June 2015

Facilitative Administration

The process of district and school improvement usually requires targeted planning for training of staff members in new skills to better support their students.  Whether they actually use these new skills in their own classrooms with fluency can depend largely on the efforts of others to prepare their organization for these new teacher behaviors.

The Facilitative Administration Driver focuses on the internal processes, policies, regulations, and structures over which a school, district or implementing organization has some control. Building or District Implementation Teams are often responsible for activating this Driver.

The primary function of Facilitative Administration is to create and maintain hospitable environments to support new ways of work. Administrators at each level of the educational system need to ask themselves “What do I need to do differently to actively support this work?” Administrators and implementation teams are accountable for creating and facilitating an organizational context that is supportive of practitioners, engaged in learning, and continuously improving based on best practices and the use of data. This work includes:

• Creating clear communication protocols and functional feedback loops to provide an opportunity for administrators to regularly learn from practitioners
• Identifying and addressing barriers related to internal processes to ensure that those systems are adapted to effectively support educators
• Identifying external barriers
• Raising issues with others in the educational system who can address such barriers

Above all, the Facilitative Administration Driver uses data and proactively solicits feedback to look for ways to make the day-to-day work of teachers, school staff and administrators more effective and less burdensome.  Successful schools emerge from such partnerships.

Learn More
 

• Organizational Drivers
  -Module 1, Framework 3
  -Module 2, Topic 2
• Gathering Information to Inform Facilitative Administration
  -Video Vignette 12: What the Research Says About Readiness
• Evaluation and Planning Tools
  -Implementation Drivers: Assessing Best Practices (includes Action Plan template)