A Principal Writes... CSCOPE - Part 1

In response to the 2/7/13 post, “The Superintendent’s Corner... CSCOPE,” a LYS Principal writes:

SC,

If you truly base your use of CSCOPE on the Foundation Trinity and improve instruction with the Fundamental Five - the pain will be less and the future will be brighter. The only conspiracy theory I believe is that the legislature wants to use public money for private and for-profit schools. They have declared war on public education and this is one more attempt to take away a tool that they do not control. A tool that is extremely effective when used properly. 

Just my thoughts.

SC Response

I cannot disagree with anything that you wrote.  Here is what is madding for those who believe in responsible government.  CSCOPE is an excellent use of taxpayer dollars.  Instead of every district attempting to reinvent the wheel in the form of a standards aligned scope and sequence (which represents a colossal waste of money) districts simply join the CSCOPE cooperative (which represents a colossal savings of money). Sounds like a win to me.  Unless you want public schools to fail to further the agenda of those who fund your election campaigns. 

I openly weep for my state for its dearth of statesmen and public-minded leaders in the halls of power.  I pray that we can recover from the wounds they inflict.

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

A Reader Writes... Immediate Feedback After a Short Walk-thru - Part 1

In response to the 1/23/2013 post, “Immediate Feedback After a Short Walk-thru,” a reader writes:

SC,

We've discussed this before, but I have to put in my two cents on, "Should I give teachers feedback after every short walk-thru?"

My answer is, “If you can, you need to try and give some type of feedback, albeit, short and informal.”

Then I would follow your advice and meet every 3 - 6 weeks and review trends and coach.

Why? As Brezina says, the 4th "R" is "Relationships." Students make huge improvements/changes when teachers make a connection with them.

Teachers are no different. If the Instructional Leader is constantly conducting PowerWalks, teachers want to know what is being observed and if they are doing a good job. Yet, we know that people need specific feedback. Just saying "Good job" won't make changes. I do my PowerWalks and pick out one thing I like. Then at the first opportunity, in one sentence tell the teacher, "I like ___ because..." In the next sentence I say, "You could improve ____, if you did, ____." I connect it to one of the Fundamental 5. If I don't see them within 24 hours, I drop them an e-mail. My final comment is, "We'll talk more about the overall trends at our next meeting."

Now I have a specific to follow up with when we meet and I have a ton of data from PowerWalks. Plus, my teacher is happy because I gave her some feedback. Finally, after the teacher begins to trust you (you've built the relationship), you do not have to give the feedback every time.

This process creates buy-in for the Fundamental Five and the change process.

SC Response

First, I have to clarify, Brezina teaches that the only “R” is results.  Rigor, Relevance and Relationship are tools in the pursuit of results.  Playing for Lombardi will permanently shape your worldview. Much like working for Brezina. 

Second, I don’t advocate being a robot and not talking to teachers. But I also know that in many cases, one 3-minute observation tells me nothing.  I have to let my teachers know that.  Which means sometimes, I have nothing of substance to share.  We all have to be OK with that.  When it comes to classroom observations, we are all better served (observer and observed) when the observer channels her inner golf coach.

When you take a golf lesson, the pro has you hit a number of balls while he just observes your swing.  The pro will put you at ease, give you some encouragement and occasionally remind you of some basics, while observing and analyzing the complex, inter-related process that is the golf swing.  Then after watching enough swings to separate random occurrence from typical practice, the pro will then work with you on the critical misstep (as opposed to every misstep) that are preventing you from achieving your goals.

That’s why you visit classrooms, that’s why you collect data and that is why you coach your staff.

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

A Reader Writes... Advice for the First Year Principal - Reboot 1

In response to the 7/18/2010 post, “Advice for the First Year Principal,” a reader who was browsing the LYS Blog archives writes:

I disagree with #3. I work at a school for a new principal with whom I have a good working relationship (This is possibly due to the nature of my position). Our teaching staff has been losing morale and we have likewise been losing staff. Good staff. Now, the changes the principal wants to bring about are becoming more difficult to achieve because we are constantly starting over with new teachers. Student performance has also suffered from lack of continuity. And, the teachers we are keeping are less motivated and less trusting of the principal so student performance is slipping. Morale leads morale and solid relationships are worth building early on.

SC Response

There is gold in the archives. First to refresh everyone’s memory, from the original post...

3. Don’t worry about morale. Don’t even get in this fight. You’re new and you represent change. New and change is the perfect recipe for a dip in morale. Instead focus on student performance, especially short-term measures. As the staff sees student performance improve, their morale will bounce back. Tattoo this to your bicep, "Performance Leads Morale!"

First I need to do some vocabulary work.  The definition of morale: Unit cohesion in the face of adversity.  If people are jumping ship at the onset on adversity, you don’t have a sudden problem with morale.  You didn’t have a measurable level of morale to begin with.

Second, you are misguided.  The equation is, and only is, Performance Leads Morale.  The question every leader should ask is, “How do you build morale?”

Here is the short answer:

1. Instill a belief in the mission of the organization.

2. Instill confidence in the plan that will be used that will position the organization to accomplish the mission.

3. Instill confidence that the training, tools and support provided to staff will position them to have a high probability of executing the plan.

4. Instill confidence in the quality of leadership.

5. Lead by example, with sterling integrity, confidence, competence and high visibility.

Notice there is nothing in this answer that is directly correlated to making sure that people are happy.  

Happiness isn’t what gets a person to leap into the breech.  It is high morale.

As for relationships, I won’t say they are not important, because appropriate, professional relationships are critical. However, most people in education confuse professional relationships with personal relationships, and the two are not the same and one does not begat the other.  In fact, in most cases, they should be mutually exclusive.

As for people leaving, in most cases, this is a false indicator.  The typical campus will experience between 13% to 23% staff attrition every year.  It is a natural occurrence. With a change in leadership, you can expect a 5% to 10% increase in this attrition rate.  Again, this is a natural occurrence.  But now everyone is more sensitive when people leave, so every exit is attributed to the change in leadership.

None of this is to presented to defend your new principal.  I don’t know him or her and I have no background information on your campus.  But from a clinical standpoint, the information you have shared is not enough for me to make any kind of objective assessment.

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

A Superintendent Writes... A Synthesis of Montelongo and Cain

A LYS Superintendent share the following:

LYS Nation,

I had the privilege of working directly with John Montelongo several years ago at an inner-city, 5A high school.  Like most schools, we were struggling with math scores and to combat this Montelongo had developed a warm-up book.  Montelongo had analyzed his school-wide data and determined his school's weakest objectives in math and then developed a series of warm-up lessons to be used in math classes, every day.  I considered it the carpet-bombing approach to the problem, but I didn't see what it would hurt, and I knew better than betting against Montelongo.  At the end of the year that high school jumped from AU, skipped acceptable, and became Recognized.  Granted, we did a lot more than just implement the Montelongo warm-ups.  Both Montelongo and I were very well versed in the LYS practices and we descended on the campus, full-speed, with everything we knew.  It was beautiful, and another chapter in the ever growing book of LYS success stories.

Fast-forward a couple of years.  I was doing LYS training with Cain at another struggling high school.  Cain is one of the first to understand, and then create a process based on that understanding, that you use 3-week common assessment data to find the deepest holes in student understanding.  After each common assessment the teacher analyzes the data for her class, identifies the "deepest hole" (the most missed objective) and then develop a re-teach plan.  When Cain trained us, though I don't recall why, for some reason our database was messed up and we did not have access to our common assessment data for the training.   Cain did not miss a step, we simply used historical TAKS data disaggregated by classroom and analyzed it to find the "deepest hole."

Montelongo was finding the deepest hole, but on a school wide basis, and using historical testing data.  Cain was finding the deepest hole using targeted frequent assessments.  But I had seen the power of Montelongo's strategy, and it was hard to dismiss.  On the other hand Cain's strategies are also very successful and hard to dismiss.  So I began thinking about barriers to learning.  Cain with his Fundamental Five and Foundation Trinity addresses the adult practices are a barrier to learning.  Of course Cain is correct (trust me, you don’t want to argue with his data), but there are other factors.  In short, what learning barrier caused the "deepest hole" effect?

Fast-forward another year and now I’m a superintendent in a district with a struggling high school (detect a trend here?). It occurred to me that when several students have not done well on the same objective there is a learning theory explanation.  It is very likely the learners had no cognitive hooks on which to connect new learning to what the brain already knew.  Gaps in learning can be caused from an unaligned curriculum, poor teaching, or any number of other reasons.  It is also possible to have an aligned curriculum, adequate or better teaching, and to still have "deepest holes" in a classroom due to a lack of cognition. 

So I combined Cain and Montelongo, put in a pinch of learning theory, and came up with a plan.  I used Cain's process of 3-week common assessments and data analysis to drive the RTI and re-teach process. We did this district wide.  We also used historical data, TAKS and other data, to determine the historical deepest hole in every individual classroom in the district.  This deepest hole was addressed with warm-ups and was assessed every nine weeks instead of the quick three-week cycle.  Cain's method added more precision to Montelongo's approach.  Note, I do not worry if the warm-up is not always aligned to the curriculum.  We follow the CSCOPE scope and sequence for three weeks assessments and piggy back what we teach in the warm-up cycle on top of that.  The purpose is to try to make cognitive "hooks" so that when we reached the historical deepest hole SE in the current year's curriculum sequence there will be something for the learning to stick to.

This is working for us. Last year 97% of our students passed Algebra 1 EOC at the Level 2 phase in level.  Not awesome, but not bad.

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

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of March 31, 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 31, 2013.

1. No research supports low grades prompt students to try harder. Low grades prompt students to withdraw from learning. (By @kimbarker25)

2. E. Don Brown: “People do computer interventions so they can say they tried something. Cheaper than a teacher and gives the appearance of effort.” (By @txschoolsupe)

3. Students in grades 5 & 8 will have to pass STAAR this year for automatic promotion, TEA chief rules. The one-year reprieve was just that. (By @e_mellon)

4. If you aren’t making a conscious effort to get better, you’re becoming less relevant because those around you are moving rapidly ahead. (By @hjgrubbs)

5. We all know that an effective teacher will outperform an ineffective one. But an ineffective teacher with the right tools can keep pace.

6. Systems matter. That's why the implementation of the Foundation Trinity is so critical. It moves teachers up at least one stratum.

7. Administrators can minimize the fears faced by many educators with clear communication, targeted professional development and empathy. (By @gunnellAP)

8. People are missing the point. A-F school rating is not meaningful or useful if no one understands what it takes to earn the rating. (By @txschoolsupe)

9. Getting better with experience is part of the learning process, and it takes time. We MUST allow students and teachers time needed to grow. (By @Shakespeare72)

10. Telling Isn't Training! (By @DrRichAllen)

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