PLAN FOR LEARNING ORGANIZATION AT PEWITT CISD 1

Plan for Learning Organization

at Pewitt Consolidated Independent School District

By Martha Rice

Texas A & M University at Texarkana

PLAN FOR LEARNING ORGANIZATION AT PEWITT CISD 2

Introduction

Writers have argued about the finer points of learning organizations for decades, and yet

the learning organization has been slow to catch on, especially (and somewhat ironically) in

education itself. Learning organizations, which are democratic in nature and require that

participants continue to learn throughout their participation, could contribute to the growth of

quality education. Learning organizations require leaders who advocate risk-free environments

in which stakeholders share their ideas about organizational flaws and solutions. Stakeholders

are by necessity entrusted with the evolution of their organizations. Pewitt CISD, a small rural

district in Northeast Texas, could become a learning organization that could embody what an

education system in the information age should be, but to succeed in this endeavor, its leaders

would have to carefully plan and put into practice key elements of openness within the school

and the community itself.

What is a learning organization?

Definitions

Every researcher provides his or her own slant to what a learning organization is. Cotae

describes a learning organization as being an organization composed of individuals that learn, as

an organization that learns while it works, as employees who work and learn in a learning

climate, and as changes in an organization that lead to continual learning opportunities (2010).

Symon calls it a democracy, where stakeholders are free to share their knowledge for the benefit

of the organization itself (2002). Sushil says that it is LIFE: learning, innovation, flexibility, and

entrepreneurship, which should gradually evolve into a utopian LIFE of love, inspiration, fun,

and enlightenment when the learning organization is fully realized. Garvin, Edmondson, and

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Gino, in clarifying Senge’s idyllic thesis of learning organization in “Is Yours a Learning

Organization?” suggest that it is an organization whose employees, armed with knowledge they

have learned themselves, contribute that knowledge to the overall progress and competitiveness

of the organization (Senge, 1990). Garvin et al. argue that while Senge’s basic definition is

sound, that building a learning organization is not simple, and requires concrete steps—absolute

definitions, assessment tools, and attention to detail (2008).

Characteristics

Learning organizations have leaders who have realized that their organization is

competing within a global economy in the information age rather than in a local economy in the

industrial age (Joseph & Reigeluth, 2010). To better serve its clients, the leadership has decided

to put aside autocracy and to expand decision making, problem-solving, and knowledge

accumulation to its stakeholders, from top to bottom, to create a shared vision of what the

organization can become, and to plan accordingly to enact appropriate change in the organization

(Chich-Jen, Wang & Fu-Jin 2009). The leadership, acting as guide and facilitator will provide

stakeholders a risk-free environment in which to continue to learn and add knowledge to the

organization (Senge, 1990). The organization will be open, reflective, and transparent in

operation (Garvin & Edmondson, 2008). It will also be more competitive, responsive to

problems, pleasing to clients, and successful (Vargas-Hernández & Noruzi, 2010).

Strategies for creating and building the learning organization

Research suggests that the best gains overall are to be achieved when an organization

truly becomes a learning organization in fact, not just in name. Leadership must be visionary in

a learning organization, and shared, not autocratic (Symon, 2002). Leaders should collaborate to

solve problems (Chich-Jen, Wang & Fu-Jin 2009), encourage collaborative problem solving

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groups (Confessore & Kops, 1998), and empower employees and stakeholders to speak out

(Kurnia, 2009, Hind & Koenigsberger, 2007; Senge, 1990). In short, all stakeholders of the

organization (administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, and other community members),

should collaborate, and administrators should create a risk-free environment for them to work on

solving the problems (Garvin & Edmondson, 2008). Not listening to employees tends to create

low workplace morale (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005). All stakeholders have unique

perspectives into the problems and potential improvements of any organization, and all their

perspectives potentially have merit (Hee-Kyung, Yeong Mahn, and So Young 2006),

Based on collaboration with stakeholders, leaders should formulate

goals for their individual groups and come together to form an overarching

vision for the organization (Garvin & Edmondson, 2008). Leaders should

develop plans to make it easier for all stakeholders to take ownership in

implementing change (Sushil, 2007), and should provide resources to help

stakeholders succeed in the shared plans. It will be important to address mental

models stakeholders carry, because people do not like to change (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005).

Organizations can change to meet shared visions (Sushil, 2007) however, and great leaders

should link future goals with the culture of the present (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005). Building

support groups (Barker & Camarata, 1998) and creating mentorship programs will help plans

succeed (An & Reigeluth, 2005; Confessore & Kops, 1998) probably because mentorships help

strengthen group learning and adaptation within organizations and empower stakeholders who

belong to those groups (Buck, 2004).

A learning organization learns through the actions of its stakeholders. Leaders should

encourage employees of the organization to learn (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005). Customized

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training can address specific needs identified by stakeholders (An & Reigeluth, 2005), and

should include formal and informal training sessions (King, 2001). One of the benefits of being

a learning organization is that the organization becomes more competitive (Vargas-Hernández &

Noruzi, 2010; Garvin & Edmondson, 2008), and to that end, groups could have problem-solving

sessions to become stronger, more flexible thinkers (An & Reigeluth, 2005; Confessore & Kops,

1998; Senge, 1990). Leaders can encourage employees to use online learning modules and

indoctrinate new employees to the learning organization (Cordivari, 2010). Leaders can reward

employees for taking initiative in continuing their learning (Kurnia, 2009), although Garvin

argues that rewards for learning might not be effective (2008). It will be important to increase

overall communication in the organization, especially using technology (Davis & Davis, 2009),

and through interdisciplinary groups. Knowledge can then be systematically shared to build a

storehouse of knowledge (An & Reigeluth, 2005; King, 2001) that can be continually enhanced

and that will become a free, powerful resource of the organization, even when an employee

leaves (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005).

As the learning organization continues to grow, mistakes will be made. Leaders should

continue to reassure stakeholders that they are working in a positive, risk-free environment

where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities (Garvin & Edmondson, 2008; Senge, 1990).

A learning environment should be in a continual cycle of reflection to assess what is working,

what is not working, why things are successful or unsuccessful, and what should be changed,

added, or ignored (Garvin & Edmondson, 2008; Hind & Koenigsberger, 2007; An & Reigeluth,

2005; Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005). The leaders of the organization should continue to listen

to feedback from all stakeholders (Stripeikis & Žukauskas, 2005).

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Is Pewitt Consolidated Independent School District a learning organization?

Description of Pewitt Consolidated Independent School District (Pewitt CISD)

Pewitt CISD was founded in 1950 and, along with Daingerfield ISD, is one of the only

two school districts in Morris County. Pewitt CISD serves the Naples and Omaha, Texas,

communities. Pewitt is a preK-12 2-A school with a population somewhere just under 1,000

students; the number varies throughout the year. Pewitt CISD is made up of three schools: Paul

H. Pewitt High School (PHS), Pewitt Junior High School (PJHS), and Pewitt Elementary. Each

grade usually has about 70-90 students. On average, around 300 students attend PHS; 250

students attend PJHS; and 450 students attend Pewitt Elementary (Texas Education Agency,

2009).

The Pewitt system has been conservatively led by Superintendent Dr. David Fitts since

2003. Our new curriculum director / instructional technologist is Jackie Dammann. Pewitt

Elementary has been led by Principal Laurence Johnson for the past four years. Pewitt Junior

High School has been led by Principal Ronny Herron for about 14 years. Pewitt High School has

been led for the past two years by Holly Tucker. As a whole, the district faces two big problems:

a poor tax base in cities that virtually have no industry in one of the smallest and poorest counties

in Texas, and standardized testing. This year the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills

(TAKS) tests have become obsolete and uncertainty of what is coming next is stressful to both

administrators and teachers.

Assessment approaches

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With their Learning Organization Survey, Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino (2008) created

an assessment to measure an organization’s characteristics as a learning organization. Pewitt

CISD was measured using this assessment. The survey measures topics organized into three

categories: Supporting Learning Environment to measure an organization’s psychological safety

for stakeholders, appreciation of stakeholder differences, openness to new ideas of stakeholders,

and time provided for stakeholder reflection; Concrete Learning Processes and Practices to

measure the ways the organization tolerates or appreciates individuals’ experimentation with and

collection of information, and that assesses how well the organization analyzes, educates, and

transfers knowledge that originate with its stakeholders; and Leadership that Reinforces Learning

to measure how well or how little the organization itself learns and expects its stakeholders to

learn. The second assessment measure was the 2009-2010 Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Accountability Ratings, which ranks schools as Exemplary, Recommended, Academically

Acceptable, and Academically Unacceptable based primarily on TAKS scores.

Assessment results

Pewitt CISD scored highest (but only in the 3rd quartile) in information collection and

analysis, and in providing time for stakeholder reflection, mainly due to the importance placed

on TAKS data and analysis, and because of state-mandated yearly reflections. Pewitt placed in

the 2nd quartile in education and training, and in information transfer, again, mainly due to TAKS

and state mandates. Teachers have to continue with professional development. To help improve

standardized test scores, administrators require teachers to organize vertical and horizontal

alignments and to follow a standardized curriculum called C-Scope.

Unfortunately, most of the categories fell into the bottom quartile for Pewitt CISD.

Highest of these lows were Leadership that reinforces learning and Learning process composite.

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In the bottom quartile were Learning environment composite, Experimentation, Psychological

safety, and Appreciation of differences. Far below the bottom category was Openness to new

ideas. Pewitt CISD could improve in all areas of assessment.

TEA rated Pewitt CISD as Recognized, with Pewitt High School Recognized, Pewitt

Junior High School Academically Acceptable, and Pewitt Elementary Exemplary. To the district

administrators, this ranking would indicate that Pewitt Elementary is working perfectly, Pewitt

High School needs to improve somewhat, and Pewitt Junior High School has academic problems

to overcome.

Action plans for Pewitt CISD

The Pewitt CISD administrators seek excellence; they are all dedicated, but performance

on standardized testing is their number one goal. True change at Pewitt CISD will come from

administrators in collaboration with key teachers, staff members, students, and community

members who believe that changes should be effected for the good of the students. These

discussions among natural school leaders would start small, but would grow into diverse

discussion groups. Power in any organization is not necessarily with the leaders, but can be

found in powerful like-minded groups that tend to discuss organizational problems informally.

As this process goes on, more stakeholders should be buying into the change toward Pewitt

CISD becoming a unified learning organization. Leaders will need to assure all stakeholders that

the process of discussion and planning is positive and risk-free, and that they will be free to

identify problems and discuss solutions within their groups. Group leaders will come back

together to discuss problems and create goals and a vision of change for the school.

When leaders share the vision with the school, they should make sure that all

stakeholders know the shared vision and the plans that have been made to achieve the vision. It

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is important that as many stakeholders as possible believe in the vision and decide to work on the

plan for success. This is where the learning organization of Pewitt CISD might meet its first big

obstacle. Teachers are complacent at Pewitt CISD for the most part. They will generally

informally gripe about everything, but are good soldiers in deed. If the principal tells them to

attend a workshop, they will attend. If the principal tells them to use what they learned in the

workshop, they will try to use the information. However, if they have to overreach or fight the

status quo on their own, they tend not to, basically for two reasons: because standardized testing

is priority one at Pewitt CISD, and teachers feel that they will be in the most trouble if they do

not prepare their students to succeed on the TAKS, and because the leadership at Pewitt CISD

has never tolerated mavericks very well; therefore, most teachers stay quiet in order to keep their

job without calling attention to themselves. Therefore, if a learning organization is ever to be a

reality at Pewitt CISD, the leaders will have to make it clear that they expect teachers to

participate as learning organization members: to speak out for change when necessary, and to

continue to learn and disseminate their knowledge.

Pewitt CISD leaders would need to encourage teachers to continue to learn. Most Pewitt

CISD teachers attend workshops at Region 8 Service Center in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Leaders

should empower teachers to attend professional conventions and to participate in online and

distance learning. Leaders should also arrange for informal, short trainings for teachers to attend

at school. Leaders should also recognize and reward teachers who continue to learn. When

teachers attend professional development, leaders should make time for them to share what they

learned with other teachers. Pewitt CISD administrators and teachers should create shared

databases as employees learn new knowledge in order to record that knowledge that would

otherwise be lost when employees leave. Teachers would participate in interdisciplinary

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collaborative groups to communicate risk-free using discussion boards. Teachers’ continual

discussion and feedback on the discussion boards will be valuable for leaders as they evaluate

changes in the organization. What works will be continued, what fails will be analyzed to find

out why it failed and what can be changed so that the learning organization can be successful in

future. A learning organization never stops reflecting and changing.

Conclusion

As Joseph and Reigeluth (2010) suggest, in the information age, it is illogical to continue

to run schools as they were designed centuries ago to produce industrial line workers. Although

Pewitt CISD is dedicated to preparing its students for their futures and has taken steps toward

excellence over the years, without true systemic change, there can be no real progress. Pewitt is

like most schools. Teachers systematically deliver knowledge linearly, hoping to reach the

majority of students with most of the curriculum material. Teachers measure student success

with test scores; administrators measure student (and teacher) success with standardized test

scores. When a student doesn’t perform highly in this system, the current educational

environment disenfranchises them. There is little, if any, student input on what is taught or how

it is taught. Technology, which students are comfortable with, is underused for education. The

learning organization is an ideal way to structure educational systems, because many of the most

promising educational methods for preparing students for the future fit easily into the learning

organization model. Education in the information age should be flexible and nonlinear, designed

by students using technology to solve problems and carry out inquiry that is meaningful to them.

Student growth should be measured according to knowledge gained and demonstrated through

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authentic real-world products. Interestingly, however, schools, like Pewitt CISD, may be the last

organizations to become learning organizations.

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