Friday, February 8, 2013

The Ol' Ball Coach Shares... The Best Gift


Regular blog contributor and LYS Legend, The Ol’ Ball Coach, asked that I pass this on to LYS Nation.

SC,

As I listen to venom and disrespect directed towards educators in general and teachers in particular, I’ve been thinking a lot about my aunt.


Aunt Erin taught 5th grade for 44 years and when she retired from Sinton ISD the district and the community gave her a grand party.  It was a big deal and she was showered with accolades and presents. A couple of weeks after the celebration I asked Aunt Erin what was the best gift that she received?  Without a moments hesitation she said it was a handwritten letter from a former student.

It seems that unbeknownst to my aunt, the year this student was in her class the student was the victim of some terrible things at her home.  It was a very dark time in her life.  In the letter the student thanked my Aunt because at that time the only positives in her life were my Aunt’s class and the attention that my Aunt gave her every day.  She credited my Aunt for giving her the strength to persevere and an example of what she could be.

A student letter was the greatest gift Aunt Erin ever received.

LYS Nation, you cannot comprehend how important the work you do everyday actually is.  And you may never know how much of a positive impact that work you do will have on the future of your students. Just know that you are working for a greater good.

The Ol’ Ball Coach

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), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like LYS on Facebook

Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Superintendent's Corner... C-Scope


A LYS Superintendent addresses some concerns about C-Scope (note: C-Scope is an vertically aligned scope and sequence used by hundreds of school districts).

I was recently asked a question concerning C-SCOPE and admittedly, gave a poor response.  Luckily, because of the blog, I get a re-do, so here goes...

Most professions have sub-specialties within the field.  For example, in medicine you don't go to a neurologist for a heart problem.  In law, attorneys that handle personal injury law are generally not experts in criminal law defense.  The profession of education is no different.

In broad categories education has at least three sub-specialties:

1. Operations/Finance/Policy

2. Instruction

3. Curriculum & Assessment

Each of these sub-specialties can further be subdivided.  For example, Instruction can be general, special education, deaf education, and others.  The problem is many educators consider themselves experts in many if not all of these areas.  In reality, an exceptional educator will be proficient or better in one expertise and familiar with the others.  Of course many politicians and wonks outside the field of education are without a doubt experts in all areas of education, which is fortunate for those of us who have devoted our lives and careers to the field.

In Texas, the area of curriculum and assessment is being dominated by C-Scope, which has been controversial since the day it was created.  The reasons for the controversy are many, but here are some factors:

1. Instructional leaders (principals, superintendents) have poor understanding of curriculum and have mismanaged the implementation of C-SCOPE.  This usually involves unrealistic mandates concerning the use of C-SCOPE by teachers.

2. Some teachers simply don't like being told what to teach and when to teach it.  The concept of horizontal and vertical alignment is lost to these teachers, or worse, they just don’t care.

3. Too many people expect perfection out of a curriculum.  Every error or inconsistency in C-SCOPE was deemed as "proof" that CSCOPE was worthless.  Newsflash: There is no perfect curriculum. 

The problem of C-SCOPE efficacy is beginning to boil over.  Some districts have taken the approach of having teachers writing curriculum for the district.  The problem with this approach is that virtually 100% of teachers (and administrators) have 0% expertise in curriculum development.  Teachers should have expertise in instructional design and delivery.  Most teachers need only be familiar with curriculum, generally to the implementation level, but certainly not to the curriculum design and evaluation level.  To be clearer: administrators and teachers, we must have a curriculum, and it is very, very unlikely that very many administrators and teachers know very much about curriculum design at all; it is a separate specialty in education. 

The C-SCOPE boil over prompted SBOE member Thomas Ratliff to release the following:


I think Thomas Ratliff nailed it, yet problems persist.  For example, there has been a rumor floating around since October that Pearson has acquired C-SCOPE. This is not true, but there are those convinced none the less.  This falls into the "conspiracy theory" section that Ratliff  refers to.  The problem is, there is too much truth to the Pearson "conspiracy" overall, so every time educators hear anything about Pearson, it is assumed true. I don't think Pearson has some evil conspiracy in mind at all.  Nor do I think Pearson has the best interest of children in mind.  I simply think Pearson is trying to make money.  In many ways Pearson and its supportive legislatures are the "heart of the vampire" Robert Scott was referring to just a year ago.

Still, the winds of politics are ever changing.  The ultra-conservative politicians that Texans now seem to favor would love to get the TESCCC out of the curriculum business and turn it over to a private entity, such as Pearson, for example.  No conspiracy here either, we keep electing those that are clear with their agenda.  We just seem to be surprised that they really are acting on that agenda.

And with this legislative session, those who have axes to grind against C-SCOPE see an opportunity to piggy-back on the less government, more charter school, less public school funding, voucher coat tails.  That is a shame, because in districts that have fully and effectively implement C-SCOPE, I have never seen anything but good results for kids.

Some suggestions for TESCCC:

1.  Your user agreement was obviously written by lawyers to protect a product.  I get that, but many people will read the user agreement and see hidden agendas, secrecy, skullduggery, and conspiracy.  I would recommend going to a Linux model of curriculum delivery: open source.  Put everything out there and get rid of the pay wall. 

You don't need to worry nearly as much about user agreements when you are open source.  Very few private companies can compete against what is given as free.  This is the model both Android and Linux use, and it is very, very effective.  If you don't believe it install Linux Mint 13 Mate on your PC. You will never use another Microsoft product after you do.

2.  The exemplar lessons are a huge source of contention.  I would remove exemplar lessons from C-SCOPE as an official part of the product.  I would use some other forum for teachers to create and share specific lessons that are organized to the C-SCOPE framework.  Perhaps that platform already exists under Project Share?  Well-intended but controversial lessons will be picked up from the battlefield and promptly fired back at TESCCC, with effect.

3.  Simplify, simplify, simplify.  Go to a scope and sequence aligned to the tested TEKS.  That's it.  Do it at no cost to districts.  Besides, administrators forcing teachers to teach at the C-SCOPE lesson level are part of the problem.  Those administrators are using their positions and power to force a well intended but misguided approach to C-SCOPE implementation.  That too is battlefield pick-up being fired at TESCCC with effect. 

I am a big fan of CSCOPE, and I would rather see it simplified, free, and open sourced rather than lose it for any reason.

SC Response
First, everyone should click on the link and read SBOE Member Ratliff’s short history lesson on C-Scope. His two-page summary eviscerates the anti C-Scope conspiracy theory.

Second, I agree with over 90% of what you have written. In Texas, the use of C-Scope is really a no-brainer.  The Foundation Trinity is built on the implementation of a decent, vertically aligned, and accountability test correlated scope and sequence.  Not only does C-Scope fit the bill, it is a much better tool than any individual teacher can now create.  Those that argue otherwise only prove their ignorance of the purpose, role and quality of the tool.

As for the Pearson/C-Scope rumors, I think that began last session when our elected leaders who are friendly with Pearson openly questioned whether the ESC’s should be building C-Scope for districts.  Our Republican legislators have taken the position that Pearson is “better qualified” to develop the curriculum that our teachers use. Because as we all know, outsourcing every component of public education to multi-national corporations is what is best for children. Or, is that what is best for contributions to re-election campaigns? As a professional educator, I easily get confused.

I agree with the open source model in theory, if the state would fund C-Scope development, maintenance, improvement and delivery.  But that is not going to happen. Our current political leadership simply refuses to fund education at an adequate level.  So in the absence of enlightened leadership, a co-op, pay-for-use model is the most practical solution.

I agree that the exemplar lessons have been a significant source of contention and an on-going work in progress.  And if the state hadn’t switched from TAKS to STAAR, I too would recommend ignoring them (which I did).  However, I am also aware that the practice of collaborative instructional planning is almost as rare as unicorn sightings.  With STAAR, the exemplar lesson is no longer a luxury.  Though not perfect (far form it), they do give teachers a starting point for creating and providing aligned and paced instruction.  Teachers and administrators must come to the realization that we have to play the game we are in, not the game we wish we were in.  As you mention above, it’s what we have been consistently voting for over the last 15 years.

Finally, I completely agree that C-Scope biggest failing is poor leadership and poor implementation by those in the field. Honestly, how simple can you make a curriculum tool designed for ever-changing high stakes accountability and have it still be effective? Maybe C-Scope should come with the following warning label: Warning –Poor leadership and lazy practice will result in significant pain and pushback.     

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), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation and like LYS on Facebook

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

PowerWalks Hero Schools (January 2013)


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 11,886 PowerWalks (Outstanding Job) conducted during the past month and the January 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 February, due to the short month, weather and a federal holiday, we’ll maintain the January targets.

Now without further adieu, here are your thirty-five PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of January 2013.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools
Junior High and Middle Schools
Alternative Schools
Combined Campuses
High Schools
McFee ES - 451 (CFISD)
Tennyson MS - 334 (WISD)
San Marcos – 101 (JWJPCS)
Louise Schools – 265 (LISD)
Waco HS – 704 (WISD)
Bell’s Hill ES – 372 (WISD)
Chavez MS – 300 (WISD)
Afton Oaks – 88 (JWJPCS)

University HS – 605 (WISD)
JH Hines ES – 364 (WISD)
Hutto MS – 271 (HISD)


Hutto HS – 518 (HISD)
Dean-Highland ES – 336 (WISD)
Indian Spring MS – 263 (WISD)


Smithson Valley HS – 518 (CISD)
Kendrick ES – 304 (WISD)
Mountain Valley MS – 258 (CISD)


Kennedale HS – 199 (KISD)
Frazier ES – 244 (CFISD)



Ray ES – 236 (HISD)




Bill Brown ES – 182 (CISD)




Cottonwood Creek ES – 174 (HISD)




Provident Heights ES – 166 (WISD)




West Ave ES – 162 (WISD)




Morningside ES – 159 (CISD)




Johnson ES – 155 (HISD)




South Waco ES - 141 (WISD)




Startzville ES – 134 (CISD)




Hutto ES – 138 (HISD)




Indian Springs ES – 122 (CISD)




Bluebonnet Trails ES – 118 (MISD)




Alta Vista ES – 139 (WISD)




Dublin IS – 74 (DISD)




Dublin ES – 73 (DISD)




Markham ES – 65 (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: TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of January 27, 2013


A number of you in the LYS Nation are now Twitter users.  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 27, 2013.

1. Today (1/31/2013), The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) is the best selling education leadership book on Kindle! Thank you LYS Nation!

2. I've seen lesson frames, work in the power zone, small group discussion, critical writing, and technology used to research and collaborate! And it's only 10 am!!! (By @tjadams105)

3. I just observed Coach Swick (Farley MS) close his science lesson with a critical writing activity. This is the best (and only) close I have seen in the New Year!

4. Close your eyes... If your classroom looks just like the classrooms when you were in school, you might want to consider a makeover. (By @justintarte)

5. PowerWalks are transforming our campus. Teachers expect to see an administrator in their classroom everyday. Disappointed when we don’t visit. (By @blitzkrieg607)

6. BYOT and BYOD (Bring Your Own Technology / Device) aren’t about implementation; it’s about an end of prohibition! (By @tra_hall)

7. If you grade everything, you are sending a very loud and clear message to your students; grades matter, learning is secondary... (By @justintarte)

8. Be careful who you share your weaknesses with. Some people can't wait to use them against you! (By @coachwrong)

9. 4.4 million people living in poverty and Governor Perry does not want to invest in Medicaid or education. (By @DrJerryRBurkett)

10. The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just rocketed past 26,000 copies sold! Again, 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: TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Monday, February 4, 2013

Blog and E-mail: A Review of Functions and Features


Some of you have seen a version of this post before, but since I wrote it, we have added approximately 100 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 Principal Search page; Lead Your School campus support site; PowerWalks site; Amazon.com page for “The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction”; 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: 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: 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), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation