Lesa Cain on Common Assessments

Here is Lesa Cain’s take on common assessments (note: Lesa Cain and her staff were pioneers in the use of short-term common assessments in Texas.  Her former district is still trying to figure out what her former staff now knows intuitively).

If there ever was a case of “Simple in theory, difficult in practice,” the short-term common assessment is it. So, resist the urge to make them perfect, that just complicates the process even more.  Stay focused on the purpose - to make instruction better in three-week chunks.

Practice, make mistakes, make changes. It was the messy process that led us to multiple Exemplary ratings (Title I campus, no exemptions, no exceptions, no TPM). Just dig in and start the work. People will cry, people will get mad, people will call the Board. There will be naysayers and those with weak will, but in the end, your KIDS will be the winners!"

L.C.

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Shares...LYS - A Cult or Club?

A LYS Principal shares the following:

SC,

In my district there are campuses the firmly embrace LYS and those that do not.  Personally, I’m OK with that because I don’t have to worry about the non-LYS campuses outperforming us.  But I have noticed that those campuses spend a lot of time trying to justify why they ignore LYS practices.  The latest is this.  “LYS doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know.  All it really is, is some kind of cult.”

I guess that make me a disciple? Can I get ordained?

SC Response

Funny.  I guess for those educators that aren’t fanatical about maximizing opportunities for ALL students, we can seem a little extreme. And when that intense focus and study leads to a campus leaving others behind, a little excuse making is to be expected.  But I don’t see LYS as a cult.  There is too much free and reflecting thinking involved for a cult to ever self-generate. 

Instead I see the LYS Nation as a club (or possible a tribe, by Godin’s definition).  As with any club, there are some entrance requirements of which I would submit, at minimum, consist of these:

1. A LYSer recognizes that adult practice drives student performance.

2. A LYSer values student performance over adult comfort.

3. A LYSer is aware of the Foundation Trinity and is working to improve its implementation.

4. A LYSer is aware of the Fundamental 5 and is working to improve its implementation.

5. A LYSer has participated in some level of LYS training; from on-campus to at-conference to book study.

6. A LYSer scans the blog and/or twitter feeds on a semi-regular basis and agrees with about 60% of the content and can articulate the reasons why she disagrees with the other 40% of the content.

7. A LYSer seeks out a challenge, and will invent one if none are available.

8. A LYSer believes this list is simply a draft in need of on-going review and revision. 

The educators that embrace this list are the educators that make up the LYS Nation. And regardless of their formal position, they are all LEADERS in their organizations. Maybe we need a membership card?

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Shares... CSCOPE is SAFE

A long time LYSer shares the following:

LYS Nation, 

Generally, opinions (especially those in letters to the editor) garner responses based on further opinions and do little to promote a resolution of any problem.  Opinions to the side, I want to give reason as to why CSCOPE is a valuable tool in the advancing of rigorous, relevant and retentive education for our children.  Contrary to popular opinion, CSCOPE is far more than a repository for lesson plans.  In fact, the argument raised against CSCOPE came to the attention of the public based on a lesson plan covering historical content we all learned in history class.  When the teacher put a "personal" touch to the lesson, it was blown far out of proportion and became the poster child of disagreement. 

CSCOPE is a curriculum delivery system that creates an alignment of instruction allowing students to discover the connected learning of knowledge and skills that is desperately needed for today's 21st Century P-20 world.  The YAG, VAD and IFD are tools available in CSCOPE that not only promote a sensible alignment but allow teachers to prepare students for what is the next step in their learning journey as determined by the TEKS (which was not created by CSCOPE).  It also allows teachers the opportunity to plan lessons themselves more freely because they do not have to do all the research needed in disaggregating the TEKS for each subject and grade level and be left with finding sources that are current in an ever changing world instead of from textbooks that become out-of-date within a year but are only up for adoption every five to ten years.  Knowing how the essential elements are connected, understood and even misunderstood makes our teachers more effective instructors and thus our students more effective learners. 

In today's world, our teachers need all the assistance and resources they can find and secure.  CSCOPE is one of those effective and productive resources which when properly implemented and trusted moves far beyond sample lesson plans (which can be found anywhere thanks to technology) and moves into a focused, on-target and engaging educational journey that reaches beyond what any short-staffed curriculum department could write and into what every teacher would desire - Students Achieving Future Expectations (SAFE).  CSCOPE is not the enemy of education.  It is SAFE for our teachers, students and our future.

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of August 4, 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 August 4, 2013.

1. Advice to the new and veteran LYSers for 2013/2014: Don’t just adopt the Foundation Trinity / Fundamental 5; implement it. (By @brandyjbaker)

2. Had such a great day. Sean & Lesa Cain presented Framing the Lesson. Valuable tool to focus instruction. Thank you. (By @LindaHenrie1)

3. It all comes back to baseball, you've got to close your lesson or you lose the game in the bottom of the 9th! (By @hjgrubbs)

4. Formative assessment isn't really formative until we use the information to adapt instruction. (By @csm0004)

5. Our job is to teach the kids we have - not the kids we want - not the kids we used to have - but all of the kids we have right now. (By @HeelanPride)

6. Teachers loved the Frame the Lesson training and said it was motivating them to improve! Great to have another Cain in the room with practical implementation info. (By @hjgrubbs)

7. Typical grading practices measure, "Who got it first,” better than "Who got it." (By @LYSNation)

8. Senator Patrick, leave curriculum decisions to local districts and keep politics out of the classrooms. (By @qgodwin)

9. I hate when the Tea Party treats CSCOPE like its some Black Helicopter stuff and kills any actual credibility conservatives have. (By @MattMFoster)

10. Another pop quiz: What book is the No. 1 best selling education title on Kindle, today... Again? The Fundamental 5! Thank you, LYS Nation!!! (By @LYSNation)

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook