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 
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• 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) 
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A LYS Principal Submits... A Waste of Instructional Time

A frustrated LYS Principal submits the following:

One of the many things I learned from E. Don Brown is that there is a simple litmus test for every decision you make as an instructional leader.

If it's good for adults, look carefully, because it is probably bad for kids.

As you know, last week, classroom instruction in our entire school district was put on hold for four days in order to give a released TAKS benchmark. The reason given for this suspension of what's good for kids, instruction, was that we needed to some valid "data.” How they are aligning TAKS to the unseen STAAR is evidently above my pay grade. Of course, we already have plenty of available data from the common assessments we have administered throughout the year. But for the Mensa candidates at the white house, this data isn’t valid. It seems that non-teaching adults need a never ending flow of more test data so they could show other non-teaching adults how successful we are as a district at collecting "data."

Good for adults (who don’t interact with students) but bad for kids!

We have approximately 135 instructional days from the beginning of school to STAAR time. We just wasted four days that my students and teachers can’t get back. Don't get me wrong! I know that we need to collect data in order to make good decisions and to correct our course of action on the fly. But every time you weigh the herd, you have to skip feeding the herd. If we keep weighing the herd at the exclusion of feeding the herd, we're going to have some pretty skinny cows!

SC Response

Skinny cows? Is that where we get lean beef?

I feel your pain. Frequent benchmark testing is simply superstitious behavior that adds no value to the quality of instruction. Just today, I was explaining to a large audience the value of short-term assessment over benchmarking. I shared that two benchmarks a year are all that is needed. One in January and one at the end of the year (in Texas, TAKS is the end of the year benchmark). For the rest of the year, teach, assess, adjust, repeat. The first question I got was, “How do you know if the students are making adequate progress.”

I said, “Teach, assess, adjust, repeat.”

She wasn’t convinced. So I left her with this to think about. I have yet to come across the district that has tested its way out of the ditch. But I can show you scores of them that have taught themselves out of the ditch and then on to greater success.

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• 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)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)

Confirmed 2012 Presentations:

LYSers Write... Sustained Excellence

In response to the recent posts listing top ten schools the following comments were sent in. First up:

SC,

I love to see this. As a graduate of Ed White Elementary School, I am glad to know that great education is still taking place in spite of urban challenges. As a matter of fact, my PE teacher, Mr. "D" is still at Ed White 32 years after I left. That is amazing. I am also glad to see Sutton on the list. Setting a good foundation for future Sharpstown Apollos! If they can do it, no one has an excuse. Light a fire and get it done.

And from the LYS Office:

The principal at Plains HS called today. They were fired up at their staff meeting this morning! He called to say thanks for doing the list and also to let you know they were actually Recognized rather than Acceptable (SC Note: My bad!). I mentioned that you are presenting at Region 16 next week (SC Note: It’s today!) and he asked me to send him the link for registration (SC Note: Hope you show up!)

Then a LYS Superintendent asked:

SC,

We're any of 2011 top schools repeaters in the Top Ten from years before?

SC Response

Great question, I won’t breakdown all the categories but for the overall Top Ten’s, there were repeaters and three-peaters. The schools are listed alphabetically.

Elementary “Overall” Top Ten Repeats (2011 & 2010)

• Aoy Elementary (El Paso ISD)
• Kennedy Elementary (Houston ISD)
• Park Place Elementary (Houston ISD)

Elementary “Overall” Top Ten Three-peats (2011, 2010 & 2009)

• J. Henderson Elementary (Houston ISD)
• Lyons Elementary (Houston ISD)
• White Elementary (Houston ISD)

Middle School “Overall” Top Ten Three-peats (2011, 2010 & 2009)

In the middle school ranks, the 5 repeaters were also the three-peaters. How is that for sustained excellence?

• Briarmeadow Middle School (Houston ISD)
• Burbank Middle School (Houston ISD)
• Natalia Junior High School (Natalia ISD)
• Ringgold Middle School (Rio Grande City ISD)
• Veterans Middle School (Rio Grande City ISD)

High School “Overall” Top Ten Repeats (2011 & 2010)

• Hastings High School (Alief ISD)
• Valley View High School (Valley View ISD)

High School “Overall” Top Ten Three-peats (2011, 2010 & 2009)

• Hanna High School (Brownsville ISD)
• North Shore Senior High School (Galena Park ISD)
• Mumford High School (Mumford ISD)
• Rio Grande City High School (Rio Grande City ISD)
• Skyline High School (Dallas ISD)

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top Ten High Schools - Student Excellence (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners score at the commended level on all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Bellaire HS^ (Houston ISD)

9. Cisco HS# (Cisco ISD)

8. Vista Ridge HS^ (Vista Ridge ISD)

7. Palacios HS# (Palacios ISD)

6. Poth HS^ (Poth ISD)

5. Crandall HS# (Crandall ISD)

4. Howe HS^ (Howe ISD)

3. Sundown HS* (Sundown ISD)

2. Evadale HS# (Evadale ISD)

1. Lago Vista HS* (Lago Vista ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top Ten High Schools - Student Competency (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners pass all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Plains HS^ (Plains ISD)

9. Petrolia HS# (Petrolia ISD)

8. Pottsboro HS* (Pottsboro ISD)

7. Industrial HS^ (Industrial ISD)

6. Lago Vista HS* (Lago Vista ISD)

5. Harper HS# (Harper ISD)

4. Blue Ridge HS# (Blue Ridge ISD)

3. Seymour HS^ (Seymour ISD)

2. Skidmore-Tynan HS# (Skidmore-Tyanan ISD)

1. Sundown HS* (Sundown ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Overall Top Ten Texas High Schools - LYS Performance Scores

The following list represents the top ten high schools that had the highest performance over adversity scores for the 2010/2011 school year.

10. Rivera High School^ (Brownsville ISD)

9. Lee High School^ (Houston ISD)

8. Del Valley High School# (Ysleta ISD)

7. Hastings High School^ (Alief ISD)

6. Skyline High School^ (Dallas ISD)

5. North Shore Senior High School# (Galena Park ISD)

4. Mumford High School# (Mumford ISD)

3. Hanna High School# (Brownsville ISD)

2. Rio Grande City High School# (Rio Grande City ISD)

1. Valley View High School^ (Valley View ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top Ten Middle & Junior High Schools - Student Excellence (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten middle and junior high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners score at the commended level on all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Stevenson MS# (Houston ISD)

9. Lago Vista MS# (Lago Vista ISD)

8. Garcia MS# (Fort Bend ISD)

7. Veterans MS* (Rio Grande City ISD)

6. Lone Oak MS# (Lone Oak ISD)

5. Harper MS* (Harper ISD)

4. Lanier MS# (Houston ISD)

3. Pin Oak MS* (Houston ISD)

2. Briarmeadow MS* (Houston ISD)

1. Natalia JH* (Natalia ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized / ^ = TEA Acceptable

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top Ten Middle & Junior High Schools - Student Competency (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten middle and junior high schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners pass all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Timpson MS# (Timpson ISD)

9. Pin Oak MS* (Houston ISD)

8. Veterans MS* (Rio Grande City ISD)

7. Whitewright MS* (Whitewright ISD)

6. Austin MS* (Galveston ISD)

5. Lone Oak MS# (Lone Oak ISD)

4. Plains MS* (Plains ISD)

3. Staley MS* (Frisco ISD)

2. Briarmeadow MS* (Houston ISD)

1. Natalia JH* (Natalia ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top Ten Elementary Schools - Student Excellence (LYS Performance Score)

The following list presents the ten elementary schools that had the greatest percentage of their fragile learners score at the Commended level on all sections of the TAKS test (2010/2011).

10. Dyess ES* (Abilene ISD)

9. Aloe ES# (Victoria ISD)

8. Gonzalez ES* (Edinburg CISD)

7. Homer Drive ES* (Beaumont ISD)

6. Devers ES# (Devers ISD)

5. Rising Star ES# (Rising Star ISD)

4. Country Place ES* (Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD)

3. Hobby ES* (Houston ISD)

2. Lyons ES* (Houston ISD)

1. Canterbury ES* (Edinburg ISD)

* = TEA Exemplary / # = TEA Recognized

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/4ydqd4t
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Oklahoma Association of Middle School Principal’s Mid-Winter Conference; Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

A Principal Asks... So What is Your Scheduling Alternative

A LYS Principal asks the following:

SC,

So if eight and nine period days are so awful, what does a good schedule look like?

Seven periods?

I am loaded with electives, what do I do with those folks?

My E/LA department believes and have shown through scores that if they are not blocked that they cannot cover state mandated material in just 46 minutes a day. This forces other classes to be larger and just creates more issues to deal with on a daily basis?

I can see having fewer periods, more time on task, and moving from 46 minutes to more than 50 minutes a period. Is this what you are getting at?

I am at a loss and want to assist my campus in being at the top by doing whatever is required. As they say "everything is on the table".

SC Response

Excellent questions that warrant expertise beyond my pay grade. So I referred your post to the best scheduling person I have every met, former “Principal of the World,” E. Don Brown.

EDB Response

You mentioned “block” in your question. Most have a single view of "extended time learning" and many administrators see the "block" as an increase in staffing cost so it is rarely used any more.

In Texas, where I understand your campus is located, due to state course requirements (4X4 and the distinguished diploma) and testing requirements (was TAKS, now STAAR) most principals see either the block, eight period, or nine period schedule as their only options. There are other options and my favorite is the "Trimester". Some may remember it from your college experience.

The Trimester is just as one would predict. Students are scheduled into three, twelve-week sessions, each session consisting of five courses. This allows students to earn 2½ credits each trimester, 7½ credits each year, and 30 credits for the four years of high school. But most importantly, the Trimester gives teachers time to teach and students the opportunity to focus on mastering a manageable course load.

The kicker is that STAAR does not fit perfectly into the Trimester system. But TAKS didn’t fit perfectly into the traditional semester system, as is still the case with the STAAR. This requires individualized accommodations that can and should be made for students, regardless of the schedule you are running. But sadly most school leaders are not willing to do this extra work for two semesters, so doing it three times a year is out of question. Yet another example of adult convenience trumping student benefit.

Here are some basic facts about the TRIMESTER.

• Students are enrolled in 5 classes each trimester (3 trimesters x 5 classes = 15 classes or 7½ credits per year.
• Teachers teach 4 classes each trimester (3 trimesters x 4 classes = 12 classes or six sections per year.
• Classes are 70 – 80 minutes long (extended learning time periods).

As with any good foundation, there are also several hybrid schedules that can be created from this basic format.

E. Don Brown

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/4ydqd4
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation
• Get the Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan App at the App Store – Fun 5 Plans
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: Region 16 ESC Leadership Academy (Keynote Address); NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Quit with the Early Benchmarks

My head nearly exploded last week, and it wasn’t due to the sinus infection that I am currently fighting. I was in two different districts during the 2^nd week of school where they had already shut down instruction to give a release TAKS to every student, to see where they are. At these struggling, high poverty districts there is absolutely no valid information that will come from this test. On day seven of instruction, the students have regressed a little from the results that the actual TAKS reported in May. That is to be expected. And that is all you really need to know. You start teaching at full speed on day one of instruction, assess (not benchmark) at short-term intervals and adjust on the fly. That is the formula for academic growth and success.

When asked why they were administering the release test, staff in both districts told me that their state monitor suggested it. These people could not be more wrong with their advice. Benchmarking this early in the year is the instructional equivalent of bleeding the patient to release the bad blood. It is simply superstition masquerading as professional practice. Just because the person the state send to you has good intentions (they do) doesn’t mean that they have any idea what they are doing (many don’t). We have to be critical consumers of advice and information. If someone advises you to do something that does not quite make sense, ask some questions and challenge some convictions.

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/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference

An Exercise in Coaching Dialogue - The Summative Evaluation

A lot of non-LYS’ers ask me what exactly we do and why do principals use us. My answer is always the same, “We believe in successful schools, teachers and principals. We build that success though coaching and honest dialogue.”

Below is one example of what this looks like. It is a conversation between me and a good, young principal who has the potential to be great.

Principal X,

Here is the problem with comparing yourself to other schools in your district. For every campus in your district that takes the formative data process seriously and is working to create an accurate picture, there is another campus that is skewing the data out of fear of Central Office. Plus, formative data is formative data. It is now the end of the year, summative data time. What you look at is TAKS data. Did our scores go up or did our scores go down?

You had overall improvement in everything but science. Why? What worked? What didn't? What will be different next year?

Reading, writing and math improved, but not by much. Why? What worked? What didn't? What will be different next year?

Here would be the outline of our summative conference, if you worked for me.

1. Good job for a Rookie. You did not exceed my expectation, but you did meet them.

2. Though I'm proud of your activism and overall inquisitiveness, I'm concerned that it distracts you from what you were hired to do, making our school (yes, it belongs to both of us) an exemplar campus. Why can I say that? Your overall results this year barely moved the needle.

3. Next year, work to transform your “fox” like tendencies into “hedgehog” like tenacity.

4. There is no question you are one of my smarter principals, I expect you to be one of my most successful ones. I will measure that success by the performance of your students. Both School A (richer) and School B (poorer) outperform you. If you are to exceed my expectations, exceed the performance of both of those campuses.

Reflect on this a little bit, but don’t obsess over it. And remember, all I see is your data, your posts, and just a few visits to your campus. On the other hand, that is more attention than most supervisors are able to give.

But here is the important thing; I want you to remember that for a rookie principal, you did a good job. You took the school out at the beginning of the year and brought it back in safely at the end of the year. The degree of difficulty for that task is only understood by principals. But from here on out the rating scale gets much more difficult, you are now a veteran principal

I appreciate your passion for public education.

Principal X Response

As always, you have given me one extra dose of reality to think about and consider before my ego explodes. (My Supervisor) does not always offer good opportunities for self-reflection, nor do I even know, at this stage in my career, which questions to even ask myself to move forward.

However, given the cultural situation of this campus, it really took half the school year to get the pieces of the puzzle turned over before we could put the thing together. Many teachers needed the freedom to teach with coaching and guidance. It just took too long to get there. With that, we had to make moves in November to get people in the right grade levels, which I do not regret. It paid off.

But, you are absolutely right. If not School A, because of their demographics, School B is definitely in a tougher situation than us. I use them as a comparison campus and we need to be doing it better than they are. So, in that respect, it is disappointing.

Hard data is hard to defend without excuses. All I can offer is excuses, but they would not come to you without a lack of effort to move forward. In truth, what we did was not enough or it wasn’t the right thing to do. That is for me to decide as we move forward.

Thank you for the feedback and for the data. I appreciate the honesty and you have given me something larger to think about going into my summative conference, which is Thursday morning.

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/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Reader Writes... (A Look in the Mirror - Part 3)

In response to the 5/24/11 post “A Look In The Mirror,” a LYS Principal writes:

SC,

You know our TAKS scores were not great. But we did have a 130% increase in the number of students who passed all sections of the test!

SC Response

Your campus is a great example of three important concepts.

1. Exceptional performance can be measured in various ways, but it must be measured. Yes, ultimately we want to stand at the top of the mountain. But the pace at which we are completing that journey is also a critical and valid measure.

2. The further you lag behind, the greater the gains that can be expected when you adopt a systems approach. That is the power of the Foundation Trinity and the Fundamental 5. As you and your staff experienced, we are not talking about double-digit gains. We are talking about more than doubling performance.

3. There are no throw away schools and no throw away students. But there are bad systems, poor leadership and overwhelmed adults. Address the adult issues and students will respond.

Congratulations to you, your staff and your students. As you alluded to, you are only about 1/3 of the way to your ultimate goal. But your campus completed the first leg of the journey at world-class speed.

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/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

The Big Easy Writes... (A Look in the Mirror - Part 2)

In response to the 5/24/11 post “A Look In The Mirror,” The Big Easy writes:

SC,

I thought your reflection on the TAKS scores was great advice. I am reminded of a couple of quotes:

"Tough times never last, but tough people do." Robert Schuller.

And several college football coaches have been quoted as saying, after a tough loss, "Don't let a team beat you twice."

The 2011 TAKS is over. What is now important is the next game on the schedule.

SC Response

I’ll take the coaching analogy further. TAKS was a Division II football team. You know, the team that the big schools schedule early in the season to pad their record (I’m talking to you, Cheadhorn).

STAAR is the perennial Top 10 School that is on the schedule next week. What this means is if your campus struggled with TAKS, you are already behind the eight ball. But even if you didn’t struggle with TAKS, you still have no idea if you are truly prepared for STAAR. The point being if you are pouting and licking your wounds due to past failures, or are resting on your laurels due to past success, you are not adequately preparing yourself for the task at hand.

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/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Reader Writes... (A Look in the Mirror - Part 1)

In response to the 5/24/11 post “A Look In The Mirror,” a LYS Principal writes:

The 'troop rallying' has already begun. During a post-TAKS conference, I reminded an individual teacher not to define herself by just two numbers. I was actually proud of her sincere disappointment at the sub-pop scores in her grade and content area. That reality shocked us all (yes, I cried like a baby when I saw it on the screen for the first time). Even with secure data analysis and valid RTL programming - there can be surprises even for the best of us...

But all said and done - another LYS 'baby' school will stand on its own two feet this year. Proudly, as Recognized WITHOUT ANY exceptions!!!

Way to go Bears - thanks for believing even when you didn't fully understand it all yet - you Rock!

SC Response

Great attitude. Improvement is measured by progress forward and the pace of change. The goal is to get from Point A to Point B. Re-assess and then take off for Point C. And even for a rookie, you understand an important component of continuous improvement, disappointment. When you are satisfied and/or resigned to your fate it is very difficult to find the motivation to push yourself to get better. But when you are disappointed, that means that something is lacking. Which means there is something that you can do to improve your lot.

I had a former employee tell me that she only figured out why I was a great principal to work for, after I was gone. She said, “No matter what we accomplished, you were always vaguely disappointed. Which meant that we couldn’t slow down, we had to keep pushing ourselves. Your replacement kept telling us how we were the best and no one could do what we do. Since we were the best, we slowed down. And now we are in trouble again.”

Now here is my secret. I was always vaguely disappointed. But not with the staff and students, with myself. I could see that we weren’t getting results that I thought were commiserate with our effort. Which meant the system wasn’t efficient, which meant I wasn’t doing my part. Hence their hard work and diminished results reflected on my value to the team. As I said, disappointing. My course of action? More thinking, more working, so my school could have more achieving.

Congratulations on your success in a tough accountability year. I know a lot of your non-LYS peers in your district took significant steps backwards. The perils of believing the TPM hype. You and your campus are poised to be extraordinary in the next couple of years. Don’t lose sight of that.

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/4ydqd4t

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