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Voices in Urban Education
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Learning Environments
VUE Number 19, Spring 2008
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The View from Central Office: A Superintendent Looks at Learning Environments
By Judith Johnson
Judith Johnson is superintendent of the Peekskill (New York) City School District and is the 2008 New York State School Superintendent of the Year
> Author's biography
To a leading superintendent, an effective learning environment requires support from community partners and the district central office.
Judith Johnson has been a leader in education reform at the national and local levels for decades. During the Clinton administration, as acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education, she oversaw federal aid to local school districts and helped create a number of initiatives, including the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. Since 2001, she has been superintendent of the Peekskill City School District, a 3,000-pupil district along the Hudson River north of New York City.
Johnson has been a leading voice for high standards and equity and for ensuring that all students have a broad range of educational opportunities. She was a member of the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force, a national panel convened by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which produced the report A New Day for Learning.
Johnson spoke with Voices in Urban Education editor Robert Rothman about a district’s role in establishing and maintaining effective learning environments.
Q: How would you define an effective learning environment?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 1: 1 minute, 54 seconds]
JOHNSON: I would say there are probably three goals that an effective learning environment would be shaped by: one, constantly improving the academic performance of students; two, maintaining and supporting a quality workforce; and three, extending and involving the community in the success of schools.
Characteristics of an Effective Learning Environment
I would start by ensuring that everyone saw teaching and learning as well defined, with clear expectations; that the entire school community had clear goals that extended beyond performance on test scores; and that there was a focus across the district on continuous improvement. All members of a school community, staff and students, see themselves as continuous learners. The standards are fixed, they're high, and time is a variable. Academic rigor is a constant across all the curriculum areas. And there's ongoing reflection.
The environment, of course, would have adequate class sizes, well-trained staff members, certified staff members, a strong security force. In the classroom, the teaching is engaging, interactive, and focused on student engagement. I think co-curricular activities and an effective learning environment are an integral part of a school. I am a strong believer in ensuring that the fine and performing arts are considered components of an effective learning environment. There's an ongoing commitment to professional development.
Everyone uses data — students as well as teachers as well as administrators use data to assess progress and outcomes. I think that's a start, in terms of an effective environment.
Q: What are some of the physical aspects that make a learning environment effective?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 2: 42 seconds]
JOHNSON: The facilities are clean, the facilities are modern, and the facilities provide for adequate access for all, including the developmentally disabled. There are computers and technology obvious throughout the physical environment. The grounds and the exterior of the building have curb appeal and say to anyone entering the building, “We care about the children that are housed in this building.” That's a start.
Q: What about the social interactions among students and between students and adults?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 3: 2 minute, 28 seconds]
JOHNSON: I'll talk a little bit about how we view
that in Peekskill. We have a theme that
the Peekskill City Schools represent a
caring community. Within that caring
community, the interactions are
expected to be cordial and civil, which
means that we focus on teaching positive
behaviors from the time students
enter kindergarten to the time they
graduate from high school. There are
consequences for inappropriate behaviors;
however, the consequences always
include the opportunity to learn, so
that punishment isn't the answer to
inappropriate behavior. A consequence
plus an understanding of how one
would handle a situation differently
is really what we focus on with social
interactions.
Students are expected to be civil; they are expected to reflect the kind of behavior that we want them to demonstrate when they become caring adults in the world beyond schools. And there's a real focus on anti-bullying behavior as well as anti-violent behavior and absolutely zero tolerance for any gang behavior.
So it is expected that schools are mini-societies that represent not just democratic ideals but positive social behaviors and, therefore, that's what we expect to see in all of our children.
I do want to talk a little about consequences and celebrations. We strongly believe that accountability is an absolutely important measure. It's how you define accountability and what you do with that information that makes a difference. A really solid school district uses data in a variety of ways: to assess teacher performance, to assess student achievement, to assess how effectively the district itself is meeting its goals. If you're going to have consequences for the failure to meet goals, then you need to have celebrations whenever they are met, so that people feel they're being acknowledged for their work.
If you're going to have consequesnces for the failure to meet goals, then you need to have celebrations whenever they are met, so that people feel they're being acknowledged for their work.
The Challenges of Implementation
Q: How prevalent would you say that these conditions you've described are in schools today? Would you say that those are common or rare?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 4: 1 minute, 44 seconds]
JOHNSON: I guess I don't think they're rare anymore. I think that what I'm describing to you represents the language and expectations that many superintendents have for the districts they lead. I think the challenge is in the implementation. One, do they have the financial resources to ensure that the attributes that we think are the positive attributes can really be installed in schools? And two, to what degree does the school community support the components of an effective learning environment, particularly the component related to social behaviors?
When you're in an urban setting, one of the challenges you face is the challenge of the loss of hope. You have families who have, for generations, failed to see success or accomplishments. They send their kids to school with a diminished sense of hope because they, themselves, do not have examples or models that they can show children. This is probably the most devastating part of the civil-rights movement, and that is the folks who have been left behind. They have a different culture, and the culture of despair is one that we need to be concerned about in this country because it doesn't reflect positive social behaviors. It reflects abandonment of those behaviors. I think we haven't spent enough time looking at what I call the moral debt that we have to really address if we're going to create environments where social behaviors are cordial and respectful and civil and productive.
The Consequences of a Poor Learning Environment
Q: What happens when the learning environment is ineffective and doesn't respond to those needs?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 5: 1 minute, 5 seconds]
JOHNSON: You don't have a shared sense of purpose; you don't have a set of expectations shared by everyone. You find that the achievement gap is a glaring gap — which, by the way, is a problem everywhere in this country regardless of the environment, but it's even more glaring in environments where these expectations are not clear and these attributes are not present.
Large numbers of students do not see a connection between school and the rest of their lives. When they don't see that connection they are candidates for either psychological dropout or physical dropout.
Q: Are there effects on teachers as well?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 6: 1 minute, 30 seconds]
JOHNSON: There are. Teachers sometimes have a sense of not being supported by parents. They have a sense that their work is not valued. They have a sense of being pushed to produce test scores without an understanding of what the relationship is between test scores and improving the lot of these children as they move toward adulthood.
You do see low morale in many of these places. You do see a more significant turnover of teaching staff in places where these attributes are not present. But I think you also see constant conflict between teacher and parent communities, between teachers and administrators. The conflict is a result of an absence of agreement on the purposes for which everybody comes to work every day, and that is to educate all of our children to high standards.
They often have low expectations for their students. That's the challenge that needs to be turned around in these environments. I don't know what comes first: the low expectations or the devastating environment. But I do know that they sit in the same sphere. They absolutely do. Where you have teachers who have high expectations for their students — and for all students — and believe they can all be successful, that's where you're likely to find hard work and people attempting to put in place the kinds of positive learning environments that are successful for all kids.
The Roles of Community Partners
Q: What is the role of out-of-school settings — after-school programs, community organizations, and institutions — in maintaining learning environments?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 7: 2 minutes, 14 seconds]
JOHNSON: I'll talk from personal experience in Peekskill. These are integral to the success of our students. We have a number of partners, and I'll talk a little about them.
We have partners in the faith-based community. They have a formal organization and they work closely with us on student attitudes and student behaviors, and they support the programs that are in place. They will speak from the pulpit on occasion about key school issues when we ask them to do that.
We have a local Hudson Valley Contemporary Museum that prepares students to become docents and often introduces them to the world of fine arts. They provide programs as well as educational experiences for parents and students.
We have the police department. They're a positive partner. They do a number of things. They help kids understand what's appropriate and inappropriate behavior. They also view themselves as friends of adolescents, and so they attempt to put in place programs that allow students to see police officers as protectors of their safety as well as their typical role of ensuring that community residents do not break the law.
We have a local community college that forms an integral part of our school system by offering courses. The healthcare center provides healthcare services. The healthcare services are really important, because sometimes it's the only place where kids learn absolutely how to engage in positive pro-social and positive health behaviors.
There is no way that you can address the educational needs of a school community in the absence of partners. If you listened to what I've just described, we have healthcare partners, museums, the police department, the local community college — in fact, there are several colleges that work with us — and all play an integral role. If they were to disappear tomorrow, that would actually leave a hole in the educational services we provide to students. That's how important they are. And it's almost seamless. They come into the buildings, or we send students to their sites, depending on the program. Everyone views them as part of the educational community.
The Role of the District
Q: What's the role of districts — superintendents and central offices — in creating and maintaining effective learning environments?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 8: 2 minutes, 27 seconds]
JOHNSON:
Clearly, in providing leadership and in setting the standards and articulating the goals and communicating effectively what the expectations are for students and the school community. That's one set of conditions.
The other is making sure that time and resources are available to meet the goals, providing opportunities for both consequences and celebrations in these effective learning environments. And seeking and ensuring that there's appropriate fiscal support for all the innovation that needs to go on in these effective learning environments.
The collecting of data is an integral part of a district role if you're going to create an effective learning environment. If you have standards and goals in place, you have to determine whether or not they are being met. And you do that by collecting all kinds of data. If they are not being met, you have to ask yourself, what strategies or innovations have to be put in place that would move us more rapidly toward the goal, or do we have to rethink the goal? Is it the appropriate goal?
Sharing that information, making it transparent, thinking aloud with the community so that people know that you're reflective and that you are constantly assessing progress to determine whether or not you're going in the right direction — which, by the way, means the district must communicate on an ongoing basis and in a variety of ways to the entire community — I think all of those are attributes of maintaining effective learning environments.
I think the communication to the community can be done in a variety of ways and must be done. People don't need to feel that schools operate as secret entities and they don't share their experiences. Particularly in New York State, where they vote on school budgets, we need to be transparent about our successes. And I think that if you're transparent and honest, it helps both the teachers and the administrators, as well as the parents, to understand that the learning environment is responding constantly to change. Part of that change comes from external factors and part of it comes from this constant analysis of data. But it's always with the student at the center of our thinking, along with examining whether or not we're meeting all the goals we think we need in place to ensure students are going to be successful learners and, ultimately, successful adults.
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Archives
Learning Environments
VUE Number 19, Spring 2008
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
The View from Central Office: A Superintendent Looks at Learning Environments
By Judith Johnson
Judith Johnson is superintendent of the Peekskill (New York) City School District and is the 2008 New York State School Superintendent of the Year
> Author's biography
To a leading superintendent, an effective learning environment requires support from community partners and the district central office.
Judith Johnson has been a leader in education reform at the national and local levels for decades. During the Clinton administration, as acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education, she oversaw federal aid to local school districts and helped create a number of initiatives, including the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. Since 2001, she has been superintendent of the Peekskill City School District, a 3,000-pupil district along the Hudson River north of New York City.
Johnson has been a leading voice for high standards and equity and for ensuring that all students have a broad range of educational opportunities. She was a member of the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force, a national panel convened by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which produced the report A New Day for Learning.
Johnson spoke with Voices in Urban Education editor Robert Rothman about a district’s role in establishing and maintaining effective learning environments.
Q: How would you define an effective learning environment?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 1: 1 minute, 54 seconds]
JOHNSON: I would say there are probably three goals that an effective learning environment would be shaped by: one, constantly improving the academic performance of students; two, maintaining and supporting a quality workforce; and three, extending and involving the community in the success of schools.
Characteristics of an Effective Learning Environment
I would start by ensuring that everyone saw teaching and learning as well defined, with clear expectations; that the entire school community had clear goals that extended beyond performance on test scores; and that there was a focus across the district on continuous improvement. All members of a school community, staff and students, see themselves as continuous learners. The standards are fixed, they're high, and time is a variable. Academic rigor is a constant across all the curriculum areas. And there's ongoing reflection.
The environment, of course, would have adequate class sizes, well-trained staff members, certified staff members, a strong security force. In the classroom, the teaching is engaging, interactive, and focused on student engagement. I think co-curricular activities and an effective learning environment are an integral part of a school. I am a strong believer in ensuring that the fine and performing arts are considered components of an effective learning environment. There's an ongoing commitment to professional development.
Everyone uses data — students as well as teachers as well as administrators use data to assess progress and outcomes. I think that's a start, in terms of an effective environment.
Q: What are some of the physical aspects that make a learning environment effective?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 2: 42 seconds]
JOHNSON: The facilities are clean, the facilities are modern, and the facilities provide for adequate access for all, including the developmentally disabled. There are computers and technology obvious throughout the physical environment. The grounds and the exterior of the building have curb appeal and say to anyone entering the building, “We care about the children that are housed in this building.” That's a start.
Q: What about the social interactions among students and between students and adults?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 3: 2 minute, 28 seconds]
JOHNSON: I'll talk a little bit about how we view
that in Peekskill. We have a theme that
the Peekskill City Schools represent a
caring community. Within that caring
community, the interactions are
expected to be cordial and civil, which
means that we focus on teaching positive
behaviors from the time students
enter kindergarten to the time they
graduate from high school. There are
consequences for inappropriate behaviors;
however, the consequences always
include the opportunity to learn, so
that punishment isn't the answer to
inappropriate behavior. A consequence
plus an understanding of how one
would handle a situation differently
is really what we focus on with social
interactions.
Students are expected to be civil; they are expected to reflect the kind of behavior that we want them to demonstrate when they become caring adults in the world beyond schools. And there's a real focus on anti-bullying behavior as well as anti-violent behavior and absolutely zero tolerance for any gang behavior.
So it is expected that schools are mini-societies that represent not just democratic ideals but positive social behaviors and, therefore, that's what we expect to see in all of our children.
I do want to talk a little about consequences and celebrations. We strongly believe that accountability is an absolutely important measure. It's how you define accountability and what you do with that information that makes a difference. A really solid school district uses data in a variety of ways: to assess teacher performance, to assess student achievement, to assess how effectively the district itself is meeting its goals. If you're going to have consequences for the failure to meet goals, then you need to have celebrations whenever they are met, so that people feel they're being acknowledged for their work.
If you're going to have consequesnces for the failure to meet goals, then you need to have celebrations whenever they are met, so that people feel they're being acknowledged for their work.
The Challenges of Implementation
Q: How prevalent would you say that these conditions you've described are in schools today? Would you say that those are common or rare?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 4: 1 minute, 44 seconds]
JOHNSON: I guess I don't think they're rare anymore. I think that what I'm describing to you represents the language and expectations that many superintendents have for the districts they lead. I think the challenge is in the implementation. One, do they have the financial resources to ensure that the attributes that we think are the positive attributes can really be installed in schools? And two, to what degree does the school community support the components of an effective learning environment, particularly the component related to social behaviors?
When you're in an urban setting, one of the challenges you face is the challenge of the loss of hope. You have families who have, for generations, failed to see success or accomplishments. They send their kids to school with a diminished sense of hope because they, themselves, do not have examples or models that they can show children. This is probably the most devastating part of the civil-rights movement, and that is the folks who have been left behind. They have a different culture, and the culture of despair is one that we need to be concerned about in this country because it doesn't reflect positive social behaviors. It reflects abandonment of those behaviors. I think we haven't spent enough time looking at what I call the moral debt that we have to really address if we're going to create environments where social behaviors are cordial and respectful and civil and productive.
The Consequences of a Poor Learning Environment
Q: What happens when the learning environment is ineffective and doesn't respond to those needs?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 5: 1 minute, 5 seconds]
JOHNSON: You don't have a shared sense of purpose; you don't have a set of expectations shared by everyone. You find that the achievement gap is a glaring gap — which, by the way, is a problem everywhere in this country regardless of the environment, but it's even more glaring in environments where these expectations are not clear and these attributes are not present.
Large numbers of students do not see a connection between school and the rest of their lives. When they don't see that connection they are candidates for either psychological dropout or physical dropout.
Q: Are there effects on teachers as well?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 6: 1 minute, 30 seconds]
JOHNSON: There are. Teachers sometimes have a sense of not being supported by parents. They have a sense that their work is not valued. They have a sense of being pushed to produce test scores without an understanding of what the relationship is between test scores and improving the lot of these children as they move toward adulthood.
You do see low morale in many of these places. You do see a more significant turnover of teaching staff in places where these attributes are not present. But I think you also see constant conflict between teacher and parent communities, between teachers and administrators. The conflict is a result of an absence of agreement on the purposes for which everybody comes to work every day, and that is to educate all of our children to high standards.
They often have low expectations for their students. That's the challenge that needs to be turned around in these environments. I don't know what comes first: the low expectations or the devastating environment. But I do know that they sit in the same sphere. They absolutely do. Where you have teachers who have high expectations for their students — and for all students — and believe they can all be successful, that's where you're likely to find hard work and people attempting to put in place the kinds of positive learning environments that are successful for all kids.
The Roles of Community Partners
Q: What is the role of out-of-school settings — after-school programs, community organizations, and institutions — in maintaining learning environments?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 7: 2 minutes, 14 seconds]
JOHNSON: I'll talk from personal experience in Peekskill. These are integral to the success of our students. We have a number of partners, and I'll talk a little about them.
We have partners in the faith-based community. They have a formal organization and they work closely with us on student attitudes and student behaviors, and they support the programs that are in place. They will speak from the pulpit on occasion about key school issues when we ask them to do that.
We have a local Hudson Valley Contemporary Museum that prepares students to become docents and often introduces them to the world of fine arts. They provide programs as well as educational experiences for parents and students.
We have the police department. They're a positive partner. They do a number of things. They help kids understand what's appropriate and inappropriate behavior. They also view themselves as friends of adolescents, and so they attempt to put in place programs that allow students to see police officers as protectors of their safety as well as their typical role of ensuring that community residents do not break the law.
We have a local community college that forms an integral part of our school system by offering courses. The healthcare center provides healthcare services. The healthcare services are really important, because sometimes it's the only place where kids learn absolutely how to engage in positive pro-social and positive health behaviors.
There is no way that you can address the educational needs of a school community in the absence of partners. If you listened to what I've just described, we have healthcare partners, museums, the police department, the local community college — in fact, there are several colleges that work with us — and all play an integral role. If they were to disappear tomorrow, that would actually leave a hole in the educational services we provide to students. That's how important they are. And it's almost seamless. They come into the buildings, or we send students to their sites, depending on the program. Everyone views them as part of the educational community.
The Role of the District
Q: What's the role of districts — superintendents and central offices — in creating and maintaining effective learning environments?
LISTEN [Audio Clip 8: 2 minutes, 27 seconds]
JOHNSON:
Clearly, in providing leadership and in setting the standards and articulating the goals and communicating effectively what the expectations are for students and the school community. That's one set of conditions.
The other is making sure that time and resources are available to meet the goals, providing opportunities for both consequences and celebrations in these effective learning environments. And seeking and ensuring that there's appropriate fiscal support for all the innovation that needs to go on in these effective learning environments.
The collecting of data is an integral part of a district role if you're going to create an effective learning environment. If you have standards and goals in place, you have to determine whether or not they are being met. And you do that by collecting all kinds of data. If they are not being met, you have to ask yourself, what strategies or innovations have to be put in place that would move us more rapidly toward the goal, or do we have to rethink the goal? Is it the appropriate goal?
Sharing that information, making it transparent, thinking aloud with the community so that people know that you're reflective and that you are constantly assessing progress to determine whether or not you're going in the right direction — which, by the way, means the district must communicate on an ongoing basis and in a variety of ways to the entire community — I think all of those are attributes of maintaining effective learning environments.
I think the communication to the community can be done in a variety of ways and must be done. People don't need to feel that schools operate as secret entities and they don't share their experiences. Particularly in New York State, where they vote on school budgets, we need to be transparent about our successes. And I think that if you're transparent and honest, it helps both the teachers and the administrators, as well as the parents, to understand that the learning environment is responding constantly to change. Part of that change comes from external factors and part of it comes from this constant analysis of data. But it's always with the student at the center of our thinking, along with examining whether or not we're meeting all the goals we think we need in place to ensure students are going to be successful learners and, ultimately, successful adults.
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