Educational Leadership

link between the quality of local schools and the ongoing health and vitality of the community. Each succeeding phase looks to the desired goal: an active community-wide commitment to increasing student success.

The most important feature of the formal track is its venue. It takes place on the community’s turf at the community’s convenience. This stands in sharp contrast to the traditional approach to public engagement, which most often involves inviting the public to attend meetings held in the evening at the school. The response to this approach is predictable: an audience of the same 12 parents and the one weirdo who comes to all the meetings. The challenges facing our schools today demand that the conversation extends to the entire community. We must go to them.

The structure of the formal track has seven components.

1. Map the community.

To carry our message to the people of the community on their turf at their convenience, we must create a map. Mapping the community’s turf has little to do with defining physical boundaries. We’re interested in mapping people, and we’re generally more interested in groups than in individuals.

Our goal in mapping is threefold: First, to identify all the groups that regularly or periodically gather in the community; second, to determine when and where they meet; and third, to organize the groups into categories. The number of categories will vary with the size and complexity of the community, but typical categories include civic clubs and organizations, fraternal societies, professional associations, labor and farm organizations, ethnic societies, businesses over a certain size, and all local religious institutions.

Mapping is easiest and most enjoyable when done in a half-day

workshop that includes the entire staff and a cross-section of community members. Adding community members is especially important in those places where staff members don’t adequately reflect the district’s diversity.

The group can create a functional conversation map in under two hours. I have seen easels placed around the

n We must create a sense of urgency. We must tell the public why it’s essential to unfold the full potential of every child and why our schools must continue to improve if we are to achieve this goal.

n We must help all members of the community understand why it’s in their interest to have great local schools. Audience

The formal track of the Great Conversation
takes place on the community’s turf
at the community’s convenience.

room holding newsprint pads. Each pad displays a single category heading, for example, Civic Clubs. The assembled mapmakers move from station to station, adding their ideas to the list. I have also been in settings where teams of participants independently create category lists at their tables. Facilitators then collect and merge all the lists to create a master map. No matter how it’s done, the goal is to produce a comprehensive map of where the people of the community congregate by tapping the collective knowledge of all participants.

2. Decide on the message.

The primary objective of the Great
Conversation is to move community
members along a continuum from con-
fusion and suspicion to understanding
and trust, from obstruction and indif-
ference to permission and support. To
realize this objective, the message we
share must contain four basic elements:
members must understand that their
quality of life is directly tied to the
quality of their schools. Community
members will not rally to our aid unless
we help them connect the dots.

3. Develop a script.

Once participants have developed the message, they need to distill their thoughts into a written script. Good scripts provide structure, inspire confidence, and help presenters stay on message. Using scripts also ensures that every audience will hear the same message at approximately the same time.