Fundamental 5 National Summit - Two Dates - October 7 & 14, 2013

http://www.tassp.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=409

A Principal's Petition

This post highlights a petition created by LYS Principal, Sammy Wyatt.  A petition that exposes Sammy to the wrath of the Anti-CSCOPE zealots, meaning that this is a case of courageous leadership. This is because Sammy isn’t just arguing for his school, he is advocating for every school district to retain the power to select the instructional tools that best meet the needs of its staff.

By taking this action, Sammy even got a little TV time to present the argument for effective instructional tools.  You can view this by clicking to the link:

http://www.cbs7.com/news/details.asp?ID=45547

If you are interesting in signing the live petition can be accessed thru the following link

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/let-texas-schools-keep-the-exemplar-cscope-lessons/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

THE PETITION

Dear Senator Dan Patrick, 


My name is Sammy Wyatt and I am the principal of a high school in a little west Texas community near Midland/Odessa. You do not represent my area, but what you do affects me greatly as an educational leader. 

The abolishment of the CSCOPE lessons is not good for the students and educators of this state. Sure not all CSCOPE lessons are perfect, but they are much better than anything we have used before in Texas schools. These lessons are more than just activities that are used to teach students. These lessons also present a variety of progressive teaching strategies for teachers to use and learn from. Why "throw the baby out with the bath water?"

I am speaking for nearly every superintendent and principal in the West Texas area. Schools such as: Rankin, Crane, Fort Stockton, Fort Davis, Alpine, Andrews, Midland, Odessa, Kermit, Balmorhea, Monahans, McCamey, Big Lake, Irion County, San Angelo, and others served by the Region 18 Service Center.  This week I will be attending the Texas Association of Secondary Schools conference in Austin from June 11th-14th. About 90% of the 1,500 administrators at this conference will be joining together against your recent action because it ultimately hurts the education of students in Texas. I am formally starting a petition and will get as many signatures on it as possible. I have made many phone calls in the last several days including calls to Senator Duncan and Congressman Pete Gallegos and shared these opinions. 


CSCOPE is not perfect, but it is an exceptional system for the education of students in Texas. It is developed by teachers in Texas, it is transparent, it is ever-changing, it is better than a textbook, it has systematic curriculum-based assessments along the way, it provides Texas schools with an aligned curriculum, it provides example lessons for teachers to experiment with to improve their own teaching, and it is good for the students of this great state.

Lastly, this should not be a decision the Texas legislature is making on behalf of schools. Let teachers teach in the way that best fits them. Let local districts and schools determine which curriculum and instructional programs meet their needs in teaching the TEKS. I hope this recent move to abolish CSCOPE exemplar lessons is not political in nature, but I fear it is. I feel that politics has prevailed at the expense of education in Texas. It would make much more sense to just change the lessons that are questionable in content and presentation, rather than abolish all of the lessons. The hand of our Texas government is truly overextending. It is time to pull it back!  If you agree, please support this petition. 


Sammy Wyatt


Principal


Rankin High School

Again, if after reading this, you are interesting in signing you can access the live petition thru the following link

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/let-texas-schools-keep-the-exemplar-cscope-lessons/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

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 Writes... Best Tweets From the CSCOPE Debate - Part 1

In response to the 8/27/2013 post, “Best Tweets From the CSCOPE Debate,” a reader writes:

OK, let's just face it; a good teacher doesn't need CSCOPE. The real question is the money trail to a few at the ESC's that profit from this.

SC Response

It amazing how wrong you are able to be in so few words.

It is the good teacher who most needs CSCOPE.  There are three basic instructional decisions: 

A. What to Teach. 

B. When to Teach It. 

C. How to Teach It.  

Provide the good teacher with the “What and the When” (the scope and sequence) and that frees up time to get better at the how.  This actually gives that teacher the very real opportunity to build true expertise.  Experts narrow their focus, not broaden it.  To not provide a good teacher with a tool such as CSCOPE is either misguided, ignorant, or both.

There is no surprise that the ESCs profited from CSCOPE. Their mandate from the legislature was to create products that the districts would be willing to pay for to compensate for the lack of legislative will to adequately fund and support education. CSCOPE is the direct result of the Governor and legislature robbing Peter to pay Paul in order to remain elected. And as long as the electorate is brainwashed into believing that “Every Tax = Bad,” then this will remain the case.  Public infrastructure isn’t free, no matter how much you want that to be the case.  I’m sorry that your Social Studies teacher failed in teaching you this basic fact.

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

Exposing the Idiocy of the Anti-CSCOPE Zealots

I have brushed my teeth twice a day, almost every day for 45 years.  During that time I have purchased and used scores of toothbrushes, miles of floss and gallons of toothpaste.  Because of this experience, I now consider myself to be an expert in dentistry.  And due to this expertise I will now determine what practices and tools YOUR dentist will use when he/she is working on YOUR mouth.  And don’t try to convince me that my passion to fix dentistry is misguided.  My opinion is all that matters....

Welcome to the twisted logic / worldview of the Anti-CSCOPE loony. You would think that these people would be ignored and they would crawl back to their bunkers and re-adjust their tin foil hats.  That is what has always happed in the past. But now thanks to social media and a group of ambitious, pandering politicians, these people have had their craziness reinforced.  So in the interest of reason and truth (which evidently in Anti-SCOPE Loony worldview, is no longer the American way), I will address some of their most compelling “facts,” presented in their own words. Ginger and Stacy, you are up.

StaceinTexas: Common core operatives in the U.S. Department of Education are actively pursuing CSCOPE as a way around the Texas legislative process.

Cain: I don’t even know how to respond to this. Common Core Operatives? Exactly, who are these people? Over the past twenty years, I have worked in Texas education from the classroom to the policy briefing rooms.  I have met only one USDOE representative, Secretary of Education, Dr. Rod Paige (a Texas educator and mentor).  He will be the first to explain to you that the USDOE has no real power.  I’m going to trust Dr. Paige on this one.  As for CSCOPE being groomed as the vehicle to implement the Common Core, don’t let the fact that CSCOPE predates the Common Core and the Common Core is less inclusive than the TEKS get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Gingerdr: Why would tax money be used to create a product then sell it back to the taxpayers (school districts)?

Cain: Blame your elected Republican representatives for this one.  They not only cut funding to the Educational Service Centers, they then told them if they expected to survive, they had best adopt a business model and products that districts would be wiling to purchase.  CSCOPE is just one of those products.  Back when these decisions were being made, I was advising that CSCOPE should be state funded and provided to districts free of charge.  But that would have required the adequate funding of education, and we haven’t voted for anyone who believes in that into state level office in Texas for the past 15 years. Also, to further illustrate that government entities selling services is not a radical, far left, education only idea... See every contract deputy program in effect in affluent communities across the state and state park admission fees.

Gingerdr: Where is the millions of missing money on this venture (CSCOPE)?

Cain: The “profit” from CSCOPE goes into the general budgets of the ESC’s to pay for such frivolous expenditures as electricity, water, paper and staff.  Wasteful, I know.  But what are you supposed to do, when the State does not provide adequate funding and support?

Gingerdr: have not heard anyone stanch supporter of CSCOPE voice concern of the parents who are pulling their students out of public school.

CAIN: Public school is only one education option available to parents.  The choice to not educate your child in public school is driven by four primary reasons. 

1.  The desire for a morality-based instructional delivery model for your child - I both respect this choice and will defend your right to make it. 

2. The desire for an “improved” peer group for your child - If you wish to cloak your fear and/or racism by calling it something else, fine. But we both know why you have really opted to not send your child to public school. 

3. You want to avoid a consequence of your poor parenting - Again call it whatever you want, but we both know the “curriculum” is not the real issue.

4. Convenience - A non-public school is more assessable to your commute, home, etc.    

Gingerdr: CSCOPE doesn't even align with the TEKS. 

Cain: This is where we cannot agree to disagree.  Because you are wrong. In fact, it is the TEKS alignment that is the primary strength of CSCOPE.  The lack of alignment occurs when teachers deviate from CSCOPE. When you bend a nail when attempting to drive it into a 2X4, this is not the fault of the hammer, it is a user error.

Gingerdr: this is worth the millions of dollars texas taxpayers are spending??

Cain: Yes. Take a random 3,000-student district.  To provide this vertically aligned, TEKS correlated scope and sequence, with assessments and lesson resources (CSCOPE) will cost $21,000.00.

For the district to provide and support a lesser in-house product would require, at minimum, four content specialists and a secretary.  This would require a minimum personnel expenditure of $350,000.00.

So as both a steward of taxpayers money and a taxpayer myself, I chose CSCOPE ten times out of ten.  Which is why your paranoid delusions are so infuriating.  By attacking CSCOPE, not only are you making the job of teachers exceedingly more difficult, you are costing me, and the state, money. Money that you and your ilk are unwilling to provide in the first place.  At this point I don’t care where you go, as long as it away.

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

Getting Ready for the First Round of Common Assessments

A LYS Assistant Superintendent asks the following common assessment / data analysis process questions:

SC,

We are giving our first three-week Checkpoint next week! (Note: now this week.)  My inbox is filling up with questions on minutia.  Most of the questions I have an answer for but this one has stumped me a bit.

(For a particular campus) The campus data determined that African American and White students are the Academically Fragile Student (AFS) groups.  So on the Checkpoint Data Analysis form the first column is for the AFS group.  The second column is for the Economic Disadvantaged (ED) student group.  On this campus there are teachers that teach only ELL students. These teachers will not have any African American or White students in their classes.  So do they leave the AFS column blank? 

If so, does that mean from a data standpoint, they primarily focus on Economic Disadvantage students?

Also, we want to add a Special Education column to the data analysis form.  On all of this, I just wanted your thoughts.

SC Response

A host of excellent process questions; which are my favorites.

 Here's the danger of adding additional student groups to monitor... at a certain point you are back to monitoring everyone again. Which, as you know, leads to confusion and work for work’s sake. That's why in our system, we track only two groups, those being the locally determined AFS group and ED students.  As you are well aware, the ED students are double and triple dippers when it comes to accountability so there is no wasted effort in monitoring them.  Then stick with your lowest performing sub-pop (the AFS group).  

On the rare occasion that a teacher doesn't have any of the monitored students in a particular class, that is OK. You will still have data from the remaining classes.  If a teacher does not have any of the monitored kids for the entire day, then they are a niche teacher.  For the teachers with the toughest to teach students (ELL, SpEd), this does not create much of an issue.  For the teachers with the least fragile student populations, you need to schedule them at least one section of tougher to teach students. Otherwise, what you get is a group of teacher who have the idea that the use of less effective practice is OK due to the false positives (from a data standpoint) produced in mass by more advantaged students.

There are campuses that eventually get to where they are monitoring SpEd and LEP students, but not in Year One.  The reason for this is that you have to get front line, regular education teachers experiencing the success of improved adult practice before you will ever convince them that the root cause of student performance problems isn't the result of faulty kids.

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 September 1, 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 September 1, 2013.

1. While goals cannot be accomplished without activity, it is easy to confuse activity with accomplishment. (By @OCTKinney)

2. Little disinterests me more than those who blame students, their parents, community, or other external factors for low academic performance. (By @tgrierhisd)

3. Hey anti-school funding faction: Cheap doesn't get skilled and skilled doesn't come cheap. No matter how much you stomp your feet and wish. (By @LYSNation)

4. When you average all the scores in the semester, you are saying that the scores in the beginning are as important as the scores in the end. (By @justintarte)

5. Allowing for some small group purposeful talk turns meetings into meaningful discussions! (By @RandyMBrown)

6. Note taking isn't copying. Copying is simply turning your students into slow speed Xerox machines. Not a high yield practice, just a task. (By @LYSNation)

7. “Off Task” and “No Task” are the same thing. Off Task is student driven so we punish the behavior. No Task is teacher driven so it's ignored. (By @LYSNation)

8. Instructional coaching is intentional and specific! (By @kimbarker25)

9. My son received a postcard from his teacher this week telling him how wonderful he is! I love her already!! (By @fosterbkay)

10. The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just blasted past 41,000 copies sold! 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