Friday, November 9, 2012

A Superintendent Submits... The Common Assessment Process


An LYS Superintendent shares the following:

SC, 

A superintendent and a teacher asked me essentially the same set of questions yesterday - two different districts, two different roles, but the same dilemma. Both districts have just completed a testing cycle of "curriculum based assessments” with seemingly poor results. The following are my thoughts.

1. Great job doing common assessments!  I will add that waiting 6 to 9 weeks is too long. You are now finding out 9 weeks into the school year that your instructional practices are maybe, and I add MAYBE, not as effective as you thought they were.  You could have known that with a short assessment 6 weeks ago, after only 3 weeks of instruction had passed.  Teachers, if your district persists in doing 6 weeks and 9 weeks assessments, it falls to you to make 3 weeks assessments, in the same format as the district's common assessments.  These can and should be less than 10 questions long, and should not take an entire class period.  You can and should spiral questions from identified holes onto these assessments. In other words, follow the Cain model.

2. Both districts are implementing C-Scope for the first time this year.  Now it must be made clear to everyone that this is NOT the first year both of these districts made C-Scope available to the staff, it is merely the first year both districts have become concerned enough to mandate and monitor the implementation of the curriculum. Leaders, you may want to sit down, because this may sting.  What you have done as leaders, by not making an aligned curriculum mandatory, is an egregious leadership failure. You KNEW you needed a curriculum, which is why you bought it, yet you failed to lead the implementation of the curriculum.  Your responsibility to implement best practices, including curriculum implementation, does not end simply because you sent teachers to C-Scope training. Enough said, now don't beat yourself up over it, let's fix it.  Also, don't beat the teachers up either, as this situation is mostly a result of your leadership failure, not teaching failure.

3. Early testing results in both districts were, to be generous, poor. Neither of these testing results should be a surprise.  That is, I would bet a copy of the Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) that neither district had TEACHERS conduct a focused analysis of their student's deficiencies AND develope a viable plan to fill in holes.  Every teacher in my district was required to identify the most failed objectives from last year.  Once that was conducted, we remembered our Schmoker: we concentrate on the deepest hole and begin filling it weekly.  Schmoker tells us that if we try to fill all learning holes, we fill nothing. However, learning is a complex interconnected web. If we begin by filling in the deepest hole, we will address some learning gaps and misconceptions that are likely to partially or completely fill in other holes.  Once the deepest hole is filled, and that may take a while, start on the next one.  The catch here is two-fold.  One, your students have not been in an aligned scope and sequence, so there are certainly holes in the learning.  This will create low common assessment scores.  Two, this phenomenon of low scores was totally predictable had you put some thought to the problem early on.  This reflects back to point one: MAYBE the instruction was ineffective, or MAYBE it was effective but there are just too many unidentified and un-addressed learning holes.

4. The first year of common assessment implementation is likely to be chaotic.  Again, leadership created this chaos; so don't panic in the face of your creation!  Scores will be low, holes need to be identified, and strategies need to be developed to fill in the holes, one at a time.  The process is not as slow as it sounds, but don't be surprised when your common assessment scores remain in the tank all year long.  The trick is to look at next year's common assessment scores.  Are the scores moving up, overall?  If so, your system is beginning to add value to children, congratulations! Keep the word "system" in mind. You are now in the first stages of creating a system approach to educating children. Before you were simply treating symptoms. System work will be much harder.  Keep in mind too that it is likely you do not fully understand instructional systems at this point.  I started using an instructional system approach in 2006. It was not until 2009 that I would have called myself actually competent, three years.  The 10,000-hour rule as described by Gladwell is in full play here.

5. Common assessment data is valuable in the following ways: A. It puts a numerical value on the health of your instructional systems. B. It verifies if instructional strategies and deficit filling are occurring, over time. C. And this is a distant third, it is student performance data.  We seem to get common assessment data and then want to come up with student interventions, which is the LEAST valuable data from common assessments.  Student interventions are symptom treating, and that is OK as long as the main thrust is to treat the disease.  In our case, the disease is an ineffective instructional system.  I see teachers spending hours doing tutorials after school: symptom treating.  I see almost ZERO time spent anywhere trying to create a better instructional system.  Those priorities are 180 degrees out of synch.

In closing, don't panic in the face of common assessment scores.  Use the scores to improve your systems.  It took Lesa Cain three years of faithful and relentless systems building in order to produce an exceedingly high performing school with a student body consisting almost entirely of low SES students. Not to mention that Lesa had access to an incredible support network that too many of us don't have (but you can).  Just understand that system building is work.  Work this process diligently for several years and reap the rewards.  Leadership should concern themselves only with teachers who refuse to implement the curriculum, refuse to adjust instructional practices, and refuse to fill in student learning gaps. For teachers who are on board, pat them on the back and a give them a little cover and a little time.

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: 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, November 8, 2012

A Reader Shares... Just Focus on the Fundamentals


A LYS Principal shares the following:

SC,

Like most schools I have some first year teachers on my campus.  One in particular was having a very difficult first couple of weeks.  Just having the best of intentions and teaching like she was taught was not working for her.  About three weeks in, she was ready to quit.  As you know, we are a Fundamental 5 campus, so instead of letting her quit we doubled down on her Fundamental 5 induction and PowerWalks, speeding up the process and checking on her even more frequently in order to cue the practices she was attempting to implement.

Now, after nine weeks, not only does she Frame Lessons beautifully, she may be the best on my campus at actually closing her lessons.  As I was observing her do this today, I asked one of her students, “Hey, what is this closing question business?”

His answer, “We do this everyday to make sure we get it and so Ms. B knows that we got it.”

We love the Fundamental 5.

SC Response
We are hearing more and more stories like this. Here are the common elements.

1. The school is focused on implementing the Fundamental 5, campus-wide.

2. Instructional support is out, in classrooms daily, providing... wait for it... instructional support.

3. When something isn’t working, no one panics.  They re-group and take a slightly different tact.

Great story, nice job and let your teacher know that we are pulling for her.   

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: 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, November 7, 2012

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of October 28, 2012


Yes, I know that we are a little behind on our weekly bootleg technology discussion. But in my defense, there were some time sensitive posts that had to go first.  Better late than never.

This past week, the power of bootleg technology shaved hours off of a task that I am already good at and that I do regularly.  I conducted an assessment of campus operations. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the assignment. But this time my phone directed me to the campus.  I observed 30+ classrooms and collected all the data on my phone. I interviewed staff members and took notes on my phone. And then I sent this information to my laptop computer where I was able to cut and paste my findings into the appropriate places so I could then complete my analysis of what I observed.  This saved me at least two hours of development time.

So what did I do with that extra time?  I was able to spend more time with the campus principal debriefing, problem solving and coaching. Which is true power of the assessment process.

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 October 28, 2012.

1. Booyahhh! Over 100 Fundamental 5 observations so far in October & still two days left! Thanks @LYSNation for the inspiration! (By @tra_hall)
2. "Great job!" doesn't tell kids what they did right or what needs improvement. Use neutral and specific praise instead. (By @anniemurphypaul)
3. Want to improve the quality of student writing? Let them talk about the prompt or topic with a peer first. Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talk is the bomb!
4. Having student write down the question first is a self-inflicted waste of instruction time that is seemingly invisible to teachers. Stop doing it.
5. In the United States we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate and $8,000 a year to educate each elementary school student. (By @tgrierhisd)
6. This doesn't apply to anyone reading this: If you are an educator who can't navigate a PC or Mac, what have you been doing for the last 20 years?
7. When did planning for instruction become an optional activity?
8. If your students can't talk it, do they actually know it?
9. I was talking with an ACP teacher coach who has interns on a Fundamental 5 campus. Her comment, “That school's lucky, it got my 4 best trainees.” It's not luck.
10. The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just passed 22,000 copies sold! Thank you, LYS Nation!!!!
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), 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, November 6, 2012

PowerWalks Hero Schools (October 2012)


In furtherance of a LYS Nation tradition, we will take this time to tip our caps to the campuses that have embraced 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.  There were a total of 14,753 PowerWalks conducted during the past month and the October targets for Hero School designation were:

Big Schools – 350 PowerWalks Observations
Medium Sized Schools – 250 PowerWalks Observations
Small Schools – 150 PowerWalks Observations
Very Small Schools – 75 PowerWalks Observations

For the month of November, due to the holiday, we’ll adjust the targets to:

Big Schools – 265 PowerWalks Observations
Medium Sized Schools – 190 PowerWalks Observations
Small Schools – 115 PowerWalks Observations
Very Small Schools – 60 PowerWalks Observations

Now without further adieu, here are your twenty-eight PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of October 2012.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools
Junior High and Middle Schools
Alternative Schools
Combined Campuses
High Schools
McFee ES - 674 (CFISD)
Tennyson MS - 520 (WISD)
Grandbury – 85 (JWJPCS)
Louise Schools – 340 (LISD)
University HS – 875 (WISD)
Bell’s Hill ES – 436 (WISD)
Chavez MS – 496 (WISD)

Munday Secondary School – 100 (MISD)
Waco HS – 838 (WISD)
JH Hines ES – 371 (WISD)
Indian Spring MS -324 (WISD)


Hutto HS – 455 (HISD)
Kendrick ES – 368 (WISD)
Kerr MS – 298 (BISD)



Rennell ES – 363 (CFISD)
Marlin MS – 219 (MISD)



Frazier ES  - 333 (CFISD)
Tom Bean MS - 105 (TBISD)



Provident Heights ES – 299 (WISD)
Tidehaven IS – 88 (TISD)



Dean-Highland ES – 283 (WISD)




South Waco ES - 283 (WISD)



Cedar Ridge ES – 268 (WISD)




Crestview ES – 232 (WISD)




West Ave ES – 186 (WISD)




Mountainview ES – 154 (WISD)




Markham ES – 127 (TISD)




Blessing ES – 80 (TISD)





Vote. Vote. Vote.
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), 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, November 5, 2012

In Case You Haven't Heard, the Election is Tomorrow


I AM PRO SCHOOL! 

The general election is tomorrow and if you haven’t already, I implore you to go vote. As regular readers know, though I have always abhorred the use of candidate litmus tests, this year I adopted one. For now and the immediate future, a candidate’s stance and actions as they relate to public education and public education funding are the critical factors in determining who receives my vote.  At the request of a number of readers, I will again share my PRO SCHOOL formula:

  • Cut education funds – I vote for your opponent
  • Don’t fund education – I vote for your opponent
  • Unfunded education mandate – I vote for your opponent
  • Increase school accountability without increasing education support – I vote for your opponent
  • Devalue educators – I vote for your opponent

With this being the case, I submit to you the list of candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Senate and Texas House, who as members of the Texas Legislature orchestrated and supported the gutting of public education funding in 2011.

Whether this information enters into your decision-making or not, as a reasonable, thinking LYSer, make sure you get out and VOTE. 

Running for the Texas Senate – Voted For Slashed Education Budgets (as either a State Senator or State Representative)
Name
Party
Running For
Brian Birdwell
Republican
Texas Senate
John Carona
Republican
Texas Senate
Bob Deuell
Republican
Texas Senate
Robert L. Duncan
Republican
Texas Senate
Kevin Eltife
Republican
Texas Senate
Craig Estes
Republican
Texas Senate
Troy Fraser
Republican
Texas Senate
Kelly Hancock 
Republican
Texas Senate
Glenn Hegar
Republican
Texas Senate
Joan Huffman
Republican
Texas Senate
Jane Nelson
Republican
Texas Senate
Robert Nichols
Republican
Texas Senate
Dan Patrick
Republican
Texas Senate
Ken Paxton  Jr.
Republican
Texas Senate
Charles Schwertner
Republican
Texas Senate
Keli Seliger
Republican
Texas Senate
Mark M. Shelton 
Republican
Texas Senate
Larry Taylor 
Republican
Texas Senate
Raul Torres 
Republican
Texas Senate
Tommy Williams
Republican
Texas Senate



Juan Hinojosa
Democrat
Texas Senate
Royce West
Democrat
Texas Senate

Running for the Texas House – Voted for Slashed Education Budgets (as a Texas House Member)
Name
Party
Running For
Allan  B.  Ritter 
Republican
Texas House
Allen  Fletcher                     
Republican
Texas House
Angie Chen  Button 
Republican
Texas House
Brandon  Creighton 
Republican
Texas House
Bryan  Hughes 
Republican
Texas House
Byron  Cook 
Republican
Texas House
Charles  'Doc'  Anderson 
Republican
Texas House
Charles  Lee  Perry 
Republican
Texas House
Charlie  L.  Geren 
Republican
Texas House
Connie  Scott 
Republican
Texas House
Dan  Flynn 
Republican
Texas House
Daniel  G.  'Dan'  Huberty 
Republican
Texas House
Daniel  H.  'Dan'  Branch 
Republican
Texas House
Diane  Patrick 
Republican
Texas House
Doug  Miller 
Republican
Texas House
Drew  Darby 
Republican
Texas House
Gary  Elkins 
Republican
Texas House
George Edward  Lavender 
Republican
Texas House
Harvey  Hilderbran 
Republican
Texas House
Jason  Isaac 
Republican
Texas House
Jim  Murphy                       
Republican
Texas House
Jim  Pitts 
Republican
Texas House
Jimmie Don  'JD'  Aycock 
Republican
Texas House
Jodie  Anne  Laubenberg 
Republican
Texas House
John  C.  Otto 
Republican
Texas House
John  E.  Davis 
Republican
Texas House
John  L.  Kuempel 
Republican
Texas House
John  M.  Frullo 
Republican
Texas House
John  T.  Smithee 
Republican
Texas House
John  V.  Garza 
Republican
Texas House
John  Zerwas 
Republican
Texas House
Kenneth  Sheets 
Republican
Texas House
Lance  Gooden 
Republican
Texas House
Larry  Gonzales 
Republican
Texas House
Larry  Phillips 
Republican
Texas House
Linda  Harper-Brown 
Republican
Texas House
Lois  W.  Kolkhorst 
Republican
Texas House
Lyle  T.  Larson                  
Republican
Texas House
Myra  Crownover 
Republican
Texas House
Paul  D.  Workman 
Republican
Texas House
Phil  S.  King 
Republican
Texas House
Ralph  Sheffield 
Republican
Texas House
Rob  Orr 
Republican
Texas House
Sarah  Davis                        
Republican
Texas House
Tan  Parker 
Republican
Texas House
Thomas  R.  'Tom'  Craddick 
Republican
Texas House
Tim  Kleinschmidt 
Republican
Texas House
Tryon  D.  Lewis 
Republican
Texas House
Walter T. “Four” Price  IV
Republican
Texas House
Wayne  Smith                      
Republican
Texas House
William  'Bill'  Zedler 
Republican
Texas House
William  A.  'Bill'  Callegari 
Republican
Texas House

Running for U.S. Congress – Voted for Slashed Education Budgets (as a member of the Texas House)
Name
Party
Running For
Randy Weber 
Republican
US Congress

Your vote matters!

Vote. Vote. Vote.
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), 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