance data determined that better standards and test-driven
accountability resulted in some incremental performance gains of the lowest-achieving students in the
lowest-performing states, but did little to improve pedagogy or student performance overall (Goodwin, 2015,
p. 1).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: Is Goodwins finding surprising? What are the
implications on learning, teaching, and leading under this testing system?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
On the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)...U.S. students performed below average
in math and roughly average in reading and science, with little change over time; moreover, contrary to
what we might like to presume - that we do a better job educating all students and still have the best and
brightest students in the world - the U.S. had a higher proportion than average of the lowest-performing
students and a lower proportion of top-performing ones (Goodwin, 2015, p. 1).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: Should we factor global rankings into our
perceived success as an education system? If this information shapes our approach to educating our students,
how do we respond to this as building-level leaders?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
We still labor under behaviorist assumptions that if we can just employ the right carrots and sticks (for
students, teachers, and administrators), our education system will function more rationally, like a business.
However, successful modern businesses...have long since abandoned this grey-flannel-suit thinking, choosing
instead to motivate people by providing them with a sense of purpose, increasing their autonomy and
personal responsibility, and encouraging their growth as individuals (Goodwin, 2015, p. 2).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: What does a building run off the power of
motivated, reasonably autonomous people (students, staff, and leaders) look like? How is such an environment
created and sustained?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
We cant force anyone to learn anything; knowledge rarely enters anyones head involuntarily. Todays
employers want people with leadership, communication, teamwork, complex problem-solving abilities things that rarely get measured on standardized tests (Goodwin, 2015, p. 1).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: How is student and staff motivation either
evaluated and, if need be, elevated? How is this attribute sustained?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
What if, instead of pushing reforms from the top down, we worked from the inside out? That is, what if we
started by putting student engagement, motivation, and true problem-solving abilities at the heart of
everything we do? Might everything else get easier (Goodwin, 2015, p. 3)?
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: What if? What is your reaction to Goodwins
world of inside out reform? Is this possible? How can this be fostered in our schools? What impact would
inside-out reform have on our education system?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
...what if [we] captured the concept of student engagement and motivation in a potent and familiar, yet
rarely considered, outcome for students: curiosity. As curiosity grows, it pulls many other desirable
student characteristics, like motivation, passion, engagement, growth-mindedness, inquiry, and wonder, into
its orbit (Goodwin, 2015, p. 3).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: Describe a curious student? What attributes of
a school environment foster curiosity?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
[Teachers] need to understand...how to use suspense and controversy to create an initial spark of interest in
students. Perhaps most important, they need to help students fuel their own fires by giving them structured
autonomy to explore their own interests and show them how to engage in reflective practice, so they learn
how to continually ask themselves questions (Goodwin, 2015, p . 3).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: What do you think Goodwin means by
structured autonomy? Is this need any different for students than it is for teachers? Why/why not?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
Creating classrooms where curiosity can flourish will be for many educators a fundamental shift in thinking
about schooling and learning - similar to what Ron Heifetz and Don Laurie label as an adaptive challenge something where the way forward is not exactly clear; theres no script to follow. Tackling such challenges
requires a different kind of school leadership, one that empowers staff to engage in innovation,
experimentation, and failing forward - seeing failures as opportunities to learn and improve (Goodwin,
2015, p. 4).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: What advantages and disadvantages exist when
theres no script to follow? What attributes must exist for students and teachers to create their own scripts?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
Good teachers are essential, but they alone cannot overcome the challenges of poverty. Lifting students from
poverty requires a variety of supports, including effective early childhood education, school climates that
promote academic success, positive peer pressure, and family supports (Goodwin, 2015, p. 9).
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: In the face of the increasing challenges of the
education profession, how should school leaders retain good teachers in the classroom? How do school
communities and school leaders come to the aid of students and staff struggling outside of the school day?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: IF OUR GROUP/INSTITUTION OPERATED A SCHOOL, WHAT

WOULD LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE IN OUR BUILDING? WHAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WOULD DEFINE OUR MISSION, VISION, AND CULTURE?
After more than a quarter century of reliance on top-down, test-driven accountability as the primary driver
of reform, are we ready to take a road less traveled - one that starts with student curiosity and builds, insideout, from there (Goodwin, 2015, p. 9)?
In the space below, respond to the excerpt with your reaction: Would inside-out reform seem effective? What
impact do you think this inside-out reform approach would have that is different than the current mandates
from the top-down? How is this reform movement started, propagated, and sustained?

Created by Matthew Dailey (2016), M.Ed., Oakland University Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership Graduate Research Assistant;
adapted from Goodwin, B. (2015). The road less traveled: Changing schools from the inside out. Denver, CO: McREL International.