"We ARE Close!"

We are close!

At the budget workshop on 5 April 2012, Board of Education member, Mr. Russell Sikes commented after a recent visit to Anson High, "You can feel it, we are close."

I couldn't agree more.

We are so close to breaking through the barrier of low expectations. The work being done by dedicated staff especially in the areas of Algebra, Biology, and English I supported by instructional coaches albeit ours or DPI as well as school and central office administration is beginning to gain traction. This is true at both the high school and middle school level.

Candidly, we don’t want to be in this situation where so many resources are being expended to build, bridge skill and knowledge deficiencies - but we must.

We must complete this work to demonstrate to students and staff alike as well as our community that our students, their students can and will perform to high expectations.

Creating and sustaining a culture and climate of high expectations has not been as easy or simple as policy makers in Raleigh or Washington thought. You cannot mandate transformation nor can you mandate cultural change.

The lessons, our lessons learned are that it takes hard work, purposeful, deliberate, and intentional work to change what we know to change what we do.

The lessons, our lessons learned also include the impact that a gamut of emotions many of which are feelings of frustration, disappointment, doubt, unappreciated, devalued, and hopelessness to name just a few have on each and every one of us.

Getting beyond the finger pointing, affixing blame, and playing the victim stages of change is close. We are also close to accepting without excuse individual and organizational responsibility for the choices, decisions, and actions we do every day.

Within our reach is the mantel of authority not just the responsibility or accountability to take, make, and keep commitments ensuring that each learner is successful.

This may be the greatest lesson learned. That is, each and every one of us accepting and taking fully, completely the authority to do "whatever it takes".

Yet, we still have those that have not accepted or believe our students can demonstrate their learning at high levels consistently. I understand. I really do.

From the beginning of time there have always been those that must see, must experience to believe. Similarly there are those that believe and then see. This is not a right or wrong proposition. Rather, it is what makes life interesting.

However, the work of seeing to believe or believing to see is not an exercise of trying to convince one another of their perspective. This more than anything is the source of frustration, conflict.

It would seem that now more than ever we must accept and practice great care in listening to one another especially from those who may not readily see the improvement, the progress, and the hope resultant from their dedicated, intense, and exhausting work being done by so many.

Though we are close, this work is far from complete. In fact, we are at a place that is more critical than ever. In as much as that we have realized significant improvement we are dangerously fragile and thus susceptible to possible course reversal – giving up if you will.

The anticipation of breakthrough results is exciting. Being close has a downside however.

Anticipation has consequences. If we don’t realize the results we expect there are at least three potential consequences that could severely set us back. They are:

1. Disappointment

2. Discouragement and possibly

3. Disillusionment

We must be therefore careful, deliberate, and very intentional with assessing our current state of capacity to understand and make sense of:

· Where we currently are, where we’ve been and where we still want to go; and

· Implementation fidelity or lack of, of our initiatives, programs and practices

We are indeed close – but we must also be realistic as well as pragmatic with our anticipation of both individual and organizational performance this spring.

As I have stated of recent, we must at all cost stay the course. As our instructional year resumes, it is with the greatest sense that we can and we will breakthrough.

We are close!