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.