From Compliance to Commitment: Building a Culture of High Standards

What if you made plans to not just get by, but thrive as an educator? Are you excited to set higher standards for you and your students? 

In my five-part blog series, “Raising the Bar: Unlocking Limitless Learning,” we will explore how to set high standards, exceed expectations, and build a system of success in your classroom.

Part One: From Compliance to Commitment: Building a Culture of High Standards 

So what does “raising the bar” mean? Imagine a classroom where students are thinking critically, learning through trial and error, and not asking about the minimum requirements but excited to do their very best. “Raising the bar” is more than test scores, GPA, and meeting benchmarks. It’s about changing mindsets, being curious, and building a commitment to learning. 

Students have been trained to get through school by being compliant, doing what is required, when we really need students to be committed to learning. Moving from compliance to commitment is the foundation for real student success and requires dedication from not only students, but us as teachers, too. 

For part one of our blog, we will discuss building a culture of high standards, starting with building trusting relationships with our students, establishing key behavior expectations, and practical strategies for teachers and students to move from compliance to commitment. How are you going to “raise the bar” this school year?

Relationship Building and Classroom Expectations 

Raising the bar and setting high standards is not something you can just one day declare; it’s a thoughtful process. The process starts with building a safe classroom culture and relationships with each of your students. 

Getting students to buy into reaching new highlights in the classrooms requires them to take risks. They won’t take risks if they don’t feel comfortable in your classroom and trust you. Building trust and a safe place takes time and effort on your part as the teacher. 

The first step is to get to know your student.  I don’t mean remember all of their names; I mean really get to know them. It takes time to develop these relationships, but if you show a genuine interest in your students’ lives (hobbies, interests, extracurriculars, dreams), they will open up and let you in. In the first couple of days of class, we play fun team-building games to build camaraderie, and I have every student fill out a "Getting to Know You Worksheet." I keep all of these in a binder so I can refer to them throughout the year. Occasionally, as students do awesome things, I will look back through the binder and bring in their favorite candy. They love this! 

Take the first few days to lay down this foundation with your students. Do all of this BEFORE you go over the syllabus, lay out project due dates, and establish classroom rules. When you start with the syllabus or class rules, you are wasting the opportunity to make your first impression memorable and meaningful for your students! When you start with team building, games, and genuinely establishing a connection, your students will be open and ready to hear you when it’s time for those normal first day items. But, we are well into the school year. What if you didn’t do this? That’s ok, do it now! Start a new month, quarter, or semester with these strategies. It’s never too late to get to know your students better. Plus, their interests are always changing. What may have been their favorite last month may not be the same as this month. Keep checking in with your kiddos! 

So what happens after you have set the first layer of your foundation with your students? It’s time to get to some of those beginning of the year agenda items, but in a different way. Instead of standing in the front of the class and lecturing the dos and do-nots of your classroom, have the students create the rules. Ask students what rules they should have in class. Record their ideas on the board and then have the students compile them into five to seven concise “value statements”. Print these “value statements” on a poster and hang in the room. Students feel more obligated to uphold (and hold classmates accountable) these values because they created them. 

Congratulations! You have set the base layer for your high-standards classroom. Remember to keep building relationships and trust with your students. During the school year, you will be asking them to take risks and think outside of the box. They will need to trust you for this to happen.

Moving from Compliance to Commitment

Ask yourself these questions:

• How do I model passion, reflection, and growth mindset for my students to see? 

• Do my students follow directions and complete their assignments only to avoid consequences, or do they see purpose and value in what they do?

• How do I make time and space for my students to set, share, and reflect on their own goals? 

When it comes to moving your class from compliance to a commitment to learning, the first person you need to look at is yourself. Are you setting high standards for yourself? Are you taking chances or letting the risk of failure prevent you from growing? Students are very observant. If they see you modeling the behavior you expect of them, they will be open to taking risks and pushing themselves. Follow the “do as I do,” not the “do as I say,” philosophy. Try new things in the classroom, take on leadership roles in the school, create goals and go for them. And, if something doesn’t work out the way you planned, own it and move on, you’re human, and if students can see this, they will relate to you even more. 

So what does “raising the bar” mean for students? High standards for students involve more than high test scores and GPAs. Those things are great, but no guarantee for retention or getting kids to reach their full potential. 

First of all, students need to know what they’re working towards and why. Our lessons and learning targets don’t need to be a big secret. Tell students why they are learning what they are learning, how it will be useful, and what your desired results are. If they can make that connection from “what to why,” there is one less barrier for you to break. 

Second, let them struggle a little. If you see students heading down the wrong path, avoid jumping in right away. We all learn more from our failures than our successes. Students have been conditioned to think failing is bad. But in real life, we go through a series of trials and errors to figure out what fits best with our lifestyle and goals. This is called problem-solving and critical thinking, and students need more of it. Plus, maybe they will find a way to the end that you never thought of. Which leads into the fact that we need to let students know there are multiple paths to success!  Not every student needs to do the same things in the same way at the same time to be successful. When you give your students the freedom to find success in their own way, students will respond in the best way possible.

In my Entrepreneurship class, students start, develop, and run their own businesses. Students get to choose a business that matters to them, they get to work on something they are passionate about. I have had students who are very artistic get to take their art and learn how to monetize it. I have had students who are passionate about educating kids about type one diabetes put together a curriculum and sell advertisements and sponsorship on the materials so they can give it to elementary teachers for free. 

In my personal finance class, students write their own children’s book on a certain personal finance topic. They have to be able to understand the topic enough to write a children’s story for second graders, but they get to do it in whatever way calls to them.  

In all of my classes, sometimes we will take a completed assignment and the rubric and partner up. Partners will give feedback to where they feel their classmate’s work falls on the rubric and then return the work. All students can then fix, alter, or add to their assignment before turning it in to me. This is a great way for students to reflect and revise their work. 

Whenever you can break the cycle of assign classwork, collect classwork, assign classwork, collect classwork, you are allowing your students to have a deeper connection, enhancing their commitment to learning. Here are more suggestions to foster a commitment to learning. 

Suggested strategies to foster commitment.

• Do regular goal setting and reflection.

• Give regular and timely feedback.

• Allow students to redo and revise classwork. 

• Develop a peer-to-peer support system. 

• Regularly check in with students on schoolwork and their lives. 

• Allow student choice in classwork. 

When students experience a classroom culture founded in strong relationships, clear expectations, and genuine commitment, the bar doesn’t just rise, it becomes a standard they choose to meet and exceed. Students develop excitement and passion in their work, and when that happens, learning happens. 

As we continue this blog series we will dive deeper into how to “raise the bar” for students. In part two, “Redefining Success: Differentiation Without Dilution”, we will discuss how to differentiate while still keeping standards high, resilience, adaptability, and true growth. Part three, “Feedback That Fuels: Turning Reflection Into Action,” will discuss giving timely, actionable feedback to students as well as the skills to turn that feedback into action. In part four, “Relevance Redefined: Helping Students Own Their Learning Journey,” we talk about fueling classwork with real-world, relevant content to ignite a passion in students. And finally, part five, “Celebrate and Elevate: Building a Culture of Shared Success,” we will build a system where you celebrate students, students celebrate students, and students take pride in their accomplishments.