Friday, October 4, 2013

PowerWalks Hero Schools (September 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 13,299 PowerWalks conducted during the past month and the September targets for Hero School designation were:

Big Schools – 325 PowerWalks Observations
Medium Sized Schools – 225 PowerWalks Observations
Small Schools – 125 PowerWalks Observations
Very Small Schools – 65 PowerWalks Observations

Next month, as you can see below, the bar will be raised a little bit higher

Your October Hero Targets
Big Schools – 350 PowerWalks Observations
Medium Sized Schools – 250 PowerWalks Observations
Small Schools – 150 PowerWalks Observations
Very Small Schools – 75 PowerWalks Observations.

Now without further ado, here are your twenty-three PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of September 2013.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools
Junior High and Middle Schools
Alternative Schools
Combined Campuses
High Schools
McFee ES (CFISD: mid-sized school) - 566
Carver Academy (WISD: mid-sized school) - 676
San Marcos (JWJPCS: very small school) - 157
Louise Schools (LISD: small school) - 154
Hutto HS (HISD: big school) - 774
Bell’s Hill ES (WISD: small school) - 336
Cesar Chavez MS (WISD: mid-sized school) - 593

Wink Schools (WLISD: small school) - 125
Mayde Creek HS (KISD: big school) - 672
Ray ES (HISD: small school) - 319
Tennyson MS (WISD: mid-sized school) - 459

McMullen County Schools (MCISD: small school) - 130
University HS (WISD: big school) - 608
Rennell ES (CFISD: mid-sized school) - 259
Hutto MS (HISD: mid-sized school) - 274


Fairdale HS
(JCPS: big school) - 583
West Ave ES (WISD: small school) - 225
Farley MS (HISD: mid-sized school) - 264


Kennedale HS (KISD: mid-sized school) - 310
Marlin ES (MISD: small school) - 216




Dublin ES (DISD: small school) - 205




JH Hines ES (WISD: small school) - 166




Dean Highland ES (WISD: small school) - 148





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

Thursday, October 3, 2013

A Superintendent Writes... What Do You Really Think - Part 4


In response to the 3/19/13 post, “What Do You Really Think,” a LYS Superintendent writes:

SC,

Amen, Sean. CSCOPE is a tool and a tool that we had to find in order to align the three curriculums Fenwick English identified: the written curriculum (TEKS with SEs); the taught curriculum (scope and sequence tools with lessons like CSCOPE); and the tested curriculum (STAAR/EOC). If these are not aligned... Student success suffers and teachers spin wheels with lots of effort but little to show for it. In Texas, the written and tested are decided. We have to align the last item or our campuses fail with big gaps between disaggregated groups. CSCOPE is not perfect, but it was born out of a politically highlighted need. It's still a work in progress. Try to write scope and sequence with pacing guides and lessons and units on your own as a small district... This might have been possible with adequate funding and unlimited time.  Neither of which our state provides. The ESCs just tried to fill that tall order, on an accelerated timeline, on a limited budget, without state aid help. So no wonder it has gaps and is still developing. But it's an aligned start.

DK

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

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

An Assistant Superintendent Writes... What Do You Really Think - Part 3


In response to the 3/19/13 post, “What Do You Really Think,” a LYS Assistant Superintendent writes:

SC.

As usual you are right on target. Good teaching is good teaching. If our students are assessed on the standards then we must make sure we teach the standards. How many of us plan our summer vacation down to the last detail and how many of us just get in the car and start driving? My experience has been the planners use the data as the science of teaching. The really great teachers use the data to hone the art of teaching to make it meaningful. 

SC Response
Here is what wears me out and sadly I witness this over and over again.

Teachers who believe that they have done something enough that they can just “wing-it.”  The problem with this mindset is that you actually can wing it and cover your content.  But you will cover that concept with your default practices.  Which means the lowest common denominator of a person’s skill set.  “Winging it” does make your job easier in the short-run, but in the long run all you are doing is leaving potential and performance on the table.

Now the retort to this observation is, “I don’t have time to plan for multiple preps, everyday.”

And I agree. If the teacher has to plan for what to teach, when to teach it and how to teach it (even for a single prep) this is an overwhelming, if not impossible task.  Which is why the use of a common scope and sequence is a complete no-brainer.  Take “The What” and “The When” off a teacher’s plate.  This represents a significant and daily gift of time.  Time that can be used to plan for a better, more enriching, more engaging “How.”  EVERYBODY wins.  Teachers, students and the community.   

Or we can just keep ignoring the tools and winging it. If we do we can bemoan the results, finger pointing and sanctions all we want; but those things are just the predictable results of purposeful inaction.

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

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

A Reader Writes... The Common Assessment Process - Part 4


In response to the 3/13/13 post, “The Common Assessment Process – Part 3,” a long time LYSer writes:

SC,

I had an interesting discussion about the implementation of common assessments and benchmarks with a state literacy expert.  What is abundantly clear is that the STAAR and EOC assessments are more than ever, reading literacy assessments. 

Students find themselves more challenged by the rigor and complexity of the assessments as the supported level of reading competency is progressively decreased from grade level to grade level.  How we got away from literacy, both academic and life literacy, and the development of interdisciplinary vocabularies is beyond me.  But, the fact remains that we have isolated core content areas from each other in a desire to specialize, especially at the secondary level. The impact of this can be seen in the urging of the use of common assessments as benchmarks. 

I tried to make the point that it is difficult to administer Social Studies assessments at the high school level when the assessments are built to specific literacy levels.  The same is true for all other content areas.  Complicating this reality, especially at campuses and districts that are working to dig out of being academically unacceptable because student performance is not at grade level, is the desire to administer benchmarks in lieu of common assessments. Testing students on the entirety of the content prior to the material being introduced seems detrimental to the learning process.  Such benchmarks do not focus on the supporting standards required and the pre-supporting standards that may not have been mastered either.  I have to wonder if we are actually caught in the eddy of assessed illiteracy, with no diagnostic or recommended response.

SC Response
An excellent, reasoned extension of the discussion. 

I have to agree with your initial concern/observation.  If the rigor of an assessment is increased, that increased rigor necessitates increased literacy competency.  Which means that literacy instruction and support must be scaffolded, PK-12.  Which as we all know, isn’t the case.  This isn’t a new need.  The experts have been preaching this since I was in the classroom (very early 90’s).  In the long run, this situation can be corrected without a lot of effort (in fact the solution actually reduces the work stress loads for most teachers).  But the solution is rarely implemented because it looks slightly different from what we have always done.

In the short-run, at the secondary level (where you work) here is 80% solution. Start reading more, especially in ELA and Social Studies.  Start writing more, in all subject areas.  Start having students talk more, about what they have read, done, wrote about and/or will write about. Do this every day in every class.  Then with your short-term assessments, do your trend analysis and tackle the deepest hole and the deepest gap.  Don’t worry about the “bubble / almost got it” items.  You don’t have time to fix everything, all the time, so don’t try.  Instead make a purposeful baby step every day, every class. This adds up and the gaps will close.  But the expectation that one can fix years of deficits quick and easy is either a pipe dream or selective recruitment.   

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

Monday, September 30, 2013

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of September 22, 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 22, 2013.

1. Getting our students to write critically every day is imperative.  Student reflection and synthesis lead to higher rigor! (By @mathayres)

2. We should hear less "Be Quiet," and more "Talk about what you are learning," in our classrooms. (By @Snowmanlearning)

3. "Frequent Purposeful Talk is a great way to monitor understanding and document the effectiveness of our RTI." Karen Rocker (By @CabidaCain)

4. Teach students to read like detectives and write like investigative reporters. (By @Jeff_Zoul)

5. The ongoing discussion on school safety begins and ends with exterior door security. (By @LYSNation)

6. Many policymakers mean well but are blind to what actually happens in within the halls of schools. (By @RYHTexas)

7. Bad instructional practices + a good excuse = bad instructional practices. (By @LYSNation)

8. Rethinking Breaking Ranks, and then I see E. Don Brown's name. Now it all makes sense! (By @TinneyTroy)

9. Morale follows performance. Focus on student success. As that improves, so will morale. (By @LYSNation)

10. It never gets old sharing this. The Number 1 best selling education book on Kindle, today? 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

Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Fundamental 5 National Summit - Your 1-week and 2-week Reminder!

A message from a LYS Assistant Superintendent:

I just met with E. Don Brown and Harry Miller at LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB conference. We were discussing my team of principals and teachers preparing for the big Fundamental 5 Summit in Dallas (also in Austin). 

We are stoked!!

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