The Awesome Work of a LYS Assistant Principal

Check out the great video that LYS Assistant Principal (and former LYS and Game On! Teacher) Kenneth Henry made with the students on his campus Holmsley Elementary. Make sure you check out the end credits. If you aren't pumped up (and choked up) by the end of the video, then at the very least you need a vacation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLT8Wj3aKi0

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Coming Soon - "The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

My Property Tax Appraisal

I’ll admit that I’ve been doing a lot of railing at the political machine lately. I have also staked out the position that if you are not willing to invest in public education then you are no longer a viable candidate for my vote. For the foreseeable future, public school funding is my candidate litmus test. But my stance is more than just posturing and empty words. I have figured out a small but critical way to financially support my position (with is appropriate considering that my position is financial).

Each year, I protest my property taxes appraisal as a matter of course. It is a prudent practice from an individual financial standpoint. By reducing the valuation of my house, I reduce my tax burden and put more dollars in my pocket. However, from a supporting public service standpoint, reducing my tax burden reduces revenue for needed social services. So this year, my wife and I will not protest the appraised value of our house. We will pay taxes on a slightly inflated value because our community and our state are suffering from a structural tax deficit orchestrated by our governor. As school people it is the right thing to do. And if things don’t get better, next year I might give up my homestead exemption (the noise you just heard is my CPA choking).

Serious times require purposeful action by serious people. What are you doing?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twiter.com/LYSNation

Coming soon - "The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

A Reader Submits... Funding a Quality Education

A LYS reader submits the following idea for equitable school funding:

Define what constitutes an education. What does a student have a right to? I propose a Chevrolet will do. Providing a Cadillac is a luxury we can no longer afford (if we ever really provided a Cadillac). U.S. Supreme Court rulings support this viewpoint. Our current practice is that educators define education and demand funding for it. If they change the definition of education by adding more programs, they need more money. If the state doesn't supply the money, the state is by definition not funding education. If a school down the street has a program I don't have, that is not equitable. In the absence of a definition of rights, anything goes. This is a spending doom loop.

Here is my Chevrolet plan: For K-6, I would fund a curriculum that taught the cores, art, music, and PE to the tune of 22:1 ratio. I would call that 60% of the funding and would add another 40% for overhead, administration, and special needs, etc. I suspect we could get away with 70% / 30%, but this is a good start.

For 9-12, I would look at the 26 credits needed to graduate high school. I would fund 26 credits to the tune of 150 students per teacher per day. I would do something similar for grades 7 and 8. Fund 16 credits to the tune of 150 students per teacher per day. Again, the 60% / 40% idea applies. I still think we could go 70% / 30%, but since few people ever hit 60% instructional spending, I can't be sure. Keep in mind I would NOT fund 32 credits, 40 credits, or anything like that. I would fund the 26 credits, which could be earned in just over 3 years. The senior year is cleaning up loose ends, college enrollment, or career training.

I would do the formulas for the ideas above, and fund it. I suspect we would find that we don't need the $1.04 that is the current baseline of taxation for most districts. I would collect the taxes from all districts and distribute them from the state via the formulas, period.

Now for the local control part. TEA reports that Texas schools spend on average 2.4% of their budgets on extracurricular. After a quick tabulation of the budgets I have worked with, I would say the actual number is much closer to 10%. There are lots of ways to hide funding, especially when local districts are allowed to define what an education will be.

I would allow local school boards to levy a 0 to 3.2% tax without taxpayer approval for the purpose of funding extracurricular activities. This is also a local property tax at a rate calculated to yield the 3.2% of the M&O budget. I get the 3.2% by taking the 2.4% and adding 30% for indirect expenses. Note it is critical to define what an education is (curricular) as well as what extracurricular is. Currently schools are counting money spent on extracurricular activities as instructional expenses since the state basically funds any elective a school chooses to offer. Some high schools do 28 credits, most do 32, and some do 40 or more. Perhaps this is a source of inequity?

Now, I suspect the 3.2% will not be nearly enough money, so, with a tax rollback election (TRE) allow a district to do local taxes that will generate funds all the way to 10% of the local M&O for the SOLE purpose of extracurricular activities.

So there we have it, a defined education that is formula funded, the same for every youth across the state, and local control to spend as the community sees fit on extracurricular activities.

SC Response

I would argue that the state has made attempts to “define” a quality education. We can argue the merits of that definition (but we both know in this case we would agree over 80% of the points), but for this discussion, it is immaterial. The state that made a commitment to fund the quality education that it defined. Sadly, as has always been the case (Edgewood I, II and III), the state has not made good on its commitment. Previously, that was not catastrophic because the state allowed the local entity to compensate through local taxation (which they had to do every year). What is different this time in Texas? The difference this year is that the Governor took away that local safety net that always made up for the lack of state leadership.

This current budget crisis has been manufactured either due to a lack of foresight (he was warned, thank you former Comptroller Stayhorn) or by design. Either way, he is responsible for this fiasco. If the Governor was a Principal or Superintendent, he would already have his stuff packed in a box - looking for a new job. Instead, we get sound bites saying that the cuts to staff, reduction of programs, and raiding of fund balances are “local decisions.”

Now for your funding formulas, I don’t have an argument against your elementary plan. I might fund at 24:1 and give the district the freedom to have larger classes. For grades 7 and 8, I might fund 14 instead of 16 classes (with 8 cores). I’m a fan of strong cores. For HS, I could live with 26 credits with all extra-curriculars moved outside the school day. This would allow for 16 cores subjects (4X4), two years of foreign language, 8 elective credits and extra-curricular activities.

However, I recognize that this is merely an academic exercise because anything that resembles the model you suggest would require political leadership to take a stand with a workable solution. Something that the current cast of characters has yet to do.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Coming Soon - "The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.thefundamentalfive.com

A Reader Writes... (What Are You In Charge Of - Part 1)

In response to the 2/7/2011 post, “What Are You In Charge Of,” the Ol’ Ball Coach writes:

Great advise from an up and coming campus leader. I hope the following can give you “Life Changers” (known to the world as teachers) a little calm and peace.

1. God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

2. Give me the courage to change the things I can; and

3. Give me the wisdom to know the difference.

The Ol’ Ball Coach

SC Response

Coach,

Great reminder. Here is what I constantly tell educators, “The great teachers and principals believe that given enough time, they can change anything.” And when you look at the track record of a lot of LYS Teachers, Principals and Superintendents, who is going to argue with them?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Reader Submits... Finance Driven Epiphanies

A LYS principal shares the following:

The current finance issue in Texas has lead to some very interesting conversations. One of the conversations this week ended for me in a moment of epiphany. Now, before I start describing this conversation, understand I am not against extracurricular activities. Given sufficient funding, I am for funding everything. But like I said, the finance issue is leading to some interesting conversations.

For example, let's say Texas cuts Pre-K funding (SC NOTE: DONE). In a low SES school, which is more beneficial to kids? Extracurricular activities or Pre-K? If we have money I want both, if not, I am going with Pre-K. As you might guess, the athletic director took the opposite argument and I am good with that. I buy into the idea that athletics can be great for kids. It can build character, work ethic, dedication, and all sorts of good things, if the focus of athletics is truly for the good of kids, that is. After all, extracurricular activities make great sense in the Life Adjustment model of education introduced in the 1940's. Life Adjustment education is still embedded in the foundation of modern schools.

During my conversation with the athletic director we were discussing not eliminating athletics, but making significant changes in order to preserve instructional positions. No athletic programs were on the chopping block. Then during a moment of truth the athletic director says, "Fine, I understand principal and superintendent jobs are on the line if we don't do well on TAKS and STAAR. But coaches lose their jobs if they don't win. Are we going to make cuts and still expect us to win?"

It hit me - athletics isn't about building character, work ethic, dedication, and other great things. Maybe it used to be, but now it is about the needs and desires of adults. Our accountability and expectations put on coaches drove the focus from the needs of the athlete to the needs of the adult. Yes, athletics appears to be great for kids, but as secondary administrators how many schedule changes do we do for coaches who choose NOT to work with certain kids. The kids that need athletics the most are quite often summarily dismissed. It creates a statistical environment of false positives.

I felt good about my observations, until I realized the same process applied to me. Did I always do what was best for ALL kids under ALL circumstances? The answer disappointed me, NO. I too feel the pressure of accountability. Sometimes I play the corners and gutters of the system to remove kids I can't work with under the constraints of the system we are forced to work within. The things I despise about coaches, I do myself, just in a different arena.

I gathered two things from this conversation.

One, the athletic director and I had needs that were somewhat in conflict with each other. The coaches needed certain kids removed from their programs. I was expected to magically find places for those kids to go. Coaches needed to miss school more than I wanted them to in order to go to tournaments and to leave early for games. They feel their jobs depend on those issues. My job depends on the opposite of those issues. This is a source of "educational friction."

Two, accountability, athletic and academic, leads to student acceptable losses. Accountability certainly puts adults on a "results or else" course of action, but adults tend to focus heavily on the "or else" side. As a result, adults look for corners and gutters to discard students into. This is another source of "educational friction."

So we have conflicting needs (of adults) within the system and the idea of acceptable losses at all levels within the system that both contribute to "educational friction." In any real system there has to be a break-even point, a point where more effort/energy/money dumped into the system is simply turned into friction at a rate that is ineffective, inefficient, and unsustainable.

I propose that the friction of academic instruction and extracurricular activities have reached to point of producing more inefficiency and ineffectiveness than what is good for the overall good of MOST kids and is no longer sustainable as currently configured. If accountability is not at that point, it is certainly very close. A new model of education is the only solution I can see. We stacked the idea of an academically rigorous education on the back of a school model built upon the Life Adjustment model of the 1940's. I contend that the models of Life Adjustment and academic rigor are fundamentally incompatible and in fact contribute greatly to internal sources of "educational friction."

In order to correct this problem I think we need to back up to the late 1950's, a time when Admiral Rickover proposed sweeping changes. Rickover's suggestion to the US Congress was rejected in favor of easier, gentler reforms to the system. I say easier and gentler has reached its realistic limit given the phenomenon of "educational friction," and Hymen Rickover was likely correct in the need for total reform.

Think. Work. Achieve.

SC Response

Let start with the, “I’ll get fired if I don’t win.” Yes, that is true. But I will submit that a coach can survive more losing seasons than a principal or superintendent can survive AU ratings. But that isn’t the main issue that I have with high school athletics. My issue is when the AD is allowed to circumvent campus administration to meet his (or her) coaching needs. I cannot tell you the number of struggling high schools that I have worked with where both staffing and the master schedule are essentially run by the AD. I don’t care how many games your team wins, when you let athletics trump academics you are sacrificing the learning needs of students for the entertainment wants of adults.

Second, your realization that you have put your needs in front of the needs of kids. Don’t let go of the feeling that punch in the stomach gave you. I too live with the same realization. I was guilty as a teacher (though the system rewarded me). I was horrible as an assistant principal (though the system lauded me). I began to reform as a principal (it’s amazing what being responsible for the big picture will do for your perspective). And once I had influence over the system, I began to work to change the system to prevent my sins from being inflicted by others on others. Just know that now you have credibility. When someone who has never walked in your shoes tells you to do something different, it is easy to blow them off. But when that person has shared experiences, you have to consider their advice.

Third is the concept of acceptable loses. I am a pragmatic idealist. Initially, when you begin to change the system, there may be some (students and teachers) that have been so damaged by the prior system (or in most cases the lack of a system) that they cannot be helped. My rule in this case is to work with the person in question as long as they are at least trying to work with you. But by year two, everyone is your responsibility. This means that you don’t measure yourself by your perceived success, you measure yourself by your actual failure. This is an important paradigm shift. If I measure myself by perceived success, all I have to do is beat you. If you have a 50% success rate and I have a 60% success rate, I win and I don’t give a second thought to the 40% that are failing. On the other hand, if I measure myself by actual failure, those 40% matter. And if I don’t reduce that dramatically every year, I’m failing those that need me the most.

Finally, I’m not opposed to total reform. You and I both have the scars to prove it. I just don’t trust the agendas of those currently starving the system and they have no viable alternative other than smoking ruins. Do you realize how poorly it reflects on our current leadership when Mark White and Ross Perot represent the high water mark in state government in the past 30 years?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Coming Soon! The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of March 27, 2011

Since I’ve started my “Embrace Bootleg Technology” enjoinders, when I am on campuses people are starting to show me the little things they are trying to do. That’s the key. Start trying little things. Bootleg technology will change the way we do business, but not overnight. Just think, 20 years ago we all carried extra quarters in our pockets for the pay phones. When is the last time you used a pay phone? So this week, try a “Flash Lab” (my new term). What’s a flash lab? Instead of taking all your kids to the computer lab for some contrived activity, have the class pull out their cell phones, I-pods, and I-Pads and have them research some current event that is tied to the content you are teaching that day. They make super computers by simply linking a bunch of regular computers together. Imagine what could happen when you let every student in your classroom have focused access to the little computer that they are currently hiding in their purse, pocket or backpack. Embrace bootleg technology now.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of March 27^th, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. We just approved the final cover art for the book, "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction"! The book drops within 90 days!

2. Don't have enough graphing calculators for your students? There's a free graphing calculator app at the App Store. Bootleg technology saves money!

3. LYS Bootleg Tech Update: In an LYS Middle School (Title I -very poor) – kids are using cell phones to research in class. 85% have a phone. The rest of the students share with a partner.

4. In a HS classroom where three students are trying to convince themselves the Styx was a cool band. "Kilroy was Here,” refutes that argument.

5. Morale follows performance. Performance does not follow morale. It's the difference between causation and correlation.

6. Dr. Susan Hull and Dr. Doug Killian share my personal “Superintendent of the Week” award.

7. I'm a fan of the Hippo!

8. Corporal punishment is a short cut that precludes effective student management. Why is this still a debate? Does revenge feel that good?

9. Just read article where a teacher laments that the state doesn't value her PhD. It doesn't and shouldn't. It values her students' performance.

10. I'm a fan of KIPP. But KIPP doesn't play by the same rules. This is the real lesson for other schools. "Change the rules to fit your vision."

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation