Debt is a Detriment to Leadership

In my continuous study of school leaders, I constantly examine their decision making process.  One of the driving questions for regular examination is, “When faced with a difficult decision why will one person select the “right” answer for the organization and why will one select the “right” answer for avoiding conflict?” 

Essentially, why did the person select or not select the courageous path?

By courageous path, I mean the decision that is best for students and best for the organization, yet will place the leader at increased risk for failure.  Superintendents and Principals face these types of decisions on a semi-regular basis.  Assistant Principals and Central Office Staff not so much. It is the burden of being the ultimate leader (Superintendent – entire organization, Principal – entire field based unit).

There are a host of reasons that one could point to, but here is one that I am noticing more and more often. Personal debt.

Take two leaders, one with large personal debt, and one without. Place in front of them an optimal decision, but making the decision has the potential to place the leader at risk of losing his or her job.  The one with little debt will gird him or herself up and make that tough decision.  The one with large debt will avoid the decision or continue to search for a solution that does not risk the job of the leader.

Now, I am not judging (my use of the word “right”, not withstanding), I am merely observing.  But here is my conclusion.  As we are well aware, exemplar leadership has many components. If you take leadership seriously, and at LYS we do, you have to keep your personal house in order.  The greater the load of liabilities that you carry (and we all have them), the greater the chance that those liabilities will cloud your judgment. Protect yourself and your organization; discipline yourself to live below your means.

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

A Reader Writes... Pretty Lies and Powerful Truths - Part 1

In response to the 9/25/12 post, “Pretty Lies and Powerful Truths (A),” a LYS Assistant Superintendent writes:

SC,

In Texas we have gone through several test cycles: TABS, TEAMS, TAAS, TAKS, and now STAAR. During each cycle, scores went from bust to boom, as educators overwhelmingly met the challenge put before them. Politicians however, never lost a chance to make political hay!

At the end of the TEAMS cycle, scores were up but, "The test was too easy," they (the politicians) said.

In the TAAS cycle, scores were low in the beginning and the politicians said, “See, we told you we needed higher standards.”

Scores improved dramatically, but there was little credit given to teachers.  Instead the tried and true criticism was used again, “This TAAS test is just too easy.”

So the TAAS test was replaced with the TAKS test.  And once again we lived through the low scores to much improved scores pattern. And once again we were told that the improved scores were not due to the hard work of educators but because the TAKS test wasn't rigorous enough.

Now we are entering the STAAR era.  We haven’t seen all the scores yet (heck, contrary to the spirit of transparency and professionalism, the state hasn’t even let us see the test), but we expect that the initial results will not be pretty.  But instead of giving schools a chance to adapt to this increased accountability, our legislature is going to use this “poor” performance as proof of the need for vouchers.

In my career, this is the 4^th time that standards have been increased, and each time teachers in Texas have risen to the challenge. Yet credit is never given. Curricular expectations were a mess in the 1980′s Texas, but that has changed dramatically. Where is the recognition for this accomplishment? Why do we continue to allow politicians to use our good scores during re-election time, then to ignore us once elected?

Once again, teachers in Texas are under attack, this time for AYP. Almost 50% of campuses failed to meet AYP and more than 70% of districts failed to meet AYP. Do you really believe that this is not by design? NEW standards and a NEW test, both occurring at the same time that AYP standards reached the levels where all schools/districts were destined to fail. I remember promises to fix NCLB, but not one blessed thing has been done to adjust the most damaging expectation, the 100% requirement. There is no doubt this is intentional, it is now providing more cover for the politicians and anti-public schoolers to implement their agenda.

We must stop this no-win, self-perpetuating accountability system that ensures that teachers can never be good enough.  And if you think this is by accident, just look at the pattern above.

SC Response

I just want to add two more points.

1. We have to remember that each time the standard of performance has been increased, there has been a corresponding decrease in resources.  Meaning that for over a generation, teachers in Texas have been doing increasingly more with increasingly less. In Texas, when it comes to public schools funding, the maxim that you get what you pay for is a lie.  In Texas, not only do we get much better than what we pay for, but we also begrudge educators for not doing even more.

2. Both the cause and solution to this is political. Those that we have elected to office over the past 15 years have orchestrated this situation.  If we continue to elect these people and those who believe like them, the situation will continue along its current trajectory.  Or you can vote for those who will fund and support public schools.  The choice is that clear. 

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

A Reader Writes... Vouchers and Charters - Part 1

In response to the 8/22/12 post, “A Thought Experiment With Vouchers and Charters,” a reader writes:

SC,

Well done! I agree!

But I find the most troubling immediate detail on the topic is that the students attending private, parochial or home schools, currently, are not receiving direct tax support. Extending such support to those students waters down the available funding by that percentage of students.

SC Response

You bring up an excellent point.  And one that I have yet to hear addressed.  There are two ways your concern could be addressed and either way paints the voucher proponents into corner.

Let’s say (as most assume) that if we fund vouchers, the money simply follows the student, but the pool of public education money remains constant.  Now the number of publicly funded students increases, meaning that the amount funded per student must decrease.  The effect is a significant net minus for public schools (fewer dollars per student) and a significant net windfall for private, parochial and home schools (more dollars per students).  In this case, it is exceedingly difficult to argue that you are not favoring the affluent (who opt out of the system at a far greater percentage) over the less affluent.

But what if the general funding assumption is incorrect?  Instead of keeping education funds constant, the legislature agrees to keep per student funding stable and simply add to the money pool an amount equal to the cost of providing a voucher to every student currently attending private, parochial or home schools. Now one could argue that the net fiscal effect to public schools is essentially neutral.  However, there still remains the significant net windfall for private, parochial and home schools.  Meaning we are still favoring the affluent over the less affluent.  But now our legislators have to explain why they are willing and able to find funding for the affluent, when they were militant against doing the same for public schools in years past.

I have nothing against private, parochial and home schools.  Just like I have nothing against use of private security, private clinics and private transportation. All of these represent a personal choice that based on one’s means, one is willing to pay for. I’m just not willing to use public money to subsidize one’s personal choice to opt out of the public system.         

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

A Reader Writes... Happy and Thriving - Part 1

In response to the 9/12/12 post, “Happy and Thriving,” a long time LYSer writes:

SC,

I have certainly seen school leaders use poor methods when dealing with teachers that could be characterized as fear and intimidation.  Clearly, I believe the more appropriate method of dealing with employees is one of coaching, cooperation, and mentoring.  However, that is not to say there is no accountability on the individual level, and sometimes those types of individual conversations can cause fear and intimidation.  In those one on one accountability conversations principals should keep that in mind and refocus their leadership approach on coaching and cooperation.

Having said that, I like Gilbert's article and think it has application for schools. BUT, I would caution novice leaders that in the end, every business must focus on the bottom line.  As a Harvard professor Gilbert surely knows it doesn't matter if every employee is ecstatically happy if the business is going bankrupt.  The same is true in public education.

In schools our bottom line is student achievement.  Certainly I think principals should strive to create an environment that is positive and cooperative, but at the same time positive and cooperative adults are useless if the needs of children are not being satisfied.  If teachers are happy but are engaging in poor instructional practices, they most certainly will not be happy when a principal insists teachers adhere to research based best instructional practices.  You can be assured of that.  So I would say focus on the bottom line first while keeping an eye on the happy/thriving meter.  

If your bottom line is bottoming out and teachers are happy, the principal has a problem to take care of.  If the principal refuses to focus on the bottom line first and in the process (in a coaching and cooperative manner) help teachers grow to help support the bottom line, then the superintendent has a problem.  If the superintendent refuses to make sure principals are focusing on the bottom line first, then the school board has a problem.  

Of course as an old school LYS principal you already know these things.  I am just attempting to put the cited article into the LYS context for those who may be new to our LYS Nation.

SC Response

What we have to remind ourselves of is that leadership is situational.  What would be the perfect practice/style in emergency and crisis situations often borders on leadership malpractice in sustaining and capacity building situations. But the opposite is also true.  What is interesting is that I have observed that emergency and crisis leaders have a better understanding of this than leaders who have always worked where the grass is greener.

What is clear is that we must to talk to our staff, constantly.  The more those conversations are focused on work, practices, solutions and results, the less the staff that remains will fear them. The reason why I mention “the staff that remains,” is that there are some in our profession that abhor such conversations and will self-select to find a campus with a principal with a less results centered leadership style.

Finally, we cannot ignore the teachings of E. Don Brown.   He reminds us that the focus of the school rests solely on the shoulders on the principal.  Only the principal is in a position to keep the organization student focused.  Every other group and/or position in education will at some point sacrifice the needs of students for a more adult centered agenda.  That is not an indictment, it is a statement of fact.  I have found that the schools that recognize this and act accordingly, seem to develop the most collegial work environments.

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

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of September 30, 2012

By this time next year, it is predicted that the scales will tip and over half of the nations’ teenagers will own a smart phone.  Just think about that for a second.  I remember when my school got a single Commodore PET computer.  It didn’t actually do anything in class (by the time a program loaded, class was over). But by God, the future was sitting right there in front of us.  Flash forward thirty plus years and most of our classrooms place students in the exact same environment as I faced in my 7^th grade class - lectures, textbooks and paper and pencil assignments.  The only difference, instead of a having a blinking box in the corner of the classroom that was essentially unusable, our students have supercomputers in their pockets that we choose to render unusable.

I understand that asking teachers to figure out how to integrate a new (and potentially disruptive) tool in the classroom while having to simultaneously manage time, content and students may not be entirely realistic.  So here is what I would do.  I would assign the following project to my GT students.

 

A. Design an effective way to embed the use of bootleg technology in each content area. 

B. Create a training manual and training protocol for teachers and students.

C. Determine appropriate goals to measure the effectiveness of the program.

Then I would take what my students created, polish off the rough edges and run with it.

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 September 30, 2012.

1. Framing the Lesson (Fundamental 5) at work at Sunday School this morning! (By @mike_metz)

2. Students should not walk into a classroom and step back in time. (By @EkCoulson)

3. Saw evidence of success of LYS training in Concordia University graduate students this week. Good work, Sean! Students win! (By @ctxprof)

4. If your warm-up activity lasts longer than 7 minutes, it's too long.

5. Any system that rates everything as failing, is by definition, flawed. But so is the system that rates everything as exceptional.

6. If you stop at the first sign of adversity, the only direction you are going is backwards.

7. A principal shares a brutal truth: It was so much easier supporting the use of the Fundamental 5 after I actually read the book.

8. The biggest distinction between a gang and a fraternity seems be to the quality of the defense attorney.

9. Tonight on, "And How Was This Not A Waste Of Time?": A recent study concludes that late night cell phone use is linked to a lack of sleep.

10. Poll: Most Texas voters willing to pay more taxes for education. (By @RudyEngland)

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