TASB and AASA Presentations Update

It seems that the education world just can’t get enough of the LYS Nation.

First, on Thursday, over 100 school board members overcame bad weather to hear how the LYS schools have learned to eat the perceived pain of change for breakfast. Look out non-LYS districts, because your board members left the presentation embracing the Moral Imperative to Change and are fully aware of the danger of relying on false positives to assess system performance. It’s hard to be cynical about schools when there are board members like this audience who are out there working their tails off to lead more effectively and efficiently.

Then on Friday and Saturday at AASA, weather was an issue. There were over 700 participant cancellations due to the inclement weather on the East Coast. But we still had a room of interested Superintendents who came to hear how the hard work and disciplined action of motivated educators has produced significant performance gains in the LYS schools in Splendora ISD, Grand Prairie ISD and Cypress Fairbanks ISD. LYS Nation, your story seems like a fairy tale to most schools and their staffs. What was also nice was that the old school Harris County crew was well represented and that Dr. Paige, Dr. Guthrie, Dr. Folkes, Mr. Berry, and Dr. Merrill are still sought out by their peers across the county.

Finally, I’ll close with a little blatant (but unexpected) self-promotion. If it is true that you are known by the company you keep, then Malcolm Gladwell might be slipping a bit. You can find, "Jump Start Your School," on Amazon.com

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (The Harris County Incubator - Part 3)

In response to the post, “The Harris County Incubator,” a reader writes:

"…represent yourself to be anything less than who you are and what you believe as a proactive, innovative, outside the box, inside the heart learner-centered instructional leader who embraces mutual accountability of all stakeholders"

This is MUSIC TO MY EARS! We need an LYS retreat to meet and dialogue with each other - what an incredible coalition it will be!

SC Response
You are not the first to suggest this meeting of the LYS Nation minds. And I think the time for such an event (or events) is rapidly advancing on the horizon. I’ll broach the idea with the Brain Trust (Brezina and Brown).

So LYS Nation what do you think? I’m open to suggestions. And would you show up?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (The Harris County Incubator - Part 2)

In response to the post, “The Harris County Incubator,” a reader writes:

"I am with ya on that one. Old-timers work as a true team always. Old-timers know the meaning of doesn't matter if you like who is on your team they are still apart of the team and will be treated as such. Old-timers...yep they know what it takes to make any part of the job work. They don't blame, they simply take up the slack and get it done. They don't try to find fault they simply figure out how to get it done and it gets turned in on time. They figure out how to get it done without the finger pointing (not a team like behavior) and they get things done. Old-timers know that a team is human and therefore will mess-up. But you have to be there to help your team members when they mess up and fill in the holes they made so the team doesn't go down but remains a whole team. Old-timers, we should all learn from them and their ethics of teamwork."

SC Response
I have to admit, I can’t tell if you are trying to be funny or sarcastic. I’m going to take the high road and assume that you were attempting to make your point through humor.

There is no doubt that the old timers I was writing about focused on building great teams, but there was no question that THEY ran the team. And as a member of their team, you had responsibilities and you were expected to produce.

As for the credit or blame, there was little pressure because it was understood if something worked, they got the credit and if it didn’t work, they got the blame. And you are right, finger pointing was kept at a minimum, but the autopsies of failure were expected and brutally honest. Also, if you couldn’t produce, as with any team, being cut was a real possibility. It still amazes me when I go into a district and one year contracts, six month reviews, and ownership of your objective results seem to be fictional concepts. This is why I constantly remind leaders that the system produces what the system expects.

Paige, Brezina, Schaper and Neeley didn’t give a squat about my morale or self-esteem. But they did care about my continuous growth as a leader and the continuous, objective improvement of the performance of my teams. That focus continues to serve me well.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Interview Prep - Part 4)

In response to the posts on interview prep, a reader writes:

“Although you are right, there are things that can be learned in this type of interview, there is danger working in these districts. Remember, you work for who hired you. If the superintendent hires you, that's who you work for. If a committee of teachers hire you, that's who you work for. In general a committee of teachers will try to maintain status quo. Status quo is OK if the status is the school is great. There are very few great schools, especially high schools."

SC Response
You are right about the lack of truly great schools. And here are some of my thoughts related to that fact.

1. It’s not that there isn’t an overwhelming desire to be great. There is. Ask 100 people if they want to be great. At least 95 will say “yes.” But ask those same 100 people if they are willing to put in the work necessary to be great and the number of positive responses will drop dramatically. My guess is that 50 people with a positive response would be a safe bet. But then watch those 50. Less than 10 actually have the discipline, focus and work ethic to be great. If fact, to be great at one thing, you have to be deficient in other things. You can not have it all. Scary thought isn’t it, and one that is completely contrary to what every advertisement wants you to believe. The great one’s obsess and grind. Everyone else goes home and has a life. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but I am saying you will be much happier if you quit lying to yourself.

2. When you visit “great” schools you quickly notice one of three things. Either the campus is focused on “stuff and things,” and it is the stuff and things that they do exceptionally well that people consider great. For example, the high SES school that has earned blue ribbon awards yet does not academically outperform its peers. Or, it is a niche campus that is bragging about the “success” of the niche. For example, the early college high school that hangs its hat on the fact that 95% of its graduates go on to college. Or it is the low SES campus that is consistently outperforming its peers, but will not concede that it is great because they recognize that their kids haven’t even begun to reach their potential.

But to tie back to the premise of interviews and who to work for, you have to know who you are. If you are a regular reader of the blog and a koozie carrying member of the LYS Nation; go for great. We work too hard, our students’ needs are too extreme, and life is too short to just be ordinary.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (The Harris County Incubator - Part 1)

In response to the post, “The Harris County Incubator,” a reader writes:

“What an incredible group of leaders that was! The focus was always the children. Staff was held to high expectations just as we held our kids to high expectations. Having been under the mentorship of one of those leaders and also having the privilege of interfacing with many of the others made me a better administrator. My kids definitely benefitted and so did my staff.

We don't see that level of accountability much these days.”

SC Response
No, we don’t see much of that today. And I think there are a couple of reasons for that. Here are a few of the important ones.

1. Self selected accountability vs. mandated accountability. Accountability as we know it was birthed by the school leaders I mentioned. They knew that their kids and staff could do more and they were looking ways to push their performance. They self selected to get better, faster, and measure their results. They essentially volunteered to hold their organizations accountable. The good thing about that is that it frees up the organization to innovate without the fear of sanction. Plus, when you volunteer to be accountable, you hold all parts of the organization accountable. The floor, the middle and the ceiling all have to move. Mandated accountability is different. The fear of sanction freezes all but the most driven leaders and the masses seek the protection of the comfortable middle. Mandated accountability is also about managing to the lowest common denominator. Now before you stand up and say “Amen,” realize that as a profession we have to shoulder most of the blame for mandated accountability. If we had policed ourselves and refused to tolerate the continuing practice of under-educating our poor, black and brown students, we wouldn’t have politicians making political hay at our expense. As Rod Paige told us in an administrators’ meeting, “We are no longer going to be the damn post office.”

2. A better understanding of the true nature of school politics. The Harris County old timers understood the truth of school politics. Here is the short version: Focus on student success and school politics, though a constant irritant, won’t kill you. Focus on the politics and it won’t be long until there is someone else in your chair focusing on student success.

3. Trust. The Harris County crew trusted their people. Failure was tolerated if you were failing forward. I constantly remind new school leaders that it only seems like I have all the answers. I don’t. They are just privy to all the tricks I have learned from a 20 year journey of failure and rapid adjustment.

4. No fear. By the time I showed up on the scene, the old school Harris County Superintendents were already tenured and successful. They didn’t fear anything. They were confident that any problem that dared to surface on their watch would be solved. And their confidence was contagious. If Brezina said it could be done, then that meant it could be done, we just had to figure out how.

At least, that’s what I learned.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Interview Prep - Part 3)

In response to the posts on interview prep, a reader writes:

"I disagree with the last suggestion, (if the interview committee has 12 people just leave). Better advice for the LYS’er is to meet the committee face to face, be you, and engage them in the interview process. What you learn from their questions, opinions, the way they phrase things, how they respond and their subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) body language in response to your statements, etc., etc., etc., will give you invaluable insight into the mind-set of ‘weak-leadership-organization’.

Those organizations represent the overwhelming number of districts in education and therefore represent what you are almost guaranteed to face for the rest of your career. In order to survive, the more you understand about their flawed paradigm, the better prepared (and more successfully) you are able to play the role of change agent.

If it helps, think of ‘THEM’ as the enemy, you have a golden opportunity to get to know how ‘THEY’ operate. Do not squander it.

“Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril…”Sun Tzu, 400-320 B.C."

SC Response
And people think that I won’t print a contrary opinion. I like your take on this. Observe the weak and flawed organization up close, in order to better understand it. I have to admit, my impatience with blatantly ineffective practices blinded me to pure academic novelty of the exercise. Now, I honestly want to find a huge interview committee to engage with.

I tell principal all the time that there is value in visiting schools; any school, bad to great. And that often times it is easier to find things that can immediately improve your craft at the bad school. The “broke” practice usually is very obvious. I can see the correlation with the bad interview process.

For me the enemy is the inefficient use of effort. Thanks for the reminder to continuously study that and its causes.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Interview Prep - Part 2)

In response to the posts on interview prep, a reader writes:

"I certainly must agree on both points. If you represent yourself to be anything less than who you are and what you believe as a proactive, innovative, outside the box, inside the heart learner-centered instructional leader who embraces mutual accountability of all stakeholders (is that a fairly good description of a LYS'er?), then you might get hired and survive long enough to regret it. I did.

Of course, in hard economic times, it is tempting to fall back, play the game and get "a" job, but at what price? You could move your family into a troubled-water transition that simply stresses everyone to the brink of disaster only to find you will have to do it all over again because your convictions to do what is right and best simply will not be pushed into shadowy corner to fallow. You will have to then do what is right and move on. It is best to lay it on the line and promote that positive strategy and educational leadership philosophy and let the truth speak for itself. If you don't get the job it isn't about rejecting you but rejecting the truth. Better to be a live prophet with principles than a dying principal with little profit.

As for the warning of about the size of interview committees, I have to agree with SC on that as well. It is hard to get a working relationship with a larger number of people. There are too many eyes to keep focused and too many wants to supply (or is that appease?). Unless you are up close and personal it is always better to use a singular shot than buckshot and hit the bull's eye dead on."

SC Response
First, yes I think you nailed the basic attributes of the LYS educator. And I agree, if you misrepresent yourself in the interview, it will be you who suffers the most. Each organization has its own DNA. Be selective when selecting a job. Find the one that is a match for your skill set and philosophy.

Next as the writer points out, with the current economy, being picky might not be an available option. If you compromise your principles to get the job, the ethical and honorable course of action is to work to fulfill the mission of the organization that hired you. That doesn’t mean that you sacrifice students, but in the short run it was you who agreed that your beliefs were negotiable.

Finally, my take on interviews is that I’m interviewing the organization as much as the organization interviews me. As a school employee, I went through four significant leadership changes. I didn’t survive one, but the organization didn’t survive the other three. After my first job, I always chose my boss.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Shares... Sunday Advice

An old school LYS principal shares the following:

“I had the opportunity to have a conversation with an aspiring administrator this week. He came to me after observing that I don’t talk like most principals and my actions are not like most principals. Inevitably our conversation turned to politics. The aspiring administrator correctly noted that politics are imbedded in schools and are indeed a normal part of society. He asked how I dealt with the political situations that arise. After a second of thought I responded that certainly politics are an aspect of school. As administrators we have to acknowledge that and must be prepared to face political issues in our careers. I shared the two guiding principles that I now live by:

1. From E. Don Brown: The principal is the only person in the entire school system that is in a position to be a pure advocate for kids. At some other point, everyone else in the organization will put some issue ahead of the needs of kids. An excellent principal NEVER compromises on the role of being a pure advocate for kids. I will negotiate many issues, but never this one.

2. From Bob Brezina, a corollary: If it’s not right for kids, it’s wrong.

Every time I face a tough situation, I default back to these basic principles. Any decision I make or any compromise I make must not violate either of these two basic principles. Of course the man agreed that these were important principles. The aspiring principal asked if I was serious about never compromising on these two points. I responded that I in my career I have offered my resignation rather than violate these principles, and I have been taken up on my offer. Every supposed leader out there “talks the talk.” I asked him if he was willing to “walk the walk,” even if he had to leave a campus or district in order to be faithful to these principles. He is still thinking about it.

SC Response
You and I have had this discussion more than once. As leaders who fallen on our swords because it was the right thing to do, we have agreed that there is nothing more liberating and life affirming. When you are willing to accept the worst case synerio, there is nothing that the opposing side can do that will shake your resolve. Couple that with the fact that the opposing side is generally focused on being comfortable and you have the equation that allows one person to have the impact and influence of 100's.

Now there is a small caveat that both Brezina and Dr. John Sawyer (at one time, two of the top five school finance minds in the business) ceaselessly hammered into me. You must live well below your means and you must have a rainy day fund. Without that in place, you are a slave to the paycheck. As we both know, it is much easier to die on the hill when you know that your family won’t starve.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn..