Setting the Stage

Setting the Stage

Creating and Maintaining a Culture of Cooperation among the Entire School Staff

By NAfME Member Lori Schwartz Reichl and Matthew Ebert

“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.”—Virginia Burden

A conductor does not play an instrument or sing during a musical performance. She creates the space and sets the tone for her ensemble to bring out the very best in each other. With every flick of her baton and twist of her hand, she’s lifting up her musicians and urging them to breathe new life into their instruments, voice, and the music. She leads them with energy, purpose, and logic.

A principal’s role is no different. School leaders are no longer teaching classes filled with students each day; they are shaping the environment in which teachers perform together. Instead of a baton, they wield words and actions hoping to guide their staff through 180 days of learning, tasks, and performances that engage and inspire their students.

Unfortunately, there are schools where these maestros of education are diminishing a section of their team. It’s not always intentional, but it happens. It’s because instead of an audience providing feedback through applause or adjudicators evaluating the performance, schools get measured by academic performance on exams. These exams often dictate funding or the designation of high- or low-performance status. Yet when the curtain closes, math and reading are the subjects that (currently) get tested.

This distinction makes those two subjects higher stakes for the school and its leaders. It means arts education is often pushed aside, and the value assigned to their teachers is frequently reduced. But does this need to be the case? Can the arts—along with their course offerings, passionate teachers, and committed students—survive and thrive in a school setting? When teaching the whole child, every subject matters, and each teacher serves a distinct role in the learning process. Students are best served when a staff is performing in sync and in cooperation with one another. This critical process is often forgotten amid the race for achievement scores.

Ask any child what gets them excited to go to school, and it usually isn’t math and reading. It’s often the arts, physical education, a club, after-school activity, lunch, or recess. If these are the reasons our children are arriving at school, then we should create a way for them (and their teachers!) to not only survive there, but thrive there, too.

The Potential to Out-Perform

While there is an abundance of quantitative and qualitative research that speaks to their impact, we don’t often see the work of arts teachers in data sets and academic reports. For instance, music classes may be prioritized less in schedules and operational decisions. When testing time comes around, it’s the arts classes that get skipped. There are the concerning adult conversations that lay bare the collegial divisions and ideas about who matters most. Conversations similar to this that may not end well between colleagues and that may place the child in the middle:

Math Teacher: Taylor needs to make up this math test for me. She’ll see you next class for [band, chorus, orchestra, music, etc.]. 

Music Teacher: I understand, but she is scheduled for music class and loves [band, chorus, orchestra, music, etc.]. 

Math Teacher: But she needs to make up this math test.

It’s not the math teacher’s fault that in order for Taylor to make up the math test she will also miss the new math material being taught. Nor is it the music teacher’s fault that their subject is placed as a pull-out rotation, scheduled during a “non-academic” class period, or meets irregularly throughout the school day cycle. School communities are often set up in silos. The math teacher knows how that child performs in their classroom and how the child’s performance impacts the teacher’s evaluation and the school’s public test scores. It is quite possible that their principal has strongly communicated the importance of this year’s data of the school’s future and that is looming over the math teacher’s head.

Leadership feels the pressure, so they put it on others. That’s how the situation is created. It’s how we get to a place where we’re not playing for the same team anymore or singing the same song. The thought that “what I do is more important than what you do” becomes ingrained within our school departments. It’s how we isolate each other. It’s how we isolate teachers. It’s how we unknowingly portray to students that one subject exceeds another. It’s how we communicate to staff, students, and families that a particular subject, like arts education, doesn’t matter as much as reading and math.

How can we ensure our school leaders create and maintain a culture of cooperation? How can we set the stage for this type of teamwork to permeate our school staff?

Key Changes in Education

Leadership should consider these five key changes to ensure that teamwork is evident among school staff and a culture of cooperation is created and maintained in each school:

• Speak Clearly and Honestly

When communicating in person or through writing with staff and families, use inclusive language that speaks about “the team” and “our children.” We can speak honestly about how academic success is measured while being clear that the community values all that each educator has to offer our students.

• Schedule for Equity

When building the master school schedule, ensure that all classes, specifically the arts, receive quality instructional time. Promote the importance of all classes and their teachers and the impact this cooperation can have on the whole child. When organizing schedules for testing seasons, ensure that specific classes, such as the arts or physical education, are not being minimized. Aside from allowing students to access a different form of engagement, most specifically on stressful days, it ensures that teachers (and students!) know that their class is not less valuable than others. Maintain this consistency throughout testing time, assemblies, field trips, and other schedule-altering activities.

• Encourage All Teachers to Present to Staff

It takes a long time to build a community that is truly a cooperation of a comprehensive education, and specifically one that is arts-integrated. However, there are easy ways to ensure that each team member understands each other’s instructional strengths. Having teachers, specifically those in non-standardized testing subjects, present lessons or strategies that have been effective in their learning spaces, allows all school staff to understand their teammate’s skills, learn from them, and value their contributions.

• Include All Subjects in School Community Communication

Be certain that school and family communication is consistently highlighting all the work that is being done in the school community. Ensure that the school agenda, handbook, or website includes all departments of the school and paints them in a positive light. Highlight the achievements of students and teachers in all subject areas at meetings and assemblies, in emails and newsletters, and on social media.

• Encourage Staff Attendance at School Events

Administrators, staff, and caregivers often can’t attend every school event, due to their personal and professional responsibilities. However, the scheduling of these events could potentially enable greater attendance. Consider scheduling a performance or competition at a variety of times to enable non-participating staff and students to attend. Could an in-school concert, art exhibit, or theater production be scheduled so that staff can experience the amazing work the arts teachers do with their students? For after-school events, encourage community attendance at subject-specific events, such as the arts, athletic events, clubs, and activities.

Culture of Cooperation

If we want our entire school staff to feel seen, heard, and valued, then we need to ensure a culture of cooperation is created and maintained. All staff, regardless of their duty or subject taught, should feel appreciated, included, and supported within the school setting. No staff member, or their subject, should be considered any less valuable than another. Our school leaders must set the stage for this critical line of teamwork to exist and flourish. It is the role of the school leader to ensure the entire school staff and their students succeed. Everyone must get there together and value each other’s contributions along the way. This is how the stage is set for success for the entire school staff and our students.

About the authors:

Lori and Matthew met as professional colleagues in the fall of 2023. They have teamed up to demonstrate the power of collaboration.

NAfME member Dr. Lori Schwartz Reichl is the visionary thought leader of Making Key Changes. Her career began in music education where she learned the importance of a key change—a shift in the tonal center of a piece of music, often used to inject energy or produce significance. She eventually realized the necessity and impact of making key changes in many areas of her life and the desire to help others do the same.

Since transitioning out of one classroom as a public school teacher, Lori has uniquely created a global classroom for her work. She motivates organizations, teams, and individuals to reflect on their daily practices and offers actionable key changes to grow. She guides all contributors to create and maintain a shared vision in their communities, companies, classrooms, and careers. Together, they unlock their greatest potential in collaboration with those they love, serve, and lead.

Learn more about Dr. Lori Schwartz Reichl at MakingKeyChanges.com. Subscribe to her Making Key Changes weekly newsletter and listen to her weekly podcast.

Matthew Ebert is a transformational leader with 20+ years of experience in education, primarily focused on school leadership in urban settings. Matthew’s work and writing is grounded in his experiences as a teacher, director of academic innovation, academy leader, and a decade of successful leadership as a public charter school principal.

Throughout his leadership tenure, Matthew has developed teams that exceed expectations, consistently achieving strong results as extensions of cultivating healthy workplace environments in which individuals feel seen, heard, and valued.

In addition to helping team members consistently attain their personal and professional goals, Matthew has facilitated dramatic and consistent growth in student achievement in both Baltimore and Boston, in metrics focused on academic achievement and school climate.

During his time as principal, Matthew was designated as a transformational principal by Baltimore City Public Schools and a mentor principal by National Association of Elementary School Principals (Serving All Elementary and Middle School Principals). Matthew is also a published author in Education Week and Edutopia, and has also spoken at Ted-Ed.

Learn more about Matthew Ebert and Ebert Educational Consulting at Ebert Educational Consulting. Watch his Ted-Ed Talk here.

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