A Reader Writes... The Common Assessment Process - Part 2

In response to the 11/9/2012 post, "The Common Assessment Process," a reader writes:

Your approach brings back memories of what I was taught in my industrial engineering class - i.e. random process sampling. Have you considered the possibility that the job of schools is not to "manufacture" students?

I recommend viewing the following video of presentation given by Sir Ken Robinson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

SC Response

Loved the video! Everyone in educator should listen to Sir Ken Robinson every chance they get. I put him on the same tier as Michael Fullan.

I don’t disagree that the common assessment process has considerable similarities to random process sampling.  But you missed the purpose of the sampling.  My goal is not to “manufacture students.” My goal is to optimize systems to produce increasing numbers of critical thinkers and complex problem solvers. Which means that the schools we work with aren’t getting bogged down in segregating students into groups of “can do’s and can’t do’s.”  The schools we work with are attempting to identify the mix of teacher practices that maximize student success.  You see, here is the dirty little secret in education, the quality of delivered instruction across instructional settings is uniform. Unfortunately, it is uniformly mediocre (and for those out there who don’t believe this, I’ll match our 300,000+ classroom observations against anyone’s opinion).

The result of this uniformity is this: Mediocre instruction with groups of mid to high SES students produces acceptable scores on accountability tests.  This same level of instruction with low SES students produces unacceptable scores on accountability tests.  However, when you look at schools that significantly and consistently outperform their peers (a rare occurrence) you generally find functioning components of The Foundation Trinity and/or atypical instructional practices.   Which means that there are two significant factors that dictate student performance.

1. SES status, which we cannot control.   

2. Adult practice, of which we have near complete control.

Hence, if there is anything that I want to manufacture, it is a cadre of exemplar teachers and exemplar school leaders. I already know what the ranks of the ordinary can do.

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: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), 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 Superintendent Writes... The Hidden Agenda of Choice - Part 3

In response to the 10/25/2012 post, “The Hidden Agenda of Choice” a reader writes:

SC,

I do find the logic in this post below the blog’s typically high standards.

On the other hand, thanks for encouraging everyone to vote out those who put our school funding in the toilet. It won’t immediately change anything, I know, but we keep pounding on the rock. 

Here is my critique of the post:

The authors of “The Hidden Agenda of Choice” cannot go unchallenged for their fuzzy logic, outrageous statements, or blatant attacks on fellow public schools, namely charter schools.

Fallacy #1: Since when is KIPP (or any other school) maintaining “soft (but real) requirements of continued attendance of the child” deemed unconstitutional? Every school should require student attendance and ask for regular parent participation.

Fallacy #2: Anyone who believes that charter schools operate “outside the bureaucratic entanglement of government bodies” has never worked in a charter school. The Texas bureaucratic entanglements for all public schools (including charters) include PBMAS, AEIS, FIRST (financial monitoring), Data Validation Monitoring, PAR Monitoring, State Accountability Monitoring, Federal Accountability Monitoring, State Performance Plan Monitoring, Residential Facility Monitoring, Data Validation and Verification Monitoring, special education requirements, ESL, 504, and the list goes on and on. Just which outside “entanglements” is the author referring to?

Fallacy #3: The author’s leap from operating outside “bureaucratic entanglements” to sidestepping civil and constitutional rights is incomprehensible. To coin a legal phrase, civil and constitutional rights do not disappear at the charter schoolhouse door. And those “pesky civil and constitutional rights”are never sidestepped.

Fallacy #4: And now, as if throwing charters under the constitutional bus wasn’t enough, we jump into the author’s favorite (and always under the surface) agenda – vouchers. If you can’t fight charters as public school competition, then let’s throw in vouchers and attack private and parochial schools, too.

Fallacy #5: It has been argued before in this blog that the rich are proposing vouchers to save money. Incredibly, the author would have us believe that the wealthy would destroy public education as we know it (italics mine but intent his) for a $5,000 “tax break to the wealthy” (see 9/25 post). The theory goes: 1) Make the state accountability tests harder; 2) Claim schools are failing; 3) Keep the conspiracy alive (e.g. OMG: they killed TPM because it looked like schools were doing OK!); 4) Therefore, failing schools need to rescued by “school choice” and “vouchers”. What an amazing conspiracy theory, and all so the rich can save more money!

Fallacy #6: The author then proposes his own school choice plan – basically the “So you want school choice? I’ll give you school choice!” program that says let parents demand anything they want from a school. You don’t like testing after 8^th grade? Done. You want your kid to take English on-line? Done. You want to set your own accountability standards for your child (no, really, I’m not making this up – see the 9/26 blog “Pretty Lies and Powerful Truth (Part B). Done. Imagine the nightmare, the frustration of teachers and administrators, trying to implement this outrageous proposal. Imagine this free-for-all parental system and the demands it would make as it ruined any ability to run any schools.

Now, to put my cards on the table, I run a charter school system and am very pro public schools. The dollars we get to run our schools are the same tax dollars that any other child gets. And I’m proud that charter schools in Texas have given thousands of students (mostly low income) a public school choice, and, I believe, a better education. But let me say a few words in defense of Milton Friedman who proposed vouchers over 50 years ago as a way to get government out of helping the “producers” of education (namely, schools) and into helping the “consumers” of education (namely, parents). He felt this was government at its best. And as to providing vouchers to parents to attend any school, well, here are his own words:

“As to the benefits of universal vouchers, empowering parents would generate a competitive education market, which would lead to a burst of innovation and improvement, as competition has done in so many other areas. There's nothing that would do so much to avoid the danger of a two-tiered society, of a class-based society. And there's nothing that would do so much to ensure a skilled and educated work force.” (Reason.com Dec. 2005 interview).

Now, I am not a voucher proponent. But the difference between Milton Friedman’s purpose for proposing vouchers (to equalize and improve the school system, especially on behalf of the poor) and the reasoning on vouchers by the author of these posts (to benefit the wealthy) is vast and ironic. I think I’ll side with the Nobel Prize winner on this one. And whenever I hear someone like the author of these LYS posts argue so vehemently and irrationally against choice (on which our very economic system was founded), it makes me wonder what interests they really have at heart – our children or our status quo school system? As for me, I say let our schools be rich, competitive marketplaces of ideas and practice and then let the parents decide what is best for their children. We will all – students, parents, teachers, administrators, the rich, the poor, and society as a whole – be better off.

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: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), 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

The Best PowerWalks E-mail Ever

A LYS Principal sent in the following:

SC,

Ever get an email like this?

Woo-hoo!!

Ms. B,

I have a parent meeting this afternoon at 3:40, is there anyway I could get a copy of my Fundamental 5 data (note: a PowerWalks report) for the meeting? One of my student’s accommodations is proximity monitoring and I think my Power Zone data would reflect this.

Thanks,

Ms. J

SC Response

What a fantastic request and further proof that schools that use the PowerWalks system do so to support teachers and improve instruction.  Here is a teacher that understands that the data validates her commitment to creating a dynamic learning environment for all students and provides a excellent source of objective instructional information in an ARD meeting. I couldn’t be more excited for the staff of HHS.

Kudos all around!

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: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), 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

PowerWalks Hero Schools (November 2012)

The LYS Nation has passed another milestone.  In the current version on the PowerWalks database, Kathryn Ramsey of Hutto Middle School conducted the 200,000th classroom observation on November 28, 2012! Who is going to conduct walk-thru 250,000?

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 11,148 PowerWalks conducted during the past month and the November targets for Hero School designation were:

Big Schools – 265 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 190 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 115 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 60 PowerWalks Observations

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

Big Schools – 250 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 175 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 105 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 55 PowerWalks Observations

Now without further adieu, here are your thirty-three PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of November 2012.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools	Junior High and Middle Schools	Alternative Schools	Combined Campuses	High Schools
McFee ES - 616 (CFISD)	Chavez MS – 422 (WISD)	Hays County – 93 (JWJPCS)	Louise Schools – 289 (LISD)	Waco HS – 500 (WISD)
JH Hines ES – 369 (WISD)	Tennyson MS - 259 (WISD)	San Marcos – 88 (JWJPCS)		Hutto HS – 470 (HISD)
Bell’s Hill ES – 357 (WISD)	Marlin MS – 117 (MISD)	Afton Oaks – 62 (JWJPCS)		University HS – 347 (WISD)
Dean-Highland ES – 350 (WISD)	Tom Bean MS - 63 (TBISD)			Tidehaven HS – 82 (TISD)
Rennell ES – 257 (CFISD)
Bill Brown ES – 249 (CISD)
Kendrick ES – 235 (WISD)
Cottonwood Creek ES – 218 (HISD)
South Waco ES - 207 (WISD)
Oak Meadows ES – 207 (MISD)
Provident Heights ES – 205 (WISD)
Crestview ES – 192 (WISD)
Alta Vista ES – 160 (WISD)
Mountainview ES – 155 (WISD)
Specht ES – 146 (CISD)
Ray ES – 145 (HISD)
Cedar Ridge ES – 136 (WISD)
Bulverde ES – 129 (CISD)
West Ave ES – 115 (WISD)
Blessing ES – 78 (TISD)
Markham ES – 76 (TISD)

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: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), 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 November 25, 2012

Of the two biggest issues facing the use of bootleg technology on campus (1. Letting students do it. 2. Infrastructure), it is infrastructure that you need to really be concerned with. Specifically, as it deals with bandwidth.

It is recommended that by the 2014/2015 school year that a campus will need at least 100 megabits per second of connectivity to the external Internet for every 1,000 students and/or staff members, and 1 gigabit per second of connectivity for data transactions within a school-wide or district-wide network (SEDTA report). And that is just to get started.  By 2017, multiply the amount of needed bandwidth by 10.

So what does that mean for your campus and/or district?  Three things:

A. What you have now will not be adequate for the immediate future.

B. You need to have somebody who knows what they are doing to assess your campus (or campuses) and give you a prioritized action plan.

C. Start budgeting and securing funds to pay for these upgrades.

As funds get tighter, those who are proactive will continue to widen the gap between their campus and the campuses led by the reactive.

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 November 25, 2012.

1. The Athletic Director never calls a coaches’ meeting during game time. Yet central office thinks nothing of taking Principals off campus multiple times a week.

2. All students should be recognized but it does not need to be done equally. What matters is that it is done in a meaningful way. (By @TheJamesRowland)

3. The brains of poor kids process information differently than rich kids, working harder to ignore irrelevant stimuli. (By @anniemurphypaul)

4. There is almost zero correlation between staff evaluations and campus ranking.

5. I can make the case that an acceptable campus has an exceptional staff, if the campus outperforms its peers.

6. The problem with PDAS is it is a subjective system presented as objective. The Principal must define and communicate the standard of excellence.

7. U.S. birth rate has dipped to lowest ever recorded, falling 8% from 2007 to 2010. (That means fewer students in the future) (By @FareedZakaria)

8. I'm always flabbergasted by presenters who utilize lousy instructional pedagogy as they present about effective pedagogy. (By @tlonganecker)

9. Teacher quality is not about what we teach; quality is all about how we teach! (By @tra_hall)

10. Payoff the first day! Added the "end cookie" (FF: closing product) on my posted objective. Kids worked in a whole new way. And had more fun doing it. (By @NikaMaples)

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: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), 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