Transition to Circle of Courage
Please review the video below or review the text announcement below.
Transitioning from Leader in Me
Circle of Courage - Brendtro, Brokenleg, Van Brockern
Our collective mission across FSD is to promote Engagement of students, parents, and community, a Continuum of Supports and to highlight the Successes of our students and schools. At Heritage Heights, we will continue to teach and support Leadership, Integrity and Excellence as our core values established years ago when the school began. For the past 10 years Heritage Heights has been paying for a subscription to use the Leader in Me program to support character development of our students. This costly program needs to come to an end, but the work we do and the values we have learned will continue.
After several professional development days, much research and collaborative reflection, we have chosen to adopt the Circle of Courage Model to help frame our character development and enhance our school culture. The Circle of Courage is a model of youth development that resulted from the research of Larry Brendtro (PhD), Martin Brokenleg (professor of Native American Studies) and Steve Van Bockern (Doctorate in Education – Honorary Doctor of Laws). The Circle is broken up into 4 quadrants that portray the essential positive development needs of all children, Belonging, Independence, Generosity and Mastery. The model integrates western knowledge, indigenous knowledge and modern youth development research and is applicable to all children across contexts and cultures. As the staff explored this model, we agreed that the circle allows us continue to use the ideas and values of the Leader in Me program as the concepts fit nicely into the 4 essential areas.
Recently an invite was released to families in weekly messages that invited parents to join a blanket exercise hosted by our School Council on June 7th. We apologize for the wording as it may have led to some confusion. The Blanket Exercise is being offered as a separate event that is providing our community and staff with the opportunity to learn about the history of non-indigenous and indigenous peoples in Canada with the intent on strengthening understandings and building mutual respect.
As we look forward to adopting this change, I did want to clarify that this process was not made in haste, and we have been carefully considering our approach over the last few years based on observations and through data gathering. We would like to take you back to how we came to this decision.
Starting in spring of 2021, our school reached out to families, students, and teachers to understand the impact the Leader in Me Program had on our school population via the Measurable Results Survey (MRA). 65%-70% effectiveness of the program was shown through this tool, and while this is above average, it was not a stellar result from a program that had been running for a decade in our building. Understanding that this is one measure, and we were wrapping up the pandemic we looked to other sources of evidence for guidance. Other surveys (Student Engagement and Alberta Accountability for example) have shown similar scores to other schools in our division even in areas that should have been targeted by the Leader in ME program. This puts doubts into the programs worth and/or our implementation and adoption of such a program. We have reached out to the Leader in Me organization for coaching and support around reducing costs associated with the program and while the coaching was somewhat effective, our use of the resources and training has reduced over the years. Other schools in Foothills School Division who have offered a Leader in Me program were also contacted to see how they are able to manage funds only to find they have chosen to end the partnership. The results of our review were that it is time to cancel our subscription to call ourselves a Leader in Me school as mentioned in March in our parent engagement survey.
Let’s talk about programs, vs. models for a moment. The Leader in ME subscription provided us with a program, a scripted set of lessons and tools that provided inroads and workbooks for all students to understand the 7 Habits within their daily lives. These were reinforced in other areas; however, it was typically taught in our health classrooms and many teachers expressed frustrations in not being able to complete all the tasks or habit lessons with so much curriculum already on their plates to cover. A program is prescriptive, a model is a lens or a wholistic view of our work. Instead of teaching to the program, we can look to opportunities through existing curriculum to reinforce and support. We aren’t following a guide; therefore, we don’t have an add-on to our plates or boxes to check. Using a model, that fits some of the activities, concepts, and qualities we regularly teach, we can be more authentic in our approach vs. checking a box. Finally, a word on simplicity. 4 essential concepts vs. 7 habits are a lot easier to remember and incorporate into conversations.
The decision to not renew our subscription was not made lightly and was made in consultation with our School Council members over repeated meetings. While the subscription fees were the primary reason for removal in tight financial times, as the costs don’t outweigh the benefits, it was also time to renew our approach. Overtime, any initiative loses steam and from our research, the time has come to rebuild together. By not paying for a subscription, we can no longer call our school a “7-Habits” school, however we can continue to use the language and lessons we have adopted into our health classrooms to carry the work forward and will likely dip into accessible ideas to support leaners when needed.
To thoughtfully plan our approach, we completed work as a staff to identify key components of our existing practice and experience that we wanted to keep. We identified the Circle of Courage as both a succinct and research driven approach that connects to the work we have completed as a “7-Habits” school. The lessons that the Circle of Courage can be aligned directly with our mission as a school, as a division and to align with the legislation of creating safe, caring, welcoming, and respectful schools for all students.
For example, we can look at the model through the lens of the Alberta Education Learner Competencies
Figure 1 via FSD FNMI Toolkit
Or through the lens of universal life lessons:
Figure 2 via. Present Learning
And aligned to where the 7 Habits fit:
Figure 3 HHTS Staff Alignment to Habits and Current Practices 2022
The four main lessons may be connected to the indigenous focus or perspective but can also be reviewed as life lessons for all from a western perspective. This is known as “Two-eyed seeing” where we support a view of child development with a wholistic lens (developing the whole child, and in this case with some connection to our indigenous neighbours and history where appropriate) and build practices that have been proven to work from a research lens. We want our kids to feel they belong, have the achieve personal goals (mastery), develop independence and responsibility, and look forward to contributing to others and our community (generosity).
Fall 2023 will be an opportunity to see how this model of thinking about the daily work we do with our students and will provide opportunities for parent feedback. With any change we hope it is an opportunity to learn more and rethink strategies that are somewhat effective now to provide greater effectiveness through intentional work and exploration with our community.
In closing, we understand that any change is challenging. Please look at this as an invitation to provide us feedback as we evaluate this approach over the next year to determine the effectiveness and next steps for our learning community. Your feedback is valued and will be asked for throughout the year as we invite you to learn how to utilize the lens with your own families at home to support the work we do here. I will reiterate, and I hope you will agree we want independent, masterful students who value generosity and have a strong sense of belonging as they come to school everyday. Thank you for your understanding and supporting our school as it moves ahead to partner with you to help your children grow and learn both academics and lessons that can last a lifetime.
