I find myself back at Boston College for the third and final
summer of my doctoral program. I
moved into the dorms for this year’s two-week stay. It is great to be back on campus. The start of this final summer residency makes that light at
the end of the program that much brighter. It is within reach.
After these two weeks and then the completion of comprehensive exams I
will find myself in that all too familiar time in the life of a doctoral
candidate - ABD - All But Dissertation.
I am looking forward to the work ahead. One more year.
It is hard to believe, but I am sure this final year will pass quickly
as have the previous years of the program. In researching technology leadership in schools it is
incredible how much technology continues to evolve seemingly daily. Not only are students coming into our
schools with more advanced technology skills than ever before, but new teachers
as well as veteran teachers are learning more and more about how to effectively
integrate technology into the classroom to meet learning objectives. Many schools and districts find the
level of technology hardware available is insufficient to meet the needs of
teachers and students. Yet, moving
to 1:1 or any large-scale digital conversion is still out of reach for
many/most. It will be fascinating
to see how schools, how teaching, and how leadership evolves over this next
year. As my research team and I
study the leadership moves of five superintendents where large-scale technology
initiatives are underway, I can’t wait to see what patterns of leadership
emerge. Stay tuned.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Focus. How school districts can avoid death by initiative
Too many school districts are struggling to maintain focus
on prioritized initiatives.
Districts are dealing with local initiatives, state initiatives and
federal initiatives and struggling to do any of them well. Teachers are not
buying in to these initiatives because they were not in on the decision making,
believe “this too will pass,” or are just too overwhelmed to take on more and
more. In Massachusetts, the federal mandate of adopting the common core
standards and the state mandate of the new educator evaluation system are both
occupying much of the limited time that districts dedicate to professional
development. Local districts are
also drowning in the alphabet soup of initiatives. Here are just five of the more popular:
UBD = Understanding By Design
UDL = Universal Design for Learning
RTI = Response to Intervention
PBIS = Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports
PLC = Professional Learning Communities
The problem is that with all of these admirable initiatives
most districts are still failing to improve in any dramatic way. Why? I call it death by initiative. Districts that take on too many initiatives, fail to make
connections between initiatives, or fail to leverage the power of mandates quickly find that teachers are too overwhelmed to take on any of the tasks
needed to move the district forward.
Instead of trying to do all of these initiatives in any given year,
district leaders need to work with a leadership team that includes classroom
teachers to prioritize.
Frequently, time is used as the excuse for initiatives not
succeeding to make a positive impact on student achievement. Time is just an excuse. If there were fewer initiatives, if initiatives
were connected, and if there were clear strategic plans in place time would no
longer be a problem. Instead time
would start to work for us.
One often hears talk in schools about teachers having too
much on their plate to the point of feeling overwhelmed. Instead of putting more on a teachers’
plate without ever taking anything off of the plate, districts need a new
approach. I suggest a new “plate.”
The plate needs to be all about collaboration. For schools to be more efficient it is time to break down
the isolation of teaching and the isolation of educational leadership. Collaboration needs to be the new plate
and the tenets of professional learning communities can serve as an effective
guide.
Let me give a concrete example of how school districts could
execute this. Starting in
September every school in Massachusetts needs to implement the new educator
evaluation system. Many have
already implemented the new system over the past two years. This system can be leveraged to help a
school system work together to improve and positively impact student
achievement. Under this system
every educator in the school system needs to create SMART goals – at least one
student learning goal and one professional practice goal. If every individual educator is allowed
to create his or her own goal, it is a set up for failure. There will be no clear direction and
professional development opportunities will be ineffective. Instead, every educator should be part
of a team of educators. Every team
should have clear guidelines for goals.
For example, if the priority for the district is integrating technology
and implementing the common core state standards (CCSS), then all SMART goals should
relate to those two initiatives.
All professional development should relate to those two initiatives. This should be true for at least two
consecutive years. No other
initiatives added. This sets up
intense focus on two things (CCSS and technology integration) for at least two
consecutive years.
To solve the obstacle of time, a number of things can be put
in place to get creative with time.
The middle school structure provides a template. In most middle schools teachers work in
teams and there is time in the schedule for common planning time. Common planning time needs to be in
place at all levels, not just the middle school. Additionally, if there is a grade level assembly in the
auditorium, administrators can free up the teachers to use that time to
collaborate. Instead of doing
lunch duty or study hall duty get parent volunteers to take on this work and
free up teachers to have a duty free lunch and additional time in school to
collaborate. Dedicate more
professional development time in each school year. (Consider also front loading
PD at the end of summer before students arrive – see earlier blog post). Use faculty meeting time for additional
professional development. Use all
of this available time on the two initiatives and only on these two
initiatives. And don’t forget to
celebrate progress and success.
We can do this.
We can avoid death by initiative in schools by prioritizing one or two
and providing the time to effectively put things in place that will help
improve student achievement. Let’s
leverage the SMART goal process and stop overwhelming our teachers.
Has your district successfully stepped back from trying to
implement dozens of initiatives and focused in on one or two for an extended
period of time? Has your district
overcome the obstacle of time?
Please share.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Thoughts on the School Calendar
I am a life-long fan of the San Francisco 49ers. Before I even watched football, my
favorite aunt in SF would send me 49ers t-shirts, hats, and other team gear for
my birthdays. I grew up watching
the great Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and later Steve Young win a total of 5 Super
Bowls. Then there were the 18
years of no super bowls until this season when the team finally returned to the
big game and nearly won another championship. I have long thought that the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday should
be a holiday in the US. After all,
the game is the most watched television event year after year and those of us
on the east coast stay up past our bedtime to see the conclusion of the game. Others have had the same thought: http://tinyurl.com/c7kjkef
Not that sports should dictate our work-week, but I wonder
how many young sports fans in the east coast get interested in baseball,
college football or college basketball when the playoffs and national
championship games are all on too late on school nights to draw a young
audience able to stay up and watch these exciting events. I digress. Really, this blog entry is my thoughts on the current
structure of the school calendar in the northeast.
I have just started our annual February school vacation
week. It is at this time of year that many school districts create their school
calendar for the next school year.
There are so many decisions to be made. When do the vacations fall? Though this has become pretty
standard in each state. Do
students and teachers start before or after Labor Day? Will we have full day professional
development days, half day PD days, delayed openings for PD, or some
combination of two or more of these options? When will the PD opportunities take place? All of these questions are challenging
to answer and I have not even brought up the length of the school year or the
school day, which would most often be questions that need to be collectively
bargained and decided by local school boards and or state departments of education.
While you would think a simple survey of the three major stakeholders
(students, parents, and teachers) could assist districts in making these
decisions, the opposite is true. In fact a survey on any one of these questions
typically results in no consensus at all.
If you survey students, often the high school seniors respond
differently than other students.
Seniors typically end their school year earlier than all other students
so their bias tips the survey results.
For every teacher that prefers a half-day of professional development
there is another who prefers full days.
Parents are equally divided in their opinions of school calendar
decisions as well, as they are concerned with child-care on early release days,
for example.
In New England, some of the school calendar decisions are
weather-related decisions. In New
England most public school classrooms are not air conditioned because
realistically it is only hot enough for A/C for a brief time at the start of
the school year and a brief time at the end of the school year. Additionally, school calendars in New
England need to account for snow days (see my last blog entry for thoughts on
snow days).
There are not easy answers to any of these questions, but here
are some ideas to consider:
1) Consider front-loading professional development
for teachers to extend the summer (and summer camp) opportunities for kids to
be kids. The teachers would have a
week of PD before Labor Day and the students would return to school after Labor
Day. Front loading professional
development would allow teachers to have up to a full week to both prepare
classrooms for the return of students and learn, train, and collaborate prior
to the start of the school year.
This would provide focus, a theme, and get the whole district moving in
the same direction. Any additional
professional development during the school year should be related to the theme,
which ideally will last more than a single year. Let’s work to avoid getting stuck in school systems because
of too many initiatives. Fewer
disruptions to the school calendar because of PD is something to strive
for. Take advantage of quirks in a
calendar year to make PD as least disruptive to student learning as
possible. For example, follow-up
on front-loaded PD could take place in what is often a short week of school
after New Year’s Day. Bring
teachers back for PD days on January 2 and extend the vacation by a day or two
or three for students and families.
Use this time to assess the initiative that was started back in late
August and plan next steps.
2) Consider consolidation of the February and April
vacation weeks to a longer break in March. The one week in February and one week in April tend to disrupt
flow. Momentum in schools,
particularly schools in New England, is already challenging in winter with
Monday holidays, parent conference days (see past blog entries on Student Led
Conferences that replace traditional parent-teacher conferences), and snow
days.
3) States should consider moving assessments to the
end of the year. In Massachusetts,
for example, the MCAS tests take place in March for ELA and in May for
math. If all of these exams were
moved back to June, the tests themselves would not be disruptions and teachers
would not feel as stressed about having the time to complete lessons that will
result in better results on these exams.
What are your thoughts on the school calendar challenges
that schools face. Do any of these
thoughts resonate with you? For
those of you in Massachusetts, enjoy this February vacation week :)
Monday, February 11, 2013
Snow Days
This post may be more relevant for those of us in New
England, but I welcome thoughts even from those of you who have never
experienced a snow day. When I was
growing up, I remember not getting a lot of sleep if there was snow in the
forecast. I would wake up every
couple of hours to peer out the window in the hopes that there would be
snow. I must admit I occasionally
did the same thing when I was a teacher and even now as a principal I will
sometimes do the same. However, today
more often than not I am hoping against snow days. Snow days disrupt flow in schools. Teachers begin to feel stress as the state
assessments approach and days are lost. Additionally, I do not like adding on the days in June when
it is hot and humid and the most effective learning and teaching is in our rear
view mirror. When the calendar
turns to June, most educators and students are looking ahead to days on the
beach, not new lessons. Perhaps if
school were more like camp, June would be a more positive experience in
schools. But I digress. The
schools as camp thoughts are for another blog entry at another time.
From a superintendent’s perspective, snow presents another
challenge. Is it the right call to
cancel school or have a delayed opening or an early release to keep students
and staff safe? With these
decisions so dependent on the meteorologists on television and the accuracy of
the forecast (and we know how reliable they tend to be), it is a difficult
decision almost every time. With
the Blizzard of 2013 and about thirty inches of snow to clear away over the
past few days, I had some time to think about snow days. Should we create an online experience
for students so that we get credit for the day and not have to make it up in
June? It is an interesting
thought, but around here, each major storm tends to bring with it power
outages, so an online experience may not be possible. What if we had built in, ready to go lessons for snow days
for students to complete? They
could be snow related so that students get a chance to enjoy the snow and learn
at the same time. Math/geometry
related snowman or snow sculpture building activities. Science related experiments with snow
and weather. Poetry or other
writing assignments with snow as the topic. Of course an occasional day off to just play in the snow is
good for all. It is just when we
have a winter with heavy snowfall and days off for hurricanes in the fall that
the days quickly add up and then the month of June, that less than productive
month in schools, becomes longer and longer. Maybe if we had a longer school year... and maybe if state assessments
were not so early in the school year... the snow days would not have such a major
impact and we could just all be kids and have fun in the winter wonderland
created by a major snowfall.
What are your thoughts? How can we best deal with the snow in schools?
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