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THE WINNETKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: TRADITIONS, TRANSITIONS, TRANSFORMATION
By Rebecca van der Bogert, Ph.D.

It's Renaissance Weekend and the invitation came with a promise that no one discusses resumes and no one comes as an expert.  I stroll up to the registration desk ready to broaden my horizons in the areas of politics, economics, and relieved that I don't have to give a lecture, presentation, or answer questions.  To my surprise, I'm greeted with, "You're from Winnetka? I hope you're going to tell us what the schools are like and how they've come to be.  I've heard about them for decades as being the best schools in the country."

I've even been in Amsterdam at a gathering of international educators discussing democracy in education and, through translators, learn that the other participants have all of heard of the Winnetka Public Schools.   These kinds of encounters happen often and, of course, I feel great pride.  I also experience the same sense of frustration I feel when someone asks me, "What was your thesis about?"   How does anyone answer anything so complex in a matter of minutes or even days?

My own quest to answer the question "What makes the Winnetka Public Schools unique and how did they come to be?"  has lasted over 35 years--first as a graduate student, then as an avid reader of educational literature, and, most recently, as the Superintendent of Schools.  The commitment to growth and process that is such a strong part of the culture here has both complicated my quest and at the same time enabled its richness.   Since I've been here in Winnetka, we've engaged in on-going conversations about who we are and what we value.  The first intense study was seven years ago when we challenged ourselves with a community survey and lengthy study of our schools.  As a foundation for the rewriting of our philosophical document Winnetka: A Community of Learners, we worked to clarify what we believed about teaching and learning, whether the community understood and supported what we were doing, and how well we were living by our philosophy.  During that process, a framework emerged as part of our document that still serves as a lens through which to examine the district and how it came to be. The phrase is: "In Winnetka, we honor traditions, reflect on transition, and make choices about transformation."

 Honoring traditions

 Much of what we do today in the Winnetka Public Schools is rooted in history and tradition--a history of excellence, a continual focus on research based teaching, an environment that  enhances everyone's growth, and a community that works together on behalf of children.

Excellence.   Early in our history, Winnetka stood apart from other public schools.  As the story is told in Winnetka: The History and Significance of an Educational Experiment, the Winnetka Public Schools were founded by a group of parents who wanted excellence and didn't want to send their children east to boarding schools.  They gathered at a meeting in 1911 and one of the parents, Edwin Fetcher, challenged others with "Why don't we make the public schools of our village so good that we will be proud to send our children to them and will need no private school?"1  They made a  commitment to one another that they would do just that and became the first school board.  They recruited and hired an educator named  Carlton Washburne as Superintendent who brought the district to "lighthouse" status.

Research-based teaching and learning.  During Carlton Washburne's tenure as Superintendent in Winnetka, a Department of Educational Research became an integral part of the school district.  Teachers engaged in research studies about stages of growth and development in young children, establishing academic standards and levels as related to growth and development, aspects of intelligence as correlated to academic success,  the factor of time spent teaching a given concept as related to mastery and, a hallmark of Winnetka: "What was the opportune time for teaching a particular concept and when was the child most ready to learn that concept?"  The research results were published in national  journals such as the Journal of Education Research and The Elementary School Journal and impacted the way many public schools evolved.2 

 ·          A Community of Learners.   During this time, the Winnetka Teachers' College was founded for the purpose of educating teachers for Winnetka as well as around the nation.  There were multiple opportunities, as there are today, for teachers to engage in intellectual discussions and studies about how children learn and how to create a classroom environment that enhances learning.  Teaching in Winnetka, then and now, is more complex than many other places.  It involves a deep understanding of how and why children learn, an ability to assess and evaluate each child, and the on-going search for multiple teaching strategies to meet the needs of the variety of students in a classroom.

Reflecting on transition

Always returning to the question, "What is best for children?", our staff is continually engaged in reflection about how to best implement the beliefs that have been so solidly embedded into our culture.  If we, as educators, want to create an environment that provides a real life context for our students, we need to understand their world today as well as speculate on their world of tomorrow.  We must be ever-mindful of our students' needs and how they might change with society's changes.  As rooted as we are in history and traditions, our teachers are constant researchers as to how we must evolve for our students.  This involves keeping abreast of the body of knowledge in the various subject areas as well as research about teaching and learning.   New research about the brain, teaching strategies, and learning emerges constantly.

You can walk into classrooms today and find the research-based concepts that emerged out of Winnetka's Department of Educational Research alive today, i.e., children learn best when the environment engages the child's interest, when learning is presented in the real life context in which it will be used, when children experience a concept for themselves, when it is integrated as it is the rest of the world, and when they have an understanding of the concept rather than memorization of facts.

However, our teachers are constantly reflecting with one another about how these concepts might look like today in our society.  Teachers attend cross-district grade level meetings, curriculum committee meetings, school-wide faculty meetings, grade level meetings at the building level, and summer institutes to address these issues.   We still have a Winnetka Teachers' Institute, chaired by two teachers/leaders who coordinate on-going staff development within the district.

Making choices about transformation

We hear the word 'reform' used often in regard to schools.  There is a distinction between reform and transformation that is of great importance in Winnetka.  Reform is merely changing the surface issues such as leadership styles, teaching materials, or time on task.  Transformation of education is asking the bigger questions about why schools exist and what we want our children to garner from their education.   We are fortunate that our district is in the position of being able to constantly ask these "big questions" and realize that a part of looking at such questions is looking at things holistically and in their complexity.  We understand that one-dimensional solutions or agendas polarize and divide people into interest groups.

Working together on behalf of children

We have many visitors from around the world.  Recently we had the good fortune to have another set of eyes look at the district and provide feedback.  Rob Evans, author of The Human Side of Change and a well-known organizational consultant, came to spend some time in the schools with the teachers, administrators, and school board members.  After his observations, we sat in my office.  He shared that, in the thousand's of districts that he'd visited, he'd never seen such masterful teaching, intellectual conversations among staff, and enlightened administrative team and school board members.  I felt proud and assured.   He could tell by the look on my face that I still had concern.  He asked me why I appeared uncharacteristically anxious about the district.  I held out my cupped hands and responded, "Rob, I feel like I'm holding a raw egg in my hands that is priceless.  If I drop it, it could be the end of a very unique culture, as well as one of the few places left in the nation that is truly child- centered."

He looked at me and said, "Becky, you won't be a good leader feeling that way.  Think about how you might get over that."

I felt challenged by his comments and tossed on them that evening.  At first I thought perhaps Rob didn't understand how priceless the egg was.  His comments had conveyed otherwise, however.  I finally found clarity and comfort in the egg metaphor. 

I am not the only one holding the priceless egg.   Winnetka has a highly talented administrative team, an extraordinary staff, a school board that understands the culture of the district and knows how to support it, and a community that supports the schools.  All of these people tied together create a solid and intertwined net that supports the egg.  This was one of the hallmarks of Carlton Washburne's superintendency.  Perhaps this is the strand that weaves history, transitions, and transformations together.  Throughout the course of time in Winnetka, we all have worked together on behalf of children--feeling a sense of ownership in the culture, and working hard to preserve it.