Friday, February 10, 2012

Top Ten High Schools - Student Excellence (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners score at the commended level on all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Bellaire HS^ (Houston ISD)

9. Cisco HS# (Cisco ISD)

8. Vista Ridge HS^ (Vista Ridge ISD)

7. Palacios HS# (Palacios ISD)

6. Poth HS^ (Poth ISD)

5. Crandall HS# (Crandall ISD)

4. Howe HS^ (Howe ISD)

3. Sundown HS* (Sundown ISD)

2. Evadale HS# (Evadale ISD)

1. Lago Vista HS* (Lago Vista ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
  • Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
  • Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Top Ten High Schools - Student Competency (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners pass all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Plains HS^ (Plains ISD)

9. Petrolia HS# (Petrolia ISD)

8. Pottsboro HS* (Pottsboro ISD)

7. Industrial HS^ (Industrial ISD)

6. Lago Vista HS* (Lago Vista ISD)

5. Harper HS# (Harper ISD)

4. Blue Ridge HS# (Blue Ridge ISD)

3. Seymour HS^ (Seymour ISD)

2. Skidmore-Tynan HS# (Skidmore-Tyanan ISD)

1. Sundown HS* (Sundown ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
  • Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
  • Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Overall Top Ten Texas High Schools - LYS Performance Scores

The following list represents the top ten high schools that had the highest performance over adversity scores for the 2010/2011 school year.

10. Rivera High School^ (Brownsville ISD)

9. Lee High School^ (Houston ISD)

8. Del Valley High School# (Ysleta ISD)

7. Hastings High School^ (Alief ISD)

6. Skyline High School^ (Dallas ISD)

5. North Shore Senior High School# (Galena Park ISD)

4. Mumford High School# (Mumford ISD)

3. Hanna High School# (Brownsville ISD)

2. Rio Grande City High School# (Rio Grande City ISD)

1. Valley View High School^ (Valley View ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
  • Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
  • Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

PowerWalks Hero Schools (January 2012)

As is now a LYS Nation tradition, we will take time to tip our caps to the campuses that are taking the most important step in creating and maintaining an action oriented professional learning community. These are the campuses that have conducted an extraordinary number of formative classroom observations in a given month. For the month of January the cutoff numbers were as follows:

Big Schools – 350 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 250 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 160 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 80 PowerWalks Observations.

So without further adieu, here are your twenty-five PowerWalks Hero Schools for the Month of January. Congratulations!!!

(2) = Two Months in a Row (3) = 3 Months in a Row (4) = 4 Months in a Row

Elementary Schools

Junior High and Middle Schools

Alternative Schools

Combined Campuses

High Schools

Mc Fee ES (CFISD) (3)

Farley MS (HISD)

Afton Oaks (JWJPCS)

Louise Schools (LISD) (4)


Cottonwood Creek ES (HISD) (4)

Hutto MS (HISD) (3)

Granbury (JWJPCS)



Ray ES (HISD)

Marble Falls MS (MFISD) (2)

Garza County (JWJPCS) (2)



Presidential Meadows ES (MISD)

Lake Air Intermediate (WISD)

Waco Alternative School (WISD) (4)



Bell’s Hill ES (WISD) (4)





Cedar Ridge ES (WISD) (2)





Hillcrest ES (WISD) (3)





JH Hines ES (WISD) (4)




Kendrick ES (WISD) (4)





Meadowbrook ES (WISD) (2)




North Waco ES (WISD) (4)





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
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
  • Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
  • Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Monday, February 6, 2012

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of January 29, 2012

Every time I think we are making progress on the understanding of how critical it is to embrace the power and potential of Bootleg Technology (see the post from 1/22/2012), I will see something that reminds me how far we still have to go. I’ll give you two quick examples. Recently, I was visiting a campus were staff were on a hunt for student cell phones. When they found a student with a phone, they would confiscate it. Afterwards the staff joked about practice, calling it “fund raising.” It seems that the fines paid by parents to get the phone returned had turned into a steady revenue stream. That visit was followed by a visit to another campus where there was an enforced “no cell phone” policy for students. Yet teachers had no problem leaving the ringers on their personal phones and indiscriminately using the phones for numerous personal tasks at any time during the day. I keep forgetting that for most adults, the "Golden Rule" is actually "Do as I say, not as I do."

Right now, in the pockets of our students is more computing speed and power than any hardware owned by the campus. At their fingers, available in mere seconds, is access to the depth and breadth of human knowledge. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the majority of educators make the use of this tool a criminal (from a discipline code standpoint) activity. It makes as much sense as outlawing the use of books in the classroom. Which considering how little I observe students reading in class, may already be the case.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own 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 January 29, 2012, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. I don't plan on waiting for the bureaucrats to fix public education. We have 'pockets' of innovation NOW... We will grow those. (By @tlonganecker)

2. I actually had to explain to a House candidate that there were school funding lawsuits. She said she would look into the issue. (By @DrJerryRBurkett)

3. Why are you buying a "STAAR Aligned Assessment" when no one had seen the STAAR? Save your money. Teach and assess the TEKS at the appropriate rigor.

4. Even in adversity there is possibility.

5. In practical terms, the only way to ensure that high instructional rigor is the norm is to embed critical writing in every class, every day.

6. If the angry adult is making the student discipline decision, your discipline program is built on a foundation of revenge.

7. If you think the use of extrinsic rewards for students is wrong, then give up your paycheck for a week and then check your motivation.

8. Good data is like looking in the mirror. If you aren't happy with what you see, do something different to change the image.

9. "Filtered wireless"... where we need to be headed. (By @tlonganecker)

10. Check out the promo video for the LYS keynote presentation at the Region 16 Leadership Conference http://tinyurl.com/82pvqa6

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
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
  • Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
  • Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference