"Reflections"

The annual Day of Reflection for Principals and Cabinet took place this week.

This dedicated day involved leadership reviewing as well as reflecting upon their work within the context of leadership standards. The process also included writing and dialoguing with a critical friend. The role of critical friend was to ask questions to cause deeper, more penetrating examination of practice or to provide clearer understanding.

The results of the day were captured in a written form that will eventually become an artifact in each principals and cabinet members year-end evaluation.

Principals were asked, what did they do, what did they learn, and what implications for their leadership were gleaned from their learnings in the following leadership areas:

I. Strategic

II. Instructional

III. Cultural

IV. Human Resource

V. Managerial

VI. External Development

VII. Micro-Political

In a like manner, Cabinet was asked to reflect on their work as defined in the Annual Planning Table, their contributions, effect, and learning informed by the Organizational Assessment and/or Comprehensive Needs Assessment. Within the context of areas identified as needing improvement or threats, each cabinet member reflected and wrote their responses to the following:

· How has my work supported, validated, or affirmed identified strength area(s)?

· What two examples can I cite to support my response to the aforementioned question?

· What implications do the area(s) needing improvement or area(s) identified as threats have for my leadership?

· What two examples can I cite to support my response to the aforementioned question?

Lastly, Cabinet members wrote their reflections to these two prompts:

1. What must I do to increase my leadership “effect” to ensure that improvement, measurable improvement is continuous in those areas I have responsibility, accountability, and authority?

2. What must I do to ensure that principals, teachers, and support staff are effective in improving both teaching and learning?

Suffice it to say, the day is a very productive, informative, and exhausting day.

Different from years’ past is a very significant factor – that is, principals and cabinet level leadership are aware and understand now more than ever “what” needs to be done!

The challenge remains – doing it.

As June rapidly approaches signaling the end of the instructional year, leadership will prepare for reconvening our learners on 25 August 2011. There will be little, if any, idle time as leadership engages in their annual leadership advance (June 15-17). As a warm up for the Advance, Leadership will participate in training on 14 June with Department of Public Instruction staff focused on unpacking school Comprehensive Assessment Needs reports with the expectation that they will, in turn, facilitate with their staff the same process in the Fall.

We will have teams of teachers and Leadership attending and presenting Discovery Education (June 20-24), AVID (June 20-24), (Model Schools June 27-29), (Co-Teaching 27 June – 1 July), (Make Your Day 27 June – 1 July) and various state meetings (June 25-29).

July will find no relief from training. Leadership will participate in Total Instructional Alignment/Common Core training 18-22 July and Learning Development Center training (July 26-28).

I will stop here – August is equally full.

What is clear, each of these trainings, learnings are designed to meet identified needs – focused on implementation – doing it!

"Really ... Seriously"

We need to do better!

We can do better!

We must do better!

The challenge however, is do we really want our learners to be successful? Really? Seriously?

Are we afraid of our students being successful?

This is a serious question –

We have a plan – a detailed plan.

We have planned and provided means for aggressive identification and early intervention.

We have planned and provided a focus and the tools to create environments – teaching and learning environments that are conducive for success.

We have planned and provided resources – technology resources to enhance, enrich, and accelerate teaching and learning for success.

We have planned and provided professional learning and growth to target specifically the needs of learners to achieve success.

We have not however implemented to fidelity. To implement to fidelity requires the same attributes of effective teaching and learning – constant and consistent monitoring, constant and consistent measuring, constant and consistent adjustment or corrective action – constant and consistent reviewing and reflection – constant and consistent planning and – constant and consistent doing.

Sadly, it appears we haven’t.

Our results suggest we have not implemented deeply those practices, programs, behaviors, and decisions that yield the desired or expected results. Our data suggests the opposite.

I purposely started with the constant and consistent monitoring. A responsibility of leadership.

The good news is that leadership recognizes that planning means little without implementation. In a like manner, implementation without monitoring amounts to random, inconsistent results. Really! Seriously!

We know now more than ever that monitoring implementation of our plan especially instructional strategies including practices and programs is lacking.

Let’s not get intentions, commitment, or desire for success to be confused with the tools, skills, and application of effective implementation. Effective implementation requires first and foremost – doing.

Doing is well, doing! It’s not talking about it, not going through the motions, not trying to dress it up or pretend on certain days or in certain environments or giving the appearance of doing – no! Doing is doing.

Let me offer a thought about Make Your Day – again! If our staffs including leadership would just do it rather than not doing it they would find that not only does it work; it will be each educators' best hopes for student management.

Just wait for the final suspension numbers and I will, you will, we will hear about how Make Your Day doesn’t work. The alternative? Suspend more students – corporal punishment – we need to intimidate and force students to behave and learn. I have one question – so how was student achievement before MYD?

I would rather be faced with implementation fidelity where principals, students, parents or all three come back to me to say, “Firn we implemented it – we did everything you asked, we followed the program protocols exactly the way we were trained and it hasn’t worked – here is the data to prove it.”

Our problem remains - an important ingredient is missing – our staff and administration have not followed the program protocols or made the complete uncompromising effort to do so.

Frustrating?

Really!

Seriously!

There are many more examples – TeachTown, Headsprout, Fast ForWord, Reading Assistant, Smart Thinking, Laptops, Connect ED, Co-Teaching, TIA, Thinkgate, Common Formative Assessments, Benchmark Assessments, and many more.

We have chosen or at least majority has chosen not to implement fully or completely, but pretend to do so.

What must and will be different – monitoring. Get ready; monitoring is about to play a much greater role.

It has to – we will not achieve the results we desire if we don’t implement with fidelity.

Training and capacity building without monitoring is akin to planning without implementation.

We need, can and must perform better. By the by, monitoring is effective only when specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timely feedback is provided. A responsibility of leadership.

To that end, our planning work during the Leadership Advance will focus on awareness, understanding and application of effective monitoring skills, knowledge, and tools.

"Just a Dream?"

I was asked recently if the vision of all means all was just a dream – a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind; not reality.

I asked in response, “Why would you think that?”

“Do you think that all means all is achievable?” They asked.

As I pondered my response, I considered what drives me, what motivates me, what causes me to do this work.

Fundamentally, I must believe and behave in such a manner to make all means all more than a pithy statement, a political correct motto for our time.

If we don’t want all students to have access and opportunity to take full advantage, participate fully; to have choices for his or her life then what do we want?

If we don’t want all students to learn and achieve to high standards what do we want?

Which students should be successful and which ones shouldn’t be?

If equity and social justice don’t fuel our passions, our decisions, and our convictions, then what does?

Underpinning the “all means all” vision is a mindset, an attitude, and a perspective that require redefining accountability for ones’ commitments and actions. It requires being proactive not reactive. It requires moving beyond identifying, explaining, or justifying current reality to owning the reality irrespective of the circumstances or who or what created the reality. It requires moving beyond ownership to solving and implementing strategies to achieve improvement. It requires doing.

“All means all” requires choice. Shouldn’t each student, each individual have the choice to decide their career, level of education, and etc.?

To have choices requires that learners are equipped with the tools, skills, knowledge, and experience that at a minimum afford them options.

The ultimate expression of “all means all” is the response to each of the following:

“If you were accused of doing whatever it takes to ensure all students are successful, what evidence would be presented at your trial to convict you of such an allegation?”

Or

“If you were accused of having learning and behavior expectations – high expectations that ensure all students are successful, what evidence would be presented at your trial to convict you of such an allegation?”

Or

“If you were accused of never giving up or quitting on a student to ensure they are successful, what evidence would be presented at your trial to convict you of such an allegation?”

The allegations may seem trite. Yet, it is not the beliefs we espouse that matter – it is our action, our behavior.

Moreover, it is the evidence of our behaviors.

This is pretty heavy stuff at this time of the year. Yet, it is exactly this time of year we need to be reminded that testing and test scores are not an education. They are not the ultimate measure of teaching and learning.

Our beliefs matter, our behaviors matter more, the evidence of our beliefs and behaviors matter most.

The “all means all” vision includes a community that wraps its’ arms around each learner to ensure each learner has a clear choice to pursue his or her dreams.

If “all means all” is not your dream, your vision then what is?

If “whatever it takes” or high expectations for each learner or never giving up are not what you want to be accused of, what should be the allegation?

If creating the conditions that ensure each learner has a choice – an authentic choice is not why you are in this work, why are you?

Come to think of if, what drives your work?

What motivates you? Inspires you?

The “all means all” vision is achievable – it must be what drives the work – it is for me.

"Learning"

“The greatest threats to normal childhood are the expectations of adults. We must remember that growth is a slow process. Children not only grow but they grow up; and up is a very long distance for all of them”

Unknown

Last Friday Cabinet participated in the exit interview related to the third annual Organizational Assessment. Though there are several areas of noteworthy accomplishment and improvement, there remain areas yielding inconsistent, incomplete, or incoherent results. We are anxious to unpack the strengths and threats in greater detail. The exit interview did not include the final report but did have scores for comparison purposes.

Nonetheless, we do know from the scores two words that are the presently the bane of our existence – expectations and implementation.

The existence and subsequent practices of low expectations across our school system, within each school, and within each classroom irrespective of elementary or secondary grade, course, or program continues to limit both our students and staff.

Simply and with great candor, we expect too little from our students and staff. The “we” in the previous sentence extends far beyond the educational community.

Too few citizens from our community believe and expect our students, all students to successfully learn to high standards.

Low expectations are even more egregious within the educational community. Educators that expect little of students as well as themselves commit what President Bush called “soft bigotry”. Strong words.

No one wants to be called or labeled a bigot especially not educators. But, when we expect and accept below standard performance, below standard work, below standard learning simply because of where we live we hurt children.

Shifting expectations is not easy. Several factors influence low expectations. Chief among these is experience – past and current. Because we have expected little, little has been produced reinforcing the belief and practice that students can’t or students won’t.

Our inability to deeply implement practices as well as programs contributes in part to low expectations. The scores from the Organizational Assessment reveal pockets of improvements but these are isolated not ubiquitous. Interestingly enough where improvement was identified the level of implementation coupled with high expectations were found.

Implementation is important.

Deep implementation is critical!

Not surprisingly implementation has been challenging. Implementation requires a sense of humility that starts first with recognition, openness, if you will, to think differently about ones’ own practice.

Humility requires an examination of results attributed to ones’ practice. We know from both personal as well as professional experience that different results don’t come from simply “wishing” or “hoping” they will. Rather they come from a commitment to continuous improvement.

In the weeks and months ahead, the Organizational Assessment will serve as a powerful tool for our learning and improvement. Yet, we know that learning does not take place unless there is application of the information.

Hence, our challenge is to apply the output of the Organizational Assessment as the input for continuous improvement.