A Reader Writes... (A Look in the Mirror - Part 1)

In response to the 5/24/11 post “A Look In The Mirror,” a LYS Principal writes:

The 'troop rallying' has already begun. During a post-TAKS conference, I reminded an individual teacher not to define herself by just two numbers. I was actually proud of her sincere disappointment at the sub-pop scores in her grade and content area. That reality shocked us all (yes, I cried like a baby when I saw it on the screen for the first time). Even with secure data analysis and valid RTL programming - there can be surprises even for the best of us...

But all said and done - another LYS 'baby' school will stand on its own two feet this year. Proudly, as Recognized WITHOUT ANY exceptions!!!

Way to go Bears - thanks for believing even when you didn't fully understand it all yet - you Rock!

SC Response

Great attitude. Improvement is measured by progress forward and the pace of change. The goal is to get from Point A to Point B. Re-assess and then take off for Point C. And even for a rookie, you understand an important component of continuous improvement, disappointment. When you are satisfied and/or resigned to your fate it is very difficult to find the motivation to push yourself to get better. But when you are disappointed, that means that something is lacking. Which means there is something that you can do to improve your lot.

I had a former employee tell me that she only figured out why I was a great principal to work for, after I was gone. She said, “No matter what we accomplished, you were always vaguely disappointed. Which meant that we couldn’t slow down, we had to keep pushing ourselves. Your replacement kept telling us how we were the best and no one could do what we do. Since we were the best, we slowed down. And now we are in trouble again.”

Now here is my secret. I was always vaguely disappointed. But not with the staff and students, with myself. I could see that we weren’t getting results that I thought were commiserate with our effort. Which meant the system wasn’t efficient, which meant I wasn’t doing my part. Hence their hard work and diminished results reflected on my value to the team. As I said, disappointing. My course of action? More thinking, more working, so my school could have more achieving.

Congratulations on your success in a tough accountability year. I know a lot of your non-LYS peers in your district took significant steps backwards. The perils of believing the TPM hype. You and your campus are poised to be extraordinary in the next couple of years. Don’t lose sight of that.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

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