Pulling Forward or Pulling Back

Here’s a scary truth that most of us don’t realize until the day after we leave the principalship of a campus.  When it comes to campus performance, the principal is either the accelerator or the brake. And all too often, with the best of intentions, we are the brake.

Two factors drive this. First, like most people, the natural tendency of teachers is to slow down.  This is not a laziness issue, it is a comfort and confidence issue.  We avoid discomfort which means avoiding new practice. And we avoid not feeling confident which, again, means avoiding new practice.

Second, as Principals, we are hypersensitive to not overwhelming our staff.  We know that we are pushing them, but we don’t want to push them so hard they quit.

But here is the thing, good teachers and good teams want to accomplish meaningful things.  Sure, they grumble along the way, but that is just the human condition.

Don’t walk out the door with the realization that your good people wanted to be great, were willing to be great but the only thing holding them back from achieving exceptional things was… you.

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 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Texas ASCD Summer Conference, Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Writes... Playing Against a Stacked Deck

A LYS Superintendent writes the following:

SC,

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and admit that I don’t have the answer. It is clear from state testing data that our students do better every year they are out of 3rd grade.  I am confining this discussion to reading but that trend is true across the board.  By the time our students get to high school their scores, except for ELA, are about where you would expect them to be for a population that is over 95% economically disadvantaged.

My baseline assumption is this phenomenon is true because our Pre-K through 2 teachers have been struggling.  Something that we have been making strides in remedying.  But something else occurred to me when I was reviewing district Lexile levels (note: Lexile levels are from a normalized distribution of a nationwide sampling). Now you know the community we serve is impoverished.  Which brings to me ask:

Is it possible in a community sufficiently isolated, sufficiently small, sufficiently poor to have a distribution significantly less than a normalized scale?  Of course it's possible, but what do you think the chances are: Poor, Fair, Good?  

I ask because in order to pass the 3rd grade reading STAAR the state sets a correlated Lexile level of 510L.  It’s easy to see above that (510L), the mean in a nationwide normalized distribution is 540L which means the state says you can only be slightly below the mean and still pass the STAAR exam.  

But what if you start with a population that significantly skewed left because of the various factors I listed, and perhaps other factors?   

What are the odds of having a population that does not look like the national norm sample at all?  What if your sample is skewed hard left?  If that is the case, would not trying to push many standard deviations to the right be mathematically virtually impossible? At least in the short run?

Yet another way to explain why the students do better as the years go on is the Lexile level ranges narrow each year.  

What if the state has a fundamental misunderstanding of normalized distributions?  What if a school’s population looks nothing like the national norm?  I think this is testable.  Test all elementary students at midterm for their Lexile level and see what the distribution looks like.  

SC Response

I was writing about a similar observation to yours, yesterday.  Basically, it is very difficult to perform above your wealth level in the early elementary grades.  The reason for this is that wealth of the family is the primary driver of student performance. In the early school years, home experience significantly outweighs school experience.  If instruction were uniform across the state, the wealth of family effect would always be the primary driver of student performance.  However, if a student were exposed to above average instruction for an extended period of time (multiple years), then the quality of delivered instruction would become the primary driver of student performance.  We have observed this in exemplar (value adding) schools and districts. And every year, the value added increases.

Your Lexile questions are valid and real.  Which will always make 3^rd grade performance difficult.  But the question within your control is, “Does your district provide multiple years of exemplar instruction?”

At this time, the answer is no. 

The other side of the coin is what happens when a student is exposed to multiple years of below average instruction.  In this case, the student will perform below the level predicted by the wealth of the family.  This would be a value-subtracting situation.  Based on what you inherited, it is possible that this is what has been occurring in your elementary schools.  But it is significantly more noticeable, because your students start significantly behind their state-wide peers.

I do agree with your premise that a community could be significantly below the mean, even greater than one standard deviation. You are just one of multiple districts within 40 miles of you that are in the same boat. This makes it a significant challenge to catch up with an increasing accountability standard. Throw in the fact that you have surrounding vulture districts that cherry pick the most able and ambitious students in your district and you could argue that you are now playing an unwinnable hand (at least in the short-run).  This also highlights how the state is neither the friend of your district (allowing / encouraging student cherry-picking) or your students (not forcing the vulture districts to accept any student from your district).

Now the biggest mistake you are making is trying to make logical sense of the state’s accountability system.  It is a political system, which is its own logic.  The system is designed to:

1. Produce a politically acceptable number of “adequate” campuses and districts.  This proves that our sitting politicians are effective.  

2. Produce a politically acceptable number of “unacceptable” campuses and districts.  This justifies the continued advancement of anti-public school policies.

3. Not upset / alarm affluent parents and neighborhoods.  So, public coffers can continue to be drained, masked by the “wealth of family” effect.

4. Marginalize minority schools.  To make tax subsidies for the affluent (vouchers) look altruistic by “saving” poor kids trapped in “failed” schools.

I’m not tired of fighting the good fight.  I just wish we had more people on our side

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

Legendary Leadership Badge (April 2017)

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 ten years is that after 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 2016/2017 school year (as of 4/30/17).

Three Badges

GayLynn Holt: April 2017; March 2017; February 2017

Jillian Howard: April 2017; April 2017; January 2017

Edward Husk: April 2017; April 2017; February 2017

Patti Ward: April 2017; January 2017; October 2016

Tom Jaggard: February 2017; January 2017; November 2016

Two Badges

Kenneth Bryant: April 2017; November 2016

Shele Coburn: April 2017; February 2017

E. Cormier: April 2017; December 2016

Tonya Cummings: April 2017; February 2017

Lisa Fain: April 2017; December 2016

Kevin Odea: April 2017; December 2016

Patsy Sanchez: April 2017; December 2016

Sheila Stephens: April 2017; February 2017

Monta Bonham: March 2017; November 2016

Kenneth Bryant: March 2017; February 2017

Sean Cain: March 2017; January 2017

Sheila Ochoa: March 2017; February 2017

Denise Poland: March 2017; February 2017

Robert Urbanowiez: March 2017; February 2017

Janie Snyder: March 2017; February 2017

Jacinda Waldrip: March 2017; December 2016

Tamika Washington: March 2017; February 2017

Michelle Casas: February 2017; November 2016

Christopher Collins: February 2017; November 2016

Susan Finkle: February 2017; November 2016

Margaret Havard: February 2017; January 2017

Pattie Myers: February 2017; Fall 2016

Christina Spears: February 2017; November 2016

John Speck: February 2017; October 2016

Nassrin Spencer: February 2017; Fall 2016

Donna Price: January 2017; November 2016

One Badge

Leslie Ackman: April 2017

Joanne Anguiano: April 2017

Stephanie Bard: April 2017

Edith Carrillo: April 2017

Sarah Castillo: April 2017

Amy Crippen: April 2017

Brandon Enos: April 2017

Joyce Freddie: April 2017

Donny Hearne: April 2017

Marie Hernandez: April 2017

Derieco Irvin: April 2017

Wiley Johnson: April 2017

Todd Jones: April 2017

Laura Juarez: April 2017

James Kisner: April 2017

Kelli Maikell: April 2017

Tera Marburgh: April 2017

Kimberly Martin: April 2017

Gilbert Martinez: April 2017

Brian Meers: April 2017

Donisha Miller: April 2017

Marilisa Moore: April 2017

Nicole Newsome: April 2017

Brian Odom: April 2017

David Pena: April 2017

David Pierson: April 2017

Ivan Ramirez: April 2017

Earl Sanchez: April 2017

Jessica Shugart: April 2017

Mindy Sides: April 2017

Charles Simmons: April 2017

Jordan Thiem: April 2017

Josh Tovar: April 2017

Kae Walker: April 2017

Stacey Baughn- Hunt: March 2017

Marissa Bell: March 2017

Rose Maria Chavez-Avedician: March 2017

Nancy Delosa: March 2017

Amanda Gordon: March 2017

Doris Graves: March 2017

Genevieve Harris: March 2017

Mike Laird: March 2017

Jenny Morris: March 2017

Angie Quinn: March 2017

Thomas Redlinger: March 2017

Lorena Sandoval: March 2017

Jesse Teran: March 2017

Tara Thompson: March 2017

Grisel Wallace: March 2017

Dennis Williams: March 2017

Sarah Williams: March 2017

U. Alvey: February 2017

Pete Armstrong: February 2017

Glenn Barnes: February 2017

Courtney Berry: February 2017

Lorie Bratcher: February 2017

Norma Briseno: February 2017

Carla Butler: February 2017

Stella Chen: February 2017

Brandon Cobb: February 2017

Denise Collins: February 2017

DeDe Conaway: February 2017

Linda Cox: February 2017

Larry Crabb: February 2017

Tami Davis: February 2017

Remy Godfrey: February 2017

Jeff Groseclose: February 2017

Naomi Esparza: February 2017

Greg Hatch: February 2017

Karen Ivy: February 2017

Caleb Jackson: February 2017

Roshon Jackson: February 2017

Paige Johnson: February 2017

Chris Johnstone: February 2017

Van LeJeune: February 2017

Erica Lewis: February 2017

Valerie Luckett: February 2017

Stephen McCanless: February 2017

Daniel McKee: February 2017

Kimberly McKnight: February 2017

Alejandro Olvera: February 2017

Rebecca Osborne: February 2017

Robin Rice: February 2017

Scott Rogers: February 2017

Dawn Roy: February 2017

Chesta Scheider: February 2017

Steve Sherrouse: February 2017

Rebecca Smith: February 2017

Jan Spears: February 2017

Cheryl Sterrett: February 2017

Rose Tran: February 2017

Bridgett Valenzuela: February 2017

Monica Waggoner: February 2017

Lisa Weaver: February 2017

Tom Weed: February 2017

Benita Allard: January 2017

Destiny Barrera: January 2017

Derrick Brown: January 2017

Jennie Currin: January 2017

Linda Ernwine: January 2017

Glenda Henry: January 2017

Ranae Lane: January 2017

Amanda Lisso: January 2017

Cortney Lucas: January 2017

Gina Reuter: January 2017

Ryan Searle: January 2017

Ernest Smith: January 2017

Kelsey Smith: January 2017

Rob Stephenson: January 2017

Cynthia Childers: December 2016

James Kisner: December 2016

Blake Maxwell: December 2016

Tim Merki: December 2016

Rhonda Mieth: December 2016

Jenny Morris: December 2016

Melissa Myers: December 2016

Diane Ranft: December 2016

Lois Redden: December 2016

Michelle Schreiner: December 2016

Joel Thomas: December 2016

Tra Hall: November 2016

Christal Hammond: November 2016

Brian Odom: November 2016

Tisha Piwetz: November 2016

Angie Quinn: November 2016

Gina Vilches: November 2016

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