Top LYS Tweets from the Week of October 23, 2011

As many of you know, I spend well more than half my work time on campuses, watching, training and talking to educators at all levels of competency, capacity and success. One thing that I am observing all to often is innovative, energetic and engaging teachers having to hide their new practices and tools. Most likely, there are teachers on your campus right now that are attempting to integrate bootleg technology into their class. They don’t do it often because they are afraid of getting caught by administration and being reprimanded. What is interesting is when these teachers are caught, most principals are proud of them.

So quit making innovation a deviant practice. Let your staff know that if they have an idea for using a new tool in the classroom they should tell you. That, if necessary, you will grant a short-term waiver to antiquated policy in order for someone to pilot something new. Now instead of making your most forward thinking staff outlaws, you can turn them into trailblazers. Your worst-case scenario is that the pilot doesn’t work. But how is that different than the current nothing that is the status quo? As the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. 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 October 23, 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Every announcement interruption during class sandbags instructional momentum. So unless the building is on fire, what is so important?

2. Listening to Pre-K, K and Fine Arts teachers discuss lesson framing may be the best practical discussions on pedagogy you will ever hear.

3. Often the best coaching on campus occurs in the band hall. One band director getting 60 kids to work and march as one. Without the support of a staff of position coaches.

4. The Algebra I class doesn't have tryouts and every student is expected to pass. Why do the athletic have try-outs & get to cut players?

5. @LYSNation, I have argued for years that athletics deals in false positives by weeding out those unlikely to succeed in the first place. (by @seaboltm)

6. (As a school success factor) Parent involvement is a measure of correlation not causation.

7. Rating schools based on the level of parent involvement is yet another way that accountability is biased against the less affluent.

8. The constant search for the magic intervention program is a symptom of leaders giving up on teachers, teachers giving up on kids, or both.

9. You can wring your hands over campus climate and culture or you can do what is right for students. Every day by every adult.

10. Just saw a student get in trouble for pulling out his cell phone after completing his work. So doing nothing is better than doing something?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

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A Reader Writes... (Teacher Stress - Part 3)

In response to the posts relating to, “Teacher Stress,” a reader writes:

“As SC pointed out, it is hard to comment without knowing the specifics of your district. But, from what you wrote I get a mental picture of your school (which may be totally wrong).

Your school probably has student achievement problems. As Cain pointed out, administration will blame teachers. And that's O.K., because teachers are a part of the problem. The first thing that sticks out is 9 programs. That smells of an administrative knee jerk reaction. I have yet to see a school program itself to success. Administration sees the programs as a way to make up for poor curriculum and/or poor instruction. If one program is good, 9 must be great in their view. It sounds a bit like your administration doesn't really know what to do, so they reach for programs.

Here's the catch, what if administration is right, and teachers are the problem? If teachers won't teach effectively, what makes you think they will implement some $100,000 program effectively? Improving curriculum and instruction are the keys to success. Quality programs can enhance curriculum and instruction, but certainly will not replace them. As Cain said, not all stress is bad. If your administration can't figure out which direction to go, I suggest finding a job in a LYS school.

SC Response
The old school LYS principals just don’t mince a lot of words. So I too will be brief.

First, before anyone gets upset (or vindicated) because the writer points out that it is OK to blame the teachers, do know that he recognizes that leadership shoulders most of the blame. He is famous for being on the job for about two weeks and being called in to give an assessment of the school he took over. He told the superintendent that the horrific situation at the campus was due to years of leadership neglect. The superintendent agreed saying that the former principal was ineffective. This LYS principal said he wasn’t singling out the former principal. This was a case where the blame started at the board and worked it’s way down from there. Present company included.

Second, the writer is correct when he states that programs are not the answer. Improved first line instruction is the answer. If your central office is trying to figure out how to circumvent teachers instead of improving teachers, you are on a sinking ship.

Third, the writer makes another excellent point. If the teachers are the problem (again, when a district is overrun with ineffective teachers, that really is a leadership problem), their ability to effectively run the new program is immediately suspect. Why waste money on a pipe dream?

Finally, working in tough settings is a chicken salad / chicken feathers proposition. With the right leadership and right instructional staff, the newest and most effective innovations in our field are currently being developed. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. Unfortunately, with the wrong leadership and the wrong teachers, futures are being squandered daily.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Innovation)

In response to the post, “People are Listening,” a reader writes:

“Your second point, ‘The needs of our academically fragile students fuel the drive to innovate.’

This point hit me like a ton of bricks. I have been a Brown guy for a while now. I have known SC personally, even longer. A simple truth is that the mother of all innovation is necessity; need is what truly drives invention. Knowing that; it has to follow that the NEEDS of education have to drive the innovation (invention) and we certainly know where the needs are.

Over the last 6 months, I have had conversations with two state senator staffers. The more we write and speak out, the better chance we have of making change. We are surrounded on all sides by long standing traditions and beliefs that are actually bad for kids. Our task is formidable, but failure will be disastrous for generations, and therefore, is unacceptable.

Examine your practices, and the practices of your school, and then determine if they truly meet the needs of your academically fragile kids. Or, are you and your staff simply following the traditions and practices that promote the needs of adults.”

SC Response
Obviously, I agree with the writer (as he mentions, we have worked together for a number of years). But, I think that it is important to point out that he is touching on the fact that there is a “Knowing-Doing” gap. A huge step in identifying and creating the need to innovate is to bridge the “Knowing-Doing” gap. It is one thing to know what we should do (I think that level of understanding is evident in about 50% of the educators in the field). It is quite another thing to commit to doing it. I hate to sound cynical, but I think that those who commit to aggressively bridging the gap represent less that 5% of active educators. A view has been confirmed in conversations with some of the “who’s who,” in education research and theory.

Here’s the rub, if you are not aggressively trying to reconcile daily practice and best practice, then you don’t know what you don’t know. And it’s the need to know what you don’t know, that positions you to create an innovation at the right time and in the right place.

Finally, the 5% statement seems insulting, but it’s not meant to be. It’s just the recognition that it’s easier to go along than to stand up and fight. A fight that many of you, the Lead Your School readers, are fighting every single day. That is one of the reasons why I started this blog. Because I am on your campuses, I see what you are trying to do. I see a cadre of loosely dispersed, motivated change agents. You see yourself stuck on an island with the masses entrenched and unwilling to change. It is my privilege to remind you that you are not alone, and though they may not thank you, your students and staff are better off because of you.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your Turn…

The Curse of the "Halo" Effect

This has been a good week for articulating the pattern of ongoing observations. Here’s one that just hit me like a bolt of lightning as I listened to yet another school leader try to explain to me that his high SES schools aren't the problem, it’s his low SES schools.

Here’s the insight, “The lottery winner luck of working in an affluent zip code is the most cancerous impediment to instructional innovation facing our profession.”

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

Improving America's Schools - Letter #2, Part 2 (Innovation)

The following post is based on thoughts related to:

Letters to the Editor that the NY Times has recently received concerning public schools. The link is: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/opinion/l17educ.html?emc=eta1

Joanne Yatvin writes, “…if innovation is desirable, all schools should be allowed to innovate, not just charter schools. Why not free public schools from the straitjackets of state textbooks, externally written curriculums and one-size-fits-all instruction?”

I believe that when it comes to innovation, individual campuses can be just as innovative as any charter. And in fact, a number of the constraints that charters don’t have actually makes their job more difficult. For example, not having to hire certified staff and not having maximum class size limits is not a benefit. What charters are good at is trying new things. Regular schools can and do that often. And if I get to pick, I’m going to innovate with a better quality staff.

As for the issue of state textbooks, externally developed curriculum and one size fits all instruction, let me respond to each one separately. First textbooks, this really shouldn’t be an issue. The textbook should be just one of many resources used in a classroom. If the textbook is the only classroom resource that is used, that’s a lazy decision, not a mandated one.

Second, using an externally developed curriculum, again this is not an issue. Teachers need to be provided a common scope and sequence. This creates two powerful benefits. The first is that once teacher don’t have to decide what to teach and when to teach it, they can spend the majority of their time and attention improving the delivery of instruction. And the delivery is where the rubber meets the road in instruction. The second benefit is that the use of a common scope and sequence is the foundation for developing objective instructional data.

The final issue of one size, fits all instruction, is again not an issue. One size fits all instruction is a result of poor support, poor data and poor leadership. With the right tools and leadership focus, any classroom can become more individualized. And again, I would rather attempt this with certified professionals than without.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…