Education, Leadership, and Progress

Cliff's Notes Case for CFAs

In administration we far too often focus on ‘what’ instead of focusing on ‘why’ when we communicate with faculty and staff. I had a Twitter-debate this afternoon about the value of Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) and it reminded me of some things administrators take for granted. The root of the debate focused on why would test students, who are all different, with the same assessment. This is an extraordinarily valid argument – especially if the why had never been explained. Below I will do my best to give a Cliff’s notes explanation of the ‘what’ and ‘why’ for CFAs that could be beneficial for administrators and teachers.

WHY?
• As professionals we must be able to agree on essential content and skills for a particular course of study. Expectations for student learning in a given course of study should common. A student taking Algebra 1 in one room of a high school should have the opportunity to learn the same material as a student in a different classroom within that school.
• Expectations for student learning should be broken into smaller, easier to measure chunks. These may be referred to as standards, benchmarks, essential outcomes, learning targets, etc.
• Once the content is broken into smaller chunks, student’s progress toward those goals should be constantly measured.
• The purpose of the measure is to inform the teacher of students’ progress toward the stated goals. This may lead to remediation or enrichment for individual students or acceleration or re-teaching for an entire classroom.
• Constant assessment and feedback is necessary because all kids are different. We must be common and systematic because our kids are not.

WHAT?

• A progress monitor – CFAs are analogous to a physical, whereas a summative assessment is an autopsy
• CFAs can take on a myriad of forms. They do not need to be as standardized as teachers may fear.
• CFAs are assessments that need to inform future practice to be effective – to do that data must be collected.
• A locally created assessment that purpose is to help teachers – not hinder creativity.

Things Change -- Can You Lead This Process?

This morning my cellular phone alarm went off so I rolled over and checked my schedule (on said cellular phone) to see when my first meeting began. Once I saw that I had a good bit of time until that meeting; I sent out a Tweet, outlined this blog, and read an article on the power of Skype in the classroom. I did all this while lying in my bed. For some of readers this sounds like a typical morning, but for some of your staff members this sounds like a science-fiction movie.

 Best practices are changing as research continues -- in all professions. Think of the way ‘we’ used to do things. In the late 1990’s coaches were still depriving students of water during practice – to make them tough. Kids in high school a decade earlier were not only water deprived, but also fed salt tablets. In medicine the rate of infection after surgery dramatically declined after research indicated that doctors needed to ‘scrub in’ prior to surgery. That means previously doctors did not think it of importance to wash their hands thoroughly before invasive surgery!!! Asbestos used to be commonly used to insulate buildings. These practices seem archaic, even dangerous in nature when thought about now. The scary thing is, so do some of our instructional practices.

 There is now a better understanding of how to do almost anything as a result of the ‘data movement.’ SuperCrunchers is a must read to better understand how data impact every aspect of our lives. There is now more than just a general understanding of how the brain works. The research extends pinpointing what aspects of learning are impacted by being poor. There have been meta-analyses of meta-analyses to identify high-yield strategies. Instructional practices have been broken into frameworks that almost anybody can understand.  The information exists for the dramatic transformation in professional practice to occur – but it still isn’t happening.

Dramatic change is not occurring because all of the information provided by the resources above means nothing the teacher that just graduated and was barely awake through their undergraduate experience. This means even less to the teacher who has been in the classroom with excellent evaluations for the past twenty years because he was the principal’s golfing buddy.  This means nothing to these teachers, and hundreds of thousands more throughout the country, because they simply do not know what they do not know. This failure to communicate the research, explain why it is vital to implement in the classroom, and hold teachers accountable for those standards is a blatant failure of leadership to support the professional growth of their faculty.

During an #edchat on Twitter yesterday somebody Tweeted, “As professionals, teachers should want to improve their practice on their own.” I agree with the sentiment, but the operative word in the above Tweet is should. For those who do not, it is the responsibility of leadership to engage that person in their own professional development. To truly support teacher growth, a leader must take each person from where they currently are at in terms of professional maturity and competency and move them forward. This means that difficult conversations measuring candor and care may need to take place. The results moving forward from such conversations determine the effectiveness of a leader, and ultimately the organization. Begin leading change today.

 

The Consensus Conundrum

In leadership circles we often talk about working toward consensus. The concept of working together with a group to reach a decision that everybody can support sounds like leadership 101.  It is talked about like it is the end goal for all effective leaders, but is it?

Leadership sometimes requires more than that. Entering a meeting with the primary focus of reaching consensus with a group of people that are ill-informed or enter the conversation with personal wishes the conflict with the vision of the organization will lead to negative results. Far too common in schools this is how we work with each other. If Teacher A wants to teach 5 essential skills and Teacher B wants to teach 3 -- they simply settle on 4 and move on without in depth conversation about why they feel each is best for their students. True collaboration is much than the simple averaging of opinions.

Leaders do not seek consensus. Leaders work to mold consensus. This requires work before the meeting ever commences to help align the personal goals of members of the organization with the overall organizational goals. This simple paradigm shift from seeking consensus to molding consensus can be the difference between sitting stagnant and creating meaningful change. Lead change today!!

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Unique Leadership Challenge

This post inspired by a quote taken from my Superintendent at a meeting earlier today –

Educational leadership is a unique challenge. The education system does not fit the traditional business model where increased performance in and of itself leads to a tangible benefit for the employee. In business successful performance by an employee generally leads to financial benefit and organizational power. The system may be set-up in a manner where increased performance has a causal impact on earnings (commission) or in a manner which increased performance has a correlative impact on earnings (promotion, stock options, etc.). Either way – the better the employee performs the more rewards they reap.

In education this is not the case. In many instances, the better a teacher performs the more auxiliary duties they may be assigned. Some may perceive this as the better they perform the more burden they must carry. This may be true -- when looking to start a new program or initiative leaders do not generally look at their average employees for support and to pilot a program . They save that distinction (and extra work) for their best and brightest.

There is simply no tangible, external motivator that exists in education. This is why being an educational leader is so challenging. As leaders, we are the outside stimulus that can lead to dramatic change. We are the ‘lever’ that can lead to increased personal awareness and effectiveness. We are able to provide the tools necessary to help people reach their capacity. Our challenge is immense, but so is our potential impact. Lead change starting today!!

Lesson Learned

One of the most important lessons I learned during my time teaching in an inner-city classroom was that students were capable of tremendous things if somebody was willing to push them beyond what they what they thought was their capacity. As I increased the rigor (defined expectations) in my classroom, the distribution of grades stayed about the same. Students rose to the level of the challenge. My personal experience as a building leader tends to support this phenomenon -- an increase in rigor does not necessarily mean less 'As' and more 'Fs'.

If we know that students are capable of things beyond what they once believed possible -- shouldn't that impact the way that we lead adults? Can our employees excel beyond their wildest imaginations?

As leaders it is our job to see things for what they can be, not for what they already are. Begin leading change today.

 

Want More A+ Employees?

In education we spend too little time reading about great leaders and their techniques and strategies outside of the world of education. I was able to delve into the Steve Jobs biography this week and one of the many things that stood out to me was the insistence of Steve Jobs throughout his career that ‘A+’ employees don’t want to work with ‘B’ employees. I resoundingly agree with that sentiment – who wouldn’t want to work with the best employees. The question then becomes how can leaders most effectively increase the percentage of ‘A+’ workers in their organization? I will provide a few quick pointers below:

1)      View maximization of your staff’s capacity your primary responsibility as a leader. It is your job to make everybody else better at theirs. Period.

 

2)      Accountability does not frighten your best employees. Demand defined expectations from all. In a system of accountability your best employees are comfortable and those with room to grow should feel comfortably uncomfortable.

 

3)      A great leader constantly seeks to clarify organizational norms. Many good leaders address when norms are broken, but only the great leaders proactively seek out opportunities to reinforce the organizational expected functions. Clear organizational norms allow for greater employee success.

 

4)      Be fiercely committed to the mission and vision of your organization. Not a single company dreams of being average. An organization cannot achieve great things with substandard employees. Some employees may be incapable or unwilling to ever being an ‘A+’ employee. Being fiercely committed to the mission and vision of your organization should provide explicit direction to a leader when it comes to making the most difficult of personnel decisions. Be courageous. Be uncompromising when it comes to the values of your organization.

 A+ organizations have A+ employees. It is time to lead the change within your organization.

 

Take a Break - Seriously

As leaders we are often the last to know that we need a break. We all have hard weeks. We all have the night where we need to come home and find comfort in our families -- and a bottle of Kettle One. For the most part, however, we never feel as though we need a break. After all, what would our organization do without us?

For the 2^nd year in a row I have returned from a wonderful week with my wife and/or family and realized how far below peak efficiency I had been performing prior to my much needed respite. I was shocked when I returned to realize this because I cannot imagine being more passionate about my job. There is not a day that I come home without giving my all to my school and to my own personal and professional development. However, upon return from my time with loved ones it has been clear that the product I was putting forth before that time did not live up to the standard I have set for myself.

Despite all of that passion and effort you may be putting into your job, there comes a time when you just do not have much left to give. Personally, I have recognized that I need to get away each year and enjoy my wife and sons to maintain peak performance throughout the remainder of the year. So – on New Year’s Eve when many people resolve to make changes in their life I urge each of you overachievers to make a conscious decision to make a concerted effort to take time for yourself and your family. Resolve to take at least one vacation per year. It doesn’t matter where you go – what matters is who you are with and what you are not doing (work). I think you will be surprised of the results when you get back. Your productivity will increase. So – take a vacation. Don’t do it for you – do it for your organization. They need you to take a break as much as you may think you need to continue to grind – Trust me.

 

Us or Them?

Through a random strand of conversation yesterday, my wife and I started to discuss gossip magazines. She explained to me that there were certain ‘smuttiness’ levels to each magazine. Finding the conversation interesting I started asking for the classifications of several magazine titles that I could remember. I inquired as to where “Us” magazine fell in those rankings. She responded by saying, “First of all, it should be called “Them” not “Us”—and then told me it was at the medium level for smut.

I found the comment funny, but also insightful and it led me to think about how the 'us' versus 'them' comment applied to leadership and education.

In almost any industry or field of work there are those people that rise to the top of the food chain and thus become easily identifiable to the general public. Sports is easy (Tom Brady, Tiger Woods), business as well (Bill Gates, Donald Trump), even general entertainment (from Lady Gaga to Robert DeNiro). There is no doubt that these people had good fortune along the way, but they also have clearly observable talents, are experts at what they do, have actively contributed to their industry, and have become one of the faces of their industry. If that is the definition of ‘them’ it becomes easy to identify ‘them’ in almost every other profession – but what about education?

In thinking about this yesterday I engaged in a handful of conversations explaining the cause of the education ‘them’ versus ‘us’ conversation and asked people (mostly educators) who they associated with ‘them’ in education. The most common answer was Arne Duncan – and the list often stopped there. A few people could identify popular authors, professional development presenters or corporations, or researchers, but the answers came slow and inconsistently. This led me to the realization that in education the leader of our leaders is predominantly legislation. The name most associated as an educational power-broker was not a first class educator sharing insights in how to help change kids lives – it was a political appointment (with zero classroom or building-level experience). Researchers, practitioners, and contributors to the field such as Dufour, Marzanno, Danielson, and Reeves were dramatically overshadowed in my informal poll by a policy-maker. The concepts and ideas shared by the above three are also oft overshadowed and occasionally undercut by policy, legislation, and other hoop-jumping activities.

Succinctly put, governmental intervention and accountability measures in education have grown exponentially in the past three decades. What has not grown has been student achievement. It is time for more of us (successful practitioners) to become them (educational power-brokers) and truly transform, not reform, American education. Are you willing to lead the charge?

What Motivatess You?

Having your chief motivation exist as something outside of yourself is amazingly powerful. Some find that motivation through faith, others through family, and others through a myriad of additional things. Personally, ensuring that my family is safe and secure is a larger concern than any personal want or need I may have. I find this to be the predominant factor impacting my behavior in nearly all personal decisions. This thought process has aided me in becoming a better husband and father.

Leaders of any organization, in fact members of any organization, increase their productivity and worth when their personal goals align with that of the organization. Far too often that is not the case when the primary goal of the individual is self-advancement or self-preservation. This is extraordinarily true in education. Teachers often feel compelled to please their evaluator at all costs and administrators have increasingly political jobs as they move toward the Superintendency. The desire to incessantly please evaluators and people in the public with political clout is unfortunately negatively impacting the quality of American schools and success of American students. .

There are hundreds of principals and superintendents throughout the country tonight that are aware of a decision, personnel move, or policy that if acted upon could positively impact student achievement. Likewise, teachers in nearly every district in this country follow mandates, policies, curricula, textbook series, etc. that they believe are not in the best interest of their students. Why are people not standing up for what they believe would benefit students? Why are people not challenging the status quo? The difficult, but brutally honest answer is while they are not standing up for their professional opinions, but they are standing up for what is important to them – their job, themselves, and their family. For education to move forward people need to be passionate and fearless in doing what is right. It is time for educators to be willing to sacrifice job security for doing what is right for the kids in their building. If having the courage to lead and to make a difference results in negative issues in your district, is that really a place you want to be working anyway?   

Leadership Lessons Learned During the Holidays

Leadership and life lessons come at each of us on a daily basis – whether we are choosing to look for them or not. Even with the merriment of joy of the holidays – these lessons do not cease to exist. In fact, I think they come out as three-fold as they do any other time of the year. Possibly it is just having the time to sit back and reflect, but more likely it is the increased opportunities to meet and gather with friends and loved ones that provide an opportunity to better understand ourselves and the way people interact.

What I learned this Holiday season will impact me throughout the year:

• It is all about people. The more people whom you value and trust that can be incorporated into any situation, the better. More ideas, more collaboration and better results. How many times have you been at a Holiday party when gifts are being opened and said to yourself, “I wish I would have thought of that.” The truth is you could have thought of that if you would have had a conversation that person ahead of time. That situation happens daily in education and business and more often than not. Great ideas (or at least ideas better than yours) exist within your group of colleagues and confidants. It is your job to start the conversation in a manner which people are free to share those ideas and that cause group synergy. Successful leaders value their colleagues' opinions and give value to their ideas. Successful leaders are leaders of successful people.
•  Nothing happens in a vacuum. Everything has a trickle-down effect during the holidays. If you ask one aunt to cook your favorite dish and do not request anything in particular from Aunt Betty, then Betty may well be scorned. If you know your nephew really wanted an expensive gift and you give it, then his parents – or even Santa Claus – may feel one-upped. In both cases intentions were pure, outcomes defined, and the product was as desired, but not without ramifications. Simple decisions that all leaders make every day have the same type of impact, just in organizations that are not as openly petty as our families tend to be. Nothing happens in a vacuum – be aware of all possible consequences of your words and actions.
• Importance of leadership and establishing roles.  Have you ever been to a disaster of a family party? I think that we all have. The awkward moments that exist because no leader has been established, nor roles for the rest of the family members. Do you remember how uncomfortable it is when the first merged-family (both sets of parents of a married couple) event took place? Who gets primary kitchen counter space? Who gets to carve the turkey? Who gets the remote control? When waffling on a decision or taking no action within your organization – remember that awkward feeling that existed at that first get together and step up to be that leader. In most cases everybody wants to do a good job and for the rest of the partygoers to enjoy the product (much like in your organization), they simply needed a little guidance. Leaders often forget about the paramount importance of establishing roles and norms in their organization – reflect upon the unnecessary stress at family gatherings to remind you of the importance of this process.