PERFORMANCE
School districts throughout the United States are being challenged by “high stakes” testing and accountability. In addition to the inherent challenges for all school districts, many districts also face additional challenges of high mobility rates, low SES as evidenced by the percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunches, and a high percentage of students with English as a second language.

The common thread for schools experiencing success with these additional challenges is that they have very positive and productive working environments. In a recent analysis within an urban school district with 65 elementary schools, we examined the relationships between the dimensions of Organizational Health and student performance. To accomplish this objective we:

• Determined the percent of 5th grade students who were performing at “Satisfactory and above” on the state’s Criterion Referenced Test for Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Writing,
  
  
• Computed an average “proficiency score” for each of these subject areas for each school,



• Established an average “proficiency score” for each school,



• Rank ordered all schools from high to low based upon their composite “proficiency score,”



• Placed schools into three groups based on the performance index:
  
  
  • Scores at or above 75
  ,
  
  • Scores between 50 and 74
  ,
  
  • Scores below 50, and
  
  
  
• Created composite Organizational Health profiles for the three groups of schools.

The graph below demonstrates the relationship between the Organizational Health of these groups of schools and their student performance:

The composite profile for these three groups of schools shows a visual image of the importance of Organizational Health and its relationship to student performance. The composite profile for schools with proficiency scores above 75 is represented in red, the profile for those between 50 and 74 is represented in blue, and the profile for those below 50 is represented in yellow. The three dimensions that show the greatest variance between those schools scoring below 50 and above 75 are Goal Focus, Cohesiveness, and Adaptation. However in this study, the correlation coefficients for all ten dimensions were statistically significant and are listed below:

• Goal Focus .001
• Communication Adequacy .01
• Power Equalization .01
• Resource Utilization .001
• Cohesiveness .001
• Morale .001
• Innovativeness .001
• Autonomy .001
• Adaptation .001
• Problem Solving Adequacy .001
• Total Organizational Health .001

We have found that the common denominator for schools experiencing success with these additional challenges is that they have very positive and productive working environments. More specifically, we have consistently found a statistically significant relationship between student performance and the following three dimensions of Organizational Heath:

• Adaptation - the degree to which the school is willing and able to adapt and change to meet the needs of the school community and the broader external environment (.001 level of significance).

Based upon these research findings it seems logical that schools will be more productive when principals have “built in systems” that help the faculty have clarity, acceptance, support, and advocacy of school-wide goals and objectives (Goal Focus). Schools that are experiencing high levels of support and advocacy for school-wide goals and objectives have systems in place so that faculty members have opportunities to critically examine data, have healthy professional debates, and have opportunities to be involved in establishing realistic short and long- range goals and objectives.

Furthermore, when principals and other key leaders demonstrate that they value, promote, and expect teamwork throughout the school (Cohesiveness), it has a powerful impact on performance. They have systems in place to help horizontal and vertical teams progress naturally through the six Stages of Team Development. Teams in Stage Six analyze causes for gaps, identify discrepancies, predict future trends, plan proactively, hold themselves and others accountable, and work collaboratively with other interdependent teams. When time is at a premium, dollars are decreasing, and external expectations increasing, educators need to maximize the impact of their time by capitalizing on the synergy within these Stage Six horizontal and vertical teams.

When performance doesn’t match the expectation, the natural response of cohesive, goal focused teams is to adapt. The adaptation will be based upon a critical analysis of existing data, a reexamination of current strategies, and the development of proactive strategies for achieving the desired results. Principals and other key leaders play pivotal roles in this important process, especially during the early stages of adaptation.

The challenge for principals is to provide the leadership and structures to build the leadership capacity of individuals and teams that have a high commitment to the goals, to develop cohesive interdependent teams, and to capitalize on the external demands for change as an impetus for proactive change.

These data have important implications for principals and district administrators who are searching for specific strategies for improving organizational productivity. Assessing and monitoring the Organizational Health of campuses on an annual basis provide an objective and reliable method of focusing organizational energies on continuous improvement for leaders and members of their units. As a result of improved Organizational Health, one can predict that there will be an increase in the level of organizational productivity.

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