THE BREAKTHROUGH COACH: Ms. Lawrence, how long have you been an educator?

JOANN LAWRENCE: I've been in education nearly 35 years - over half of that time as an administrator. I was principal at Blandford Elementary for 12 years.

TBC: What did you find when you arrived at Blandford?

JL: I was, literally, confronted with a very diverse, vocal group of unhappy parents, some recalcitrant teachers, and floundering clerical staff. There was distrust between the parents from different cultures, and between the parents and the school staff. Parents were very concerned that the school's API* score of 710 reflected an unacceptable level of academic achievement.

TBC: What did you do in those early years to turn things around?

JL: First, of course, I had to get rid of my own preconceptions about what would work and what could be accomplished. I learned to stand back and ask the community what they really needed, as opposed to what I thought they should need. I built a team of educators with a collaborative approach who saw themselves as life-long learners, and who reflected the diversity of the learning community we wanted to create.

Some of our Hispanic teachers formed an after-school Latino Literacy Group, and we developed partnerships with the Asian Pacific Cultural Center and a Chinese after-school program. Gradually, we built trust between parents and school staff.

TBC: It sounds as if you were pretty successful, and that things were going well. What first brought you to The Breakthrough Coach?

JL: Well - and I know you've heard this many times before - my (very long) workdays were filled with what felt like a lot of disjointed activities. I was constantly "putting out fires" - following up on one problem or another. Even so, I always felt as if there was something left undone. Our API* scores were rising, but I was pulled in so many different directions! After five years of this, I knew something had to change.

TBC: What did you take away from your initial TBC experience?

JL: I learned to see myself as a manager. I realized that being a manager is not about solving problems yourself, but empowering others to do so. I had to stop doing the jobs my staff was being paid to do and focus on the things only I could do. TBC gave me a lot of guidance on how to be the manager the school district was paying me to be, spend much more time in the classrooms developing my teachers, and have both a life and a career!

TBC: What happened when you went back to work after your TBC program?

JL: I began to run my school according to TBC principles:

• set up simple rules, then stick to them;
• practice it until changes become systemic;
• recognize that the language you use has tremendous impact on your staff;
• focus on your goal - managing for student success.

By the time I left Blandford:

• our clerical staff functioned as true professionals;
• I was able to get my work done in a 40-hour week;
• I was spending 50% of my time in classrooms;
• our API score was 910*, putting us in the top 10% of schools statewide.