If it is a great opportunity to try a free leadership curriculum, you should have a few criteria in mind to evaluate how successful the program might be. Teachers will jump headfirst in and feel great about their discovery and then later find out that their program doesn’t work as they expected. If you’re going to advocate for a budget line item with your principal, the PTA, or the school board, you’ll need to know a little about how the program will affect your students’ behavior.
So Having a Checklist Is Key
We don’t want to make this sound like an Excel spreadsheet, but a checklist would help you identify the important qualities and student behaviors that may get lost in the excitement of discovery.
A free trial should answer this vital question: Will this leadership curriculum positively influence student behavior when there isn’t a grade at the end?
Here are some ways to determine that:
Does It Fit Into Your School Routine?
No matter how good a curriculum might be, it won’t make a difference if your school doesn’t have time or people to implement it. Do you have any questions to ask yourself when you’re trying to do this trial?
Can we do this in our advisory periods or during other times in the school day without sacrificing instructional hours?
Can individual lessons be pulled out for use during homeroom or other short periods of downtime?
Will it take a lot of teacher training or can any staff member jump in and lead the program with ease?
For example, iLead is a program that takes only 30 minutes a week and can be integrated into an advisor’s schedule. If your trial doesn’t help you decide how to maximize time while minimizing demands on staff, you’re missing some important information.
Are Students Engaged?
Watch and listen to the students and ask yourself if they are being challenged to connect their learning in a new way. Engagement in a leadership curriculum isn’t likely to be a lecture. Consider the following:
Are learners engaged in active conversation or is the class mostly listening to the teacher?
Are introverted kids having the opportunity to take charge?
Are the students talking about what they’re doing later that day, in the halls, or in relation to other classes?
Student-led programming is required for a successful leadership program. The students are learning through their interactions with each other so peer-to-peer learning needs to be the focus, not merely an icebreaker before the adult takes over. If your trial classroom is mostly run by the adult facilitator, you’re not getting the most out of this program.
Does the Teacher Feel Supported?
Your trial teacher’s experience would be the best measure of how it would work in your school and they should be able to tell you how it would be done. Ask if they felt prepared and if this would be a program they would do again in the future. Watch the materials, lesson plans, and teacher training videos. Any successful program should leave your trial teacher knowing they are ready and not stressed and on their own.
Does It Focus on Character, Not Just Activities?
In fact, that’s maybe the most important question when considering a leadership program. At Growing Leaders, leadership is more about who students are and less about what they do. We challenge educators to go through this curriculum and think about how it will affect our students for their whole life, not just for a short period of time in the course.
Does the trial curriculum reflect these beliefs? Ask yourself the following:
Are students thinking about the consequences of decisions and behaviors or learning a new skill?
Does the program tie communication and collaboration to values and qualities?
Would a student be able to write about the most important value they have learned during the trial?
Activities can only make connection stronger and team building easier, but programs that are character-driven and values-based can last much longer for a student. If students are struggling to describe what they took away from the program, it might mean that they were not really engaged.
Is There a Clear Path From Trial to Full Implementation?
The best programs will have considered this step and should be able to give you a realistic vision of what a full implementation might look like.
What will success look like after this trial? What training will be available for teachers? Most meaningful programs will help you decide what the next step should be and will make sure you have the tools to take this program to the next level. You will be wondering if the program provider will be there if you need them. After seeing a sample trial, you should be able to decide for yourself if they’re a good fit for your school.
How Do You Put This Checklist Into Action?
So one answer to these questions is to try it out for yourself. And Growing Leaders can provide a free sample of the iLead student leadership curriculum for your school to test out. You can see how the program integrates into your school day and how students get more involved and connected with each other. Go to growingleaders.com to start your free trial today.
