Appendix A: The Professional Educator as a Decision-Maker

Appendix B: Decision Making Questions

An Adventure in Excellence:	E. Todd
A Community Portrait	Revised, 1999

"Whatever we do in a public school depends on whether we think that passionate human beings are capable of meaningful participation in collegial decision-making activities. The goals we seek, the things we do, the judgements we make, the willingness to share power are determined by our beliefs about the nature of diverse human beings and their capabilities to engage in collegial development of futuristic and compassionate decision-making communities." (Todd, 1985, 1996.)

"If we are to become a decision-making community we must be committed to developing and maintaining a civilized and caring decision-making process. This process must include meaningful participation by those human beings whose lives are affected by the school." (Todd, 1996.)

"Decision-making is a collegial process used by various constituent groups of human beings to make intelligent judgments . . ." (Todd, 1991 revision, @.)

Rationale for Care Statement: . . . . . . . .

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"If we are to become a decision-making community we must be committed to developing and maintaining a civilized and caring decision-making process. This process must include meaningful participation by those human beings whose lives are affected by the school." (Todd, 1996)

Definitions: "Decision-making . . ." "Decision-maker . . ." "A decision-making community . . ." "To be civilized . . ." "To care . . ." "To be collegial . . ." "Purposeful Anger....."

"Decision-making is a collegial process used by various constituent groups of human beings to make intelligent judgments . . ." (Todd, 1991 revision, @.)

Consequences: If the human beings whose lives are affected by the school accept these definitions the following consequences will occur at __________________________:

(1.) . . .

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"Whatever we do in a public school depends on whether we think that passionate human beings are capable of meaningful participation in collegial decision-making activities. The goals we seek, the things we do, the judgements we make, the willingness to share power are determined by our beliefs about the nature of diverse human beings and their capabilities to engage in collegial development of futuristic and compassionate decision-making communities." (Todd, 1985, 1996).

1. A. Belief: If we believe that third millennium citizens are uniquely different--in physical growth, in intellectual power, in social maturity, in emotional stability, in aesthetic sensitiveness, in readiness to become futurists, in any human attribute--then every effort should be made to facilitate civilized growth in those human beings whose lives are affected by the decision-making process of their public schools. (Todd, 1963, 1966, 1999.)

B. Needed Actions:

(1) . . .

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2. A. Belief: If we believe that passionate human beings are uniquely different--in physical growth, in intellectual power, in social maturity, in emotional stability, in aesthetic sensitiveness, in readiness to become agents of change, in any human attribute--then every effort should be made to facilitate caring interactions between those human beings whose lives are affected by the decision-making activities of their public schools. (Todd, 1963, 1996, 1999.)

B. Needed Actions:

(1) . . .

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3. A. Belief: If we believe that third millennium citizens should control their lives, their society, and the universes of the future--then every effort should be made to equip these citizens with the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical skills to be futurists in the 21st century. (Todd, 1996).

B. Needed Actions:

(1.) . . .

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4. A. Belief: If we believe that civilized and caring human beings are capable of exhibitions of purposeful anger--then every effort should be made to develop and maintain decision-making communities." (Todd, 1996.)

B. Needed Actions:

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5. A. Belief: If we believe that school board members should be willing to share power with those human beings whose lives are affected by the schools--then every effort should be made to develop a system of educational ideas which can provide centrality of purpose for the sharing of power with school advisory councils. (Todd, 1996.)

B. Needed Actions:

(1) . . .

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6. A. Belief: If we believe that....

B. Needed Actions:

(1) . . .

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A public school has the potential for becoming a decision-making community when the following conditions exist:

(1.) The system of educational ideas provides the framework for the development and maintenance of effective instructional programs and supportive administrative decisions.

(2.) Faculty, administrators, and support personnel are employed not only because of professional competence, but also for their "tolerance for turbulence" in decision-making situations.

(3.) Human beings whose lives affected by the school design a decision-making process which helps establish and maintain productive relationships between these groups of human beings.

(4.) Numerous opportunities for carrying out appropriate leadership responsibilities are available to the members of the different groups whose lives are affected by decision-making activities.

(5.) Essential information is continuously made available to those persons directly participating in a given decision-making situation.

(6.) Faculty, administration, and support personnel endeavor to create and maintain open channels of communication among the groups of human beings whose lives are affected by the public schools.

(7.) Instructional and administrative decisions affecting educational programs and human performance are continuously evaluated with the results systematically applied in improving the quality of educational programs and human performance.

(8.) The school board, superintendent of schools, and the central office staff are committed to the development and maintenance of public schools as decision-making communities.

(9.) Human beings whose lives are affected by the school must realize that uncontrolled anger by decision-makers can result in decisions with unfortunate consequences.

(10.) School advisory councils . . .

(11.) The development of school improvement plans (Blueprint 2000) . . .

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"Debates about curriculum are as much debates about the nature of the communities in which we live as they are debates about the traditions from which we come. The choices we make define the nature of our common culture--they institutionalize sets of values, codify social and political hierarchies, define the center and the periphery. In times and places of cultural conflict and social change, debates about curriculum are thus likely to become emotional and politicized. In the United States today this is most evident in discussions of such topics as multiculturalism and the teaching of values. Such topics challenge the balance among competing interests within the larger community and have the potential to fragment the political consensus upon which the American common school tradition rests: For when we cannot agree on what is legitimately a common curriculum, particular communities either seek refuge outside of the public system or seek to impose their values on the public system itself." (Applebee, 1996).

In discussing curriculum, it is important to recognize the many layers of values that are involved in curricular decisions. Some of these layers are easy to recognize, because they have been the focus of widespread debate. These include issues such as evolution versus creationism, the treatment of homosexual lifestyles, and sex education. Other layers of values are more subtle, embedded in the particular discourse conventions that govern how students will learn to make meaning within a given curriculum--in the kind of knowledge-in-action that the curriculum encourages. Goals for education that emphasize thoughtfulness and independent thinking treat discourse as open to alternative inperpretations and meaning as relative. For some communities within the United States, however, such a treatment of discourse runs counter to deeply held personal and religious convictions....

....When traditions of knowing are in conflict, educators are forced to recognize that the curricular choices they make reinforce one set of values at the expense of another. American schools are founded on premises of tolerance, diversity, non-sectarianism and inclusiveness; they have characteristically stressed qualities of thoughtfulness, reflection, and independent thinking. Such characteristics, however, are themselves values that are not universally accepted within American society. Communities with traditions as diverse as those of Quakers, Roman Catholics, Hasidic Jews, Muslins, and Christian fundamentalists have so rejected the premises inherent in public education that they have founded their own independent schools and academies where their children can be educated in alternative traditions. (Curiously, private systems of education founded in rejection of the values of public education are sometimes proffered as models for public schools to emulate.)

The point in highlighting such conflicting traditions is to remind ourselves that the curriculum we provide is always valueladen. It is better to be aware of the values that underlie our curricular choices than to pretend that our choices are somehow value-free. The books we ask students to read, the issues we pose for discussion, and the patterns of independence and authority that we establish within our classrooms all reflect particular traditions of knowing and doing that are valorized by our choices, just as the less obvious decisions about books we exclude and issues we do not discuss marginalize or devalue other traditions." (Applebee, 1996.)

The activation and successful implementation of a community portrait provides an opportunity for appropriate curriculum development activities. The implications are as follows:

Elementary Schools:

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Secondary Schools:

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"The curriculum can be defined as the planned educational experiences offered by a school which can take place anywhere at any time in the multiple context of the school, e.g. public schools as caring communities, as caring communities, as scholarly communities . . . (Todd, 1965, 1992).

"The physical boundaries of decision-making classrooms exist only in the minds of those human beings whose lives are affected by the public schools." (Todd, 1956, 1995). "Teaching and learning can take place anywhere at any time." (Todd, 1963). "The world is the classroom." (Todd, 1969). "The universe is the classroom." (Todd, 1981, 1995).

"The opportunities for demonstrating appropriate decision-making skills in changing classrooms are inseparably linked with the opportunities for demonstrating purposeful anger in istructional activities carried out in decision-making communities." (Todd, 1996).

Since we can only speculate about the unlimited possibilities for educational experiences which could facilitate the nurturing of futuristic agents of change who are collegial decision-makers in the third millennium we believe that future classrooms can be described as follows:

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"Imagine all the people whose lives are affected by the decision-making activities of their. . ."

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"Changes in a school system are often in direct conflict with the changes taking place in the community, thus creating a highly complex and political situation." (Todd, 1969).

Since there are different groups of human being whose lives are affected by the public school there are political risks for these persons responsible for the development and implementation of the community portrait. These risks are as follows:

(1.) . . .

(2.) . . .

(3.) . . .

Appendix A: A professional educator as decision maker

Appendix B: Decision Making Questions

Appendix C: __________________________________School Improvement Plan for the_______________ school year.

Appendix D: Decision-Making Classroom