Friday, April 11, 2008

Measuring Success at 1-15

“We meet, but we are not a Learning Community…yet.”
“We have a Learning Community, but….”

These are two conversation starters that I have routinely heard this past year from teachers. After listening to the plight of facilitating a learning community our discussion turned to the recent performance of our local football franchise. When a football team has a season ending record of 1-15, are they considered any less of a football team? Even though popular opinion might disagree, not meeting expectations did not make this group any less a football team. This is true with our learning communities. Just because the team fell short of reaching their goals this does not take away from the vision or the effort. Developing a learning community is a process, they are just not there…YET. Moving closer to the vision requires all members of the team to reflect on their performance and review their plan and the systems of support. Is it fair to determine success by only a win-loss record?