“A Long, short Week”

The aftermath of the horrific event in Connecticut certainly impacted each of us.  As our instructional week began on Monday, an uneasy tension – one with uncertainty, apprehension, and to varying degrees angst was present not only in our schools but also across our state and nation.

The skill of our staff motivated by compassion, heartfelt concern, passion, and a commitment to each of our students navigated the day providing each student with as humanly possible a sense of calm and safety.  Staff, students, and especially our parents were extremely supportive and sensitive to the emotions, feelings, and concerns for safety and security.

The calls and conversations with parents, grandparents, community and staff alike were equally supportive, encouraging, and each with a genuine sense of being helpful.  Suggestions as well as recommendations were not unrealistic or reactionary.  To that end, we will explore some of these for feasibility and practicality. 

I found myself several times pondering before speaking the oft-cited reason of “money” as why we don’t explore certain strategies.  Though in all likelihood valid, I just couldn’t use money or the cost of something as a reason for not listening to well-intentioned callers that took time to call and share their ideas.

In most of these conversations we inevitably discussed that in many respects the safety and security protocols we have in place (I will not divulge for obvious reasons) are acknowledged as progressive and contemporary.  Yet, there are some areas we still need to address – and we will!

EdWeek’s timely article, Security Steps Said to Avert More Deaths at Conn. School: Experts warn against knee-jerk changes elsewhere by Nirvi Shah (18 December 2012 Vol. 32, Issue 15) is a must read.  Though it offers little in the way of understanding or sense making of what took place, it does, however, provide insights essential to the conversation about school safety.

Related – I met with our police chief this week and, as I did at the Board of Education meeting Monday night, expressed our heartfelt appreciation for all the officers of whom many volunteered on their own to be in our schools Monday as well as throughout the week.  Many parents, citizens, staff, and students noticed their presence and expressed their appreciation as well.

Unrelated – as the holiday season moves officially into full swing – marked by the release of students from school, we prepare to bring the year 2012 to an end and welcome 2013.  As we do, I have challenged our leadership to consider two important questions.  They are:

“What have we as an organization learned?”

“What have you learned?”

In part to be reflective and in part to set the stage for the Midyear Leadership Advance these two questions are extremely important. 

Why? 

As a learning organization we must come to grips with where we are with respect to where we expected to be at this point in the journey. 

What we have learned corporately as well as individually provide awareness and understanding about any gap between the actual and expected – make sense?

If we haven’t been learning – how do we expect to be different albeit in thought, behavior, or results?

I am extremely curious to learn our responses.  The “advance” will allow us to piece together the different “learnings” and perspectives with the best hope of raising to even higher level our leadership efficacy.

Learning continuously is part of improvement - continuous improvement – hence the word continuous, right?

Learning more often than not is a prerequisite for improvement especially if “different” is the expected outcome.  Though obvious to many, learning and therefore knowing what is expected is the first step to different. 

In learning to do different there is learning about what isn’t working or producing the results we expect or desire. As the “new year” looms closer the habitual practice of “new year resolutions” come to mind.  Simply put underpinning learning to do different requires humility.

Learning also requires assistance, objectivity, experience, and honesty.

We need mentors – those that candidly and effectively ground us as their interest – vested interest is in our development, growth and progress.

So it is, therefore, in my last Weekly of 2012 that I attempt to tie together events of the last week and the need to continually learn. 

I think there it is! 

We have to learn.  We have to be different.

With little doubt, we will learn and we will be different! 

It now becomes a matter of our capacity, our resolve, and our commitment to do so.

“Natural and Timely”

The work let alone progress of transformation is not easy and is more often fraught with frustration, disappointment, and discouragement. The lack of instant or immediate positive change, success, or results reinforces the naysayers as well as erodes confidence, taints the vision, and makes ambitious initiatives questionable. Leading to a loss of motivation, passion, and commitment the inevitable happens with transformative work – abandonment.

Suffice; Transformative work is not easy!

To create the conditions for transformative success, we set out five and a half years ago with a plan to address what many labeled a “persistently and chronically low performing school system” – bluntly, a failing district. 

That plan, the Strategic Commitments articulated the key success factors that must be achieved for breakthrough results.  Our plan created a word picture of what our school system could, should, and would look like when the work was completed.  Three commitments framed our work – and continue to frame our work.  Common to each commitment is the core of our work – “All Anson County School students meet or exceed state and community academic learning standards”.  The emphasis on “all” birthed the vision of “All means All”.  

The commitments are:

1.     All Anson County School students meet or exceed state and community academic learning standards

2.     The Anson County Schools are organized efficiently and effectively to ensure that all students meet or exceed state and community academic learning standards

3.     The Anson County Schools will engage, promote, and partner with parents and community to ensure all students meet or exceed state and community academic learning standards

The core work of our school system resides in commitment one.  It is here that we find the essential components of our instructional program – standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment alignment with student performance and adult learning.  Those individually and collectively are keys to success – hence they are key success factors.  Achieving alignment and implementation fidelity of each of these factors will result in fulfilling our commitment.

We discovered of late that missing was an additional factor within commitment one.  That is, our commitment to digital conversion and digital integration.  Thus, administration is recommending amending our commitments to add under key success factor 1.4 – “Student learning is planned and predictive” a new factor:

“Implementation of digital, mobile instructional and learning devices, tools ensure each student experiences contemporary methodologies via digital delivery, acquisition, and application of digital tools, skills, knowledge and experience.”

Though generally understood, the digital conversion and digital integration initiative has resulted in unprecedented access and application of digital tools throughout our system.  We have seen incredible growth in both teaching and learning.  We have proved both in concept and in practice that digital conversion and integration works – it works for both teacher and learner.   We, or better put, our students have proved in both concept and practice responsibility and accountability for digital tools albeit laptops or tablets.  Sure there have been damages to equipment as well as incidents of inappropriate use but this was expected and not as egregious as some prophesied.  We have learned and adjusted as a result.  Our digital literacy program provided by one of our strategic partners; EverFi is comprehensive and effective. 

We have consistently and constantly engaged in new learning to integrate effectively and efficiency digital content into lesson design.  We have provided unprecedented product and device training as well as the more important instructional capacity development to ensure that staff does, in fact, weave the power of digital learning into daily lessons. 

We learned last week that at least twenty of our staff (the goal is every staff) will soon participate in an unique and powerful Discovery Educator Network (DEN).  As participants, our students will be invited to participate in an international consortium of distinguished digital learners – shaping the development of new tools, new applications, and new solutions to local, state, national, global and who else knows – but they will do it 

Thus, it is both natural and timely we include in our commitments – Strategic Commitments not only our aspirations for but our commitment to digital teaching and learning, digital tools, digital content, and digital demonstration and application.

“What Vision?”

At a recent meeting with our technology leadership I asked each to respond to where they perceived we are with respect to our plans for mobile/digital learning, comprehensive refresh of technology, and connectivity and access.  They did a pretty good job of answering.

I then asked, “Where did we expect to be?”

As the room silenced, I read the uncomfortable, awkward, and possibly confused looks on the faces of staff that only moments earlier were quick to articulate where we were.  Rather than show my disappointment – more in myself than in staff, I asked, “What has guided the decision making and procurement process for technology?”

I quickly followed up with, “What is our vision for technology?”  “What is the mission of technology?”  In an attempt to break the silence I finally asked, “What is the vision for our organization?”

At last, a response, “All means all”.

What does “All means all” have to do with technology?

Everything!

Backing up, I offered where I expected us to be at this point – over four years into digital integration.  First and foremost I expected that our student performance would be higher than it is – although we have made significant improvement.  It should be obvious but our core work is teaching and learning.  Technology is merely a tool to leverage, drive, inspire, motivate, innovate, create, and imagine different – deeper application, construction, and demonstration of learning for each learner. Specifically related to the teaching and learning tools of this century:

1.   I expected we would have every third through 12^th grader with mobile learning device;

2.   I expected we would have a comprehensive refresh plan that systematically as well as systemically refreshed all aspects of technology; and

3.   I expected we would have unlimited, ubiquitous connectivity and access in every instructional space, workspace and in every school.

In response and to be accurate, a number of staff said after hearing where I expected us to be, “This is the first time we have heard this!”  My only thought was to return to an earlier question, “What has guided the decision- making and procurement process for technology?”

 Vision or the lack of is exactly where we find ourselves at this given point.  To address this deficiency technology leadership is earnestly revisiting the district’s technology plan through the lenses of a new vision - “Technology shall be the central component serving as a link between all curricular areas and is utilized as a common tool for students and faculty to communicate, collaborate, and construct learning inside and outside our classrooms and schools.”

Not to oversimplify – “central link, common tool to communicate, collaborate, and construct learning” is at the center of this vision.  This vision requires elaboration and operational definitions for “central link” and “common tool”.

As a “central link”, technology must be dependable, reliable, high capacity, secure, fast, easily supported, and all those necessary, essential functions of making sure everything works as planned.  “Central link” is far greater than the operational aspect of technology.  It requires “linking” content, information, subject matter, knowledge, and etc. with acquiring, applying, demonstrating, evaluating and creating learning.

“Common tool” includes unlimited access and opportunity.  It is not lab based.  It is mobile.  It is any place, anytime, any space – hence it is common not uncommon.

Communicate, collaborate, and construct should be self-evident.  Yet, the tools of learning in this age require a set of skills not previously required.  That is, the wired, digital native learners require skills, knowledge and experience conceptualized by “digital” literacy – safety, discernment, ethical, moral, and legal implications and consequences, practices, and nuances of “living” online, virtually without boundaries or borders.  In many respects, the application of these skills is the culmination of learning how to use ones’ mind well, learning how to relate and learning how to decide. 

In all reality this present generation will learn and apply their intelligence differently than past generations.  This is as it should be.  However, we must be careful not to constrain or prohibit the “growth of the foot by the size of the shoe”.  This begins with vision!

We must in every way shift intentionally and purposefully our vision from a simple update or newer version of the past to a picture that begets inspiration, imagination, innovation, creativity, and motivation to  communicate, collaborate, and construct – 

Simply put, our vision must be something that everyone wants and must be a part of – “all does mean all”!

“Rediscovery”

As we draw closer to the beginning of a new year I would like to take full advantage of time for reflection, retrospection, introspection, metacognition and just about any other type of inspection of self before the year ends.  In part motivated to initiate reflection now given we are all too busy with the holidays, family, and life to do justice to the power of review and in part to give each of us something else to think about other than shopping – not sure how many more we can take - Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Coupon Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, and on and on.

Though new records for online sales were set, we learned that most brick and mortar shoppers checked online for sales, prices and availability before committing to face-to-face transactions. Stores have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to associate their brand with trust – trust of price, quality, experience, and etc. Now, trust is a click or double click, swipe, or quick surf. 

Things have change!

Traditional shoppers are conflicted if not confused by how the Internet has redefined the purpose of shopping let alone redefined trust.

Of course my sense of shopping is pretty Neanderthal – you know the whole hunter and gatherer mindset.  I know what I want, see it, “shoot it”, and bring it home – pretty simple.  So the whole online thing works for me. 

However, for many, technology has not only redefined shopping but also has repurposed it.  Unlike me, many view shopping as an experience – a social experience.  The advent of online shopping shifted the social experience of shopping in ways that few anticipated.  Certainly brick and mortar stores have attempted to create something more alluring, more attractive than what the Internet can offer shoppers.   For some stores this has worked; for others it hasn’t.

Cross-walking from shopping, technology to the call for reflection I ask each of us to consider two very important areas – our sense of purpose and our sense of trust.  Similar to the online versus traditional face-to-face shopping, educators, too, must rediscover a sense of purpose as well as rediscover trust.  With no shortage of change, reform educators must know clearly and without apology or compromise their (our) purpose.  The adage “if you don’t know what you stand for you will fall for anything” could not be truer. 

Why are we engaged in this work? 

Why is this our chosen profession?

What is it we are attempting to accomplish?

In a like manner trust capacity is at an all time low.  Educators are not trusted. 

Yet, why? 

When did educators become untrustworthy?

Rediscovering trust will require embracing unprecedented transparency, truth telling even when it is not popular or convenient. 

We have for the past five and half years attempted to face our deficiencies, shortcomings and underperformance with not only the reality of data but with sincerity, ownership, and a sense of empowerment to adjust and correct not excuse or blame others. 

We must assist our community as well as critics in rediscovering trust – trust in their public schools to meet or exceed high expectations for achievement and performance.  If for nothing more than an opportunity to engage in conversations, our performance over the past five years should speak volumes to our desire and efforts to improve.  Our staff and more importantly, our students have risen to the occasion giving concrete, empirical evidence of their ability, their capability, and their capacity to achieve to high standards.

Yes, I do believe it is time to rediscover trust.

Sense of purpose and trust in no uncertain terms will be under attack in the weeks and months ahead.  With a new governor along with newly elected and re-elected members of the General Assembly, we will certainly experience a redefining and repurposing of public education.

It is my best hopes that in our reflections of our own sense of purpose and trust that we will become embolden with a new found sense of courage – courage to speak up and out for our students, our community, our state, and our nation.

We must rediscover the importance of education and our role in creating a preferred future for each of our learners – education is more than economic development, more than global competiveness.  It is the essence of what makes our community, state, and nation the envy of the world. 

Education is freedom. 

The rediscovery of freedom and what it means will have a profound impact on pondering purpose and trust.  Imagine if you will what this would look like, feel like, and sound like in action rather than just in thought. 

Come to think of it – we can make this a reality!

“Sometimes …”

Much has and will continue to be written, discussed, debated, and legislated regarding Hurricane Sandy – not to mention litigated – someone has to be sued, right?  The destruction and loss of life are challenging for words to describe let alone for many of us to comprehend.  Watching camera footage along with the interviews of victims was difficult especially in the immediate aftermath.  Then came the unseasonably early nor’easter – talk about insult to injury.   The rebuilding of communities, towns, and cities will be an enormous undertaking not to mention expensive.  Yet, is there any doubt that it will be done?

Homes and businesses along with the infrastructure to support utilities, communication, transportation, schools and other public services will return.  So will the people – the human spirit - the composite of psychology, philosophy, and religion that define humanity is nothing short of amazing.  This is precisely why I have little doubt that from catastrophe there will be growth and renewal. 

It is against this backdrop that I move to the front and center of a different challenge – a challenge that if we collectively responded as if facing the severity of a Hurricane or some other natural disaster we would at last solve.  That is, the challenge of universal literacy!

I recently shared at the NC Legislative Research Council as I have in the past in other venues that we can eradicate illiteracy in three to five years if we really chose to – yes you read that right – eradicate illiteracy.  We already know more than we need to do to actually achieve this – we just have to want to.

This is where the sports commentator says, “C’mon man!”

Yes, indeed, c’mon! 

The knowledge we have about how the brain works especially the ability to watch, track, and affect the development of sight, sound, and symbol recognition is now a fingertip away.  We can aggressively increase both the requisite skills as well as intensify the acquisition of skills, experience, and knowledge commensurate with literacy mastery.  In fact, the cost of aggressively preventing intervention versus the costs of remediation of failed learning or better put the failure to learn is pennies versus dollars.  In fact, the longer a student is in remediation the more costly it becomes.

Hence the prevention to intervention model – it makes sense from both an educational and fiscal perspective.  So, why don’t we embrace it? 

We are but …

The “buts” are primarily our mindset followed by using time, technology, and teaming differently.  For example, we are still limited by how we use time.  The only time that should have constraints are the first bell at the beginning of the instructional day and last bell signaling the end of the day.  Other than that, educators should be compelled to use time to achieve mastery – literacy mastery.  Mastering literacy embeds all subject areas, content areas, and learning activities. 

Mastering literacy is not age bound or grade bound.  What we must do is to ensure it without compromising.

What will it take?

We have the tools, technology, theory, and teams.  We need to shore up training and permission to use time differently to leverage the aforementioned tools, technology and teams.  Permission?

Yes!

Our principals and teachers have permission – not that they needed formal permission to ensure literacy mastery.  Nonetheless, they do. 

A challenge, to be fair to our staff, is ensuring that students who have already mastered the essential skills of literacy move to even more profound skills, knowledge, and experiences.  Simply put, I am not suggesting that students demonstrating literacy mastery should in any way not be challenged or expected to learn to even higher levels.

Herein lies a second challenge – the bane of our existence is sameness.  Once we use permission to be different, we will begin to break away from sameness – treating each learner the same – same grade, same pace, same space, and same place.  As an example, the only factor that second graders have in common is “age”.

Is this practical? 

It has to be!

What we need now more than ever is the collective commitment and courage to make this happen. 

“The Certainty of Uncertainties”

I was finally able to finish what I started two weekend’s ago with respect to the first wave of leaf raking or more aptly put, leaf blowing.  Staff know that when the leaves fall, they endure the aftermath of hours of “think” time.  My thoughts have been consumed with the events of the past two weeks including the copper theft, employee issues, election results, presentations, and the challenges of continuing to improve all manner of individual and organization performance.

What can only by summarized as the certainty of uncertainties the days, weeks, months, and years ahead are uncertain.  Therefore all that is certain about tomorrow is uncertainty.  Uncertainty will create anxiety, confusion, conflict, as well as doubt. Uncertainty can be used as an excuse for inaction, slippage, or incapacitating behaviors. Uncertainty can also take us down paths that in normal times we would never entertain going. In some cases uncertainty will keep us longer than we planned to stay and cost us more that we were willing to pay.

Hence it is critical that we do not wavier from what we do know.  That is, we know we can and must do better.  Arguably, getting and therefore being better has not been easy or quick.  It has consumed a great deal of energy, time, and effort.  No one believed that overnight we would become a high performing school system.  In spite of the challenges we are close, so close to breaking through.  If the past five years are any indication (I believe they are) our plan is working.

The Strategic Commitments embody the direction, the plan, and the factors that must be achieved to realize success for each student.  Four words summarize the commitments – focus, alignment, and continuous improvement.  Woven into the fabric of each of our commitments are transparency, individual and organizational accountability, and evidence – evidence of performance improvement.

The commitments however are only as effective as we the adults choose them to be.  The power of the uncertainties of tomorrow are also only as controlling as we the adults choose or allow them to be.  We do not have to let circumstances dictate, control, or in any way determine our destiny.  This may be easier said than done.

The accomplishments to date are not universally known nor accepted.  In addition all who do know them have not embraced them wholeheartedly.  We still have doubt within our schools let alone our community.  We still have way too much complaining, criticizing, and cynicism about our staff, our students, our parents, and our leadership from both within and external to our organization.

The results to date are because of focus, alignment and continuous improvement.  Moreover, underpinning our work to date has been a shift in thinking followed by the shifting of practice.

In the middle of such change it is easy to miss how significant the change really is. The following comment was made after I shared several of the data points illuminating our progress over the past five years, “I didn’t know how much we’ve improved”. 

Though not entirely unexpected it was nonetheless illuminating of the need to increase awareness of the results our students and staff have achieved.  Each of us has the responsibility to communicate what is good, what is true, and what is right about our system.

I am confident that we can minimize the uncertainties of tomorrow by raising awareness and understanding of what has and continues to be our path of improvement.

If not careful we may easily slip back into previously unproductive, ineffective, and inefficient practices.  Hence, we must relentlessly pursue our plan – the plan of continuous improvement.

Any slippage in our individual or organizational performance can be attributed legitimately to the ratcheting up of the demands of deeper, more robust instruction driven by the new standards.  Without question or hesitation, the new standards require different instruction. 

The call to shift instruction will not become a reality for all until the results of the new assessments occur.  Sadly, the epiphany that the new standards demand different instruction will come at the expense of students.

Though much work has been done to build capacity in staff in the awareness and understanding of what the new standards demand in both teaching and learning, I believe there remains a contrarian attitude – an attitude that works against the very change we must become.

Thus, we must communicate loudly the success to date but equally communicate that we cannot for a second let up on our pursuit of improving continuously – stay the course irrespective of the uncertainties.

“Taking Risk”

The famed former Dallas Cowboy football great turned bronco bull rider, Walt Garrison once said when asked why, do you ride bulls, “I would rather live with the 6 to 8 seconds of utter terror than living the rest of my life wondering if I could”.  In so many ways I am just not like that.  There is no way I need to take that risk – I sleep just fine at night.

Yet, there are some things that I as well as the collective “we” must risk:  though possibly not a risk at all.

Every day our teachers take risks with instructional strategies.  With the best hopes, intentions of each learner mastering essential skills let alone demonstrating ownership of their learning, our teachers work to stretch, challenge daily each learner. 

They also conscientiously work to reteach, remediate where instruction and learning have not achieved the desired or expected effect. 

Though a very natural step in the teaching and learning cycle, teachers have absolutely nothing to apologize for when re-teaching or remediation is required.  In fact, we expect it!

Believe it or not, to some this is taking a risk, a calculated risk, a planned, intentional risk.  Teachers have unrestricted permission to take this risk.  It is when teachers don’t risk in this way that we are each impacted negatively.

Why do some consider re-teaching a risk?

Each lesson is designed to achieve success.  When the desired or expected result is not achieved there is a sense of failure.  Our society has become more critical, judgmental especially with teaching and learning.  The entire accountability system is not about improving performance but rather to shame, embarrass, and yes, condemn individual students, teachers, principals, classes, grade levels, schools and school systems that do not meet or exceed externally set targets. As if those in a position to make policy believe that each learner, each child, each family, and each community are the same – you get the point – the bane of our existence is sameness.

Too often students get the blame for failing to learn.  Not far behind are the parents for lack of support, caring, or participation.  Of recent, it is the fancy of policy makers to blame teachers, principals, superintendents, Boards of Education, the community or everyone for that matter except themselves. 

Is it possible we have been looking at this through limited lenses?  What if we shifted our thinking to risk-taking through our ability to employ creativity, innovation and imagination? 

Teaching is constant hypothesis testing.  Teachers daily test instructional strategies and with significant success, these strategies are effective.  What we know is that not each learner brings the exact set of skills, knowledge and experiences to a learning episode.  Why would we even consider that one instructional strategy will work perfectly with each learner?  Talk about a set up? 

Of course, there are going to be, just as there has been in the past, variance in learning.  We have asked almost in more of a “super hero” expectation that our teachers perfect their hypothesis testing in every lesson, every day, with every child.  Did I say this is a set up?

In a different time it may have been more reasonable that teachers could test fewer hypotheses given the variance of student skills, knowledge, or experience were less diverse than today.  It can also be argued that in a different time our teachers were more valued, esteemed, and held in higher regard by students, parents, community and policy makers.  The times, however, have changed – did I say set up?

In as much as teachers take risk through testing instructional hypotheses daily, students also take risks through testing learning hypotheses daily.  Each learner, including adult learners, has preferences in the way we like to learn.  When we are asked to learn differently from our preferred way to learn, it is risk-taking. 

Query, both teacher and learner are simultaneously testing hypotheses – one for teaching and one for learning.  Hmm … we may be on to something.

So what is the point - bronco riding, taking risks, or testing hypotheses?

Daily teachers approach their work with the best intentions, best hopes of moving each learner to new content, new tools, new skills, new meaning, and new applications preparing them for the “next”.  They plan for success and when it is not achieved in the allotted time or in the prescribed way they must be risk-takers.

They must become risk-takers, either through the use of time, technology, different strategies, different materials, or through different evidence of learning.  I remain unwavering in my confidence that each of our teachers are up to the task – take a risk and watch our talented educators at work.