Top LYS Tweets From the Week of July 26, 2015

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of July 26, 2015 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. Transformational leaders have effect size of .11. Instructional leaders have effect size of .42. Start with The Foundation Trinity and stay there! (By @brandyjbaker)

2. “Next in importance to freedom and justice is education – without which neither of the first two can be maintained.” (By @DrRichAllen)

3. Never let your staff complain about students. Behavior, effort, attitude, capacity are ALL teachable! (By @brandyjbaker)

4. No student should fail a class due to homework—it's not an accurate enough measure of learning on which to base such an important decision. (By @danielmccabe)

5. Is it just me, or do freshly waxed halls bring new life and hit some kind of internal reset button in a school? (By @BluntEducator)

6. The reputation of a school is based, to a large degree, by what the faculty says about the school! (By @tgrierhisd)

7. "The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make those facts come alive." (By @DrRichAllen)

8. We ignore law enforcement in gun policy, educators in school policy, and hospital administrators in health policy. Who are we listening to? (By @pastors4txkids)

9. If you're out of ideas about how to blast a presidential candidate, why not attack him for supporting the Common Core, as if it means they support socialism. (By @harvinmoore)

10. A society that won't pay to educate poor student is a society that's going to pay to incarcerate poor dropouts. (By @JohnFugelsang)

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: Illinois ASCD Fall Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Fall AP Conference, The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweet From the Week of June 7, 2015

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 June 7, 2015.

1. A challenge to all leaders attending summer learning: Go back, take action, and DO what you tweeted or posted about. (By @CabidaCain)

2. The best intervention is great instruction. (By @JohnWink90)

3. There's a big difference in leading people and managing things! (By @herbertoneiljr)

4. I call 'em like I see 'em.  Common Core hysteria needs an official tin foil hat to identify its followers. (By @RatliffT)

5. Today's best practices were once someone's innovative new idea. Don't get stuck in (or with) a box! Be an innovator not an imitator! (By @TeachLearn68)

6. Schools that blame programs misunderstand technical versus adaptive challenges.  It’s all about coaching and support! (By @tra_hall)

7. We ask those experimenting on our children with exotic, unproven education policies to stop. Now. (By @pastors4txkids)

8. If instruction stops after the high stakes test, it's hard to believe your argument that teaching is more than a test score. (By @BluntEducator)

9. We regret having to speak so directly to those in authority this session. But not as much as we regret their bad bills harmful to our kids. (By @pastors4txkids)

10. Learning how The Fundamental 5 (Cain and Laird) can be the tool to increase relevance and rigor! (By @GloffMona)

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 ASCD Summer Conference; NAESP National Conference; Illinois ASCD Fall Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

The Politics of Fear, Greed, and Hate

The Reagan Revolution occurred for two primary reasons:

1. A large numbers of conservative Democrats believed that their party had left them, and they voted accordingly.

2. Reagan’s message was significantly more optimistic than the message of his opposition, both Democrat and Republican.

I bring this up to highlight to the fact that the dominant currency of many politicians in office today is pessimism spiced with paranoid pandering. They revel in a toxic mix of Fear, Greed, and Hate.

Let’s start with the Fear. We must fear the Common Core because it is a government plot to take over schools.  We must fear CSCOPE because it is a Marxist plot to indoctrinate youth.  We must arm ourselves to the teeth because Jade Helm 15 is a plot to institute martial law. We must dismantle public schools because teachers are, pick one:

(A) Lazy  (B) Greedy  (C) Incompetent  (D) Godless  (E) All of the Above

I understand and validate your Fear... Vote for me.

Then we move to Greed.  All taxes are bad.  Except the taxes that create a greater burden on the poor (see: Sales Tax; Fuel Tax; Sin Tax; etc.)  All welfare is bad. Except the welfare that benefit the affluent (see: Private School Vouchers; Homestead Exemptions; Property Use Exemptions; Corporate Tax Loopholes).

I understand and validate your Greed... Vote for me.

And then we can finish with Hate: We must hate the other, the outsider, the different. Hate them because they want to attack your marriage, take your guns, and kill you.

I understand and validate your Hate... Vote for me.

Enough is enough.  I am an educator by trade, training and passion.  Which means at my core, I am optimistic. I get up every day because I know it has a chance to be better than the last and the work I do has a chance to make tomorrow even better. This also means that it is getting easier to decide whom to vote for, not by party, but by candidate.

Tell the paranoid fear mongers that they are paranoid fear mongers and I will vote for you. 

Advocate for rational taxation and government spending practices and I will vote for you.

Recognize that the world is not perfect, but with rational thought and hard work, we can make it better and I will vote for you.

And for those currently in office and/or running for office, if you prove yourself to be the candidate of the greedy, hateful, and paranoid, you have lost my vote.  But I also realize that it’s not you... It’s me.

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); TEPSA Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; NAESP National Conference; Illinois ASCD Fall Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of April 26, 2015

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 April 26, 2015.

1. Congratulations to LYSer, Dale Mitchell! He is the new principal at Waltrip High School!! Who will be next? (By @LYSNation)

2. How long will we let our duly elected leaders attack Texas public school teachers as "Godless" without calling out this lie? (By @pastors4txkids)

3. Senate Bill 4 (SB4) gives private schools getting public funds permission to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, and special needs. (By @pastors4txkids)

4. We wonder which private schools will get most SB4 tax credit vouchers? Catholic? Baptist? Mormon? Muslim? Wiccan? Talk about competition! (By @pastors4txkids)

5. Senate votes (SB4) to allow private schools getting taxpayer subsidized tuition to use Common Core standards. (By RatliffT)

6. The Texas Senate has just confirmed that vouchers are not held to same accountability as public education money. (By @pastors4txkids)

7. It’s one thing to pose rigorous questions. It’s a whole different thing to make sure kids can answer them. (By @JohnWink90)

8. So Conservatives are okay with using public dollars to support private schools that can use Common Core Standards? Just another day in the Texas Senate. (By @woscholar)

9. "Tuition tax scholarship?" A fancy name for a tax loophole allowing taxes owed the state for Texas public schools to be given to private schools. (By @pastors4txkids)

10. The Texas Senate guards public education like the wolf guards the hen house. (By @pastors4txkids)

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); TEPSA Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; NAESP National Conference; Illinois ASCD Fall Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Responds... Transforming Schools - Part 1

In response to the 2/11/14 post, “Nelson Coulter Writes... Transforming Schools 2.0,” a reader responds with the following:

In other words, Texas school administrators in the South Plains are dead-set on further implementing Common Core practices and repackaged/renamed outcomes-based methodologies which have consistently failed for the last 45 years.

SC Response

Thank you for not sending this in anonymously, which I take to mean that you are serious in your convictions.  Which is why I am bumping up the posting of our exchange.

I’m going to start with this. We are not going to agree to disagree.  You are just wrong.

1. Texas schools are not dead set on implementing the Common Core, and to insist otherwise is either delusional, ignorant, or duplicitous.  Texas schools are accountable to teaching the TEKS which predate the Common Core by at least 10 years.  Why the Conspiracy Theorists can squint their eyes and see a connection is that the TEKS were held up as a model for what other states should adopt, by Texas Republican politicians.  You may remember them, George Bush and Margaret Spellings being early, extremely powerful advocates/examples.  Additionally, the sanctions for not teaching the TEKS to a sufficient level of competence (a level that has increased at a pace dramatically greater than resources) lead to destroyed careers.  And trust me, when the choice is feeding your family or teaching what is not mandated, feeding your family takes precedence.

2. "Texas schools are using repackaged/renamed outcomes based methodologies." And your point is?  As an educator you can focus on inputs (what you do as a teacher and the resources you provide to a student) or you can focus on outcomes (student performance based on a mix of inputs).  The current school focus on outcomes, which you seemingly do not agree with, is driven by political structures and mandates that have been orchestrated by a Republican Governor, Republican Lt. Governor and Republican Legislature.  When it comes to schools policy, Accountability, Testing, Standards, Sanctions, and Inadequate Funding have been the hallmarks of the Republican Politician in Texas for the past 15 years.  Are you surprised that schools have evolved to meet these ever increasing operational parameters?  And for the record, as an educator, I do believe that we (schools and teachers) should be accountable for the performance of our students.  And I do believe that we (schools and teachers) have been lacking in embracing this fact.  And I also believe that just because someone ONCE attended school, this does NOT qualify that person to accurately weigh the complex variables that determine student performance for the purpose of rating a school successful or unsuccessful. 

3. "Texas schools have consistently failed for the last 45 years." All I can surmise is that we have different rubrics for success.  Here is what I know Texas Public Schools now accomplish compared to  what they did 45 years ago.

• Educate more students than ever before.
• Graduate more students than every before, both in raw numbers and percentages.
• Serve more special education students than ever before, both in raw numbers and percentages.
• Serve more limited English proficient students that ever before, both in raw numbers and percentages.
• Serve more economically disadvantaged students than ever before, both in raw numbers and percentages.
• Serve more GT students than ever before, both in raw numbers and percentages.
• Offer more course/theme/degree options than ever before.
• Provide more social services than ever before.
• Teach at higher levels of Instructional Rigor, for longer periods of time, than ever before.
• Teach at higher levels of Instructional Relevance, for longer periods of time, than ever before.
• Face higher levels of performance accountability than ever before.
• And all in the face of increasingly inadequate funding and resources.

The quality of education provided to a random student today is significantly better than what was provided to a random student 30, 20, 10 and even 5 years ago.  So where is the school failure?  Or are you angry at the failure of agenda driven politics and the purposeful dismantling of public infrastructure?

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

It Seems That CSCOPE is the Root of All Evil (Part 1 of 4)

Note: CSCOPE is a vertically aligned scope and sequence used by hundreds of school districts.

I’ve been informally following the anti CSCOPE loonies for a while, mostly for entertainment purposes.  I find the anti-CSCOPE’rs to be a lot like the anti-children vaccination parents who seemingly believe, “Science, research and significant benefits aside, my opinions matter and everyone else should suffer and be put at risk to make me happy.”

Try as I might, I have a difficult time emphathizing with that mindset.  Sadly, like a mongrel dog that won’t give up a bone, these people aren’t giving up anytime soon, so over the next four posts, I’m going to summarize their arguments and provide a response.  Before reading these arguments, it might be helpful to first bang your head against the wall 8 or 9 times to suspend critical thought.

Anti-CSCOPE Argument Number 1: Smart people and professionals I don’t agree with helped design CSCOPE.  So obviously it is an evil, brainwashing propaganda tool.

Response: Yes, smart people and professionals were and continue to be instrumental in the design of CSCOPE. The resulting tool is the result of this original and subsequently on-going collaboration.  And yes, the tool created by this collaboration of experts (with representatives from the classroom to university hall) is different than what teachers used previously.  That is a good thing. Just like Lipitor, smart phones, and hybrid engines are good things that weren’t available 20 years ago.

Anti-CSCOPE Argument Number 2: Some of the smart people and professionals who designed CSCOPE can be connected to supporting Pretender Obama, a known Muslim, foreigner and anti-American.  So obviously CSCOPE is an evil, brainwashing, socialist propaganda tool.

Response: Yes, some of the smart people and professionals connected to CSCOPE openly support President Obama.  As did 51% of the country and even 41% of Texans.  And no, the President is not a Muslim (which wouldn’t matter), foreigner nor anti-American. Additionally, the most blatant attempts to politicize curriculum are coming from YOU, so please take a deep breath and slow your roll.  

Anti-CSCOPE Argument Number 3: CSCOPE is tied to the Common Core, which is an overt and obvious attempt to federalize all public schools.

Response: Sadly, for the purposes of your conspiracy theory, CSCOPE predates the Common Core.  CSCOPE is a resource that has been built to better help teachers meet the instructional requirements of TAKS and STAAR and avoid the sanctions of not meeting those requirements. Now here are the juicy ironies.

A. The Common Core is modeled on instructional concepts that were pioneered by the TEKS.  Texas Republicans, Bush and Perry put this into place.

B. The sanctions attached to not meeting accountability standards were put into place, again, by Bush, Perry and the Right.  The tool you hate has been designed to meet the requirements demanded by, enacted for, and supported by YOU.

If there ever was a proof point for the Law of Unintended Consequences (for you), this is it. On the other hand, not only is the tool useful for educators, every year it improves.

Is your head hurting yet? Tomorrow, we’ll address arguments 4 thru 6.

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:  TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation and like LYS on Facebook