CHARLES A. LINDBERGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
On Thursday, May 9, 2019, Charles A. Lindbergh Elementary School was named a Leader in Me Lighthouse School by the Franklin Covey Co.
Lighthouse status is a highly-regarded standard set by Franklin Covey, an external recognition of an internal transformation. It is reserved for schools that have developed a great leadership culture that empowers students with the leadership and life skills they need to thrive in the 21st century. The attainment of the Lighthouse Milestone represents a significant benchmark and is evidence that a high standard of excellence has been met by a school.
Leader in Me is a whole-school transformation model and process, based on the principles and practices of personal, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness. All stakeholders are impacted by the Leader in Me, starting with the staff of a school, then expanding to students, their families and the community at large.
The Leader in Me includes training on establishing a vision for the school, goal setting, data tracking, and personal accountability systems and is aligned with best-in-class content and concepts. The Leader in Me provides a logical, sequential, and balanced process to help schools proactively design a culture that reflects their vision. The leadership principles and lessons are not taught as a curriculum, but instead are incorporated into coursework, traditions, systems and culture.
Enter the halls of Lindbergh Elementary and experience a culture of change. We at Lindbergh began our journey 3 years ago. The process of transforming the school culture to embrace the leadership potential in each child and staff member began with the staff receiving the signature training of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Once the staff was trained, students received instruction on how these habits can make them more successful students, as well as productive citizens. This training also reaches into each student’s home, as parents are trained in the 7 habits in our monthly PTA meetings, 7 Habit activities that are sent home to work on as a family, all the while unifying the school-home relationship. Our path to Lighthouse Status became a unifying force, a common goal, one that brought clarity, and truly built synergy. Staff and students set Wildly Important Goals, or WIGS. As we work to meet these goals, data is graphed and visible to students, staff and parents. Everyone takes ownership in the progress of meeting their personal and educational goals, which positively impacts our academic progress. The Leader in Me provides our school with the vision and language to lead the school in a way that addresses all areas of development. As each child discovers and develops their unique gifts and talents, they are given opportunities to lead. As leaders, they become active, engaged partners in their own education and their self-confidence, responsibility and initiative grows. The children quickly understand the benefits of different gifts and talents; they learn to listen to new ideas, work together to achieve results, and motivate one another to be the best.
This year, we applied to be a Leader in Me Lighthouse School. We worked together to provide evidence documentation that highlighted three main areas of growth; 1)Teaching Leadership Principles: in professional learning, students learning and family learning. 2) Creating a Leadership Culture: in our school environment, shared leadership and leadership events. 3)Aligning Academic Systems: in our school-wide goal achievement, student-led achievement and empowering instruction.
This documentation gave us the ability to showcase all that we have accomplished over the three years. Along with this evidence documentation, we received a full day visit from the Franklin-Covey team. During this visit the team met with students, staff and parents to check the fidelity of our efforts. After this visit, the team’s findings and our evidence documentation was reviewed by a larger team, as well as Sean Covey. We are honored to be deemed a Lighthouse School by the Franklin-Covey organization. At Lindbergh Elementary we “empower children to become a living difference, both in their own lives and within the world.”