The Campus Vision

There is no “right” campus vision, but there are definitely “wrong” ones.  When either assessing the quality of a campus vision, or creating a campus vision, there are elements that should be considered.

1. Does the vision set the horizon for the campus?  Meaning that the vision does aspire to something worthwhile. That even though this may never be attained, the pursuit is a compelling reason for a lifetime of work.

2. Does the vision address maximizing opportunity for all students.  Too many campus visions are built for a select few.

3. Does the vision address competing / performing at the highest level?  Too many visions paint a picture that just showing up is enough.

4. Does the vision focus on what matters most, academics and learning.  Too many visions forget that we are schools, first.

A campus vision that doesn't address at least 2 of these elements, I would characterize as a limiting vision. A vision that limits the potential of the organization. A vision that addresses 2 or more of these elements I would characterize as a leveraging vision.  A vision that has the potential to maximizes the potential of the organization.

How would you assess the vision of your campus?

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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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

A Superintendent Writes... Thoughts on Middle School Scores

A LYS Superintendent writes the following:

SC,

Well, our 6th grade scores seemingly present a conundrum. But there are explanations for the dip.  And, believe it or not, the dip is primarily the result of suspect adult practice.  Subtle, suspect and not directly measurable, but adult practice none-the-less.

Based on discussions with our instructional leaders and reviewing our PowerWalks data, I confirmed there was no significant difference in instructional delivery.  Also, our common assessments results were consistently low and ultimately predicative.  Of obvious impact was the fact that we had to pull out our 6^th grade support and intervention structures due to staffing vacancies, but I have identified other adult practices that warrant further examination.

First is the culture created by us, the adults.  This same group of 6^th grade student bombed the 4th grade test, yet did fine in 5th grade.  In an attempt to relieve test anxiety, these children were told by their teachers over a period of years that the test didn't count except for 5th grade.  I confirmed that 6th grade parents called this year to verify that 6th graders could still go to 7th grade without passing the test. 

I think the adults had good intentions and truly believed that reducing test anxiety would help the children do better on the test.  Perhaps not so, as it turns out.  I think this one can be fixed.  We have to work on ways to make the test relevant to students.  Right now, they know the results were disappointing. We have already identified our deepest hole and have started the backfilling process.  The 6th graders who are behind will begin the next year scheduled into a progressive model of interventions (which we now have the personnel to do) instead of extracurricular activities. Of course, these students will be able to learn their way out of the intervention, or back in. A benefit of a mature, three-week common assessment program.  The middle school principal understands that we have to start undoing our counter-productive adult created culture.

The last adult piece is the way our teachers interact with our middle school children.  It is a stricter, authoritative tone that tends to alienate children.  And this seems amplified in 6^th grade for some reason.  This problem I don't know how to fix.

Thoughts?

SC Response

Thoughts? Just a couple.

First, I encourage you to keep trying to measure a “something” you know is there but cannot yet identify.  This is the “problem behind the problem” environment that you want to work in.  It is where you have figured out a problem everyone else is stuck on.  But by solving that problem, a hidden problem is revealed.  Now you are working on something novel.  This is your chance to further the profession and our collective knowledge base. I live for those opportunities.

Second, don’t overlook the fact that the bump in 5^th grade scores are often driven by the fact that 5^th grade is a SSI year. Getting more practice time and two chances to pass a test usually produces a noticeable bump in passing rates.

Third, I have long believed that middle school should more resemble Senior Elementary than Junior High.  So I agree that the change in adult tone from 5^th grade to 6^th grade is detrimental to student performance.  Now, we have both heard the tired argument, "We have to prepare these kids for High School."  

To which I respond, "Agreed, but we have three years to do it. Why the rush to do it all in the first semester of 6th grade?"

There are some studies that indicate that 6th grade students scored higher on TAKS tests if they were on an elementary campus instead of a middle school or junior high.  But I could never find demographic peer schools to validate this to my satisfaction.  

What my gut tells me is that your sixth graders should transition slowly from one instructional model to another.  Meaning that 6th grade should be about 90% similar to 5th grade.  7th grade should be about 50% similar to 5th grade. And 8th grade should be about 70% similar to 9th grade.  Because what elementary teachers seem to both understand and practice better than all the rest of us is that you teach the kid, not the content.

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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of May 18, 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 May 18, 2014.

1. Don't let your performance results define you. Instead use them as a gauge to monitor your progress on your journey to excellence. (By @LYSNation)

2. Best way to make sure students do not act like the school year is over is to make sure teachers do not act like the school year is over. (By @ToddWhitaker)

3. Walk thru your school and ask yourself, "If a visitor walked our halls, what would she say we value?" (By @KyleneBeers)

4. I don't use our taxpayer funded public library. Can I go into the library and demand a voucher so I can go to Barnes and Noble? (By @mstawoody)

5. College grads earn $800,000 more than those with only a high school diploma, study finds. (By @dickflanary)

6. In 2011, roughly 75% of students at 200 most highly rated colleges came from families in top quartile of income (By @FareedZakaria)

7. It does more harm to cheat on a test or test administration than to actually learn and report achievement and growth needs. (By @ctxprof)

8. Sometimes you'll surprise yourself with what you do under pressure. (By @CoachKWisdom)

9. Grades are often a statement about who is doing the grading, not how much learning the person who completed the assignment has done. (By @MrBernia)

10. Save the Date! The Fundamental 5 International Summit - Second Edition

October 5 & 6, 2014, Austin, Texas (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 
• 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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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

Vison - Mission - Goal - Target: How They Relate

The 5/23/2014 post, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue,” gave a visual representation of those elements.  Today I will discuss how they relate and impact your campus.

There are a lot of people who believe that you must have a vision, then a mission, then a goal, and then a target.  That: 

1 – It is a backwards design process; and 

2 – Without having all four, you are lost.  

Both of these beliefs are true in some cases and false in other cases. In practical terms, here is how it works in schools.  

I can make significant and meaningful progress (in the short term) without a vision and mission.  The reason for this is two-fold.  First, as a profession, educators want to do well by their students and please their boss.  We are good people who crave order.  Just doing what comes naturally to us represents steps in the right direction.  Second, the state mandates annual performance goals that force us to adjust our practices towards meeting those goals.  We can argue how those goals are measured, but bottom line we are expected to teach students to a standard.  As we teach to standards, again we make steps in the right decision.

For those that embrace their mandated goals, there is a need to create a slate of interim targets that inform us in the pursuit of goal accomplishment.  For many schools, this is all that is needed in the short to midterm.  But once we build some competence we need more to keep us moving forward.  Just increasing the goal is one way to do this.  But that doesn’t stoke the fire in the belly, at scale.  Now is the time to build that vision and mission. 

Which one you build first is situational.  There are those who first define the mission of the organization and then paint the picture of what the organization aspires to be.  This is a viable solution.  There are those who paint a picture of the vision for organization and then define a mission that supports the vision.  This is a viable solution. 

What I think is the important take away from this discussion is that what is most important on any given day is a clear understanding of the goals and targets of the organization.  What is important for the long-term success of the organization is a clear understanding of the vision and mission.  But this is a crawl, walk, jog, run dynamic.  If your team isn’t ready to consider vision and mission yet, that doesn’t make you a bad leader. But note that the longer it takes to get your team to that level of competence and consciousness does have a negative effect on progressing from survival mode to actualized mode.

      

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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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

Vision - Mission - Goal - Target: A Travelogue

I am often asked to better define the concepts of Vision, Mission, Goal, and Target as they relate to campus operations.   For terms that are thrown about so casually, there really is a lot of confusion and just wrong thinking about what these are.  In an attempt to clarify these terms and critical understandings instead of a 6,000 word essay, I present to the LYS Nation, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue”

Consider the following picture. For something seemingly so innocent and benign, there is a lot going on.

In this picture of a seemingly random journey, the RV represents your school.

The mountains on the horizon represent a vision. This vision, though somewhat abstract, represents where we aspire to eventually arrive. 

The road represents our mission. This is what drives us forward and over time positions us to fulfill our vision.  The mission can and should slowly adapt and evolve.

On we progress on our mission path, there are goals.  These goals ensure that we stay focused on accomplishing our mission.

Finally, there are targets that we use to gauge progress and determine what adjustments we need to make to ensure that we meet our goals.

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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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

Who Defines the Campus

As the scores from state accountability tests roll in over the next couple of weeks and as you begin to get ready for the next school year, consider this.

Over the past twenty years I have been working with and studying both exceptional and struggling schools.

Some quick vocabulary work:

• Exceptional School – a school that consistently outperforms schools that serve similar populations.
• Struggling School – a school that either lags behind or struggles to keep up with schools that serve similar populations.

By the above definition, many schools that are seemingly high performers aren’t and many schools that are seemingly average performers are much more than that.  So the question becomes, what sets the exceptional school apart from the rest.  There are of course a variety of factors at play, some random, some consistent. And here is a factor that is almost a given.

The non-exceptional campuses allow themselves to be defined by external actors and/or minimum standards.  This practice attacks the collective psyche of the campus and creates a pervasive victim mentality.  Because it doesn’t matter what the campus accomplishes, it is never quite to par.  In this environment, people work but lose the unifying purpose that leverages mind, body and effort. 

The exceptional campus defines itself internally and creates its own performance standards that are beyond the scope and scale of minimum standards.  This practice builds and focuses the collective psyche of the campus.  People have a compelling, motivating and unifying purpose to engage in the work of school.  Performance measures (internal and external) are welcomed, not because they define, but because they time. No longer is the campus good (whew) or bad (uh-oh), the campus is either closer to (don’t stop, we’re almost there) or further from (step it up so we don’t fall behind) where it is going.

So who defines your campus?  

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); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); 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