The Rubber Hits the Road . . . Leadership Project

1. The Case:

The recent tension in the Orchard Park Secondary School English Department has been the unfortunate result of inconsistent practices among colleagues. Although each teacher in the department is required to distribute and go over the longstanding policy on late assignments at some point during the first or second day of classes; it seems that not all teachers follow through with these procedures as the semester wears on. At this time, students have raised awareness that the penalties for late and non submission of work are not being addressed fairly from teacher to teacher. Thus, students in “Ms. Comma’s” class are handing in assignments at any time without any repercussions; while, “Mr. Apostrophe” struggles to stick to the policy as closely as possible and “Miss. Hyphen” will not accept anything passed its due date, as well as distributes automatic zero’s to students who miss assignments. When the Department Head, “Mrs. Parenthesis” confronted each teacher in regards to the policy, she realized that this has been an ongoing problem for the past few years and it is evidently an issue that is persistently rearing its head from semester to semester. Each teacher believes their practice is the best practice and now, the tension is so thick in the Department it could metaphorically, be sliced.

2. The Context:

Interestingly, I’ve searched through the Education Act, the Ontario Ministry of Education’s website as well as the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s policies and was surprised to find absolutely no written procedure or protocol in accordance with student’s late or non submission of work. In essence, the “Culture of Responsibility Policy” that teachers and administrators of our board often speak of, appears to be somewhat of a myth. The “Culture of Responsibility” does not refer to a policy but to an undocumented and undefined expression whereby no procedure is actually in place. Consequently, that means students can argue that teachers are not allowed to assign zero’s as much as teachers may argue they can. In Orchard Park Secondary School’s Student Agenda under the Academic Policies heading, it is cited that, “A 'culture of responsibility' is the guiding principle used by teachers at Orchard Park Secondary School to determine the reasonableness and fairness of accepting late work and missed tests. Each department within Orchard Park Secondary School will have a Culture of Responsibility statement” (30). Accordingly, the English Department’s statement decrees:

The policy on late assignments will be in accordance with the philosophy of the ‘student culture of responsibility’ which takes into account what is reasonable and fair under the circumstances, both to the student with the late assignment, and to students who have followed expectations.

Thus, it appears that it is indeed up to the teacher’s discretion to evaluate whether or not students work should be accepted and how to deal with the submissions. Moreover, the teacher’s discretion is further reiterated in accordance to The Ontario Secondary Schools 9-12: Program and Diploma Requirements document from the Ministry of Education which merely states in section 6.2.1:

The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning . . . In order to ensure that assessment and evaluation are valid and reliable, and they lead to the improvement of student learning, teachers must use assessment and evaluation strategies that: Are fair to all students. (1999)

In addition to the teachers’ responsibilities to assess and evaluate students work fairly, the English Department’s Late Policy further states:

1. Students should submit assignments by the indicated due date, including those days when they are absent from class for other school activities.

2. Assignments completed and submitted on time will be both assessed (receive comments to assist with student learning) and evaluated (receive numerical mark).

3. Assignments submitted after students’ assignments have been handed back will be accepted only for assessment (receive comments to assist with student learning). See #5.

4. Teachers will use their professional judgment in regard to whether to accept a late assignment for evaluation, in consideration of fairness and reasonableness.

5. If a teacher decides out of fairness and reasonableness to accept an assignment for evaluation after other assignments have been handed back to students, then the assignment topic must be changed while retaining equivalent expectations and level of difficulty.

Moreover, the English Department’s Missed Tests, Presentations, Class Work and Exams Policy states:

1. Students are responsible for making prior arrangements for tests to be missed because of school activities or other legitimate pre-arranged absences.

2. It is the student’s responsibility to make up missed work de to absences.

3. It is the student’s responsibility to make up a missed test. A missed test will be made up according to the teacher’s professional judgment and in consideration of what is fair and reasonable.

4. A student will receive a mark of “0” (zero) on any assignment or test missed due to skipping.

5. Missed examinations will be dealt with according to school policy.

6. A teacher may require, at his/her professional judgment and discretion, for a below standard (i.e. below Level One), assignment to be rewritten until the quality of the style and content is acceptable. The final mark awarded will be the average of the mark for the first attempt and the mark of the final attempt, but not less than 50%. (Recall the final attempt must be “to standard.”)

Therefore, the policies and documents within Orchard Park Secondary School, the Hamilton-Wentworth Board of Education and the Ministry of Education do not project a clear procedure, protocol or even vision as to how teachers are to equally judge what is fair and reasonable.

3. Leadership:

As Dr. Chris Spence, Director of Education for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board once proclaimed, “Leaders turn challenging situations into success.” They “put together programs and policies that will create a ‘culture of success,’” and this is exactly what is needed in this case specific situation. Dr Chris Spence also explained that leaders “always anticipate change” as well as, “welcome new ideas and challenges.” Evidently, the policies in place at Orchard Park Secondary School are not creating a ‘culture of success’ if the teachers are experiencing tension and the students feel they are being treated unfairly. As a result, changes need to be made in the Department and the old policies need to be revisited to ensure clarity and consistency.

The leadership qualities and skills that are needed to implement these changes are outlined best in the Competency Self-Assessment Worksheet from the Alberta Public Service Resource Plan. They include: Adaptability, Communication, Problem Solving and Judgment as well as Teamwork (HayGroup). Tackling this situation requires one to be able to adapt and be willing to change their procedures in order to devise an effective policy for all teachers and students. This will require being able to clearly communicate ideas with colleagues by listening, interpreting, formulating and delivering ideas face-to-face and in writing for the purpose of composing an unambiguous policy. In doing so, it is necessary to have the ability to assess options and implications, in order to identify a solution through problem solving. Finally, none of this can be done without the ability to work co-operatively and productively with others in order to achieve results.

Finally, the style of leadership that is best suited for this problem, as derived from Donald Clark’s Leadership Style Survey, would be the Participative Style. This style of leadership takes many individuals’ points of view into account. Participative leadership stems from the democratic method and considering this issue has developed into a problem due to individual teachers’ varying practices, it makes the most sense to examine and discuss each practice and collaborate with the additional members of the department to see what the best practice according to what is “fair and reasonable to all students” really is.

4. The Plan:

Although the problem outlined is the result of colleagues failing to practice consistent policies in regards to late and non submission assignments, the best solution as I see it, is to collaboratively address the longstanding ambiguous policy and revise it so there is less room for interpretation. As it stands, the Academic Policies of Orchard Park Secondary School clearly state that each Department shall have their own “culture of responsibility” statement. Therefore, it is fair to say that the English Department has full reign over establishing an unambiguous policy so long as it adheres to the Ministry of Education’s clause to evaluate and assess reasonably and fairly. Thus, the process could essentially begin and end within the English Department.

From a leadership standpoint, I would:

1. Discuss with my Department Head that I have a solution to propose for this consistent problem and would like to address it in a Department Meeting.

2. At the meeting I would bring attention to the problem of students claiming to be treated unfairly and identifying the unclear nature of our current policy, which is of course ambiguous and outdated (no one in the Department seems to know when it was established and that within itself expresses a lot considering there are teachers who have been there for over 20 years).

3. I would stress that no teacher is at fault for the problem, but that the policy is simply ambiguous. Furthermore, I would place emphasis on the idea that it is necessary for the entire department to work together in sharing ideas, addressing problems and concerns in order to devise a plan to establish a new policy that we could all be content with.

4. Providing my idea to revise the policy is approved, I would then suggest that any teachers who would like to be directly involved in the revising and rewriting of the policy could join a committee (not limited to any number - all English teachers could potentially join) headed by myself to rewrite the policy with consideration made to the points addressed in the meeting.

5. The committee would then work to create a first draft of the policy to distribute to each department member for feedback before composing a second, third, fourth or however many drafts it takes to make sure that all members of the department approve the new policy.

6.The policy could then be approved (though it is not necessary) by administration and put into place at the onset of the following semester.