slippery slope

"They put aside all thought of obstacles and forgot that a precipice does not show itself to a man in a blind rush until it it's too late."
Frank Herbert

Ambition, motivation, and enthusiasm are all required to drive a new program, but beware the blind rush. Blinded because not enough stakeholders had a chance to contribute to the plan, or blinded by unbridled groupthink resulting from a cloister of too many like-minded people. Or blinded by the need to meet a deadline, ignorance, self-centeredness, or any of the usual flaws we assign to other people.

What are the differences between a precipice and a slope? The term precipice conjures up the image of a cliff, the unforgiving edge of an abyss...one step over the line and the plummet is immediate, there is no recourse or recovery. Whereas a slope is a gradual decline, seemingly offering the prospect of a slow change. The perception is that you may take the first step casually, without fear. But a slippery slope exposes the deception...because a slow step down is a still a descent.

The serious side of this scenario kicks in when the steps lead in an unethical direction. Unethical behavior does not have to be blatant at its inception, it may start with the simple use of half-truths or misrepresentations. A character in Dean Koontz's novel reflects on his misdeeds; "I don't know if this deception qualified as a half-step down a slippery slope. I had no sensation of sliding. But of course we never notice the descent until we are rocketing along at high velocity " (p. 106). By then it may be too late.

Unethical behavior leads to an irrevocable descent. The damage is done with the first half-step.

Sebring and Bryk's eight years of research on principal leadership finds that a leader needs to demonstrate integrity by articulating specific values and demonstrating them in his or her daily behavior. Leadership is elevated to a moral act in James Magregor Burns' book, Leadership; "The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and leaders into moral agents" (p. 4). Kotter and Cohen's book chronicling how leaders have changed their organizations states that to deliver large scale change you must be "credible in a very gut-level sense, and that evokes faith in the vision" (p. 84). Credibility at the gut-level sense. You cannot fake ethical behavior, people's gut-level sense will scope it out. The upside is that acting with integrity elevates the entire organization.

There is a reason why acting with integrity is referred too as taking the high road.

Make a good day,
Tod

PS: Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation.

PSS. Koontz, D. (2006). Brother Odd. New York: Bantam Books.

PSSS. Sebring, P. B. & Bryk, A. S. (2000, Feb). School Leadership and the Bottom Line in Chicago. Phi Delta Kappan, 440-443.

PSSSS. Kotter, J. P. & Cohen, D. S (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

laundry basket

Whoever conceived of the concept of putting a laundry basket in a child’s bathroom must have been an educational consultant. It is a wonderful concept: provide a seemingly straightforward strategy and an efficient process to solve a problem. You can even dress up the basket as a nice wicker version or a stylish modern IKEA model, but guess what; it still remains a box that mixes wet towels with soiled clothes. The nasty reality is that you have combined two separate problems into a larger, smellier, mildew-invested mess. And will the children bring this toxic bin down to the washing machine on a timely basis? Ha, the conglomeration of mold and fungus rots away despite repeated attempts to harangue the children into completing the task. But, the problem is solved from the perspective of the teenager…“I put the stuff in the hamper like you asked!” And since you, being the responsible one or just exasperated from lack of progress, will eventually bring the laundry basket to the washing machine yourself, resulting in the adverse side effect of the children becoming comfortable knowing that someone else will finish the task, translating to the belief that a job halfway done is considered completed.

I pegged this as the work of an educational consultant because while the solution may conceptually be sound, the functional reality is often weak or even counter-productive because not enough consideration is given to the local conditions. New ideas and initiatives can be snazzed up in any fashion (wicker or Scandinavian) to help sell the idea, but no manner of education jargon or buzzwords will alter the habits of the staff if the process lacks some manner of immediate positive action (or if no time is specifically allotted to reflect on the data and to design alternative practices). Here is the rub, any multi-step solution/initiative should have the reflection and action phases engaged immediately in sequence following the data collection or the natural tendency to procrastinate will elongate the process so that someone else has to step in to facilitate closure (by that time the consultant is long gone and so the burden falls on you).

So, does the concept of a Data Team fit the parameters of this scenario? Don’t get me wrong, conducting frequent formative benchmark assessments is a worthy educational endeavor; but what to do with the data? Does it languish in individual teachers’ gradebooks? Does it get brought together in a timely and meaningful fashion? If you are fortunate to have a functional process put in place, then maybe you sort through the information and have it hung it up in the form of a Data Wall. But the key question then becomes: how does the data impact improvements to your school's instructional strategies? If the data does not influence daily decisions on core practices, then it just like that shirt hanging in your closet that you never wear, it is merely an item that triggers an occasional random consideration, but the end result is that no action is taken.

In an article titled, Leveraging Intellect, the authors advise that proper data collection systems are the “glue” that holds a network of people together. They also state that a proper data system allows organizations to “vault over normal learning curve delays” (p. 91). Charles Ruebling, from The Center for School Redesign, reiterates the need to focus on the use of data; “Research increasingly affirms that the key to school improvement is for school leaders to focus on the academic program (namely the written curriculum), the use of assessment data, and professional development” (p. 1). His 2003 study, Instructional Leadership: An Essential Ingredient for Improving Student Learning, found that leaders tended to be passive participants. So even they did not bring the laundry basket to the washer!

The ultimate goal is to enhance practice in order to increase student growth. The need is to devise a data collection system and timely analysis process in order to enhance classroom practices the next time the teacher engages the material. Just as the ultimate goal of laundry collection is to bring a load to the washer and dryer so that the clothes may be worn again.

Make a good day,
Tod

PS. Quinn, J.B., Anderson, P. & Finkelstein, S. (2005). Leveraging Intellect. Academy of Management Executive, 19(4), 78-94.

PSS. Ruebling, C.E. (Spring 2003). Instructional leadership: An essential ingredient for improving student learning. The Educational Forum, 68(3), 243.

PSSS. Website at University of Saskatchewan listing a great collection of articles on instructional leadership: https://library.usask.ca/courses/EADM_820/200907/ANY/readings

PSSSS. A classic MayTag washer repairman TV commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7z6AKPGDZ4&feature=related

if you build it

I am on vacation so please accept this “postcard” posting.

At Millennium Park in downtown Chicago there is a sculpture nicknamed "The Bean". Its polished surface attracts hundreds of visitors at a time gawking at their ever-changing fun-house style reflections (including yours truly). Onehundred yards from this sculpture is a fountain consisting of two fifty-foot tall monolithic rectangular structures (think 2001 Space Odyssey) that display the smiling face of a child on the facade and if you wait for it…water gushes from the mouth, cascading over the eager waders. On the day of our visit it was thronged with gleeful children frolicking in the water. A third oversized sculpture is nearby that looks like a partially melted Tupperware container. We walked by it twice. Five people were at it the first time and seven the next time. Clearly the adage; “If you build it, they will come.” is not universally applicable.

So, what are you creating?

Make a good day,
Tod

PS. Photo credit: http://www.math.uic.edu/photos/Bean.jpg

PSS. For all you purists, the proper quotation is "If you build it, he will come", watch the trailer: http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie/149943/field-of-dreams