TEXAS — Teachers struggling to manage student behavior has been a growing issue since the pandemic. According to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, nearly half of educators say students’ behavior was “a lot worse” last fall compared to pre-pandemic behavior. As districts and schools find ways to deal with student behavior, a couple of Texas schools have been participating in a program they say is helping.
Hutto Independent School District’s Howard Norman Elementary School is a “Leader in Me” Lighthouse School. Teaching leadership skills to students is deeply ingrained in practically everything the school does. Whether inside the classroom or adorned throughout its halls, students are constantly reminded about the importance of leadership.
“We just implement it daily as we’re doing things,” said Shannon Rivera, a first grade teacher at Howard Norman Elementary. “It’s very natural.”
This is her fourth year of teaching first grade at the school, and in her almost 20 years of being an educator, she has seen the impact the Leader in Me program has on students.
“The students will use the language on their own,” Rivera said. “They will model for other students how to be a leader.”
The school’s successful implementation of the program earned it a Lighthouse certification in 2023, making it one of only about 50 schools in Texas to have this distinction.
“Using that common language has been the biggest impact on student behavior, and almost immediately we saw a decrease in the number of referrals, and of course, if you’re able to regulate and be focused in class, the academics are going to do themselves,” said Desirae Hendricks Patterson, the principal of Howard Norman Elementary.
Leader in Me is an international program with about 8,000 schools around the world. It’s a three-pillar framework inspired by Stephen R. Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
“When schools incorporate the seven habits, then it impacts their goal setting process,” said Tisha Kolek, a Leader in Me coach. “So, it impacts the culture so that you have a stronger sense of belonging, a higher sense of achievement and a leadership voice for all the students.”
Lighthouse Schools that have held that distinction for eight years and continue to work towards the program’s criteria can then earn the highest honor, becoming a Legacy School. There are only about 30 schools in the world with this status. There are two Legacy Schools in Central Texas. The first school in the state to earn this honor was Round Rock ISD’s Teravista Elementary Leadership Academy.
“Our community is extremely excited about it,” said Michael Wakefield, the principal of Teravista Elementary. “They know the depth of what it gives their kids, so it really just was a testament to what we’ve been working on.”
When the school got its Legacy status in 2023, it was the sixth school in the world to receive it.
Wakefield says his students have embraced what it means to be part of a Legacy School and go on to do well in middle school.
“Kids understand that they are Legacy leaders,” Wakefield said. “They are unusual, and they’re getting to do something that not every kid gets to do.”
Howard Norman Elementary’s Rivera, who is also a mother to a first grader, says the leadership lessons learned in school carry beyond its walls.
“I see how she transfers it to home in doing her chores or getting things done,” Rivera said. “She’ll be like, ‘Let’s work, then play.’”