The Suggestion Box helps school leaders make flexible decisions, focus on short-term learning, and involve non-dominant communities.
Focus on what you want to learn in a short, defined period of time. Just enough time to ask whether or not it's working. Clearly state what you hope it will achieve.
Students? Teachers? Families? These are the members of your community that you'll need to hear from to know if you should keep trying or shift gears.
Transparency is critical to building trust with students and families. Use social media to share what you're trying with non-dominant students and families to get their feedback in real time. And use the #schoolslearntoo hashtag so other schools can learn from you too!
Planning amidst uncertainty feels very daunting. Framing your decisions in two, simple sentences focuses your team on articulating your best guess rather than expecting your team to make long-lasting decisions in an uncertain environment.
Highlight what you will learn in a short, defined period of time. This makes it feel less scary to find that something didn’t work well and enables you to continuously improve over time. The simple sentences also help other schools quickly learn alongside you.
Simple sentences are more easily understood by students and families. When you make your two-sentence plans transparent to students, families, and teachers in your community, you build trust by involving them in the decision making process. Their feedback will also give you more information and lead to better decisions!
