When Student Behaviors Keep Your School from Making Progress

0:02 Hey there and welcome to the Catching Up With Casey Show where we talk about anything and everything that has to do with building cohesive, vision driven teams. I am Casey Watts, School Impact Strategist and the host of this show. Now if you are here, then you inevitably are an instructional leader who wants to make change happen even when change seems impossible. And you can do that if you have cohesive, vision driven teams that have done clarity work. They know exactly where they're headed and how they're going to get there. These teams have done identity work and they've built their self and social awareness skills and they have done collaboration work and they know how to move the on folk collaboration to get to true collaboration, where change happens and where people get on board. I'm so excited to bring to you conversations that help you to do exactly that.

1:02 The work that needs to be done to build cohesive, vision driven teams. Now, with all of that said, let's dive into today's conversation. Hey there everybody. Welcome to tonight's show. I am pumped about tonight's episode because we're going to be talking about what to do when student behaviors get in the way of schools making progress. And this is a real issue, right?

1:46 So last week I posted on social media, I think I posted to a couple of different groups, instructional leadership groups, about just this question, like what gets in the way of your teams making progress. And I gave several different options. So four of the options that I gave were, of course, student behaviors, which got a lot of responses, and then lack of alignment, student learning gaps. And I believe there was one more, and maybe it was, I can't remember the last one, but it didn't get a whole lot of responses. The two that of course got the most responses were student behaviors and wide learning gaps that seem almost impossible to shrink. And it's interesting.

2:33 In the two different groups that I surveyed, one of the groups was a principal leadership group and the other was an instructional coaching group, and both groups had different responses. The principal leadership group mostly responded with student behaviors. The instructional coaching group, most of them responded with the wide learning gaps, which makes perfect sense because what we know about principles is that they are dealing with student behaviors on the day is constantly a part of their focus for instructional coaches. They are in classrooms and truly, really trying to pull the school along toward the instructional focus goals that maybe the principal has set out. And I know that principals really want to focus on those instructional goals, but student behaviors get in the way because there are just so many of them, and you see it all over the place.

3:29 Especially nowadays we have this issue with lots of student behavior discipline issues that are covering our ability to make progress with any other instructional focus goals with team capacity goals with PLCS, because student behaviors and discipline tend to be our focus. Now I want to tell you a little bit of a story before we get into what we do about that and what we do when student behaviors get in the way of the whole school moving forward. And so I want to show you this picture of a place in our very first house that we owned together, my husband and I. And we bought this house with the intent to flip it. In fact, we have flipped 3 houses since we have been married and this was the very first house that we flipped. And in this house there was this place. So you can see this at the edge of the doorway. This was right close to the back door, and there was this crack that we noticed coming up a little while after we moved into the house.

4:38 And so I was thinking, you know what, no big deal. I'm just going to get some patchwork done to it so that you can't really tell that it's there and we'll paint over. So did that. And then this gap, this crack showed up again, and I just patched over it, right, chained it over it, couldn't really tell that it was there. And then it happened again. We knew that there was a deeper issue going on, right? There was some sort of foundational issue. And we also knew that that foundation foundational issue was going to cost us a long time, but it was definitely going to cost us more money than we had anticipated. And I find that this is sometimes what happens in schools when we have these problems that arise, specifically behavior problems, because it happens again and again and we are short on time and we are short on money and we are short on staff, that we have these almost made. Now, if you are here in the comments, I want to see like if you agree with that, if you notice that happening, if you're seeing Band-Aid fixes because of a lack of time or resources, put a yes in the comments.

5:54 If that's something that you notice that people are trying to use some filler to just cover the problem until they can get to a place in their lives where they can actually address the issue at a deeper level. The problem is addressing it, and the time for addressing it never seems to be possible, right? And we know that we have to get to the deeper root cause of the issue if we are going to make any sustainable change. If we are going to increase teacher capacity and shrink learning gaps, then we do have to address this behavior problem, but we have to address it at a deeper level. And that is exactly what we're going to be talking about tonight.

6:42 I want to provide you with some steps you can take to truly analyze what is going on at a deeper level and to really think about Okay, What is it that we have some control over and how are we going to address what we have control over? How are we going to set some goals based on what we have control over and what we're noticing about this root cause? OK, so that's kind of what we're focused on tonight. And this work that you're going to notice me doing with you tonight comes from some things that I suggest in the clarity cycle. I take teams through a clarity cycle that helps them build, create or create clarity building habits. It will bring clarity to your people so they can move farther, faster, and simplify alignment and be on the same page. So we're going to be looking at actually the 2nd component of this clarity cycle, which has identified challenges and goals. We're doing both of those things. And one thing that I always suggest in this clarity cycle, specifically in the step of identifying challenges and goals, is a protocol for root cause analysis. That's what I'm going to show you tonight. I am pumped about it.

7:57 We're going to specifically focus on this problem of student behaviors. Now I'm going to ask you, if you're here with me, you're going to be in the comments and adding some additional thoughts that you have, even if it doesn't, if it's not something that I have on my screen. OK. And so you'll know more about that here in just a moment. So let's say you've got your team, you formed A-Team. Maybe it's your instructional leadership team, maybe it's just your grade level team, maybe it's APLC team. You have a team of people and you know that there is a problem, there is a student behavior problem. It's taking up all of our time. Let's identify the challenges and set some goals.

8:39 Here's how we're going to do that. We are going to implement a 1055 protocol and that's what I'm going to take you through tonight. It is one of my very favorite root cause analysis protocols because there is so much that you can do with it and it's really going to help you to map out the future steps that you need to take to get people all aligned and to move towards some common goals. So let's talk about this root cause analysis. The 1055 protocol takes you through a few different steps and I'm actually going to ask you to take some additional steps after that.

9:19 So what we're going to do first is think about a problem statement. I'm going to show you that here in a little bit. And then after we identify that problem statement and what it is that we want, we're going to list 10 reasons that problem would be happening. Then we're going to list five more reasons, and then we are going to list five more. So by the end of this protocol, we should have a whopping 20 possible reasons for this problem. Okay, it sounds like, whoa, that is a lot, right? And it it is actually, it is a lot. Initially, once you get started listing some different ideas, they just keep coming to you.

10:07 You'll notice that some of them are connected or related in some way and that is OK That's actually kind of a good thing. All right. We don't want to repeat anything necessarily, but it's OK and appropriate for some of them to overlap and align. So I've kind of done this work for you, and as I'm going through these different reasons that student behaviors could be an issue you put in the comments if you are noticing these same issues or these same possible causes for the problem. And definitely add in some other causes that you're noticing in the comments. OK, so we're going to start with the problem statement.

10:49 The problem is behaviors are taking up our time, keeping us focusing on instructional goals. So what do we want? We want disruptive behaviors to decrease so that we can focus on making progress with instructional goals. I guarantee that all instructional leaders out there would love to put their time and attention on instructional goals versus behavior, right? But behavior is a concern and we have to figure out how to approach it if we are going to make progress with instructional goals. So let's talk about 10 reasons that these behaviors, these disruptive behaviors could be taking place.

11:37 Here we go, #1. And I'm going to actually increase the size of this so that you can see it. Be sure you're adding some comments in the comment section just to let me know, like you agree, you disagree, maybe you have some additional things. So I'm going to go through these pretty quickly. One possible reason that disruptive behaviors could be taking place is that students are bored. Give me a thumbs up. Some sort of reaction to let me know. Yep, you agree with that. OK, maybe lessons aren't engaging. Maybe each teacher has different expectations or rules from classroom to classroom. Since the students are confused, Maybe there's too much screen time at home. Probably not a maybe.

12:20 That's probably an accurate statement. For most homes, there's little to no support from parents. That's a reality that we are faced with. Maybe behaviors are there's an there's an uptake in behaviors because students can't focus for very long. Maybe students don't care about the consequence. Have you experienced that? Yeah, teachers lack classroom management strategies. That could be a possible 'cause for the behaviors that we're noticing that are disruptive. Sorry about the dogs in the background. Teachers are all using different management strategies. So from one classroom to another, we've got all of these different strategies, right? And so when a student goes from Class A to Class B, one teachers using one set of classroom management strategies, another using it is using a different set of classroom management strategies.

13:15 So the student doesn't really have the capacity to focus on both strategies that the teachers are using plus what it is it's expected of them to learn in the class. There isn't enough staff to help. Man, this is a big reality for us. OK, so that is 10 possible reasons that behaviors are a concern for us in schools, right. Let's keep going. We're going to go to the next 5. So what I would typically ask you to do is after you list 10, you look through them and you think, what are some consistencies and patterns that we're noticing here? What is similar? What can we categorize together? Let's go to the next 5. Nothing happens when students go to the office, right? We've got these behaviors going on. I send them to the office.

14:04 It seems like nothing happens. They come back, and we're in the same boat that we were in the day before. Administrators haven't been clear about how to handle behaviors. This could be a possible reason behaviors are increasing because we don't have a clear understanding of how to handle the behaviors. Students don't know how to handle conflict, right? They had. They haven't learned how to do that. Students don't know how to manage their emotions. Students don't think what they're learning is necessary. OK, so that's five more, right? We've gone through 15 reasons so far, and that's a lot, but we're going to add five more. We want to have up to 20.

14:51 And I guarantee if you started doing this, you would be able to go past twenty. Once you get started, students can't relate to what they're learning. Maybe there are no consequences at home, right? So on the other side of this we have each teacher has different expectations. Little to no screen time, no support from parents, or there just aren't any consequences at home. We think there should be, but there aren't. The makeup of the class is tough, right? Like, we have these different classrooms and we know that different students react to one another in different ways that can make behaviors challenging.

15:31 Teachers don't have time to teach both social skills and academics. And then finally, class sizes are two. This is 20 different reasons that we might notice behaviors becoming more of an issue. Let's talk about what to do next. So let's say you've listed all 20 reasons that could be a possibility for all of these behaviors happening and happening again and again. They're taking up your time. You don't have enough time to focus on instructional goals, but we want to get to the root of it and we want to address the root of it because we don't address the root of the problem.

16:15 Then guess what? That same problem is going to happen again and again, and we're going to have to address that problem again and again. This is where we start with. We start seeing those quick fixes, patches, band aids, and we know that those are not sustainable. So here's what we're going to do next with 1055 protocol. We've got 20 different reasons listed. We are going to highlight what can be directly controlled, what do we have direct control over. We are going to strike through what cannot be directly controlled. And then we'll place an asterisk next to what we have influence over. OK, so highlight what can be controlled, strike through, what cannot be controlled, what's outside of our control and an asterisk next to what we have some influence over. Here we go.

17:09 So I've got all 20 things listed now. It's going to vary what you what you highlight, what you decide to strike through and what you decide to place an asterisk next to will vary depending on your role. So if you are a principal, there are some things that you might be able to highlight. And if you were an instructional coach, there might be some things that you are not able to highlight. So I'm kind of thinking about this from a leadership team perspective, which would include the principal, probably an instructional coach, probably a teacher. So those are the people that I'm kind of thinking about as we go through this, students are bored. We cannot directly control that.

17:54 However, we do have some influence over students being bored. Lessons aren't engaging. Guess what? We have direct control over the lessons that we are implementing in our schools. Each teacher has different expectations or rules. Yep, we have direct control over that. Too much screen time at home. Now I'm going to go ahead and address all these that are having to deal with what's happening at home. We cannot control what is happening at home. Now to for some of you, you may be thinking, no, but we can have some influence over it. You could be right. And that's something that if you're doing this with your instructional leadership team, you would have to discuss together, like what could we influence at home, what's completely outside of our control. For my purposes here, I have, I have taken those out, OK, too much screen time at home.

18:48 I don't have control over that. Possibly I could influence it, but really, I don't have any control over it. No consequences at home, no control over that. The makeup of the class I also have crossed out. Now that could be different depending on what your situation is, but for the most part, people don't like teachers, don't really have control over the makeup of their class, and then class sizes are too big. I mean, we have some control over that, but really that's kind of outside of our control. So I'm going to go back to little to no support from parents. Now, I did put an asterisk next to that because we can encourage support from parents.

19:29 We can help them to learn how to support us at school, but we don't have direct control over it. Students can't focus for very long. We can't control that, but we can influence it. Students don't care about the consequences. Again, we don't have direct control, but we can have a little bit of influence over it. Teachers lack classroom management strategies. We have complete control over that, right? We can give them the tools and strategies teachers are all using. Management strategies, complete control over that. Now. It might take some time. To ensure that we're all using similar aligned management strategies, but we do have control over that.

20:14 There isn't enough staff to help. We have some influence over that, but not direct control. Nothing happens when students go to the office. Depending on who you are, you could have like if you were a principal, you could have control over this, or you may just be able to influence it. Administrators haven't been clear about how to handle behaviors. Direct control. We can communicate a clear message. Students don't know how to handle conflict. If they don't know how, we can teach them how to handle conflict again. Same thing with They don't know how to manage their emotions. We can teach them how to manage their emotions.

20:57 Students don't think what they're learning is necessary. We have control over that because we have control over what we present to them. Students can't relate to what they're learning. We can make our lessons more relatable. And then finally, the last one that's that has an asterisk next to it is teachers don't have time to teach social skills and academics. I put an asterisk next to that because that can be influenced like we can take a look at our time, but we don't have control necessarily over the amount of time that we have in our classrooms. That is a set amount of time we can decide how we use that time though. OK, So what I've done is I've taken all twenty of these different possible reasons that we're noticing this increase in student behaviors that are taking up time and keeping us from focusing on instructional goals.

21:51 We have to consider what the root cause is. That means we have to focus only on what's directly within our control. What is highlighted is directly within our control, right? So if you know what is directly within your control, then you are going to be able to take next steps. Let me tell you about what next steps are. From here you are going to look at those different things that are highlighted. This is within our control. Decide what is it? If we were going to create some categories for these things, what would those categories be, right?

22:32 So how does some of these fit together? What would be those categories? And if these are categories like these are the major things that we have direct control over. These are the major things that are causing student behaviors to increase and our time to focus on instructional goals to decrease. Then how are we going to approach those categories? We can create goals from each of those categories, and then we are going to move toward those goals. We're going to script critical moves to help all of our teachers and staff move toward those goals. This is the way for us to address the root cause of the problem.

23:20 This is the way that we are going to notice sustainable change happen. This is the way that we are going to increase teacher capacity and shrink learning gaps and shrink those behaviors, right. So what I'm going to encourage you to do, guys, I've got a couple of things for you #1. If you go to my website catching up with kc.com and you Scroll down on the homepage, you're going to notice this 1055 protocol that is available for you to download immediately. You can grab this 1055 protocol completely for free and see what this looks like to do on your own, or I highly encourage you to do it with an instructional team. OK, so get with a team of people, go through the 1055 protocol, get to this part where you're highlighting, placing an asterisk next to thing things or you're like striking things out. And then decide, OK, based on what we can control, what could be some goals, what are two to three goals that we can set and work toward.

24:24 The other thing that I want to encourage you to do is get on a call with me those this whole month. I am just going to be doing free calls with you guys. So if you want to do this 1055 protocol, even if you want to use exactly what I have here and let's talk about some goals you can set based on this 1055 protocol, we can do that. And I can talk with you and partner with you to think about, OK, if these are goals that you have set to address student behaviors or maybe you have some other problems you want to address, then what does it look like to script critical moves to help people reach those goals? OK, All right.

25:04 So those are the two things that I am leaving you with you tonight. Go to my website, get the 1055 protocol. Do this with student behaviors at your school so you can to the root of the problem. You can address it. You can move forward. Then get on a call with me and let's talk about it together. I can coach you through that, and I can tell you more about how the Clarity Cycle is going to help your team to get aligned in a simplified way. All right, If you have more questions about getting to the root 'cause, I want you to, I want you to e-mail me, I want you to reach out to me on social media, And without further ado, we're going to close tonight and I will catch you later. Bye everybody.

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