Hiring Experienced / Successful Principals

It is no secret that Lead Your School is approached on a semi-regular basis to conduct a principal search.  The typical request is, “We need an experienced principal.  One with a significant track record of success that will lead a particular campus that for any number of reasons is undesirable to this type of principal.  And salary won’t be an issue.”

So we bring a slate of principals that meet these qualifications and the Superintendent is happy until the salary discussion begins.  Now the Superintendent realizes that the salary that will get the principal she likes the best to move is higher than what the current salary schedule in the district suggests.  So they low-ball the salary offer and the principal declines the new job.  And the Superintendent is shocked.  Because no one ever tells a Superintendent “No.”

So, here is what the Superintendent forgot.

• For the rock star principal, your district isn’t better than where the principal is coming from.
• For the rock star principal, your campus isn’t better than the one the principal is currently leading.
• For the rock star principal, your campus represents new problems to solve.
• For the rock star principal, your district represents new systems to navigate.
• For the rock star principal, your district / campus represents new personalities to learn, manage and avoid.
• For the rock star principal, your district/campus represents risk.  Risk that you are inviting them to take.

Which means Superintendents, if you are serious about poaching another district’s rock star principal, you are going to have to open your checkbooks.

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Principal Writes... PowerWalks 2.0 is Awesome!

An old school LYS Principal shares the following:

SC,

As you are aware, I have been using PowerWalks since it was first introduced.  It was a pretty exciting instrument then, but nothing compares to the new version that was launched this school year.  PowerWalks 2.0 is amazing! 

I love how you can see the scoreboard for schools and users right when you open the program.  This has been very motivational for my team of observers.  They have been working hard to get their classroom visits completed and keep us in the top schools.  The benefit of this is that we began sharing data with teachers by the first week in October.  This is the earliest, by far, that we have collected enough data to begin sharing. 

In addition to the scoreboard, the quick reports that I am able to run for observers, teams, and teachers are terrific.  And the enhanced e-mail features have made it possible to send the administrative team the counts for each of us every Friday afternoon.  No one wants to be the one that didn’t get his or her observations done!  What a great use of positive peer pressure!  We use the reports for our counts, observers inter-rater reliability reports, and department level reports as a regular part of our administrative meeting each week.  It is making a huge difference not only in the number of observations being done, but our understanding of what is going on in each classroom.

Now the best part of the program has to be the survey instrument itself.  The changes are brilliant.  You have trimmed down the indicators being monitored without sacrificing the critical items that help identify great teaching practices.  The cleaner version is easy to understand and makes it less likely that those doing the observations are rating indicators differently.  Lastly, the reports for teachers are so much easier to build and run.  The charts are clear and concise, making them easier for teachers to pinpoint areas that they want to focus on for improving their craft.

If it is not already clear, I love PowerWalks 2.0.  I appreciate your dedication to education and providing us with a quality program that helps us do our job better.  I am a lifelong fan.

SC Response

Wow!  Thank you very much.  And you aren’t alone in your observations.  The feedback on the new version has been 100% positive.

And for everyone else in the LYS Nation who is stuck using a lesser system for classroom observations, the time to change is now.  Either click on the link to set up your subscription or you can always call Jo at (832) 477-5323.

http://www.powerwalks.com/Account/Subscription.aspx

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

The Legendary Leadership Badge (December 2014)

There are those that don’t understand the power of reflective observation.  They mistakenly believe that there is nothing to learn after a few cursory visits to a classroom.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, the most important key to building insight and deeper understanding about teaching and learning is to engage in a steady volume of daily classroom observation.  What we have learned over the past 10 years is that about every 300 classroom observations, the observer will notice, discern and/or learn something new... something that was previously hidden. It is the “Eureka” moment, and there is nothing else like it in instructional leadership.

In this pursuit, there is the PowerWalks Legendary Leadership Badge that is earned every 300^th PowerWalks Observation. The following instructional leaders have already earned the Legendary Leadership Badge for the 2014/2015 school year (as of 12/31/14).

  

1 Badge

Brenda Blackmon: December 2014

Marianne Buentello: December 2014

Dexter Floyd: December 2014

GayLynn Holt: December 2014

Cara Jolly: December 2014

Brian Lowe: December 2014

Mike Metz: December 2014

Leslie Thomas: December 2014

Pam Williams: December 2014

Jim Womack: December 2014

Mary-Margaret Crandall: November 2014

Charlie Crisp: November 2014

Rita Faulkner: November 2014

Jenny Morris: November 2014

Twyla Thomas: November 2014

Lorie Bratcher: October 2014

Sean Cain: October 2014

Michael Clifton: October 2014

Rankin Hitt: October 2014

Jennifer Phillips: October 2014

Jessica Robert: October 2014

Sandra Wilson: October 2014

Chris Viator: October 2014

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

PowerWalks Hero Schools (December 2014)

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. In December, the Hero Schools met or exceeded the targets below:

The December Hero School Targets

Big Schools – 175 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 125 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 65 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 40 PowerWalks Observations.

For January, due to holidays and starting a new semester, we will adjust the targets:

The January Hero School Targets

Big Schools – 250 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 175 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 95 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 50 PowerWalks Observations.

For the record, the schools in the LYS nation conducted a total of 5,889 PowerWalks observations this past month.  But enough stalling, here are your twenty-five PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of December 2014.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools	Junior High & Middle Schools	Alternative Schools	Combined Campuses	High Schools
Rennell ES (CFISD – midsized school): 505	Winona ES / MS (WISD – small school): 522	San Marcos School (JWPCS – very small school): 150		Winona HS (WISD – small school): 331
Winona ES / IS (WISD – small school): 357	Magnolia JH (MISD – midsized school): 131			Mayde Creek HS (KISD – large school): 265
Veterans’ Hill ES (HISD – small school): 237	Big Spring IS (BSISD - small school): 125			Fairdale HS (JCPS – large school): 249
West Avenue ES (NEISD – small school): 187				Morton Ranch HS (KISD – large school): 230
Raymond E. Curtis ES (WISD – small school): 154				Weatherford HS (WISD – large school): 218
Dublin ES (DISD – very small school): 152				Iroquois HS (JCPS – large school): 186
Mary Martin ES (WISD – small school): 146				Weatherford 9th Grade Center (WISD – small school): 78
Stephen F. Austin ES (WISD – small school): 116
Refugio ES (RISD – small school): 80
Hutto ES (HISD – small school): 76
Cottonwood Creek ES (HISD – small school): 73
Marlin ES (MISD – very small school): 72
Ray ES (HISD – small school): 71
Johnson ES (HISD – small school): 69

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer 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 December 28, 2014

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 December 28, 2014.

1. I'm reading, The Fundamental Five (Cain & Laird), this week! (By @jenlezcol)

2. Dear administrators,

Spend more time in classrooms. Good teachers will love it, bad teachers will hate it, and students will appreciate it. (By @justintarte)

3. If something you're doing or thinking isn't fixing or improving the situation then it's wasting your time. (By @CoachKWisdom)

4. Vouchers are like Titanic lifeboats... Only for 1st class passengers, not an option for others.  Did we not learn from history? (By @RatliffT)

5. Research by Allington (and others) shows that students should be reading for 60 minutes and writing for 40 minutes a day IN SCHOOL. Is this your school? (By @mwaiksnis)

6. In Nevada, students who are declared habitually truant could be delayed from obtaining a driver's license, or have their license suspended. (By @PrincipalHolder)

7. Aspire to become worthy of having followers. (By @blitzkrieg607)

8. Today's Quote:  “There are quite a number of things taught in school that one has to later unlearn.” (By @DrRichAllen)

9. Federal funding for basic Research & Development should be uncontroversial, yet has fallen to lowest percentage of Gross Domestic Product in four decades. (By @FareedZakaria)

10. UH Cougars, down 6 to 31 with less the 11 minutes left in the game, score 29 points in the next 10 minutes. Win 35 to 34! Never give up! (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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook