Friday, March 22, 2013

A Superintendent Responds... The Hidden Agenda of Choice - Part 6


In response to the 12/6/2012 post, “The Hidden Agenda of Choice – Part 3,” a Superintendent replies:

To the author of the post and fellow LYSer:
Thanks for keeping the discussion going.  I have a few thoughts.
One, you are correct on “Fallacy #1” as it was originally posted.  It should read “soft (but real) requirements for continued attendance of the child.” 
I agree that as posted there is no constitutional problem.   Traditional public schools have to take all children within their boundaries and there exists no mechanism to remove them for performance, attendance, or discipline.
As to “Fallacy #2,” I once again agree with you, in part.  However, one bureaucratic entanglement charter schools are not susceptible to is compulsory education laws.  Charters can choose their kids at the enrollment and cull them as needed.  Interestingly one solution that has been proposed in lieu of vouchers is ending compulsory education.  I support Diane Ravitch’s position on charters: charters should take and keep all children and then we can truly determine the efficacy of the charter movement.  However, you are certainly correct in pointing out all the state performance and monitoring data to which charters are subject.  That just goes to demonstrate that government and bureaucracy essentially destroys everything it touches.  Given a few more laws and enough time, there will likely be very little to distinguish public charter schools from traditional public schools.  Once the door of vouchers is open, the anti-Midas touch of government will begin to systematically destroy private education. 
As to “Fallacy #3,” clarification is needed.  For a traditional public school to select students to enroll and to reserve the right to cull them would most certainly be deemed unconstitutional, yet many charter schools (and to be fair many traditional public school magnet programs) do just this.  I am not saying that charter schools violate the constitution.  What I am saying is charter schools get to play by a different set of rules, a set of rules that if used by traditional public schools would be deemed unconstitutional. 
You pointed out no fallacy in “Fallacy #4.”  Actually, I support private schools.  If we want them to survive, vouchers are a bad idea.  Private schools will be assimilated Borg style once they accept public voucher money.  Don’t believe any guarantees to the contrary.  Any guarantee given today in order to pass a voucher law can be rescinded at any time in the future.  The very influential Texas Association of Business has already stated that if private schools accept public money, they should be held to state accountability standards.
I wish “Fallacy #5” were a fallacy.  It would be more convenient if this were a conspiracy theory and I could be dismissed as a loon.  The Cato institute published a very good piece on vouchers in 1997.  The goal is an eventual total “separation of school and state.”  Here is a brief excerpt:
It is safe to say that even advocates of vouchers who are not committed to the complete separation of school and state believe vouchers would lead to a major contraction of government-run schooling. They rarely say so in public because claims by defenders of the status quo that "vouchers would destroy the public schools" still move the public to oppose reform and change. So supporters of vouchers avoid saying that.
 But when the microphone is turned off, most proponents of vouchers would say that, under a voucher system, many government schools would go out of business.
We have had our heads hidden in the sand if we believe this is “conspiracy theory.”  Anti-public school advocates are writing and publishing their intentions, and vouchers are THE key to their plans.
As to “Fallacy #6,” you point out no fallacy once again.  When I wrote Pretty Lies, Powerful Truths, my solution is purely theoretical.   However, the need for charter school expansion and vouchers could be eliminated if we simply removed the barriers to the Texas home-ruled district law passed in 1995. 
A home-ruled district would allow many of the solutions (not all) proposed in Pretty Lies, Powerful Truths, to be implemented.

SC Response
A significant point of clarification and background information. In terms of compulsory attendance, the charter school district Superintendent (and LYSer) who wrote the post to which you are responding only serves the toughest student populations in the state, children in residential psychiatric care and state and federal prisoners.  So out of every Superintendent I have ever met (including you and me) he gets to say, “I educate them all,” and really mean it. 

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

Thursday, March 21, 2013

A Principal Submits... The Power of PowerWalks Conferences


A LYS Principal shares the following:

SC,

I've been conducting individual conferences with teachers to review their PowerWalks data.  These meetings have been amazing!! The teachers have actually been excited when they actually get to see and discuss the information the charts are providing them. For the first time they can clearly see why they must teach deeper than the district curriculum if they are going to reach the higher levels of rigor and relevance necessary for student success. 

My teachers are asking great questions during these conferences and seem truly energized about honing their craft as educators.  I too am energized by just by being a part of these conversations! 

Thank you LYS!

SC Response
We are so excited for you and your campus.  We all became teachers because there is nothing more exciting than helping a student discover, grow, learn and improve.  The positive feelings we get when we are a part of this are the intrinsic motivations that allow us to survive and thrive in a profession that is so miserly in the provision of extrinsic motivators.  Then we become campus leaders and we are removed from that experience.  Unless we do what you are now doing, becoming an instructional leader who takes direct and individual action to help teachers discover, grow, learn and improve.  You still are a teacher, but now your students are bigger and bring a lot more to the table. Never stop coaching.

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

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Lesa Cain's Coaching Notes


If you are not coaching your people, they aren’t getting better.  And if your people aren’t getting better, student performance is not improving like it needs to.  You can’t escape the fundamental truth that adult practice drives student performance.  Face-to-face coaching is always your most effective leadership practice and what you should strive to do in every case.  However, sometimes circumstances prevent you from meeting face-to-face in a timely fashion. In that case, written coaching notes are the next best solution.  Below is a note that Lesa Cain sent to the instructional coaches at one of her campuses.  Hopefully, you will find the example useful.  

Hey guys! Today, Ms. W. and I did a number of PowerWalks together and saw some really great things happening in some classes and some areas in need of your coaching expertise.  Lesson Frames are hit and miss. Some are spot on and some are still activities. Please coach your people on this. I'm going to check Frames when I return in a month and if we still have a ton of activities - it's on you. You are the closest to the staff on a daily basis, so use your expertise to boost your teachers so they can boost the kids. If the teacher is not directly teaching, then coach them right then and there. Otherwise, find them between classes, in the hall, in the bathroom, before or after school - do not miss an opportunity.

You guys are so knowledgeable and the staff are willing to listen and implement what you coach them to do. My confidence in your abilities is extremely high, which is why I am being so direct with you. Remember, anything positive or negative in a school is a direct reflection of campus leadership.

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

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A LYS Teacher Asks... What Do You Really Think?


A LYS Teacher sent in the following question:

SC,

I know what you think about the anti-CSCOPE loonies. But what do you really think about CSCOPE?

SC Response
It’s interesting that you asked that question.  Most people saw my Anti-CSCOPE Loonies posts as a CSCOPE endorsement.  That wasn’t the case. The posts were intended as a "Loonies vaccination." My opinion of CSCOPE is the same as my opinion of most all professionally developed scope and sequences. It is a useful and mission critical tool that is always in draft from.  Much like the operating system for computers.  You have to have it and it always has bugs that have to be worked out. 

What CSCOPE does well, is that it meets the two primary criteria of an effective scope and sequence.

1. It is aligned to the standards that the state has set.  Any scope and sequence that isn’t aligned to state standards is a waste of effort, time and money.  Many of the people who have an issue with a scope and sequence really have an issue with the state standards.  To which the only response is, “Tough, teach the to the standard or quit the game.” 

This isn’t being harsh or cruel. It is recognition of the reality of the current situation.

2. It is revised as new standards, information, understandings and methods are presented, developed and/or learned.  Again, those who complain about the constant stream of revisions and changes are really making the case that given a choice, they would prefer to do what they want instead of what is required.

So what do I think about CSCOPE? Again, it is a tool. For me, it is simply the offensive playbook. I know that our best chance of winning is to execute the plays in the playbook with urgency and fidelity. And the more we do this, the better we get at it.

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

Monday, March 18, 2013

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of March 10, 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 March 10, 2013.

1.  Dear politician who thinks teachers should also serve as front line psychologists - Will this include more money or reduced accountability?

2.  Who would say this? "My Chevy isn't running efficiently, so I stopped paying for maintenance. I figured that would fix it." (By @STAARtest)

3.  "The economic recovery is not impacting school funding..." That's because the cuts in school funding were based on agenda, not economics.

4. An MIT professor measured students' mental activity over the course of a week. During lectures, it flatlined. (By @anniemurphypaul)

5. I don't see in any of these "voucher" bills where private schools will now take STAAR.  Or will be held accountable. (By @cheadhorn)

6. Why is carving out time for teachers to plan together considered revolutionary? It's like being shocked to hear that exercise is a good idea.

7. If private schools are so great, shouldn't the goal be for public schools to have the same advantages (class sizes, resources, etc.)? (By @cheadhorn)

8. Dare to care enough about your kids to tell them NO sometimes! (By @coolcatteacher)

9. One of my favorites: “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” (By @DrRichAllen)

10. In my view choosing to ignore social media today is a bit like living in the 1930s and deciding to ignore the telephone. (By @PensionsGuru)

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