Talking Nice

Jay Mathews is an educational writer for the Washington Post. In this article, Mathews writes about the tendency of those with opposing views to be less than civil in their criticism of each other. It is interesting and echoes some of the reading I have done lately for a paper I was writing. Mathews cites examples where different persons spoke of their opposition's viewpoint incorrectly. As I listen to and read the pundits, on television, radio, and in newspapers, the blogosphere, and magazines, there is a sense of a divergence from moderate and civil conversation. I would like to see, as Mathews says, a willingness "to give credit to ideological adversaries for the good sense and good works on all sides of the debate."

Happy Father's Day 2010

Yes, it is a day late, but better late than never. So, Happy Father's Day to all fathers out there. As I was thinking about writing this, I decided to deliver a late eulogy to my father, who died last month. Since I knew I wouldn't have been able to do it then, here goes:

I've heard it said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. My thought is that imitation is also a form of respect. That's how I see me following in my father's footsteps. As a soon-to-be high school graduate, I really had no idea in what field I would like to major. The same, I suppose, could be said for me as a college student and college graduate. I never thought I would go into education as my father had, but when I did, I swore I would never get into administration. Lo and behold, I too became a superintendent just as he had 35 years earlier.

While a career of 20 years as a superintendent in one district is quite an accomplishment, it was the respect he earned from those around him that I aspire to every day. Even some of the students who got in trouble regularly commented to me years after they were out of school that he was fair and just. As I became an administrator, it certainly was handy to have a dad who had walked in the same career shoes to bounce thoughts, questions, and concerns off. Of course, his straightforward answers were not always what I wanted to hear, but they were usually right on the mark nonetheless. I could have avoided many "learning experiences" had I been a better listener early on in my life.

One of the funnier stories I recall quite vividly was the time I called my dad's sister to wish her a Merry Christmas. After talking with her for a few minutes, I asked her if she knew that she wasn't talking to her brother (apparently we sound quite alike). I've enjoyed retelling and re-enacting her reaction over the years. For some reason, that story sticks with me and I think it is because although I haven't always wanted to emulate my father, I've grown to appreciate our similarities much more than our differences. I also seem to notice his mannerisms in my own actions and reactions, which can be both comforting and weird at the same time.

So for all you children out there, I hope the weekend gave you a chance to connect with your father. If not, it's certainly not too late to do so. And Dad, wherever you may be, Happy Father's Day.

John Wooden

I happened upon this Jon Gordon article about the great John Wooden, who passed away over a week ago. It got me thinking about what I have learned over the years from some great men. So I thought I would post the link and then scratch out some thoughts this week leading up to Father's Day on the men who have been influential in my life and the lessons I've learned.

One of the best things I learned from Coach Wooden was that the outcome wasn't the important thing. The process and doing things right were so much more important. According to Gordon, Wooden focused on character, fundamentals, daily improvement, effort and teamwork. Of course, most of us know the results; doing this helped him win a lot of games. Focus on the process and the results will speak for themselves.

Stand and Deliver

Many of you may recall the movie, Stand and Deliver, about Jaime Escalante and his work with underprivileged youth in Los Angeles. Escalante, who died March 30, raised the bar for many students, providing them the tools to succeed when others had written them off. Here is an article about one of his students and a reminder that when we work intelligently and diligently, great things can happen.

Choosing

I first ran into the concept of Choice Theory a long time ago when my father gave me a book, Stations of the Mind, by William Glasser. In it, Glasser discusses the theory and one of the things that has stuck with me was that there is a gap between stimulus and response and we choose how we react to each and every stimuli.

Now, I understand that many stimuli will cause an almost instantaneous response - such as putting your hand on a hot stove and immediately pulling it away. The key word there is "almost." Physiologically, there is a split second (however long that may actually be) that it takes for the nerve impulse to travel from the hand to the brain and back to the muscles of the arm to move the hand off the stove.

Of course, most of the book was not about how we respond to such physical events, but how we choose to perceive stimuli outside of our physical body.

Anyway, this book led me down a journey to other Glasser books and many thoughts about making choices in how we perceive the things that happen around us every day. I was reminded of this as I read an article by Jon Gordon about the difference between "get to" and "have to."

Do we "have to go to work" or do we "get to go to work?" We can exchange "get to" for "have to" in a lot of situations and have a totally different outlook on things. It certainly makes for a much better day.

Mr. President

Congratulations to Ken Griffith, the president-elect for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Social Media in Education

How many of you blog, tweet, facebook, or use other forms of social media? An article in Edutopia.org makes the case that schools need to be more proactive in helping students become responsible consumers of social media.

One of the interesting points the author made was that nearly half of all employers in a survey were researching the social networking sites of prospective employees. Makes sense then, that schools would help students become more responsible users, helping them put a positive message out and creating opportunities they might otherwise miss.

Benefits of Positive Thinking

Jon Gordon wrote of the benefits of being positive here. One of the things I like about this article is that he named studies that showed each benefit (although they are not cited, one could do a little searching to find them.) Positive people tend to live longer, outperform their negative peers, and have more friends. Sure seems like some pretty good benefits to me.

Inspire Your Students

Bob Sullo appeared at the Wyoming School Improvement Conference this week and presented eight keys to inspiring students. These eight keys included:

1. Be enthusiastic
2. Eliminate fear
3. Minimize coercion
4. Eliminate external rewards for learning - This was quite a conversation piece and not everyone agreed this was necessarily the right way to motivate students. Sullo maintains (and Alfie Kohn would agree) that external rewards focuses people on the reward and not on the learning itself. Interesting discussion.
5. Build positive relationships - not only with the teacher, but with the subject itself.
6. Create relevant lessons
7. Create realistic expectations
8. Create a need-satisfying classroom.

Instructional Facilitators OpEd

I read an editorial in today's Casper Star-Tribune on instructional facilitators (IFs). I am supportive of the editorial, as it promotes the continued use of IFs. The author also has some ways to improve the program "so as to document its value."

One of the the suggestions is to "more clearly define and standardize their duties." The rationale for this is that IFs have different duties and roles in schools across the state. While I agree with the author's assertion that they would like to "see an emphasis on improving teachers' interactions with students in the classroom," I would debate the merits of having all IFs performing the same duties in each school.

The needs of schools varies across the state and it is the ability of IFs to have the flexibility to do what is necessary to help teachers improve that makes the program such a benefit. To limit this flexibility is akin to making the funding model, currently a block grant that allows districts to flexibly spend their funding in needed areas, into a categorical grant that forces all districts to spend their dollars similarly, regardless of the needs of students. But that is a conversation for another day.

Capitalization

Malcolm Gladwell presented at the AASA National Conference on Education this past week. His topic was capitalization of education. If you don't know Gladwell, he is the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers.

In his speech, Gladwell used the story of Michael Oher, the National Football League player whose life is the subject of a book and movie titled The Blind Side. One of the conversations with Oher revolved around the number of athletes in his hometown of Memphis that had the talent to play in the NFL. According to Gladwell, Oher and others claim that there were at least five athletes capable of playing at the NFL level who never went on to play college football. Gladwell used this analogy to speak of the capitalization rate of football players to be 1 in 6 and then went on to talk about the capitalization rate in education.

While discussing some of the barriers and constraints that exist to students achieving their full potential, Gladwell brought up institutional bias. He used the Czech national hockey team to illustrate his point. A majority of those players had birthdays in the first three months of the year. Why? Because the cut-off date for playing in certain leagues was January 1. Those players born at right after a cut-off date would be older and more mature than those born later in the year.

What does that have to do with education? The same thing could be said of students. At early grade levels, where development takes place at a much greater rate than later, students born after the cut-off date for school enrollment could be substantially older than those born right before. This could affect achievement and provide a structural disadvantage to certain students. I found the concept intriguing and will be looking for further research to verify if this is indeed the case.

If such an institutional bias exists, what can schools do to remove this barrier? One method might be further differentiation of instruction so that students would enter at various times during the year and exit when they were ready, not at an arbitrary timeframe such as May or June. Of course, schools and states that fund those schools may have to restructure to allow for such a change. It would be interesting to see if such a change could take place.

AASA-Phoenix

It is very nice in Phoenix for the AASA National Conference on Education. Although I heard a local coming out of the convention center exclaim that it was "freezing" out, for a northerner, it is a balmy 70 degrees. (Of course it was morning, so it might have been a "brisk" 60.)

I attended a couple of sessions this morning which caused me to reflect again on the process of asking questions as a method of transformation. In their session on central office transformation, University of Washington professor Mike Copeland, Atlanta assistant superintendent Kathy Augustine, and Springfield, MA superintendent Alan Ingram discussed the importance of the central office in helping transform schools. Although the presentation was looking at urban districts and the large number of schools in each, there were pieces that could be used by all districts, large or very small.

One of the takeaways I got centered around the monthly meetings that superintendent Beverly Hall and her senior administrative team hold with principals. During this time, the focus is on data, what's going well, and barriers that may exist to improving schools. The principals talk and senior leadership listens, then goes forward to investigate reasons behind the barriers that may exist.

In another session, Western Illinois professor Carol Webb discussed several protocols leaders can use to make meetings more productive and focus the discussion on instruction rather the managerial minutiae that sometimes get in the way of more important items.

So, in other words, ask questions, then reflect on those questions to provide direction for improvement.

TED 2010

Okay, so you might think that Seth Godin is paying me to advertise his blog on this one. I found another great article on his site that discusses the TED conference and "abstract numerical thinking." According to Godin, abstract numerical thinking is an important skill that educated people should have.

Now, I know you may be thinking that I am only saying this because as a mathematician (sort of), I enjoy numbers. However, the ability to work with numbers in one's head also helps a person be able to think of alternatives to problems he/she may encounter. So, if you get a chance, listen to a TED speaker or two and/or read a good book. They both help increase the "manipulation of ideas."

Hunter or Farmer?

I read an interesting blog post by Seth Godin in which he used a metaphor about hunters and farmers to describe marketing strategy. One of the examples he uses is that of students and how we force students who have "hunting" skills to live in a "farming" environment. Interesting.

ESEA reauthorization

Here is a link to a speech Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave concerning the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Some of the quotes I found of interest (and we'll see what happens when it does get going):

"One of our goals with reauthorization is to give local educators flexibility to do what's best for children."

"We will be creating a limited federal role in education."

"We want an accountability system that factors in student growth, progress in closing achievement gaps, proficiency towards college and career-ready standards, high school graduation and college enrollment rates."

In Praise of Education Conference

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Wyoming School University Partnership sponsored "In Praise of Education" conference. Among the many outstanding discussions was the opening panel session entitled Why Institutions in a Democracy Matter. The panel explored Hugh Heclo's book, On Thinking Institutionally and the concept of institutional thinking was discussed.

According to the panelists, the author contrasts two baseball players, one an example of institutional thinking who plays the game the way it is supposed to be played and another more interested in individual accolades and personal achievements. The conversation raised a question for me around the differences between those who think at an institutional or global level and those who think on a more individual level.

A tension exists between these two types of thought and resolution is found through conversation on the issues. A superintendent's panel that convened at the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) annual conference this fall discussed this topic and summed it up. "The tension between individual and institutional thinking is resolved through conversation and dialogue" is the paraphrased version of the summarization.

One of the important aspects of both the NNER and the Partnership is the opportunity to discuss high level topics in-depth. Without these opportunities, educators and leaders may not have the variety of opinion or expertise to reflect fully on an issue. The foundation of good decision making is getting pertinent information into the dialogue. I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in the many conversations around education. I would encourage you to learn more about the NNER and the Partnership.

In Praise of Education

Here is an op-ed piece that may or may not appear in newspaper print. It details some of the work being done around Wyoming through the Wyoming University-School Partnership.

In Praise of Education

Great Teachers, Great Schools, and the Foundation for Both

by David Barker and Audrey Kleinsasser

Imagine being in school again. That’s not hard, just about everyone has vivid memories, good and bad, about grade and high school experiences. If those memories are positive ones, they often focus on teachers who stand apart.

Great teachers know their stuff. They create experiences in and out of the classroom that prepare students to demonstrate mastery on a wide range of assessments, not just those mandated at state and federal levels. In fact, great teachers help students develop the competence and confidence to face the difficult problems that are the norm of real life and the world of work.

It’s not local folklore or a gut feeling that tells us teachers are the most important component of the massive, often overwhelming, educational machinery called schooling. Every kind of research backs it up. In fact, higher academic achievement can be linked to students having a great teacher three years in a row. However, we should recognize that three great teachers in a row is aiming low. Students deserve to have a great teacher every year.

Wyoming has worked hard to attract, prepare, and keep great teachers. Salaries, for example, have improved dramatically and raise the bar for teacher performance. In addition, local and state leaders, indeed the profession itself, require professional development that takes the form of workshops, classes, advanced certifications and degrees, and conferences on a variety of topics. Teachers increasingly are becoming involved in some kind of professional development during the summer months when students are not in school, much of it planned and implemented at the district level.

“Simultaneous renewal” is a particular professional development approach promoted by the Wyoming School-University Partnership. Different from reform which may be a one-time event and aims to fix something that’s corrupt or broken, renewal is ongoing. Those committed to renewal recognize that schooling is complex, that it affects and is affected by a society’s economic, legal, political, and social structures. Partners in Wyoming’s educational renewal include 21 of the state’s 48 school districts, all of the community colleges, UW, the Wyoming Department of Education, and the Wyoming Education Association. To prepare great teachers and support the kind of educational institutions that citizens living and working in a democracy need and want, the Partnership believes it’s going to take a commitment to renewal from stake-holders in each of these groups.

Renewal activities bring together teachers across K-12, community college, and university levels. Together, they work on challenges that are solved best through collaboration across levels, in-depth discussion, and resulting actions.

Teaching biology is one example of partnership-driven renewal. For more than five years now, the Wyoming School-University Partnership has created ways for the state’s high school, college, and university faculty to work together. At these meetings called summits, biology teachers bring examples of student work, compare that work against state and national teaching standards, and talk through expectations for learning. Teachers across levels get to know each other, share problems, and come to see that they have more in common than they thought. Together, they catch a glimpse of a vision that’s larger than an individual classroom or even a school building. With the expectations and opportunities of Wyoming’s Hathaway Scholarship Program and core curriculum preparing high school students for college and university success, working toward common understandings and commitments across levels is crucial.

This work isn’t easy. Even now, with increasingly sophisticated systems of accountability and high expectations for collaboration, some teachers prefer to work alone, focusing on their classrooms and their students. The Wyoming School-University Partnership’s challenge is to invite collaboration and provide convincing examples of ways it can be accomplished. To that end, partnership work mirrors democratic practices and two core values of schooling in a democracy.

One value is individual growth and development. Teachers, parents, and others want each student to thrive academically, but also socially and emotionally to grow into a wise and healthy adult.

Second, in a society that does its most important work through vigorous debate, eventual compromise, and some kind of consensus, schooling plays a significant role. School settings teach individuals to hone skills necessary to be contributing members of a larger community or set of communities. That might be one’s neighborhood, a workplace, a place of worship, or the many social groups that contribute to a democracy’s vibrant energy.

These core values frame great teaching and the Partnership’s mission. The Partnership will be going public with its work January 28-29 during its “In Praise of Education” conference in Casper. The meetings showcase the kind of professional development that provides a solid grounding, as together, we support great teachers and create great schools.

There is no cost to the conference, but online registration at www.uwyo.edu/wsup is required.

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David Barker is the superintendent of Platte County School District #2 and President of the Wyoming School-University Partnership Governing Board. Audrey Kleinsasser is the Partnership’s director and a professor at the University of Wyoming. To learn more about work of the Partnership, go www.uwyo.edu/wsup.