Friday, March 18, 2016

March for a Cure - March 17, 2016 Update

March for a Cure? Yes, MARCH FOR A CURE! 

For every PowerWalks Classroom Observation conducted in the month of March, LYS will donate 5¢ to the American Cancer Society. 

Every PowerWalks Observer who conducts 200 classrooms observations between the dates of February 22, 2016 and March 31, 2016 gets a March for a Cure T-shirt.

Visit Classrooms - Beat Cancer!














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: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Conference (Multiple Presentations); LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote)
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Thursday, March 17, 2016

A Superintendent Shares... Managing Budget Cuts

Old school LYSer and Superintendent, Fletcher Turcato, shares his take on budgeting in a belt-tightening environment.  It's a short video and it's good stuff.


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: National 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


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A Reader Writes... Reasonable Accountability - Part 5

In response to the 1/14/2016 post, "Reasonable Accountability – A Primer for the Texas Legislator,” a reader asks:

SC,

I am interested in what you base the 75% standard for passing. Your use of the term "mastery" is relative. This is extraordinarily high especially for assessments such as 3rd grade reading. At the state level, only 77% of students passed at the phase 1 standard which was 50%. Perhaps the 75% passing standard would be appropriate if the assessments were appropriate for the grade levels or courses. Run the 3rd grade reading passages through a readability test. They are not written on a 3rd grade reading level, but more like 5 or 6th grade level.

SC Response
Let's start with some presuppositions:

1. The standard for “passing” the STAAR test is lower than 70%.  Meaning that students can answer fewer that 70% of the questions on the test correctly and pass.

2. On teacher selected assignments, the vast majority of teachers require at least a 70% on the assignment to receive a passing grade.

3. The STAAR test is 100% correlated to the TEKS required for the STAAR tested course.

4. The required TEKS are not a secret.  We have been accountable to teach all the required TEKS for a given course since... 2002.

5. If we teach the required TEKS at the required rigor, students should be expected to answer questions related to TEKS at a moderate level of success.

Based suppositions 2 – 5, I’m suggesting that it would not be unreasonable to set a 75% correct answer rate as an expectation.

As for your contention that the readability of the STAAR exceeds the reading level of the grade tested (you used 3rd grade as an example), I conducted an experiment.  I took three sample reading passages from the 3rd grade STAAR and ran them through an online LEXILE filter.  Here are my results:

3rd Grade Passage 1 – 830L (4th grade equivalent)

3rd Grade Passage 2 – 1,000L (5th grade equivalent)

3rd Grade Passage 3 – 820L (3rd grade equivalent)

Granted, this was an unscientific sample, not the entire test, and I cannot validate the accuracy of the on-line LEXILE filter.  But, based on your contention and my findings, it would not be unreasonable for the state to share its determination the readability level of each test. Because it would be patently unfair to have a grade level test that uses text more difficult than is required for the grade level.

Still, based on all of the above, IF the test is appropriate for the grade level, I stand by my recommendation.

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: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Conference (Multiple Presentations); LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook


Tuesday, March 15, 2016

A Superintendent Writes... Unit Lesson Plan Options - Part 1

In response to the 2/17/2016 post, “A Reader Asks... Unit Lesson Plan Options,” a LYS Superintendent writes:

SC,

I might be in the minority here, but as a campus principal for nine years, an assistant superintendent for four years and now a superintendent for over a year, having teachers turn in lesson plans for an administrator to check off for compliance is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.  If I (the instructional leader) am not going to take the time to read the lesson plan and provide input, then why in the world would I have teachers turn them in to me?  

Look, I am not saying teachers don't have to have lesson plans, on the contrary, just the opposite. They need a well-crafted plan of what they are teaching and what the students should be doing.  That lesson should be based on curriculum planning completed at a much earlier date, that as an administrator, I was involved in creating and I am supporting.  The lessons should be vetted to some extent through the PLC process by fellow teachers.  The only checks/balances/monitoring I need is when I enter your room for a PowerWalks observations or any other reason. It should be obvious to me that you have a great plan by what is going on in the room or painfully obvious to me that you don't.  If need be, a written plan should be quickly accessible either in the teachers hand or on her desk so I refer to it.

Principals should lead, not manage teachers.  Teachers should be given expectations and time to create great lessons for kids.  If they are turning in a lesson plan to me, it better be to brag about the awesome things in their classroom and invite me to come see, not for compliance.

SC Response
Agreed. Compliance planning, otherwise known as lesson fiction, is a waste of time. But not planning is even a bigger waste of time. Winging it, simply ensures that the lowest quality instruction is delivered consistently.

Which is why I’m a fan of the one page lesson plan (see: The Official Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Developer). I want my teachers to actually consider what they will teach, how they will teach it, and the desired outcome of the teaching, prior to class.  And then adjust from the plan when the actual teaching begins.

I also agree that all of this is moot, if instructional leaders don’t spend enough time in classrooms.  That it is the classroom observation that provides the best and real check to determine if effective lesson planning is actually taking place.

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: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Conference (Multiple Presentations); LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook


Monday, March 14, 2016

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of March 6, 2016

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of March 6, 2016 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. This year I'm not writing lesson plans from scratch, but instead revisiting them to see where I can inject The Fundamental 5! (By @elenisa)

2. Tulsa World Editorial: School vouchers a bad idea no matter the name. (By @shawnhime)

3. Conservatives conserve democratic institutions such as public education. They don't destroy them. Anarchists do that. (By @pastors4txkids)

4. Good things come not to those who wait, but to those who seize their opportunities. (By @CoachKWisdom)

5. I can't control what happens in a student's home, but I CAN control what happens in my classroom. (By @BluntEducator)

6. Why is it OK to have students redo courses they fail, but not OK to have them redo assignments and assessments that they fail? (By @Jeff_Zoul)

7. A conservative who wants to dismantle public education is nothing of the kind. (By @pastors4txkids)

8. The United States is a nation founded on diversity -- of race, religion, and national origin. (By @FareedZakaria)

9. The object of teaching is to enable those taught to get along without us. (By @clwilkens)

10. If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking. – General George S. Patton (By @famousquotenet)

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: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Conference (Multiple Presentations); LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook