I don’t know how they expect me to add another thing to my plate.”
“Another new thing?” Sigh. “Just wait it out. The focus will shift to something else before long.”
“This isn’t new. We did this 25 years ago. It’s just a new name for an old initiative.”
These are three common signs of initiative fatigue, the overwhelming feeling of being required to implement one more change. Initiative fatigue leads to behaviors that school leaders sometimes interpret as resistance to change, negativity, and “pushback.” However, these responses are often the logical result of teachers and leaders being confronted with too many changes, too much responsibility, and too many requirements with too little time, resources, professional development, planning, and support.
The expectation for schools to show continuous improvement, even in the face of challenges and time constraints, can result in leaders believing they must adopt new initiatives and make significant changes every school year. The cycle begins when educators, leaders, policy makers, and stakeholders identify a need they see as urgent. Then, in an effort to address the need, they adopt or legislate a new initiative targeting that area. When this happens every year, teachers and leaders are rapidly overwhelmed with the task of implementing new initiatives on top of old ones that have never been completed.
Veteran educators and school leaders catch on to the pattern quickly. With each new initiative, there is an initial burst of focus, effort, and professional development along with pressure aimed at ensuring accountability for implementation. Over time, however, the level of focus and pressure wanes, and the initiative or change is replaced with something new, causing frustration and burnout for educators. While school improvement, new instructional strategies, and innovative practices are necessary to meet the needs of all students, adopting and then abandoning a new initiative each school year does not build educator capacity or produce sustained school improvement.
There must be a better way. School leaders and educators must think strategically about selecting, eliminating, and sustaining initiatives in ways that promote meaningful and permanent improvements in teaching and learning, teacher capacity, and student outcomes.
Three Filters for Smarter Decisions
To improve instruction for all students, instructional leaders, educators, and teams must first choose wisely which initiatives are worth investing in and sustaining. Leaders must ask: Is this initiative necessary, nice, or needless? Every initiative falls into one of these three categories.
Is It Necessary?
An initiative is necessary if all or most students need the specific change to achieve desired outcomes. Necessary initiatives (1) focus on a clear, specific student need, and (2) address that need in a direct, purposeful, targeted, and strategic way. School improvement, student achievement, and strategic planning processes should focus primarily on initiatives that fall into this category.
Necessary initiatives could include new programs that target the needs of students at a particular grade level, such as a reading intervention program for 3rd graders who struggle with decoding. They can also include instructional improvements that are needed for all students, such as an initiative to increase students’ engagement in writing activities.
Needless initiatives often focus on going through the motions or 'checking the box,' but they do not meaningfully improve teaching and learning.
Is It Nice?
Initiatives can be categorized as nice if they benefit some students, or they improve the offerings or reputation of the school or district but are not required to ensure that student needs are met. Nice initiatives add to the unique strengths of a school or district and promote a sense of pride in what they have to offer. Nice initiatives often receive strong support from those involved in the program or initiative. They might focus on specific programs or groups of students, such as band or orchestra, the gifted program, or dual-language programs. They might also include initiatives that are nice for all students, such as programs designed to engage students in STEM, AI, or yoga.
Leaders should review nice initiatives periodically to determine whether they are worth the time, focus, and resources devoted to them. Consider whether your investment in implementing nice initiatives hinders effective implementation of necessary ones; whether each nice initiative continues to align with and support your mission, goals, and portrait of a graduate; and the extent to which you can ensure that all children have access to nice programs and offerings at your school.
Is It Needless?
Initiatives that do not fall into the necessary or nice categories are needless and should be abandoned when possible. Needless initiatives often focus on going through the motions or “checking the box,” but they do not meaningfully improve teaching and learning. For example, teachers will comply with a requirement that they lead a daily moment of silent reflection but, for most schools, this would be a needless activity that does not impact learning.
Needless initiatives are implemented for different reasons. Sometimes they’re pet projects of an individual leader (e.g., “I implemented this in my last district.” Or, “I learned about this at the conference.”). Sometimes they’re chosen because leaders overgeneralize data or research (e.g., “Research shows that schools need to . . .”—even though their students’ data do not show that need in their school). And sometimes needless initiatives are promoted by an outside authority such as the state legislature or department of education (e.g., “All schools in this state shall teach a program on ___ beginning in grade 6.”). In this case, the initiative might be needless but required, but leaders can try to determine how to comply in a way that will have the least impact on effective learning. Whatever the reason for their adoption, needless initiatives deter educators and leaders from the most important work of schools.
Paring Down Priorities
What is necessary, nice, and needless will vary greatly in each school and district. An initiative that is nice for one school may be absolutely necessary for another. A program that is necessary and successful in one district may be needless in a neighboring community. This is why wholesale adoption of new initiatives across districts, states, or regions produce varying results, with some educators swearing by their effectiveness and others deriding them as useless.
To focus your school’s efforts on initiatives worth sustaining, plan strategically to:
- Engage in ongoing communication with your team of educators and leaders. Enlist their help to determine which initiatives are necessary, nice, or needless for your school.
- When possible, eliminate or abandon initiatives that are needless. Plan strategically to minimize the impact of initiatives that are needless but required.
- Set a clear purpose and goals that demonstrate how each necessary or nice initiative supports your mission and vision. Revisit this process with your team each time you consider or reconsider a new initiative.
When educators and leaders work together to strategically select and implement necessary and nice initiatives and eliminate those that are needless, they can avoid the trauma and burnout of initiative fatigue and make a meaningful difference on behalf of students.
