Why I Blog

It may seem strange that a school superintendent spends so much time and energy blogging.  I consistently maintain 4 blogs, writing posts for each at least once a week.  Each of these blogs is different from the others, one very professional, one very personal and two in between.  Why do I do this?  What’s the point?

I write because I must.  I awake with a thought, a thought I want to share, but unless I am constantly calling folks I know to say, “I have an idea” or “There is something bothering me” or “I have another way of looking at this” I must find a vehicle to express the thought lest I lose it, or fixate on it.  Hence, I write.  I could email everyone I know, but eventually that would be lost and I would be wasting your time with a full inbox.  With a blog, you can check in and read whenever you want to and I get it off my chest whenever I need to. 

I believe the best learning comes from the lessons we teach ourselves.  My blogs teach me, help me grow, help me clarify what I think and feel and know.  I have kiddingly said “I learn something every time I listen to what I have to say.”  But that is not far from the truth.  Processing thoughts, seeing how they fit in the grand scheme of things, seeking honest, intellectual congruence is very important to me.  I cannot live with me if I am unfaithful to what I think, feel and believe.  Hence, I need to see those thoughts on the screen to verify that is where I am. 

So, it flows.  Over time, it flows faster and easier.  Just me and my computer.  It flows.  I have a sense of where I’m starting and where I am going and it just flows.  I have an electronic folder of blogs unpublished because I started, then got interrupted and lost the flow.  I have more unpublished posts than published.  Someday I will return to those half cooked ideas and finish them. 

Why 4 blogs?  That is about as schizophrenic as I can handle.  I have different personas as I believe we all do.  I put on my superintendent uniform and mask and go to work.  I deal with issues educational from crisis to mundane as a supe, and I want to share those thoughts with my professional colleagues.  That blog is on the district website for all to see so it must be very professional.  As a spin off from that I have deep personal feelings about many of the professional issues we are confronting in public education.  It would not be appropriate for me to post those thoughts on a school district website.  These thoughts are not endorsed by this system.  They belong to me.  So, I maintain this blog, one-eyed bob, where I can express my more personal thoughts on things professional.  Beyond one-eyed bob are thoughts and feelings from my core regarding what I believe, what I really think and feel, and these are not appropriate to share on either of the other blogs.  I write to that blog under a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality, and frankly, some safety.  I have one other blog that is read by invitation only.  It is very personal.  On that blog I express my feelings, my grief, my joys, my failures, my successes, my most intimate and candid thoughts regarding the man you know as Bob, a man who is learning and evolving, and this is my record of my journey.  It is more like a personal journal than anything else.  It is also the one from which I learn the most.

I also blog because I have learned it is very difficult for me to have friends, true friends, with whom I can share everything and trust their honesty and reciprocity.  As a professional educator we need outlets to vent, to think out loud, to create, to process.  Teachers can do that with their peers.  Principals and other administrators can do that with their peers.  Supes, I have learned, cannot do that totally with anyone they work with because though the supe may believe they have a professional friend those "friends" may simply be responding as a subordinate, less than honestly.  I have learned I cannot do that with fellow supes, even those I know and support, because many of them will continue to act in competitive ways, very unlike what real friends do.  With the loss of friends, or perceived friends, comes a deep wound, a sense of failure, a sense of being a fool, and deep sense of grief.  Yet, I must turn to someone to bounce my thoughts and feelings off lest I go off half-cocked in the wrong direction.  I trust Cabinet to give me most of that feedback.  I cannot put that burden on Debbie as that is unfair; she does not know the context.  So I put it in a blog.

(As a side note, I continue to risk having real friends in this job.  It is very risky for me, but the rewards can be wonderful.  I deeply appreciate my new friends, inside and out, who have stepped up to fill the gap, the holes in my friendship cadre.)

The more angst in my life the more I feel the need to blog.  2012 has been a year of angst for me.  I have blogged a bunch on all 4 blog sites.  I am fortunate in that over 12,000 folks have looked at the Edna website blog, one-eyed bob continues to receive national attention and about 4,000 hits per month, and my pseudonym blog continues to attract a host of visits, and comments from around the world.  (Interestingly, next to the hits from the US, the most hits come from Russia and India.  Weird.) 

I believe all of us just want to be heard.  Covey says we want to live, learn, love and leave a legacy.  We want to know our thoughts and actions make a difference.  We want to know others can relate to what we think or challenge what we think.  I feel that way.  And, when I die I want to know that I have been true to my beliefs and I know what those beliefs are.  If we say, physician, heal thyself, we should also say, educator, teach thyself.

So, I blog.

We Are Not an Interest Group

It appears to me there is no end to the number of people and organizations who want to make decisions and policy for public schools.  Now, the NRA has proposed armed security guards on every campus.  The NRA?  A group dedicated to ensure their interpretation of the 2^nd Amendment remains in place.  School security strategies?  School climate strategies?  This is as crazy as Bill Gates wanting to write school policy and lawyer legislators wanting to write school policy and Pearson wanting to write school policy and even a few quirky, rich medical doctors wanting to write school policy.  Everybody is now qualified to design strategies for school improvement.  In fact, if your school is not improving, an outside group is assigned to come in and take a look at what you are doing to figure out how you can get better.  Really?  An outside group?  The message is clear and consistent:  anybody is qualified to determine what schools ought to do except professional school people.  And I grow weary and angry at such an assumption.

School professionals have no political clout.  All we have is knowledge, experience and expertise, so we are not consulted.  We do not have money, and what money we have is taxpayer money that we would prefer to spend on kids rather than on lobbying efforts.  In fact, it is illegal for us to spend such money on lobbying so the only lobbying contributions school folks make is out of their own pockets, a woefully shallow source of revenue.  Not true for Bill and Melinda, not true for NRA, not true for the Broad Foundation, not true for Wal-Mart, not true for a host of charter organizations, and not true for Pearson.  These folks have tons of money and contribute to campaigns to get their wishes enrolled as law.  And most often, they are wrong, or short sighted, or self-serving and they have seriously messed up schools in this country.

Professional educators have watched as legislators consistently make mistakes in law regarding good school policy.  We have told them they were screwing up, but they did it anyway.  Career Ladder in Texas was a terrible idea, we told them, they did it, it did not work, and it was canceled.  Mandatory bus safety training was a terrible idea, we told them, they did it, it did not work, and it was canceled.  Requiring the EOC to count as 15% of a student’s grade was terrible idea, we told them, they did it anyway, it will not work and has been put on hold.  Connecting teacher evaluation to student standardized test scores is a terrible idea, we have told them that and we hope they listen.  Blaming teachers for student performance is a terrible philosophy, we have told them that, they have not listened and we are paying the price for this across the county.  Diverting public money from schools to charter schools is a terrible idea, we have told them that and they are doing it anyway.  Diverting public money from schools in the form of vouchers is a terrible idea, we have told them that, and they continue to try to find a way to enact such legislation.  Race to the top is a terrible idea, we have told them that, and they are doing it anyway.  Putting armed guards on every campus in the US is a terrible idea, will not work, we are telling them that, and we hope they listen.  I have little confidence.

Sandy Hook was a terrible tragedy.  Now is not the time to overreact, put a knee jerk policy in place and make another round of costly mistakes in school policy.  No prescription should be universally administered.  That is true of penicillin and armed guards in schools.  Some schools may want or need that.  Some do not.  It should be a local decision based on the facts and reality of the local school.  The decision should not be made out of fear.  It should be professional, rational.  It will take professional school folks to recommend what we should do.  I hope the decision makers listen.

Chances are they won’t.  We are not an interest group.

Santa Subject to School Reformers!

What if the school reformers turned their attention from public schools to Santa Clause?

First, we would have to set accountability standards for the elves.  How many toys and of what kind can they produce?  We will find out on one day of high stakes toy making when each elf must complete the construction of their assigned toy within a given time limit.  If they fail to complete, they fail.  If the toy does not work, they fail.  Every elf that fails must receive additional training in toy making.  We will conduct this test on December 24^th.

We must look at the standards for toy construction as well.  Every toy should have a common core.  Every toy should have a blue print, established standards, level of difficulty, etc. etc.  Given these standards, the high stakes toy making test will become more meaningful via toy alignment.

We must look at accountability standards for Santa.  His job is to get high levels of production out of the elves.  If the number of elves who fail to meet the high stakes toy making standards does not go down, Santa will first have to write a plan, and then eventually may be fired.  Santa’s workshop at the North Pole can be closed in such a case and re-opened by private sector toy makers.

We must also look at Santa’s own internal sense of accountability.  What does it mean to be “naughty”?  What does it mean to be “nice”?  Who gets to decide?  These decisions are far too important to leave in the hands of a local icon.  New standards must be set for the recipients of the toys and judged by an external panel based on scientific based research.

Funding?  Where does the money come from to operate Santa’s workshop?  Clearly, Santa is on the public dole because all he hires are workers with the same disability:  short.  We must find a way to force Santa to hire non-elves as elves are very difficult to fire.  Perhaps a Santa Right to Work Clause. 

Why are the toys simply given away?  Why are the toys free?  Isn’t that socialism?  We must cut the funding and increase our expectations for the production in the workshop.  Should Santa fail to meet the goals, we will open toy charters who can receive a portion of his money and produce toys that they sell to make money.

After a couple of years of real accountability it will be clear that we need to fire Santa, dismiss the elves, and turn the whole operation over to the private sector.  Surely kids will be happier.  We know the private sector toy makers will be.  It is not fair for a subsidized program to compete with the private sector, and the problem with Santa’s program is it lacks private sector accountability.  Goodbye Santa.  Welcome Charter Clause and Toy Charters.

Ho Ho Ho

I am so Inspired

The violence in a school in Connecticut is beyond description; the pain parents must be going through is beyond imagination.  But I am inspired by our leaders.

First, Governor Perry comes out and says all our schools must update their emergency operation plans (EOP).  Then Commissioner Williams sends out a memo to all superintendents telling them to do what the governor said to do.  Then the Texas School Safety Center published the names of 78 districts that have not updated their mandated emergency operation plans.  Then we interview the superintendent in the only school district in the state that allows teachers to carry concealed weapons at school.  Then our Governor says teachers should be allowed to carry guns at school.

We have lost our minds.  Is there any rational thought left in this universe?  Did the killing spree in Connecticut occur at the only school without an emergency procedure plan?  Will writing a plan prevent this from happening?  Could the teachers in that building possibly have done anything more than they did to save children?  If the principal had been carrying a hand gun and stepped out in the hallway to confront an assault rifle 20 yards away would the outcome have been any different?  Not just no, but hell no!

I should be ashamed instead of inspired.  What kind of bureaucratic malarkey is this?  So the Gov and the Commish have now covered their butts because if it happens in Texas they can say, “Well, we told them to update their plans.”  This is so ludicrous it makes me want to spit.  It so cheapens the real experience of the folks in Connecticut that I believe Perry and Williams should have mandatory empathy transplants and ego amputations.

There is nothing we can do in a school when a deranged man with heavy armament shows up at our door.  If the first classroom he stepped in were all off-duty SWAT guys he would have killed all of them too.  To have teachers carrying loaded weapons in a sanctuary for child safety is blasphemy and we should all stand up and yell so.  This was a freak incident:  a deranged person with weaponry committed to killing and not caring about his own life.  No one can stop such a person.  Even the Secret Service acknowledges that as they guard the President. 

How do we ensure safety?  We cannot.  Life is a risk.  How do we improve the safety of our kids in schools?  It is not by writing plans.  It is not by arming teachers.  It is by hiring more teachers so that the ratio goes down and we know the kids.  It is by spending more money on mental health in our communities to counsel our most deranged and dangerous souls.  It might even help to get assault rifles off the street.  That is all we can do.  But we should do that!  Now!

OK.  Now I’m inspired to update our EOP and send it to the Texas Center for School Safety so I can get checked off the list and not be bureaucratically hassled for failing to save my kids should such an event happen here. 

Deeply inspired.

(Poppycock and balderdash!)

Violence in Connecticut

I am appalled by the shooting in an elementary school that has left so many dead.  My guts wrench for the families of those that were lost and wounded.  I cannot imagine a worse feeling than to discover your child, your spouse, your loved one went to school and got shot.

Schools are supposed to be safe places.  The adults here are charged with so much more than teaching.  We are charged with ensuring the safety of the children we are with each day.  Just as in Columbine I believe we will learn that some staff members were lost protecting kids.  That’s what we do.

Here is what we do not do.  We do not invite violence into our schools.  We do not invite weapons into our schools.  We do not invite deranged people into our schools.  I keep hearing the phrase “school violence” as though the school owns the violence.  We do not own it.  We reject it.  It is violence that comes to the school.  It is violence from the community that comes into the school.  And sometimes it is violence that is brought into the school by one of our own as in Columbine and Virginia Tech.

Frankly, there is no way to make our kids 100% safe from such a risk.  You know that.  Just as you and I know that all the security at airports is still not a guarantee.  Just as you and I know that malls will not be able to do much after the recent mall shootings.  We can do much, however.  We can drill and practice.  We can continue to monitor those who enter our buildings.  We can implement some technologies to assist us in that effort.  But it will not be enough for some school somewhere else.

I pray for the school people and parents and all those touched by the violence that entered an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut.  That violence walked in the door to what was a wonderful, safe place just minutes before.

Help us keep violence out of the schools.

Who Do You Support?

Who do you support?  Do you support Little League?  Boy Scouts?  Pet adoption centers?  NPR?  Your church?  A civic organization?  A social club?  Who do you support?

What is the evidence of your support?  Do you give time, do you give money?  Do you show up for events?  Do you work to improve and expand the function of the group you support?  How would you respond if someone organized a system to gradually demolish the group you support, reduce its funding, burden it with regulations and accountability, fund alternatives to your organization, and set your organization up to compete with other similar organizations?  What would you do?

And now a simple question, do you support public schools?  It is a question we should be asking every elected legislator and every appointed educational bureaucrat.  (To maintain full disclosure, I am an appointed educational bureaucrat.) 

An affirmative answer to the question would imply much.  It would imply the evidence of support listed under the other groups that you supported.  It would imply support for the notion that every kid in the US should have a free education K-12.  It would imply that we expect public schools to do the best they can to educate every kid.  It would imply providing institutional support for the efforts of public schools and for the kids least able to learn and least ready to learn.

I suspect, however, that most politicians and bureaucrats will answer in the affirmative but practice in the negative.  If so, then the follow-up question should be what is the evidence that you support public schools?

Have you supported deregulation of public schools, decreasing the myriad of mandates and compliance items assigned to the public schools?  Or, have you supported adding additional mandates to the institution and turning to schools to solve more and more of our society’s problems?

Have you supported at least maintaining and hopefully improving the funding of public schools?  Or, have you supported diverting funds from public schools to other social experiments gone awry such as charter schools and vouchers?

Have you supported professional educators?  Or, have you assumed you know more about what is the best way to run schools than the pros?  Have you supported teachers?  Or have you argued we must link student outcomes on standardized tests with professional evaluation?

Have you supported the notion that the schools with kids who have the lowest success need the most resources?  Or have you supported judging schools, teachers and kids by one standardized test with sanctions attached?  Or, allow those districts with the most property wealth to keep their wealth for the most part creating an inadequately funded system?

Have you supported collaboration among public schools?  Or have you nurtured the notion that schools will perform better in a competitive setting? 

Do you support public schools?  If so, what is the evidence?  If it is not the same kind of evidence as for the other groups you support I suggest you may not be honest with yourself or us.

We will find out as the Legislature convenes in January.  We are getting strong hints already from the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and the Commissioner of Education.  The simple fact that so many school districts have sued the state for adequate funding should be an embarrassment to our Legislature if they argue that they support public schools.  But no, they are fighting the suit.  They argue we can do more with less, we can raise standards and have more pass, we can be held more accountable, and we can and should compete with charters and private schools who should be allowed to siphon money out of the public school system.  They argue that we need a voucher system so that those who already pay private school tuition then would receive state funding and public schools would receive less.  None of these are strategies of folks who actually support public schools and the philosophical assumptions underlying public schools.  None of these so-called competitive strategies have ever really worked anywhere.  All of them are counter-intuitive:  the competitive market competes for choice among many consumers who can choose otherwise.  The public service sector provides services via tax dollars that are wasted if spread too thin to other alternatives.  The consumer pot is large.  The tax dollar pot is small.  And yet, the push remains to shrink the funds for public schools, then divert money from the public schools to alternative models of education.  That is not choice and that is not competition.  That is merely a funding swap to the harm of all concerned.

It appears to me that the dominant philosophy in Austin, perhaps Washington, is anti-public schools.  Scary and sad thought to those of us who have devoted our professional lives to this noble and most democratic of all institutions in the US.

But for me and my house our answer will be yes, we support public schools.

Common Core

My bi-monthly edition of Educational Leadership just arrived and the entire magazine is devoted to the Common Core State Standards, adopted by 37 states.  This is a framework for instruction K-12.  It focuses on high level capacities that describe what students should know in the 21^st century.  It is the national version of our TEKS.  And in Texas, we do not have a clue what the CCSS is.  I believe that is myopic on our part.

A few basic assumptions behind why I think we need to move to the CCSS and away from the TEKS as quickly as possible:

First, we must admit to ourselves as educators that we no longer are in control of our curriculum.  We do not decide what we teach.  The SBOE decides that.

Secondly, we must recognize that whatever the state decides we should teach is likely to be on the test they choose to administer to our kids to see how well we are teaching.  If we teach what they prescribe we teach, then our kids should do well on the test they prescribe to measure that.  (In other words, yes, we teach to the test.  What else would we teach to?)

Thirdly, the whole notion is flawed of course and I hate it, but that is the name of the game these days and if we are to have a snowball’s chance of winning the game we must play by the rules, even if we know the rules were developed by a naked emperor.  (And yes, I continue the struggle to dismantle our ridiculous high stakes accountability system.  But until that day arrives, we must plan to do well in that system.)

So, here sits almighty Texas, proud of our TEKS and proud of our TAKS and soon to be proud of our STAAR.  So proud, that we refuse to adopt the Core Standards.  And in that we are very dumb.  By 2014 there will be a national standardized test based on the CCSS that will be used to measure the quality of instruction from state to state.  We have little chance of doing well if we are not even teaching from the same framework other states are teaching.  In fact, that to me is like teaching Spanish and giving a test in French.

We won’t budge though.  That is why we could not get a waiver for AYP this year because we refused to adopt the CCSS.  That is why the state did not apply for “Race to the Top” funds because we refused to adopt the CCSS.  We will continue to get hammered by the feds for doing our own thing; much like any individual school or teacher would get hammered by Texas for doing their own thing and not following the TEKS.  What Texas has done to our own public schools was carried to Washington by a Bush and became the law of the land and is what the feds are doing to the states.  Texas hates it as much as school districts hate it in Texas.  I think that is a hoot and hypocritical as all get out, but that’s the way it is.  Every argument the state proffers against the feds is an argument local districts can use against the state, but they can’t see it.

One of my all time favorite children’s’ books is Zoom, by Istvan Banyai.  If you are not familiar with this book, the youtube link below will take you to it (There are only pictures, you do not have to read it, and yes, for all of us, there is a test at the end.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYblhdhQ1M

We have lost perspective.  We have concluded that our view of the world is the world.  We have lost sight that our view is simply our view and that there are many views, many ways to interpret any given reality.  I believe that is the core problem in most human relationships, in most political stalemates, in most religious confrontations, etc.  One group believes they are right, absolutely right, and sets out to make sure their view happens.  It is the result of the ultimately closed mind.  Texas is big, but we are not bigger than the US of A, nor are we bigger than the world, the solar system and the universe.

It is time Texans looked at the Common Core.  It’s here.  And while we wrestle with the mystery of the STAARs and the accuracy of our CSCOPE we are missing the bigger picture.  Educators should argue that we do not need a high stakes accountability system that is inherently punitive, but if we have to have one, let’s level the playing field nationally and adopt the CCSS.  That would be an educated position to take, I think.  The Common Core is common sense.

Precious and Flawed

Just finished my morning routine of checking in on http://www.texasisd.com/ to see what is happening in education across the state.  You may not care, but I do.  This website scans all the newspapers in the state and posts links to all the articles published relative to public education in Texas.  For me it is a wonderful way to monitor trends, identify common issues and concerns, and get the media’s take on what we are all doing well and in what areas we are falling short. 

I am saddened after today’s review.  It appears that a large number of our fellow educators are in trouble for stealing funds or having sex with students.  Money, drugs/alcohol, and inappropriate sex.  It is my observation that more professional educators get in trouble over these three issues than any other.  And, it always makes the headlines.  We may be shocked to discover that one of our leaders had an affair as is the current news regarding General Petraeus.  But our communities are outraged when an educator is charged with any of these human frailties.  Why is that?

We are public servants.  We are paid by taxes collected from the public.  We spend all day with the children of our communities.  Our public expects us to operate on a higher moral platform than other folks.  I get that.  My dad was a minister and from earliest childhood I was taught that the way I acted in public was a direct reflection on my father.  In other words, be good all the time.  An assignment I woefully and consistently failed, but I knew the pressure and understood the rationale.

I believe God doesn’t make junk.  All humans are both flawed and precious.  We all make mistakes.  We are all sinners.  We are all worthy of love.  We all are tempted to find ways to ease pain, get ahead, maintain our sense of security, or establish our self-worth.  Some of those efforts are immoral or illegal, and carry heavy consequences.  Some are just silly and harmless; and some are actually productive. 

Two things come to mind for me.  One is I used to do a workshop called “Defending Perfection or Pursuing Improvement.”  In this workshop we would talk about attributes of people whom for whatever reason are determined to be right, see the world from only one point of view, and spend an incredible amount of energy defending their perfection, their view, their paradigm.  These folks are very difficult to deal with because they start with the assumption that their view is the correct view and there is no dialog, no negotiation, and no consideration of the possible flaw.  They are perfect.  If things go wrong it must be someone else’s fault.  On the other hand, folks who recognize they are flawed and imperfect and are constantly seeking ways to improve, whether that is professionally or personally, are open to new ideas, new strategies, learning new lessons, etc. 

The second thing that comes to mind is the birth of my son.  I was there with Debbie while she was in labor and I was coaching, breath in, breath out, etc. like it made much difference.  Debbie was in agony, she was under the influence of meds, and she screamed at me, “I hate you!  Look at what you did to me!” as well as other phrases I will not share, and she tore my surgical smock. 

These two events are related.  I could have judged Debbie based on what she said to me in the delivery room, or I could write it off as the response to incredible pain and drugs and not the real Debbie.  That is what I did, because I had a host of evidence to the contrary.  We laugh about it now.  If I perceived myself to be perfect it makes it very hard to forgive those who are not.  How dare she say those things to me?  I could have judged her for her words under duress, but I did not.  I knew that was not her.

People who see themselves as perfect have a hard time forgiving.  They have a hard time allowing a second chance.  They have a hard time accepting both the flawed and precious notion of the human reality.  They have a zero tolerance view of the world, the tolerance that is not allowed is anything with which they disapprove or disagree or find threatening.

Some behaviors carry consequences beyond interpersonal forgiveness.  An employee that sleeps with a student, an employee that steals money, and an employee that endangers themselves and others by being under the influence of something – all these behaviors carry consequences.  We must keep student safety foremost in our decision making, and if an adult employee is a threat to kids or others then we must remove them from employment.  However, many flawed behaviors deserve a second chance in my book. 

I am not perfect.  I have made plenty of mistakes.  I am only able to do this job because many people along the way have forgiven me, have given me a second chance; have recognized I am both flawed and precious. 

I believe you are too.  Do your best.  Do the right thing.  If you need help, ask for it.  Be ready to forgive others if they disappoint you.  Please know that you and I are both precious and flawed. 

I know.

Now What?

The re-election of President Obama sent pundits scrambling for hidden meanings, data driven observations, and prognostications of things to come.  I’m not a pundit, maybe a pun-dat, but I have no credentials beyond public education and some private sector success as a restaurant manager.  I do know public education.  And my questions for our new President and to our nation are where will you stand on public education?  What will happen now?  Now what?

We are well overdue to re-authorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a.k.a. No Child Left Behind.  Congress would not take it up this past year for fear that it would give Obama another feather in his cap.  Why?  Because the Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on education issues.  And, they are both wrong.

Both parties support high stakes testing, school choice, teacher evaluation based on test scores, national core curriculum standards, etc. etc.  The so-called reform movement has been disastrous for public education and I fear the re-authorization of ESEA will be more of the same.  The Race to the Top competitive grant for schools is more of the same.  Limit resources and let schools compete for them if they agree to the national reform agenda.  Texas is schizophrenic on this issue because our state leadership totally supports the reform agenda, and yet they do not want to do what the feds tell them to do.  So Texas avoids the federal programs and loses money and sets their schools up to fail under federal standards because it is federal program under a Democratic administration.  Sadly, the policies and programs of this Democratic administration are virtually identical to the previous Republican administration.  I would find it amusing if it were not so sad that both parties support school choice and yet in terms of education platforms voters are not offered any choice in proposed education policy.

(A brief caveat to my previous paragraph.  If we are going to move toward a national high stakes standardized test based on national core curriculum standards– which I strongly oppose – then it only makes sense for states to adopt the national core standards.  Otherwise we are not aligned instructionally between what we say we will teach and what gets tested.  If we are not going to have a national high stakes test, then national core standards should inform state standards but not be mandated.)

The core question for me is do we believe in and support the education of all children in this country?  If the answer is yes, then supporting public education is our only real option.  Diverting money from public ed to private sector ventures makes no sense to me at all.  If we want a better Navy, we put more money in the Navy.  Want better public schools?  Put more money in public schools.  If the answer is no, we do not want to educate all children, then continue on the current path where parents of means have choices and parents without means are left in the public schools with fewer resources, higher standards, and more opportunity to fail.  So, Mr. President, where do you stand on the notion of the public education of all kids?  Charter schools, vouchers, parent triggers, etc. are all designed to divert money from public schools to private sector pockets. 

If we are infected with the notion that the way to improve public education is shifting resources from public ed to other for-profit organizations, then those organizations should be required to have teacher unions.  Unions make the most sense in the private sector where management makes decisions regarding wages, benefits, working conditions, etc. while weighing those benefits against the drive to make profit.  Labor needs to sit at that table to influence those decisions.  In the public sector, there is no profit pot, there is only tax revenue.  Clearly teachers should have a voice in decision making in public schools, and in the states where teacher unions are legally allowed and have experienced years of collective bargaining it makes little sense to wage war on those unions rather than pull them into the fold.  But, private operators of schools should have to deal with their labor.  Another oxymoron: bust public school teacher unions via charter schools and vouchers for private schools wherein teacher unions are most logically needed.

So, with all due respect Mr. President, what will happen now?  More federal intrusion into public education, more high stakes testing, more competitive grants, more escalating standards to make schools look badly, more choice for everyone except public schools?  Or, something quite different that supports public education, operates on the notion that the most efficient and effective way to educate all kids in the U.S. is via public education.  It makes no sense to promote a network of schools outside public education where facilities and services must be duplicated and when it is impossible to create enough of those schools to serve our children.  My advice, sir, is to dump school choice, dump competitive funding, stop harassing teacher organizations, dump high stakes testing, dump holding teachers accountable for results on the high stakes test, and offer the core standards as a guide.

To make all the above reality you will have to abandon Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan.  They don’t get it.  Appoint Diane Ravitch Secretary of Education, or Linda Darling-Hammond.  These ladies know what works and how to make it happen.  And they both have a strong conviction to educate all children, not to dismantle public education.

So, now what?  I eagerly await the re-authorization of ESEA.  Will it be more of the same, or will it in fact promote the success of children via public education?

We’ll see.

A Model, Perhaps 2

Posted yesterday regarding a way to perhaps dramatically improve instruction and allow teachers to teach by doubling the number of teachers.  I still like the idea.  I slept on it, and thought of some other benefits.

We would eliminate sub costs.  With two teachers per assignment there would be no need to hire a sub unless we are talking long term absence.  With 2 teachers per assignment stress levels should drop and we would likely have fewer absences anyway.

We would clearly satisfy special education inclusion needs.  The "other" teacher could monitor, coach, assist special ed kids, or any kid with difficulty, in each classroom.

We could free up schedules by having RTI, Tier 2, or whatever we call it simultaneously with instruction.  In fact, the number of kids needing additional after regular class help should drop tremendously.

Expensive?  Yes.  Worth it?  I think so.  Eager to hear what teachers think......

A Model, Perhaps

Since my fireside chat at EHS this week, which turned out to be even more exciting than I anticipated, I have been thinking about my off-the-cuff remarks regarding model schools.  I am perchance defending my own hastily drawn model, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Schools, as I have postulated before, serve many missions.  One of those is to house the children of our community safely for about 8 hours a day for 180 days a year.  We cannot get away from that.

We are also expected to teach them, the operable definition being that teaching has not occurred until there is evidence the child has learned.  Thus the phrase teaching for learning.  We cannot get away from that.

We have been attempting to perform those two missions in little rectangular rooms where 20+ plus kids or more sit at the feet of an adult, college educated, certified professional teacher.  That adult bears the brunt of the responsibility for the learning of all those kids.  In a system our size, secondary teachers are totally responsible for the outcomes of their subject by grade.  In elementary school, multiple teachers teach the same grade level, but there is typically more than one teacher teaching each subject by grade while all elementary teachers have multiple preparations. 

All this happens all day, every day.  Groups of kids, one teacher.  From the teacher’s point of view, the kids are not getting any easier to teach at the same time what we have to teach is growing in depth and complexity.  Teachers are boxed in all day with the kids, and their focus must be on grading, planning, setting up for tomorrow.  They are lucky and exhausted if they get through the day.  There is no time for real collaboration, no time for real professional development, no time to learn all the newest whiz bang stuff out there.  Something has to give. 

Of our $12 million dollar budget, roughly $5.5 million is devoted to teacher salaries.  Almost half.  This does not include aides, principals, etc.  Just classroom teachers.  So, what would I do with another $5.5 million dollars?  (This is rhetorical.  My answer follows.)

Double the number of teachers is what I would do.  If we set aside the reality that we will not receive another $5.5 million and the reality that another 120 teachers are not available to hire, let’s look at what we could do if we had twice as many teachers.

We would pair everyone up.  We would not need more classrooms; we would have two teachers where now we have one.  We could format that in any number of ways.  Every classroom has two functioning teachers to help.  Each classroom has a morning teacher while the other plans, learns, prepares, etc., and then they flip for the afternoon.  One teacher could be the “teacher” and the other could be the planner, grader, curriculum expert, materials resource person, and classroom observer to identify kids tuning out.  Teachers would be structured to collaborate, we could dramatically reduce the bane of teaching, and we would have dramatic improvement with that many adults working with the same number of kids.  The only real magic bullet to improve instructional outcomes for kids is a dedicated, prepared, motivated teacher working with small numbers of kids.

And, teachers could enter the ranks of other professionals who intentionally set aside time each day to reflect, to learn, to collaborate, to consider either their patients or their projects or their day in court.  Success up, stress down.  I like it! 

But oops, the current thinking politically is to raise the stress and lower the money.  Guess I’ve got it all backwards.

Anybody got $5.5 million?

Sandy and Halloween

The people and communities hit hard by Hurricane Sandy are in my thoughts and prayers.  That kind of devastation will take months to recover from, and to the families and friends of those who lost their lives I offer my deepest condolences.  Seems so like a nasty trick.

I can think of only one treat, one positive outcome of this storm.  There will be no trick or treating in the areas hit so hard. 

I have such a hard time with Halloween.  It has always seemed to me that this is the only organized day we celebrate masked begging and extortion by young people.  I will hide on 10/31, lights off, in honor of Sandy victims and in fear of miniature masked extortionists. 

Boo.

Dumbfounded

Two recent comments made in light of the Presidential election have left me jaw open, eyes wide and frankly totally dumbfounded.  One of the Presidential candidates said that he was worried about the ability of our Navy to accomplish its mission so he would spend a couple of trillion to enhance the fleet.  Meanwhile, his wife said in an interview today that public schools need to be thrown out and we need to start over with a choice program.

The two largest labor intensive government programs in the U.S. are our military and public education.  I am in shock that the solution to improve the military is to throw money at it, and that the solution to improve public schools is to promote choice, increase accountability and divert public funds from public ed to the private sector. 

Dumbfounded.

Suppose we reverse this inherent cognitive dissonance.  Suppose we decide that a solution to improve public education is to throw money at it.  If we doubled the budget we could double our staff.  All the data indicates that smaller teacher/pupil ratios improve student performance.  All the data indicates that if teachers are allowed to plan and collaborate and engage in meaningful professional development student performance improves.  There is no data that indicates schools of choice are outperforming public schools.  If we could double the staff then teachers could flip-flip schedules, teach several small classes and have the rest of the day to grade, plan, collaborate, and learn while the second fleet of teachers is actually teaching smaller classes.  If the Navy needs more ships, schools need more teachers.

On the other hand, if we are concerned about our Navy, then why don’t we reduce funding, open up the functions of the Navy to the private sector and divert government funds from the Navy to those private sector enterprises whose mission is to make money, not provide defense, and hold the Navy more accountable for fulfilling it’s mission.  In other words, why don’t we provide less money, more accountability and competition, the current philosophy driving public education accountability, and see how they do?

No one would support those notions for the Navy.  What in the world are we thinking about public education? 

The only rationale I can find is that we want our Navy to be successful and accomplish its mission.  We do not want public education to be successful at educating all kids so we hamstring the organization, develop an accountability system that makes us look terrible, and then divert money from public ed to the private sector.  We want to be safe.  Do we really want all kids to be successful?

I do.  I believe it is as critical to our national defense as ships at sea.

I remain dumbfounded.

The Invisible Man

I am opaque.  Light bounces off me and others can see me.  In fact, there is more of me to see than there was 20 years ago, but that is my issue.  So, why do I feel like the invisible man?

I am transparent.  By law, my contract must be available to all on line.  The expenses I incurred while traveling each year must be on line.  My emails are subject to open records requests, and even my personal cell phone is subject to such requests if I have used it to call or text anyone regarding school issues.  My email address must be available to all and each day I receive 100’s of emails from vendors and solicitors who have extracted my address from the TEA or district website.  My evaluation is based largely on the success of implementing the District Improvement Plan, which is also on line.  When the Board discusses my evaluation and/or my contract it must be posted on the agenda for everyone to see.  My contract requires that I am active in local organizations so I am a member of Lions and Rotary and the Methodist Church.  My contract also calls for me to have an annual medical exam and that the doctor report to the Board regarding whether I am fit to work or not.  Recently, even my personal medical health became a public issue and I made a public statement regarding depression.  Who else is required to do all that?  Even the Legislature that requires this much transparency does not require the same of themselves.

I do additional things to be even more transparent.  I have an open door policy which means you do not have to have an appointment to come talk, and many of you do.  I write this blog and others to share with both our employees and community what is going on in Edna ISD and my take on issues.  Each time the District Team, Cabinet and the Board meet I ask for input, ideas, suggestions, and concerns.  I am getting ready to start my rounds of fireside chats whereby I can sit and talk with each faculty and respond to questions and concerns.  I am as open as I can be.  I am transparent.  I know of no other profession that has such requirements for transparency as those applied to public school superintendents.

Want to know what I think?  Just ask.  Have a problem or concern?  Just share.

I worry about becoming so transparent that I become invisible. 

Can you see me now?

Leadership or Management?

I lamented here before regarding the Governor’s appointment of a non-educator as Commissioner of Education.  Effective September 1 Michael Williams became our Commissioner to lead an agency charged with the following:  “The mission of the Texas Education Agency is to provide leadership, guidance and resources to help schools meet the educational needs of all students.”  I feared that given Mr. Williams background and politics we would see more compliance issues with fewer resources and most likely a stronger effort than usual to implement the so-called school reforms that include high stakes testing, transparency, state driven curricula, choice, charters, vouchers, teacher appraisal tied to test scores, etc., etc.  The state will provide leadership; the districts merely comply like good managers.

Leadership means doing the right things.  Management means doing things right.  In a state where education is incredibly micro-managed at the state level and at a time when serious philosophical, political, and educational issues must be resolved we (the collective leadership in school districts) awaited Mr. Williams’s first words.

I received the first correspondence from the new Commissioner today, pasted below:

September 27, 2012
TO THE ADMINISTRATORS ADDRESSED:
SUBJECT: Procedures for the start of the day
Please allow this letter to serve as a reminder of statutory requirements for procedures at the beginning of every school day.  Section 25.082 of the Texas Education Code stipulates: The board of trustees of each school district shall require students, once during each school day at each school in the district to recite:
(1) The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag; and
(2) The Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas state flag.
A school district may excuse a student from reciting a pledge of allegiance upon written request from the student’s parent or guardian.
Following the recitation of the pledges, the statute requires that all districts provide the observance of one minute of silence at each school.  During the one-minute period, each student may, as the student chooses, reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activity that is not likely to interfere with or distract another student.
Each teacher or other school employee in charge of students during that specific period shall ensure that each of those students remain silent and does not act in a manner that is likely to interfere with or distract another student.
If you have any questions about these procedures, please contact our Legal Division at (512) 463-9720.
Sincerely,
Michael Williams
Commissioner of Education

Really?  This is not a memo outlining philosophy, goals, objectives, mission or vision.  This is a memo dictating to schools the kind of micro-managed, compliance organization we have become.  To actually receive a memo about how to start each day in mid-October is ludicrous, assumes we are not complying and sends the message that this is high on his agenda.  Why this topic for his initial correspondence?  At least it answers all my questions:  we are to be managers not leaders, we will continue to be micro-managed, we will continue to focus on the wrong issues, and non-educators will continue to plot our course.

After I pledge to comply, I need at least a minute of silence.

Top-Down Superintendent

It is the first day of October.  The temperature is 66 degrees and the humidity is 84% with a slight NW wind.  It is a beautiful, crystal clear day.  I’m sitting in my office planning and interacting with folks in my normal collaborative way.

Just saying, if I still owned my ’96 Mustang convertible, my ’76 MG, or my ’72 Cutlass 442 convertible I would be a top-down superintendent all day.

Back to work.

Multi Missions

As I review the issues that always hit my desk at the beginning of each year I revisit the early work of Dr. Larry Lezotte in the Effective Schools Network for patience, perseverance and insight.  Larry does really great thinking.  Though best known for his articulation of the Correlates of Effective Schools, I find solace in his thoughts regarding the competing missions of public schools.  This solace is needed even more now than when I first read it as decision making for public schools has pretty well been taken out of local hands and has matriculated to the state and federal governments.  Further, schools are asked more and more to solve societal problems in ways that in fact are counter-intuitive to our mission, or missions.  (And, because some of my dear friends at the new high school are going home and sticking pins in their Bob Wells dolls, I figured I had better at least ground my most recent decisions in sound theory.)

Schools are highly complex social institutions.  Simple monitoring of the children of our community on a daily basis, feeding them, transporting them, and ensuring their safety is a major logistical accomplishment.  Add to that all the state and federal standards and mandates, the need for ensuring an education across a variety of curricula and co-curricular courses, and winning football games moves our role so far beyond mere child supervision and fully into the role of child change agents.  We have a wide array of college educated, certified professional employees with expertise within the confines of their room and assignment.  And we have a wide variety of parental expectations for individual students.  This interaction among adults on behalf of kids under the rubric of compliance makes our system highly complex.  Lezotte did an insightful job of outlining these competing missions of public schools, herein shared a la Bob.

The custodial mission outlines our responsibility for the safety, well-being, and monitoring of all students in EISD.  We have a bunch of policies to ensure this safety including requiring adults to be on duty at buses and doorways, requiring parents to check their kids out so we know who leaves with whom, etc., etc.  Also included in this mission are our discipline policies and procedures, including dress code and closed campus, all designed to increase our ability to know where our students are and what they are doing.  The federal and state governments have added tremendously to this mission in terms of student fitness, vaccinations, obesity, anti-bullying, date violence, teen pregnancy, etc.  All these requirements and responsibilities accrue to the custodial mission.

The sort and select mission regards all our programs where kids are determined to be in the program or out of the program.  In other words, the programs that sort then select kids.  These programs include GT, Special Education, Athletics, Cheerleading, Honor Society, AP, etc., etc.  For each of these programs the rules are extensive because sometimes parents challenge the selection process and we must be able to clearly define why a student was selected “in” or “out.”  Many parents value the sort and select programs more than the core programs because they are by their very nature sorted and either a source of pride or stigma.

The adult control, safety and convenience mission involves our employees.  We must keep our employees safe and provide an environment where they are most likely to be successful.  We need to pay a fair wage and provide appropriate benefits.  We need good facilities and good resources.  We have come a long way in this area, but the convenience mission and control mission always erupt.  Sadly, each teacher does not have his or her own office and secretary and kitchenette and phone.  We just cannot afford it.  We do bend over backwards to provide opportunities for teachers and others to have input in decision making.  Our district and campus teams meet regularly, and if there is a specific issue we will meet with those involved.  Bottom line, we cannot ignore this mission either.

The teaching for learning for all mission is what most folks outside our profession think we are all about.  This is the mission that consumes most of our time, resources and focus.  We want every kid to be academically successful.  We work hard at that.  We have tutorials and tiers and progress reports and parent portals and report cards and teacher conferences and textbooks and computers and CSCOPE and hours and hours of teacher preparation and staff development to make this happen.  We will never be content if a student fails.  This is our main mission as far as I’m concerned.  It’s why I am in this business; it is the motivation to ensure a quality education for all.

But these missions compete.  They compete for resources including time.  We could provide higher salaries and more perks for adults if we had fewer of them.  But that would not help us accomplish our main mission.  We could have the best athletic equipment, more coaches than anybody and fancy Greyhound buses for our athletes, but that would take resources from our instructional mission.  We could hire police officers, and hire security guards to keep our kids safer, but that would take resources from our instructional mission.  It is a balancing act.  How can we ensure a quality core curriculum and offer GT, athletics, vocational education, etc., and still ensure that we are competitive when it comes to staffing and focused when it comes to instruction?  That is a leadership decision.

Most of the issues that hit my desk at the beginning of the year are not around the teaching for learning for all mission.  They are around the sort and select mission or the adult convenience mission.  That’s the way it is and likely will be.  I think it is very important for our parents, staff and kids to know that we attend to all our missions, but I for one will consistently land on the instructional mission as our main mission.

The New Commish

Here we go again.  Once more our governor has failed to appoint an educator to the top spot in the Texas public education system.  His last appointment was an attorney.  Now, Governor Perry has named Michael Williams to serve as our new Commissioner of Education.  I am not sad.  I am mad.

“High standards and accountable public schools are essential to our state’s future success, and no two people understand that better than Michael and Lizzette. Together, they will build on the improvements achieved during the tenure of Robert Scott and Todd Webster, and will ensure our children are prepared for the challenges of college and the workplace,” Gov. Perry said.  Williams is a past chairman of the Governor’s Competitiveness Council and Governor’s Clean Coal Technology Council, and past member of the Southern State Energy Board, National Coal Council and Interstate Mining Compact Commission. He is also past chairman of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, former honorary chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas, and a past board member of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Texas Public Policy Foundation and Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School.  Williams received a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in Public Administration, and a law degree from the University of Southern California.

So, here is what we know:  He has never worked in a public school and he has been on the board of a private school.  He clearly believes competition is the “cure” for public education and that we should be held more accountable.  One wonders if his stints relative to coal mining make everything else over his head.

I remember a conversation I had with previous Commissioner Robert Scott.  He was an attorney and a former bureaucrat in Washington and TEA.  We informally sat together at a food court, and I asked him if he would support my appointment to the State Bar Association.  Mr. Scott sat up and looked at me and said, “Bob, I didn’t know you were an attorney.”  I said, “I’m not.”  Mr. Scott said, “Then you are not qualified to be on the State Bar.”  “My point exactly,” I said.

To Scott’s undying credit, he spent enough time interacting with us in public education to see the light at the end.  He took a stand against high-stakes testing and had to resign shortly thereafter.

When will elected officials understand that this is a profession that deserves self-governance?  Lawyers govern themselves.  Engineers govern themselves.  Doctors govern themselves.  We are governed by people who could not survive one day in our PreK program, much less teaching English IV AP.  We know public schools, we know what works, and we know kids.  Asking us to do more with fewer resources does not work in the public sector any better than the private sector.  Holding us accountable based on a spurious state-wide high stakes test is professionally unethical.  Those who support moving funds from public schools to charter schools, or even worse, vouchers only undermine public schools more.

Please Governor Perry.  Find an educator!  We desperately need leadership at the state level who is a professional educator we can respect.  We do not need another Perry-Winkle or Wonk.

Welcome Back!

August 10, 2012

Dear Edna ISD Employees,

We have had a great summer, though it felt really short!  School year 2012-2013 is right around the corner!  For all of you who had the opportunity to leave Edna and chose to stay I want to say a personal thank you and I can’t wait to see you back.  For those of you who are new to our system we are very glad you are here and look forward to getting to know you and to support you while you begin to feel at home.  For all the rest of you I am equally glad you are here and look forward to seeing you.

We enter the second year of severe budget cuts, but we are doing OK.  The Board, as you know, approved major raises for everyone and I hope you are as pleased as I am.  The Academic Building of the new high school is not quite ready as we hoped, but will be in early September.  All other construction is right on schedule.  The football team, band, volleyball team, spurs, and cheerleaders are already hard at work for an exciting fall.

We will have a welcome reception for our new administrators and returning administrators in new positions on Thursday, August 16^th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the EES cafeteria.  Please drop by and meet these great folks.  New teachers will report to EES library on Friday, August 17^th, 8:00 a.m. for a day of new teacher induction.  Teachers and paraprofessionals report to Edna Elementary at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, August 20^th for our Welcome Back breakfast!  Further, our wonderful friends at First Baptist have invited us all to lunch at noon on Wednesday, August 22^th.  Students return August 27^th! 

I hope your summer was all that you wanted it to be.  We are really glad you are here.  Our mission is to ensure a quality education for all.  Each year we must do a better and better job of that!  We can do it thanks to you, and I look forward to seeing all of you on August 20^th.

Sincerely,

Bob Wells