Friday, August 31, 2012

Accountability - A Reasonable Plan


Those who have worked with, for, or against me all know that I am pro-accountability.  I keep score and push limits. Not just in my chosen profession but in almost every other facet of my life. I don’t apologize for it; it’s who I am.  But even as an accountability advocate I have to admit that what we have now, both at the federal and state level is a hijacked program designed for the specific purposes of furthering anti-egalitarian agendas and dismantling public education. As an educator, I behoove you, please quit voting for these people. 

However, no accountability (which seems to be a rallying cry for many in our profession) is not the answer. What is needed is a replacement system that is logical, fair and holds all schools accountable to increasing student opportunity. To start the discussion, here is the plan I would start with for traditional and magnet schools.

The Cain Plan

Prerequisites:
1. The state must clearly outline the content that must be taught and the rigor level to which that content must be taught.  In Texas, this is the TEKS. In other states, this could be the Common Core.

2. The state assessment must be 100% aligned to both the required content and the required rigor.  In Texas, because the state has not released the STAAR tests, we cannot say if this is the case.  In many other states, we know this is not the case.

Exemptions:
1. For the state assessment, allow a district to exempt up to 2% of its non-LEP student population from taking the accountability test, for any reason.  This resolves the issue of the empty exercise of testing students with severe and profound learning disabilities.  

2. For the state assessment, non-English speaking (generally recent immigrant) students may be exempted from the accountability test for up to three years. This resolves the issue of the extreme difficulty of teaching content and a new language at the same time.

Tested Content (Grades 1 - 8):
Reading – Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Writing – 4, 6, 8
Mathematics – 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Science – 3, 5, 7
U.S. History – 5, 8

Tested Content  (Grade 9 – 12):
English – I, II, III, IV
Mathematics – Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry
Science – Chemistry, Biology, Physics
Social Studies – U.S. History I, U.S. History II, World History I, World History II

Standards / Rankings:
Acceptable
A.   90% of the students in each disaggregated student population answer 70% of the assessment questions correctly; and
B.    For high schools: 80% of students graduate within 4 years; A dropout rate of less than 8%; 25% of graduating seniors enroll in some post-secondary program (examples – technical program, 2-year college, 4-year college, military enlistment).

Recognized
A.   90% of the students in each disaggregated student population answer 70% of the assessment questions correctly; and
B.    50% of the overall student population answers 80% of the assessment questions correctly; and
C.    For high schools: 88% of students graduate within 4 years; A dropout rate of less than 6%; 50% of graduating seniors enroll in some post-secondary program (examples – technical program, 2-year college, 4-year college, military enlistment).

Exemplary
A.   90% of the students in each disaggregated student population answer 70% of the assessment questions correctly; and
B.    50% of the overall student population answer 80% of the assessment questions correctly; and
C.    25% of the students in each disaggregated student population answer 90% of the assessment questions correctly.
D.   For high schools: 92% of students graduate within 4 years; A dropout rate of less than 4%; 70% of graduating seniors enroll in some post-secondary program (examples – technical program, 2-year college, 4-year college, military enlistment).

This plan would require schools to teach the appropriate content.  It would require schools to meet minimum standards.  But most importantly, it would require a school to systematically work to raise the ceiling of student performance if it is to be considered a top-tier school.   Also, notice that 100% is never in play.  I want 100% of my students to be successful, but the reality is that we are in the people business not a simple manufacturing business.  Even if the assessment is a simple as, “Show up on test day,” 100% is not going to happen. But because the ceiling standards are aggressive, the motivation to reduce marginal performance and failure is maintained.  

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/Fundamental5 
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
  • Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Superintendent's Corner: The Anti-testing Resolution - Part 2


In response to the 8/23/2012 post, “The Superintendent’s Corner: The Anti-testing Resolution Part -1,” A LYS Nation Superintendent sent in the following.

SC,

It is exceedingly clear that we are on the same page with our thoughts, except that I feel the passion to fight the legislators and an accountability system that uses ratings to destroy good things schools are doing.  I believe that in the early and mid years of accountability in Texas it forced us to become better educators to all student groups, especially the underserved.  Now I see us spending too much time focusing on test results (not necessarily student results) in the name of ratings and not focusing on providing an education that teaches students to learn and prepare them for their future.

And yes, the system and a political party (especially in Texas) have been hijacked by a few powerful and rich organizations and the people that operate those organizations.  It is amazing how the same people run most of those organizations.  I don't want to get too political.  Thank you for your response and I look forward to future blog dialogue.

Howell Wright

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/Fundamental5 
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
  • Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A LYS Superintendent Shares... A Leading Indicator


A LYS Superintendent shares the following:

SC,

I had a great problem to deal with last week.  I had to "encourage" our maintenance staff to remove teacher desks from their classrooms...  We have several elementary teachers who have requested that their teacher desks be removed.  

Our classrooms are all hovering at 22 students and teachers sometimes struggle to have room to be in the Power Zone, especially if their classroom is cluttered or isn't arranged properly.  

We are really excited about the teachers willingness to sacrifice their desk, but more importantly at their willingness to change to improve instruction and be more effective!

SC Response
That is exciting news. When teams of teachers start looking for small solutions to that create big changes in practice, then you know that the motivation to improve is shifting from top-down to bottom-up.  That’s what every one of us works towards as a leader.  Kudos to your staff!

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/Fundamental5
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
  • Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of August 19, 2012


School has started, or is soon to start, across the country.  Hopefully, your school has moved forward in embracing bootleg technology.  If not, don’t give up.  Bootleg technology represents a significant and positive shift in education culture. It is a shift away from the illusion of absolute adult control and the role of the adult as the source of knowledge that has driven American schools for generations.  This shift will not occur overnight and will not always be smooth.  But as the innovators and early adopters share their successes, the majority will follow.  If you are one of these people (innovator and early adopter), teach, advocate and help you fellow educators.  Much sooner that you realize, sheer peer pressure will force the laggards among us join the 21st century. Even if they do so kicking and screaming.  Have a great 2012 / 2013 school year!

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 August 19, 2012.

1. With grades, you have to ask yourself, "What am I measuring? Who got it first? Or, who got it?" 99% of schools measure the wrong thing.

2. If you want to count student formative assessment as a test grade, you either have missed the point or we don't share a common vocabulary.

3. Promising meeting with my teachers on the Fundamental Five. Why would we NOT use these strategies? Can't wait for PowerWalks! (By @GloffMona)

4. Talked PowerWalks with faculty today. Touted its benefits as a coaching assessment. Transparency, with data. Goal of 400 by Christmas. (By @blitzkrieg607)

5. Tired of people picking on school districts whose people elected to build facilities for their children/community to use for years to come. (By @DrJerryRBurkett)

6. To the guy who is mad because I caught him reading a magazine during my presentation. Thanks for demonstrating the power of the Power Zone.

7. Traditional homework and parents working with their children at home have as much in common as hot dogs and warm puppies. (By @txschoolsupe)

8. So, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) is the best book on instructional practices... What's #2 on your list? (By @mike_metz)

9. PowerWalks are a fundamental leadership practice. The Instructional Leader's, ‘Power Zone!’

10. Best introduction I've had in a long time, "He's not Rich Allen. But he's a pretty good second place."

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/Fundamental5 
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
  • Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Monday, August 27, 2012

Blog and E-mail: A Review of Functions


Some of you have seen a version of this post before, but since I wrote it, we have added cover 150 new members to the LYS Nation.  Therefore, I thought a refresher might be in order.  The following is my attempt to explain the features that are embedded in the blog site and the e-mail updates.

Note: This section relates to the blog site (not the e-mail updates).

On the left side of the page, E-Mail Updates: If you enter your e-mail address in the subscribe box, you will get a daily e-mail update of all the postings within the last 24 hours, after you respond to the confirmation e-mail (a spam preventative).

On the left side of the page, under the E-Mail Updates area:  UpTweet – If you like a post, click UpTweet and it takes you to your twitter account so you can post a link on your timeline.

On the left side of the page, under the UpTweet area:  Lead Your School Resources and Tools - Links to the Lead Your School campus support site; the PowerWalks site; the Amazon.com page for “The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction”; the Amazon.com page for “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale”; and the Amazon.com page for “Jump Start Your School”.

On the left side of the page, under the Lead Your School Resources and Tools area: Twitter Updates – A running list of the last ten posts to the LYS Nation Twitter account.

On the left side of the page, under the Twitter Updates area: Current School News - Click on any of the four key words and the most current news stories that relate to that key word will be displayed.

On the left side of the page, under the Current School News area: Popular Posts – Shows the three most viewed blog posts from the last thirty days.

On the left side of the page, under the Popular Posts area: RSS Subscriptions

On the left side of the page, under RSS Feeds:  RSS Followers

At the bottom of the blog page, under the last post of the week: Blog Archives - Click on a week, and all the posts from that week will be displayed.

Note: This section relates to the actual posts (on the blog site).
If you click on a post title, it will pull up a comment box at the end of the post. Just type in your comment and click the "post comment" button.

At the bottom of each post, click "comment" and you can leave a comment or read comments others have left. However, the majority of the comments, I post under the heading, "A Reader Writes."

At the bottom of each post, click the envelope if you want to e-mail that post to another person.

At the bottom of each post, if you click a "Label" word, it will pull up all the other posts that have the same label words.

At the bottom of the post, there are reaction boxes. You get to rate the post.

Note: This section relates to the E-mail updates.

If you click on "Lead Your School,"  it will take you to the blog site.

If you click on a post title, it will take you to the post and there will be a comment box at the bottom of the screen. Just type in your comment and click the "post comment" button.

Note: This section relates to Reader Comments.

This is how all comments are handled:

Your comments, opinions and question are welcomed and encouraged.  Keep them coming.

All comments opinions and questions are reviewed by me.

Comments, opinions and questions, where it is asked that the information not be shared, receive a private response from me.

One liners and comments that do not require a response are just posted as a comment.

Comments, opinions and questions of merit are posted as, “A Reader Writes…”  They are posted in a first come, first serve fashion.  So sometimes it takes a while to get to yours.

I don’t know if it is proper blog etiquette or not, but I spell and grammar check comments before I post them.

Comments are handled with a modified FERPA procedure.  I will and do mask the identities of some writers, their schools and their districts.  I do this to protect the writer and who or what they are writing about.

Post format.

Text in italics is the comment of the reader.

Your turn… This is your invitation to weigh in and join the conversation.

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/Fundamental5 
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
  • Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation