Trigger Effect - Parent Involvement

This article really made me think about the impact that a community can have in education, both positive and negative.

In this case, the culture of the school community has dissolved to a point where some in the community feel they are better off taking over the school, while others do not agree. They now have two parental factions, politically led (of course) that are fighting against each other over whether to implement a "Trigger Effect" law that was put in place in California in 2010. The law places the power in the hands of the parents, allowing them to do things such as fire the principal to closing the school and reopening it as a charter. The issue that they are fighting over - low standardized test scores.

As you go farther into the article, you can see that the problem that needs solved is NOT standardized test scores, but instead is the climate and culture of the school community.

In Adelanto, the 666 children who attend Desert Trails are mostly black and Latino, and nearly all meet the federal definition of poor. The school lacks a full-time nurse, a guidance counselor and a psychologist. About one in four students was suspended last year, nearly twice the district average. Desert Trails has had three principals in the past five years

One is Larry Lewis, who helped launch the trigger effort out of frustration with teachers who, he said, resisted his efforts to improve classroom instruction.

“Adelanto is known as the armpit of the high desert,” said Lewis, who resigned in October for health reasons. “And Desert Trails is the armpit of Adelanto.”

Adelanto, a working-class community of 31,700, sits 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It boasts one shopping center, a federal prison and acres of empty brown desert interrupted only by hulking steel lattice towers tethered together by high-voltage electric lines.

When she moved from Los Angeles County three years ago, Cynthia Ramirez didn’t think twice about the schools. “We just assumed everything is fine,” said Ramirez, who has a 3-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. “But here, there are no after-school activities. They’re only teaching math and reading. There is no science. I started to feel scared for my daughter.”

In my opinion, instead of these parents fighting against the school, they need to be working with the school, and all involved with the school need to be proactive in the engagement of the community. They should be working together to create the after school activities that are being demanded, to create demand for science classes that are engaging, to eliminate the negative self talk about the district, to create consistency in leadership, to bring in the resources that are needed to be successful, and to create a culture of learning and collaboration in the district.

Sidebar conversations on solutions for these issues would be the lack of financial support occurring in this district, in California, and in the nation and also the need to modify education to fit the needs of students and society today. There are many ways to attack this problem, but to put the solution in the hands of parents, creating community discontent, is only going to lead to more heartache and failure.

Insights from the Organized Chaos of the Educationally Schizophrenic Mind of an Administrator

There is a major difference between management and leadership. Finding that balance is continual, and returning to a position of neutrality of these two important factors is essential to success (and sanity). Think of this as a Venn Diagram, review your current tasks, and attempt to get into the intersection. Too much "leadership" and you become the idea man and will start getting the "uh oh" looks from employees when you come down the hall towards them as they know they are going to get a 15-20 minute conversation which eventually leads to more work for them. Too much "management" and you become out of touch with the vision of the position and start to get bogged down in the minutia of each day focusing on items that in the big picture are not as important compared to the time you need to spend building relationships that will move your company forward.

Currently, there is lack of balance and disconnect in educational leadership in the state of Iowa. The proposal by Governor Branstad and his staff reeks of more oversight and reasons to employ personnel at the DE level (adding to the system at the highest level) instead of what should be a true focus - student improvement (adding to the system at the student level). We have the system in place already for oversight, but I do not believe that this system is being used effectively. If the Iowa DE is truly leading our educational system, then the AEA system should be managing that vision and working as a representative of the DE to ensure the enactment of policy is done with validity (performing the trainings in collaboration with administration within the districts they cover). Dr. Glass and his staff should be meeting with the AEA leadership teams and directing them in the initiatives. The AEA leadership teams should be developing training teams to go out into each of the districts and plan/implement professional development time with local administration focused on the DE directed goals. This process is top down management - no doubt - but I see this system as a way to ensure consistency and common language for all Iowa schools (think of it as NSLB (No School Left Behind). We have too many schools working on too many different initiatives at very different paces. I have personally witnessed this disconnect due to different factors:

At West Central Valley as MS Principal, I came into a building that had worked through 9 different administrators in 11 years. To say it was a mess was being nice. Luckily, we had a faculty and staff that wanted to improve and within 2 years we were able to bring the building up to speed with initiatives that moved the climate and culture towards more of an educational focus.

At Boone as HS Asst. Principal, the focus has been almost singularly upon A.I.W. for professional development for the past five years. I do believe that A.I.W. is a great tool for analyzing and improving lessons, but having a single minded focus for this long has led to missing the boat on a lot of educational reform items that would have improved classroom instruction. This year, with a new lead principal and restored vision, we are truly feeling the burden as a building leadership team of attempting to move a culture forward without the background knowledge established that other districts have been able to look to by staying at the forefront of educational reform initiatives.

If the current system (DE to AEA to District) is supposed to work as stated above, then I implore administrators at all levels to review their current status and implement the system with validity, because the system is not working this way it is intended. We need to come together and collaborate feverishly to remove the disconnect and reach towards the intersection of leadership and management so that we have true balance in our Iowa Educational System.

Development of an At-Risk Program, Part I

Two years ago, in the spring of 2010, we began the process of developing the concept of an At-Risk Program in Boone that would create an impact at both the High School and Middle School levels.

Stimulating the need for adding this program was the demand for our alternative school, Futures, by a higher than normal number of students in our district. We found that, because of a combination of factors, both positive and negative, some students during their eighth grade high school planning session with our counselors were planning out their first two years of classes and then just writing "Futures" as their plan for their junior and senior year. This was a very strange concept to us, but the factors behind this were easy to detect.

Some factors that were impacting the demand/need for this program:

1) Great relationship building by the staff at Futures had led to success in the program (students graduating).
2) Word of mouth advertising - most commonly this was a friend of a relative that had attended their and said it was easier AND had told the current student how to get there (just fail, don't do anything).
3) Curriculum that really was easier than at the High School (packet work vs. deeper meaning, high order thinking project-based work).
4) A past one-year HS administrator who was had worked in the Futures building and was very passionate about the benefits of the school (promoting this to underclass students currently at the high school as the way to success).
5) A counseling program that had been reduced from three to two and could not meet the high demand of socio-emotional needs of our At-Risk students as well as that of the other students (800 students).
6) A handful of educators who made limited, if any, accommodations for students that were not designated as IEP. Usually this was done in the names of "rigor", "consistency" or "fairness". To compound this, nobody in the building felt or was empowered to be proactive to assist At-Risk students to communicate with instructors for accommodations/flexibility.
7) An advisory program that was very inconsistent, not focused, and did not have student relationships in mind (think old school homeroom only meeting once a month). Curriculum/lessons were put together for these meetings as needed by the counseling department based upon a monthly character counts list of terms and were placed in the in-box just prior to the meetings.

Thank You!

We had a fantastic ending to the school year this year at Boone High, and I wanted to thank those that were responsible for it.

1) The senior students (and now graduates) and parents. Thank you for a fantastic school year and very positive ending! I wish you all the best in your future endeavors and if you ever need a recommendation look me up! Parents, even though your students are moving away keep calling them and engaging them in conversation, if only just to listen. They will be going through a lot over the next few years and will need your support.

2) The underclass students and parents. Thank you for making the "job" part of my duties enjoyable (attendance and discipline). I have had a great time getting to know you even better this year and can't wait to see what next year has in store for us! Keep communicating your needs so that we can do our best to meet those!

3) The faculty and staff. I really enjoyed getting to know you this year and believe we have developed into a very cohesive team. I am very excited for the modification to my position for next year and look forward to getting into the classroom more to see the engagement and excellent education that our students are receiving. You are a very strong group of education professionals and our students are getting a fantastic gift when working with you, as am I in learning with and from you.

4) My secretaries - Jody, Brandi, and Carey. Without you three, the last two years may have been very difficult and boring. I look forward to each and every day working with you because we have such a dynamic working relationship and can really be ourselves. The key words have been TRUST and CONSISTENCY, and I love it that we can bounce ideas off of each other freely.

6) Mr. Kapfer, HS Principal. It has been fantastic working with you over the past two years. You have been the voice of reason to my overly zealous ways and have truly taught me to "go slow to go fast". I have gained a lot of wisdom and patience from the sharing of your 40 years of experience in education.

7) Dr. Manard, Superintendent. You have been a breath of fresh air to me (as a aspiring superintendent). It is fantastic to work with a collaborative leader who truly listens to the voices of others.

8) School Board Members. I have learned a ton in watching you operate with integrity over the past two years. Climate and culture are beginning to change to the positive because of your actions, and the community of Boone is better because of your service.

9) My wife and family. Melody - Life would definitely be less fulfilling without you. Without you, none of what I do would truly be worthwhile. To the kids (Lexi, Reagan, Kenady, and Jaxson), you make coming home a delight and seeing you perform in your various activities makes my everyday worthwhile.

10 and really #1) God. You have been there throughout the trials and tribulations of my recent adult life (and only because of me have you not "been there" my entire life). I am very happy that I opened myself up to believing in you and trusting in your path for me.

Online Summer Credit Recovery

I am very excited to see how our Online Credit Recovery and At-Risk program will impact our students this summer. As a district, we have received a grant in order to assist students who are struggling at both the middle school and high school levels. One part of the grant (170+ hours) is being used to pay for our two At-Risk instructors to make transitioning contacts with our incoming 4th and 9th graders (and their parents) and have been identified as needing assistance. Our instructors are setting appointment times up to meet individually with the parents and students to find out their needs, both academically and otherwise, in order to move towards successful decision making.
Another part of the grant is paying for 38 hours of my time in order to manage the Online Credit Recovery Program for the high school students through the use of Odysseyware, an online academic program. Our goal is that these students will be able to recovery credits lost (classes they have failed) in the core area by the end of July, and therefore make the upcoming school year less stressful to look forward to. This is the first year that this program has been offered, and because of the community grant, it is FREE to these students. We have had multiple student successes with our Credit Recovery Program over this past school year, and feel like this is another opportunity for us to meet the individual needs of our students.

Advertising on the Radio

Today on my drive up to Boone I was listening to KXNO to get my morning fill of sports radio when an ad came on the air discussing the need for assistance in financing the building of a new school/community auditorium in Nevada, IA. I have heard advertisements in local communities (through local paper, radio, tv, etc.) for items like this, but never on a more regional radio station like KXNO that I can recall. It got me thinking about the implications of this for schools in general.

What if we decide to advertise our school itself openly?
What if Open Enrollment was truly open?
What are issues that we would face?
Why can't we do this?
What would this lead to?

As a former business education instructor, it is my opinion that if we are doing a great job of meeting expectations of the community, parents, and students and have data to show what we are doing, we should be able to advertise these successes and promote the possibility of students attending our district instead of district B. Others share similar thought processes...

Benton Community School District

Open enrollment should be based on a year to year basis WITHOUT transportation. If a parent (or student) wishes to attend another district, and can afford to do take care of the transportation to do so, then the money for the student should follow THE YEAR OF the enrollment. Wherever the student first enrolls for the year is where the money would stay for the year due to the necessity of establishing/managing a district budget. This would mean a change to our accounting structure for school finance from July to June to a different schedule, but more of a just-in-time approach (i.e. if you don't have the money now, you can't spend it).

One area that I believe this would lead to is more investment in marketing for a district. It may also eliminate certain school districts, as students look to expand their opportunities. Certainly, it would lead towards stronger schools as a whole, as competition would drive demand for this to occur (I don't believe this is an assumption, competition in a free market economy is a necessity). More demand would occur for certain schools, which would lead to advanced policies regarding expectations of behavior, grades, etc. which would need to be met in order to attend. Charter schools would also have opportunities to expand, and businesses could them become directly involved towards investing in education (Wells Fargo School of Finance, anyone?).

With these changes to the educational system as it is today, would an end result be increases in the expectations for our society (raising the bar)? I would like to believe so...

Preparing to host a conference

If hosting a conference, the single worst thing that I believe you can do is not be prepared for your guests technological needs. So far, this year, I have attended two conferences at the Sharaton in Clive and at both conferences the amount of wireless networks needed have not been enough to handle the amount of participants. This creates a very frustrating environment for the guests, leading to a true "disconnect" (pun intended) from the content being presented. Multi-tasking is no longer an option for some, but a requirement to truly engage the tech-savvy learner. My suggestion to you, if you are going to host, is to place the infrastructure of your network at the forefront of your planning sessions.