“There is nothing so coherent as a paranoid's delusion or a swindler's story."
Clifford Geertz
He said, she said. Then there is always the “they” said. When differing opinions vie for supremacy and you have the authority/responsibility to make the decision, how do you decide? Which story sounds the best (and remember, they are all stories; a selection of facts and quasi-facts arranged to fit someone’s personal bias)? Which story is the most logical? Which option is the least political? I refer you back to the opening quotation as a reality check for when you have to decide to move forward on someone else’s opinion.
If the decision is yours to make, then you own the story. The paranoid’s delusion or the swindler’s story is now your personal delusion or your personal narrative. And you thought you were a rational, straight forward, logical person. Who is being delusional now?
The problem is that reform leadership and institutional change requires making choices. Even the paradigm of Distributed Leadership is a conscious choice to assume the responsibility for the opinions and actions of someone else. Maintaining the status quo is relatively easy: let tradition, precedent, and consensus rule the day. But transformational leadership requires changing the culture, changing the climate, and changing the instructional practices.
Change is conflict. Conflict requires making a choice.
The moral legitimacy of transformational leadership must arise from "conscious choice among real alternatives", therefore leadership operates in a context of conflict (Burns, 1978, p.36). The key phrase here is “real alternatives”. Real, versus a delusion or a swindler’s story. But how can you tell the difference? Here is the tip of the day: The delusional paranoid and the swindler will both offer their version of reality with complete conviction; if they are closed-minded and are unwilling to explore alternatives, then that should serve as a warning sign. I suggest that if someone has truly reflected on a course of action, then they have already examined alternatives and would actually enjoy debate or discussion on the issue to verify that the option they have discovered is the best choice. They should not mind help in defining what truth will serve as the cornerstone for maintaining the status quo or as the catalyst for change.
Research has shown that change involves emotion more than cognition. John Kotter and Dan Cohen (2002) conducted interviews in 130 organizations and concluded that "People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings" (p.1). So the “truth” must resonate with logic and emotions. According to Kotter and Cohen, the emotional component is the more important of the two. Therefore, one must be cautious of triggering quick emotional reactions when confronted with a choice. As the classic rock lyric goes: “What is it going to be boy, yes or no?” The first dilemma is to avoid making an emotional choice that you may later regret. The second consideration is recognizing that you own the emotional fallout of the decision.
“Motivation is not a thinking word, it is a feeling word" (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 13). Emotions have deep roots, and once engaged are difficult to alter. The fundamental act of leadership is to make people consciously aware of feelings to the point of action (Burns, 1978). The term “consciously aware” suggests that you can craft an approach to rationally engage an emotion that coincides with your goal. The objective of your actions is to elicit the targeted emotional response that best suits the decision. Since you are the decision-maker, you are the sheriff and judge rolled into one when it comes down to making the difficult choice between opinions.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is more than a classic western staring Clint Eastwood, it is an apt title for your selection of choices. The “real” alternative would be the good, the paranoid’s delusion is bad, and being swindled is downright ugly. For the bad or ugly options, each one of them is somebody’s truth; and if you choose either of them, then you now own that version of reality.
Make a good day
Tod
PS. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.
PSS. Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays (pp. 3-30). New York: Basic Books. Can be retrieved at: http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/~jadams/300d/readings/Geertz-ThickDescription.pdf
PSSS. 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.
PSSSS. Meatloaf (1977). Paradise by the dashboard light. Music video at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xodq9_meatloaf_-paradise-by-the-dashbaord_music
PSSSSS. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Watch trailer at: http://www.imbd.com/video/screenplay/vi2789278233/
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
one shovel
“When you only have one guy with a shovel, you can’t build a dike to hold back the sea.”
Orson Scott Card
Ever been to the beach and tried to build a sand castle when the tide was coming in? Futile effort. Particularly if it is a solo effort. Perhaps if the whole family was engaged in building a berm you might have a chance, but the victory will be short-lived. The incoming tide will eventually overwhelm your efforts or a rogue wave will obliterate your work. If you are the only one in your system with a vested interest in building an effective school data team, then your ability to tend to the data in a manner that will influence instruction will eventually be overwhelmed by other administrative responsibilities. Given the need to share tasks, the operational paradigm of Distributed Leadership is essential for the success of school data teams.
Distributive Leadership is more of a cultural construct then it is a set of protocols. Distributed Leadership is not about assigning a task to another person, it is a cultural phenomenon. And be aware, the distributive leadership required for data teams is a new paradigm for many districts, so therefore it will be considered as either an intrusion or as an innovation. It is an intrusion if there is no sense of ownership and it occupies time that teachers would otherwise spend on “getting their work done”. It is a welcome innovation if it is an efficient and effective process that guides instructional practices and decisions about students.
Decisions about students include using student performance data to determine which interventions are necessary and what form of differentiation is required. Changes to instructional practices include using student performance outcomes to help determine pacing, the targeting of specific standards, and in identifying the best instructional practices.
Richard Elmore’s (2000) article, Building a New Structure for School Leadership, states that there is a need to focus on instruction, but administrators who focus on instruction are rare. He states that leaders need to harness organizational coherence and that Distributed Leadership allows various competencies to emerge and coalesce. However, Elmore finds that while changes do occur, improvements are rare.
Andrew Hargreaves (2005) work studying educational reform during the last three decades with high school teachers in New York and Ontario concludes that sustainable educational leadership requires distributing leadership. However, he finds that Distributed Leadership will be hindered by the prevailing culture of teacher autonomy. Hargreaves (2001) asserts that occupations have their own “emotional geography” (p. 4) and that teachers are reluctant to acknowledge that other teachers may be more effective. Unfortunately this interferes with one of the goals of looking at disaggregated data; which is to identify best performance/best practices that exist within a school. The hope is that you can discover a strategy or practice that has success, meaning that one teacher will have more success on any given topic when compared to others. This is one reason why the practice of data teams must be considered in context to the school culture and climate.
Assuming that you can weave the Distributed Leadership into the culture of the school, what does it look like in practice? The literature on distributed leadership is unclear as to what form it takes and how it impacts school leadership (Harris, 2004). Harris states that we need proof for what constitutes effective practice or otherwise we are just contributing to multiple theories and constructs which may prove misleading. Fortunately, a 4-year long case study of the use of data teams in five urban school districts in Rhode Island helps in articulating effective practices (LaChat & Smith, 2005). Also, in a Q-and-A session titled, Making Data Teams Work, Douglass Reeves names school systems in Elkhart Indiana, Norfolk Virginia, and Fort Bend Texas as examples of districts with good practices.
The initial findings of the study by Lachat and Smith from five high-poverty, low-performing, urban high schools demonstrate that there are four main factors influencing the effectiveness of school data teams: 1) the quality and timeliness of the data, 2) the ability of the technology and data-warehousing system to provide disaggregated data, 3) utilizing a clear set of questions to collaboratively look at the data, and 4) the role of school climate, culture, and leadership has on the willingness of the teachers to engage in the process. The authors of the study state that the schools had varying degrees of success in implementing data teams. This initial study does not offer student performance data to support the work, but they do cite anecdotal examples of progress being made due to consideration of data.
So what is the function of your school-wide data team? Do they shepherd the work produced in the instructional data teams? Are they a clearing house, funneling results and data to the pertinent parties? Do they serve as cheerleaders for the process, acting as culture builders? Take a tip from Mark Parker, Nike’s designer and CEO, who commented after attending a session of Nike’s think tank for innovation, where new ideas for shoe designs are vetted: “Edit and amplify. I’m trying to amplify the innovation agenda further, and short-list the things that will make the biggest difference. That’s an art and a science” (McGirt, 2010, p. 69). So for schools, the science part may be the disaggregation, dissemination, and dissection of the data; and the artistry is the culture building.
Edit and amplify.
Have your school-level data team discuss the key data points for your school and have them share in the work of building the data-driven decision process. But, if you are reluctant to give up your shovel and feel that if you alone worked with enough focus and determination you could get the job accomplished, then let me remind you of the legend of John Henry. John Henry was a miner that single-handily tried to outperform a steam-driven drill. The good news is that he completes the task, the bad news is that he then collapses and expires. Don’t let data be the death of you, don't let the volume of data inundate you; distribute the load by creating the culture that will embrace the data analysis process in order to improve the teachers’ instructional practices.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Card, O. S. (1999). Ender’s Shadow. New York: Tom Doherty Associates Book. Quotation from page 364.
PSS. Elmore, R. F. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. Retrieved from the Albert Shanker Institute website http://www.ashankerinst.org/downloads/building.pdf
PSSS. Hargreaves, A, (2001). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1056-1080.
PSSSS. Hargreaves, A. (2005). Editorial statement. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 101-110.
PSSSSS. LaChat, M. & Smith, S. (2005). Practices that support data use in urban high schools. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 10(3), 333-349, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
PSSSSSS. McGirt, Ellen (2010, September). Artist. Athlete. CEO. Fast Company, 148. 66-114. Retrievable at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/artist-athlete-ceo.html
PSSSSSSS. Reeves Q & A: Making Data Teams Work, retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/data/
Orson Scott Card
Ever been to the beach and tried to build a sand castle when the tide was coming in? Futile effort. Particularly if it is a solo effort. Perhaps if the whole family was engaged in building a berm you might have a chance, but the victory will be short-lived. The incoming tide will eventually overwhelm your efforts or a rogue wave will obliterate your work. If you are the only one in your system with a vested interest in building an effective school data team, then your ability to tend to the data in a manner that will influence instruction will eventually be overwhelmed by other administrative responsibilities. Given the need to share tasks, the operational paradigm of Distributed Leadership is essential for the success of school data teams.
Distributive Leadership is more of a cultural construct then it is a set of protocols. Distributed Leadership is not about assigning a task to another person, it is a cultural phenomenon. And be aware, the distributive leadership required for data teams is a new paradigm for many districts, so therefore it will be considered as either an intrusion or as an innovation. It is an intrusion if there is no sense of ownership and it occupies time that teachers would otherwise spend on “getting their work done”. It is a welcome innovation if it is an efficient and effective process that guides instructional practices and decisions about students.
Decisions about students include using student performance data to determine which interventions are necessary and what form of differentiation is required. Changes to instructional practices include using student performance outcomes to help determine pacing, the targeting of specific standards, and in identifying the best instructional practices.
Richard Elmore’s (2000) article, Building a New Structure for School Leadership, states that there is a need to focus on instruction, but administrators who focus on instruction are rare. He states that leaders need to harness organizational coherence and that Distributed Leadership allows various competencies to emerge and coalesce. However, Elmore finds that while changes do occur, improvements are rare.
Andrew Hargreaves (2005) work studying educational reform during the last three decades with high school teachers in New York and Ontario concludes that sustainable educational leadership requires distributing leadership. However, he finds that Distributed Leadership will be hindered by the prevailing culture of teacher autonomy. Hargreaves (2001) asserts that occupations have their own “emotional geography” (p. 4) and that teachers are reluctant to acknowledge that other teachers may be more effective. Unfortunately this interferes with one of the goals of looking at disaggregated data; which is to identify best performance/best practices that exist within a school. The hope is that you can discover a strategy or practice that has success, meaning that one teacher will have more success on any given topic when compared to others. This is one reason why the practice of data teams must be considered in context to the school culture and climate.
Assuming that you can weave the Distributed Leadership into the culture of the school, what does it look like in practice? The literature on distributed leadership is unclear as to what form it takes and how it impacts school leadership (Harris, 2004). Harris states that we need proof for what constitutes effective practice or otherwise we are just contributing to multiple theories and constructs which may prove misleading. Fortunately, a 4-year long case study of the use of data teams in five urban school districts in Rhode Island helps in articulating effective practices (LaChat & Smith, 2005). Also, in a Q-and-A session titled, Making Data Teams Work, Douglass Reeves names school systems in Elkhart Indiana, Norfolk Virginia, and Fort Bend Texas as examples of districts with good practices.
The initial findings of the study by Lachat and Smith from five high-poverty, low-performing, urban high schools demonstrate that there are four main factors influencing the effectiveness of school data teams: 1) the quality and timeliness of the data, 2) the ability of the technology and data-warehousing system to provide disaggregated data, 3) utilizing a clear set of questions to collaboratively look at the data, and 4) the role of school climate, culture, and leadership has on the willingness of the teachers to engage in the process. The authors of the study state that the schools had varying degrees of success in implementing data teams. This initial study does not offer student performance data to support the work, but they do cite anecdotal examples of progress being made due to consideration of data.
So what is the function of your school-wide data team? Do they shepherd the work produced in the instructional data teams? Are they a clearing house, funneling results and data to the pertinent parties? Do they serve as cheerleaders for the process, acting as culture builders? Take a tip from Mark Parker, Nike’s designer and CEO, who commented after attending a session of Nike’s think tank for innovation, where new ideas for shoe designs are vetted: “Edit and amplify. I’m trying to amplify the innovation agenda further, and short-list the things that will make the biggest difference. That’s an art and a science” (McGirt, 2010, p. 69). So for schools, the science part may be the disaggregation, dissemination, and dissection of the data; and the artistry is the culture building.
Edit and amplify.
Have your school-level data team discuss the key data points for your school and have them share in the work of building the data-driven decision process. But, if you are reluctant to give up your shovel and feel that if you alone worked with enough focus and determination you could get the job accomplished, then let me remind you of the legend of John Henry. John Henry was a miner that single-handily tried to outperform a steam-driven drill. The good news is that he completes the task, the bad news is that he then collapses and expires. Don’t let data be the death of you, don't let the volume of data inundate you; distribute the load by creating the culture that will embrace the data analysis process in order to improve the teachers’ instructional practices.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Card, O. S. (1999). Ender’s Shadow. New York: Tom Doherty Associates Book. Quotation from page 364.
PSS. Elmore, R. F. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. Retrieved from the Albert Shanker Institute website http://www.ashankerinst.org/downloads/building.pdf
PSSS. Hargreaves, A, (2001). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1056-1080.
PSSSS. Hargreaves, A. (2005). Editorial statement. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 101-110.
PSSSSS. LaChat, M. & Smith, S. (2005). Practices that support data use in urban high schools. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 10(3), 333-349, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
PSSSSSS. McGirt, Ellen (2010, September). Artist. Athlete. CEO. Fast Company, 148. 66-114. Retrievable at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/artist-athlete-ceo.html
PSSSSSSS. Reeves Q & A: Making Data Teams Work, retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/data/
Sunday, November 28, 2010
sometimes it gets messy
I worked late today; I’m driving home; its past dinner time; my wife is at a church function; the kids are all out doing x, y, or z; so I can either go home and scrounge up something to eat, or stop in at my favorite local barbecue place. Easy decision. Flaggstead Smokehouse Texas-style BBQ, here I come! One of the things I like about BBQ is that it is a very casual, and yet intimate experience. The only way to eat ribs is to pick them up with your hands and gnaw right on the bones. One does not eat BBQ ribs with a knife and fork. You have to get sloppy, messy, and get right down to the bone.
Administrative leadership is a lot like that when you have staff members that are reluctant to perform their assigned responsibilities. Dealing with them can be messy as you navigate past the excuses and get right down to their bone of contention (they will always have a reason for not complying with the issue at hand). Each person will have his or her own unique reason. This is where it gets personal, you have to slow down and discover through dialogue (dialogue as in two people sharing ideas rather than just you asking questions and them providing answers) what the leverage point is to that would provide the opportunity for them to change their mind.
Navigate is the key action word here. One must steer the conversation around potential tangents, past pet peeves, and avoid emotional trigger points. You can only avoid them if you know they exist, which is evidence of how deep the relationship exists between you and that individual. If the relationship is shallow, then you are more likely to run aground on some issue that lies just beneath the surface veneer of professional politeness.
All this underscores the fact that effective leadership is contingent on establishing relationships. Relationships are essential for communication. Noted author and editor, Bernard Bass, states that “leadership and followership are reciprocal” (p. 590). The reciprocity allows for meaningful dialogue when disagreement occurs or when a staff member is reluctant to complete their duties or responsibilities. Without a reciprocal-based relationship, reluctance can elevate to defiance if the conversation is interpreted as confrontational.
Thomas Sergiovanni summarizes the virtues of leadership as hope, trust, piety, and civility. He states that wise leaders rely on others and therefore work to increase their capacity for action as well as fostering hope and faith. Thus, hope, faith and the expectations for action coalesce to form a “covenant of obligations” (p.116). Covenant is a strong word choice, one I believe that is chosen to recognize the power of relationships.
Relationships are the key to action. Bass addresses the bottom line; “The real test of leadership lies not in the personality or behavior of the leaders, but in the performance of the group they lead” (p. 598). In this era of accountability, everyone must perform at high levels. Everyone means that the leader needs to do more than invite everyone to the table, he or she must address those individuals that do not perform and resolve the issue.
There is risk involved in having this type of conversation. Tim Schneider, a consultant dealing with leadership issues, states that one must always weigh the risk of pursuing this level of conversation. In recognition of the difficulty of engaging in this type of discussion, he refers to them as courageous conversations. He offers some tips to structure the process; “…a courageous conversation must have a clearly defined objective. That objective must then meet the standard of being for the organizational good and not just for the benefit or comfort of the leader….the language is not passive and that action is required to complete the transaction.” It is reaching acceptance of the required action steps that is key to moving forward.
Having a direct conversation with an under-performing staff member will never be a clean, clear process since the uniqueness of each personality involved means that there is no single template for the dialogue (although the goal may be universal to all staff), therefore it will be a messy process. If a solid reciprocal relationship has been established, then following through on the covenant of obligations will be easier to accomplish, but the process will always remain a little messy.
You know even before you go into a BBQ joint that its going to be messy, but you recognize that it is an essential part of the experience; so use that same recognition to have a courageous conversation and don’t let the potential messiness stop you.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1981). Looking back. In R. M. Stodgill (Ed.), Stodgill’s handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and action (pp. 584-598) New York: Free Press.
PSS. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2005). The virtues of leadership. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 112-123.
PSSS. Tim Schneider’s article, Courageous Conversations retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/3485/Courageous-Conversations.html
PSSSS. Flagstead Smokehouse Texas BBQ
Administrative leadership is a lot like that when you have staff members that are reluctant to perform their assigned responsibilities. Dealing with them can be messy as you navigate past the excuses and get right down to their bone of contention (they will always have a reason for not complying with the issue at hand). Each person will have his or her own unique reason. This is where it gets personal, you have to slow down and discover through dialogue (dialogue as in two people sharing ideas rather than just you asking questions and them providing answers) what the leverage point is to that would provide the opportunity for them to change their mind.
Navigate is the key action word here. One must steer the conversation around potential tangents, past pet peeves, and avoid emotional trigger points. You can only avoid them if you know they exist, which is evidence of how deep the relationship exists between you and that individual. If the relationship is shallow, then you are more likely to run aground on some issue that lies just beneath the surface veneer of professional politeness.
All this underscores the fact that effective leadership is contingent on establishing relationships. Relationships are essential for communication. Noted author and editor, Bernard Bass, states that “leadership and followership are reciprocal” (p. 590). The reciprocity allows for meaningful dialogue when disagreement occurs or when a staff member is reluctant to complete their duties or responsibilities. Without a reciprocal-based relationship, reluctance can elevate to defiance if the conversation is interpreted as confrontational.
Thomas Sergiovanni summarizes the virtues of leadership as hope, trust, piety, and civility. He states that wise leaders rely on others and therefore work to increase their capacity for action as well as fostering hope and faith. Thus, hope, faith and the expectations for action coalesce to form a “covenant of obligations” (p.116). Covenant is a strong word choice, one I believe that is chosen to recognize the power of relationships.
Relationships are the key to action. Bass addresses the bottom line; “The real test of leadership lies not in the personality or behavior of the leaders, but in the performance of the group they lead” (p. 598). In this era of accountability, everyone must perform at high levels. Everyone means that the leader needs to do more than invite everyone to the table, he or she must address those individuals that do not perform and resolve the issue.
There is risk involved in having this type of conversation. Tim Schneider, a consultant dealing with leadership issues, states that one must always weigh the risk of pursuing this level of conversation. In recognition of the difficulty of engaging in this type of discussion, he refers to them as courageous conversations. He offers some tips to structure the process; “…a courageous conversation must have a clearly defined objective. That objective must then meet the standard of being for the organizational good and not just for the benefit or comfort of the leader….the language is not passive and that action is required to complete the transaction.” It is reaching acceptance of the required action steps that is key to moving forward.
Having a direct conversation with an under-performing staff member will never be a clean, clear process since the uniqueness of each personality involved means that there is no single template for the dialogue (although the goal may be universal to all staff), therefore it will be a messy process. If a solid reciprocal relationship has been established, then following through on the covenant of obligations will be easier to accomplish, but the process will always remain a little messy.
You know even before you go into a BBQ joint that its going to be messy, but you recognize that it is an essential part of the experience; so use that same recognition to have a courageous conversation and don’t let the potential messiness stop you.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1981). Looking back. In R. M. Stodgill (Ed.), Stodgill’s handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and action (pp. 584-598) New York: Free Press.
PSS. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2005). The virtues of leadership. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 112-123.
PSSS. Tim Schneider’s article, Courageous Conversations retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/3485/Courageous-Conversations.html
PSSSS. Flagstead Smokehouse Texas BBQ
Saturday, October 30, 2010
what is good?
Good, better, best. A chocolate chip cookie is good. A freshly baked, still warm from the oven chocolate chip cookie is better. And a (you’ll love this innovation) freshly baked chocolate chip cookie sandwich is the best. I’m talking about taking two chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven and putting a spoonful of the cookie dough between them! It doesn’t get any better than that.
When it comes to the concept of the quality teaching, what is good? First off, the concept of quality itself is difficult to articulate. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a classic college read that explores the concept of quality. Robert Pirsig wrote a second novel that explores the concept even deeper (Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, 1991). The fact that the main character in the first novel goes crazy trying to figure out the definition of good represents how hard it is to craft a sensible definition. Articulating a definition of quality teaching is an equally arduous task (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005). But our culture is predisposed to establish rigid definitions for concepts (Pritscher, 2001).
We want to know what we think we know, in writing, preferably concise enough to fit on a bumper sticker. David C. Berliner, a professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, has delved into the topic of defining quality teaching. He defines quality teaching as having two major components: good teaching and effective teaching (Berliner, 2005). Berliner considers good teaching to be the strategic use of accepted teaching practices and defines effective teaching as the resultant level of student achievement. What I appreciate about this approach is grounding the evaluation of teaching in student performance outcomes.
There is a however, a downside to this approach. Delineating standards for what constitutes achievement constricts the definition of quality…the standards themselves then assume the basis for the definition (Eisner, 2002). Subsequently, the quality of effective education is defined by the level of student achievement as referenced to a set of established standards. And as we all know, measuring student achievement data via standards-based exams is mandated by NCLB (Imig & Imig, 2006). NCLB dictates that every state must establish a set of standards to gauge student achievement and thus these standards-based examinations become the prime measure for defining the quality of effective education.
Cycling back to Berliner’s definition and examining its two components: good teaching is the use of best practices and effectiveness is measured by performance on established standards. But the only data that the public sees and that is reported for compliance with NCLB are the test scores, not reports of teaching practices. The federal push for the Common Core of State Standards will supplant the state standards, further cementing that student performance outcomes on the annual exams will now define the quality of education.
The pendulum has been in full swing for some time; that the standardized test scores are the metric for the quality of teaching. My fear is that space for novelty, the joy of discovery, and the romance of learning will get lost in the process. Will there still be time for those special moments as educators strive to incorporate hundreds of standards into their instruction?
Can you raise scores and not engage good educational practice? We all recognize that a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips is not good (my children would always put those back in the bin and search out the ones with the most chips). So if you follow a scripted lesson plan devoid of spontaneity and passion, you may be effective in raising scores but not be engaged in good teaching. Let me be frank about my bias, I prefer my cookies with the maximum number of chips, so I fall on the side of good teaching and effective teaching as being inseparable. We need to celebrate success in all areas, standardized tests, student engagement and teachers’ rapport with their students. After all, the best chocolate cookies are the warm ones.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Berliner, D. C. (2005). The near impossibility of testing for teacher quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 205-213.
PSS. Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
PSSS. Fenstermacher, G. D., & Richardson, V. (2005). On making determinations in quality in teaching. Teacher's College Record, 107(1), 186-212.
PSSSS. Imig, D. G., & Imig, S. F. (2006). The teacher effectiveness movement: How 80 years of essentialist control have shaped the teacher education profession. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(2), 167-180.
PSSSSS. Pirsig, R. M. (1991). Lila: An inquiry into morals. New York: Bantam. His website: http://robertpirsig.org
PSSSSSS. Pritscher, C. P. (2001). Quantum learning: Beyond duality. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
When it comes to the concept of the quality teaching, what is good? First off, the concept of quality itself is difficult to articulate. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a classic college read that explores the concept of quality. Robert Pirsig wrote a second novel that explores the concept even deeper (Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, 1991). The fact that the main character in the first novel goes crazy trying to figure out the definition of good represents how hard it is to craft a sensible definition. Articulating a definition of quality teaching is an equally arduous task (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005). But our culture is predisposed to establish rigid definitions for concepts (Pritscher, 2001).
We want to know what we think we know, in writing, preferably concise enough to fit on a bumper sticker. David C. Berliner, a professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, has delved into the topic of defining quality teaching. He defines quality teaching as having two major components: good teaching and effective teaching (Berliner, 2005). Berliner considers good teaching to be the strategic use of accepted teaching practices and defines effective teaching as the resultant level of student achievement. What I appreciate about this approach is grounding the evaluation of teaching in student performance outcomes.
There is a however, a downside to this approach. Delineating standards for what constitutes achievement constricts the definition of quality…the standards themselves then assume the basis for the definition (Eisner, 2002). Subsequently, the quality of effective education is defined by the level of student achievement as referenced to a set of established standards. And as we all know, measuring student achievement data via standards-based exams is mandated by NCLB (Imig & Imig, 2006). NCLB dictates that every state must establish a set of standards to gauge student achievement and thus these standards-based examinations become the prime measure for defining the quality of effective education.
Cycling back to Berliner’s definition and examining its two components: good teaching is the use of best practices and effectiveness is measured by performance on established standards. But the only data that the public sees and that is reported for compliance with NCLB are the test scores, not reports of teaching practices. The federal push for the Common Core of State Standards will supplant the state standards, further cementing that student performance outcomes on the annual exams will now define the quality of education.
People complain about teaching to the test, this is a case of the test is the teaching.
The pendulum has been in full swing for some time; that the standardized test scores are the metric for the quality of teaching. My fear is that space for novelty, the joy of discovery, and the romance of learning will get lost in the process. Will there still be time for those special moments as educators strive to incorporate hundreds of standards into their instruction?
Can you raise scores and not engage good educational practice? We all recognize that a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips is not good (my children would always put those back in the bin and search out the ones with the most chips). So if you follow a scripted lesson plan devoid of spontaneity and passion, you may be effective in raising scores but not be engaged in good teaching. Let me be frank about my bias, I prefer my cookies with the maximum number of chips, so I fall on the side of good teaching and effective teaching as being inseparable. We need to celebrate success in all areas, standardized tests, student engagement and teachers’ rapport with their students. After all, the best chocolate cookies are the warm ones.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Berliner, D. C. (2005). The near impossibility of testing for teacher quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 205-213.
PSS. Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
PSSS. Fenstermacher, G. D., & Richardson, V. (2005). On making determinations in quality in teaching. Teacher's College Record, 107(1), 186-212.
PSSSS. Imig, D. G., & Imig, S. F. (2006). The teacher effectiveness movement: How 80 years of essentialist control have shaped the teacher education profession. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(2), 167-180.
PSSSSS. Pirsig, R. M. (1991). Lila: An inquiry into morals. New York: Bantam. His website: http://robertpirsig.org
PSSSSSS. Pritscher, C. P. (2001). Quantum learning: Beyond duality. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
walk the walk, talk the talk
My neighbor's 10 year old son, Timmy, is the best fisherman in the entire world. He has caught over one million fish, some that were humongous in size, and he almost caught a shark once in a rather daring escapade that involved many heroic acts on his part. I have never seen the boy fish, but he sure knows how to talk the talk. Have I challenged him on the veracity of his stories...no. And as for "walking the walk", have I witnessed that...no. In your school, have you been able to observe teaching on a regular basis to validate the fidelity of your instructional program?
Sorry about that question, we all know that there is not enough time in the day to perform the multiple classroom observations needed to improve practice. And, conducting the conversations which are required to deeply examine the needed innovations in classroom practices can be difficult. But, what if there was an efficient process that could promote professional dialogue and pave the way for innovations?
Walk-throughs, if conducted efficiently, can serve as an important vehicle for school reform. The key aspect to validate a 5-minute walk-through as a legitimate tool for decision making is that the sample size must be large enough in order to make the data robust. So practically speaking, how can an observation form be structured that will generate the data that will serve as entry points for conversations about increasing the level of student performance/expectations?
You might be inclined to say, “I’ll just focus on one big idea because that will be quick and easy, allowing me the chance to visit more classrooms.” Blooms Taxonomy is a logical choice to be the focus (since it tends to be the signature mechanism in education for denoting a hierarchy of the various levels of thinking). However, while Bloom’s Taxonomy is a big target, it is also somewhat amorphous, and therefore it is problematic to articulate Blooms Taxonomy into a format other than a checklist of words that can be circled when observed. Furthermore, this approach would only serve to record the current level of practice. It is a focus on the darkness of the tunnel, rather than looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Focusing on current practice does not move a school forward, it is a stagnate conversation.
A major feature of the protocols cited in Instructional Rounds in Education is to focus on what the optimum level of practice looks like. This avoids the infatuation with dissecting the problem, and puts the energy into articulating what the next level of practice looks like. After all, the goal of reform is to change practice. Noted educational writer Edgar Schein states in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, that people need an alternative practice readily available as a substitute for failed structures.
So spend your time on what matters most…the solution.
The innovation from a reform perspective is to increase the occurrence of higher order thinking skills being exercised by the students. The key word here is exercise; as in what is the task the students are being asked to perform. In Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, he cites multiple research studies that demonstrate that the student activity with the largest impact is: identifying similarities and differences (with huge effect sizes with values up to 1.65! p.64.) In addition, comparing and contrasting is a universal process that can be observed in all disciplines and in a wide range of formats. It is an easy target to identify, leading to an efficient observation and data entry process. A simple set of check boxes under the heading Identifying Similarities and Differences, is it evident in [] a question on worksheet, []supported by a graphic organizer, [] a component of verbal questioning/class conversation.
While the opportunity to be in the classrooms is available, other school initiatives can be readily reinforced at the same time. To further support the rationale for including more than one focus area on the walk-through form, please consider this excerpt from an interview with Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired magazine) as he discusses the connections between technology, humanity, and the evolution of society:
“Inventions never happen in a vacuum. Every idea requires the support of four or five other ideas. There’s a necessary subset of other surrounding inventions that are required. As they appear, the new idea becomes more obvious. It’s an ecological growth.”
May I suggest two other items to put on the form because they are quick and easy, as well as a good support of other district/school initiatives: Is the homework posted and is there evidence of Cooperative Learning. Two aspects Cooperative Learning can be observed: 1) Is the physical environment arranged in a fashion that promotes peer-to-peer interaction (e.g., desks in pairs rather than separate rows); and 2) Are the students directed by the teacher to engage in academic conversations with their peers.
I know that you may have originally wanted just one focus, but having three that will support a improved level of performance and is an example of the ecological approach to viewing reform stated in the earlier quotation from Kevin Kelly. Big problems need a big approach. Another way to phrase it comes from Police Chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws when he finally sees the size of the problem up close, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intent of all the data collection is to spark a conversation about our profession and our practices. It is not about whether I saw this or I didn’t see that. Amy Irvine relates how framing a conversation as an either-or argument is counter productive: “Each side is glaring, garish even, in its shriek of righteousness …. we respond from a black-and-white paradigm, the potent dualities of us versus them resound with a faint, prehistoric echo. Instead of man against weather, or man against beast, it’s Republicans vs. Democrats, tree-huggers vs. wise-thinkers, Buddhists vs. Bible thumpers. The appeal of such binary thinking is that we are able to name not only who we are, but also what we are not. We draw the dividing line like a firebreak, and it holds back the advancing enemy while we retreat to safer ground” (p. 45).
Retreating from having difficult discussions is not a solution. “It comes down to this: by retreating from that which we oppose, we render lifeless all opportunities for intimacy, and for community. To smile and step away is as fatal to possibility as is brandishing a finger of blame” (p.47). By selecting a focus on the optimum condition, the conversation can center on the steps needed to achieve it. This positive perspective will allow for more productive conversations.
For a fine example of taming the logistics of the walk-through process, consider Matt Ryan, the principal of East Hartford High School, who supervises a staff of over 150 teachers in a school of 2000 students in a culturally diverse semi-urban district. He has mapped his school into quadrants, set a schedule to visit each section, and has designed a memo pad in which to jot down the data. By the third week of school this year he has already visited 154 classrooms! 154 visits while fulfilling the typical daily tasks of an administrator in an urban school district! A truly exemplary example of practical leadership. The strength of the all that data provides the credibility to engage in a serious dialogue about reforming practices. It all boils down to operationalizing one simple mantra…
Walk it, talk it.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Boston; Harvard Education Press. http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/99/InstructionalRoundsInEducation
PSS. Irvine, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Spectral Light: Beyond black and white thinking in the new, old west. Orion, 42-48. Audio of the article is available at orionmagazine.org, or as a podcast on iTunes.
PSSS. Lawler, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Tending the Garden of Technology. Orion, 36-41. Published by The Orion Society and the The Myrin Institute, Great Barrington, MA.
PSSSS. Marzano, R. J. (2007). Art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,
PSSSSS. Ryan, Matthew J., East Hartford High School, East Hartford, CT. http://www.easthartford.org/page.cfm?p=4
PSSSSSS. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
PSSSSSSS. Jaws video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl3eXAHTRM
Sorry about that question, we all know that there is not enough time in the day to perform the multiple classroom observations needed to improve practice. And, conducting the conversations which are required to deeply examine the needed innovations in classroom practices can be difficult. But, what if there was an efficient process that could promote professional dialogue and pave the way for innovations?
Walk-throughs, if conducted efficiently, can serve as an important vehicle for school reform. The key aspect to validate a 5-minute walk-through as a legitimate tool for decision making is that the sample size must be large enough in order to make the data robust. So practically speaking, how can an observation form be structured that will generate the data that will serve as entry points for conversations about increasing the level of student performance/expectations?
You might be inclined to say, “I’ll just focus on one big idea because that will be quick and easy, allowing me the chance to visit more classrooms.” Blooms Taxonomy is a logical choice to be the focus (since it tends to be the signature mechanism in education for denoting a hierarchy of the various levels of thinking). However, while Bloom’s Taxonomy is a big target, it is also somewhat amorphous, and therefore it is problematic to articulate Blooms Taxonomy into a format other than a checklist of words that can be circled when observed. Furthermore, this approach would only serve to record the current level of practice. It is a focus on the darkness of the tunnel, rather than looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Focusing on current practice does not move a school forward, it is a stagnate conversation.
A major feature of the protocols cited in Instructional Rounds in Education is to focus on what the optimum level of practice looks like. This avoids the infatuation with dissecting the problem, and puts the energy into articulating what the next level of practice looks like. After all, the goal of reform is to change practice. Noted educational writer Edgar Schein states in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, that people need an alternative practice readily available as a substitute for failed structures.
So spend your time on what matters most…the solution.
The innovation from a reform perspective is to increase the occurrence of higher order thinking skills being exercised by the students. The key word here is exercise; as in what is the task the students are being asked to perform. In Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, he cites multiple research studies that demonstrate that the student activity with the largest impact is: identifying similarities and differences (with huge effect sizes with values up to 1.65! p.64.) In addition, comparing and contrasting is a universal process that can be observed in all disciplines and in a wide range of formats. It is an easy target to identify, leading to an efficient observation and data entry process. A simple set of check boxes under the heading Identifying Similarities and Differences, is it evident in [] a question on worksheet, []supported by a graphic organizer, [] a component of verbal questioning/class conversation.
While the opportunity to be in the classrooms is available, other school initiatives can be readily reinforced at the same time. To further support the rationale for including more than one focus area on the walk-through form, please consider this excerpt from an interview with Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired magazine) as he discusses the connections between technology, humanity, and the evolution of society:
“Inventions never happen in a vacuum. Every idea requires the support of four or five other ideas. There’s a necessary subset of other surrounding inventions that are required. As they appear, the new idea becomes more obvious. It’s an ecological growth.”
May I suggest two other items to put on the form because they are quick and easy, as well as a good support of other district/school initiatives: Is the homework posted and is there evidence of Cooperative Learning. Two aspects Cooperative Learning can be observed: 1) Is the physical environment arranged in a fashion that promotes peer-to-peer interaction (e.g., desks in pairs rather than separate rows); and 2) Are the students directed by the teacher to engage in academic conversations with their peers.
I know that you may have originally wanted just one focus, but having three that will support a improved level of performance and is an example of the ecological approach to viewing reform stated in the earlier quotation from Kevin Kelly. Big problems need a big approach. Another way to phrase it comes from Police Chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws when he finally sees the size of the problem up close, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intent of all the data collection is to spark a conversation about our profession and our practices. It is not about whether I saw this or I didn’t see that. Amy Irvine relates how framing a conversation as an either-or argument is counter productive: “Each side is glaring, garish even, in its shriek of righteousness …. we respond from a black-and-white paradigm, the potent dualities of us versus them resound with a faint, prehistoric echo. Instead of man against weather, or man against beast, it’s Republicans vs. Democrats, tree-huggers vs. wise-thinkers, Buddhists vs. Bible thumpers. The appeal of such binary thinking is that we are able to name not only who we are, but also what we are not. We draw the dividing line like a firebreak, and it holds back the advancing enemy while we retreat to safer ground” (p. 45).
Retreating from having difficult discussions is not a solution. “It comes down to this: by retreating from that which we oppose, we render lifeless all opportunities for intimacy, and for community. To smile and step away is as fatal to possibility as is brandishing a finger of blame” (p.47). By selecting a focus on the optimum condition, the conversation can center on the steps needed to achieve it. This positive perspective will allow for more productive conversations.
For a fine example of taming the logistics of the walk-through process, consider Matt Ryan, the principal of East Hartford High School, who supervises a staff of over 150 teachers in a school of 2000 students in a culturally diverse semi-urban district. He has mapped his school into quadrants, set a schedule to visit each section, and has designed a memo pad in which to jot down the data. By the third week of school this year he has already visited 154 classrooms! 154 visits while fulfilling the typical daily tasks of an administrator in an urban school district! A truly exemplary example of practical leadership. The strength of the all that data provides the credibility to engage in a serious dialogue about reforming practices. It all boils down to operationalizing one simple mantra…
Walk it, talk it.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Boston; Harvard Education Press. http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/99/InstructionalRoundsInEducation
PSS. Irvine, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Spectral Light: Beyond black and white thinking in the new, old west. Orion, 42-48. Audio of the article is available at orionmagazine.org, or as a podcast on iTunes.
PSSS. Lawler, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Tending the Garden of Technology. Orion, 36-41. Published by The Orion Society and the The Myrin Institute, Great Barrington, MA.
PSSSS. Marzano, R. J. (2007). Art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,
PSSSSS. Ryan, Matthew J., East Hartford High School, East Hartford, CT. http://www.easthartford.org/page.cfm?p=4
PSSSSSS. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
PSSSSSSS. Jaws video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl3eXAHTRM
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
summer reading 2010
Pre-reading questions:
1. Considering the title of the poem Summer Noon by Tryfon Tolides, what adjectives might you expect to appear in the poem?
2. How would those adjectives compare to the descriptive words or phrases in a poem titled Autumn Noon?
Summer Noon
soft stories cradled
the past into afternoon naps,
sun above, scorching;
flies, buzzing;
heat, singing through the window;
warm, curled up, blanket, warm;
time ticks on the shelf;
half awake, muttering voices
lull through dreams,...
sleepy, sleepy,...warm sun...
If you had to write a poem titled September School Day at Noon, what adjectives would you use? What adjectives would you hope that your students would use? Your teachers? Parents? What are you doing to cultivate those positive sentiments on the first day of school?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Summer Noon is from Tryfon Tolides's self-published work, pictures and screams.
1. Considering the title of the poem Summer Noon by Tryfon Tolides, what adjectives might you expect to appear in the poem?
2. How would those adjectives compare to the descriptive words or phrases in a poem titled Autumn Noon?
Summer Noon
soft stories cradled
the past into afternoon naps,
sun above, scorching;
flies, buzzing;
heat, singing through the window;
warm, curled up, blanket, warm;
time ticks on the shelf;
half awake, muttering voices
lull through dreams,...
sleepy, sleepy,...warm sun...
If you had to write a poem titled September School Day at Noon, what adjectives would you use? What adjectives would you hope that your students would use? Your teachers? Parents? What are you doing to cultivate those positive sentiments on the first day of school?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Summer Noon is from Tryfon Tolides's self-published work, pictures and screams.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
cruising for trouble
I went on my first cruise this summer and although I was originally very skeptical about the whole excursion, I am having a wonderful time: All-you-can-eat-food buffets, plenty of activities, as well as the option to do absolutely nothing. Thousands of people enjoy the experience, but I was originally worried about being sea sick, and there are those stories of people falling overboard...
Now I wasn't so worried about falling overboard, it actually sounds kinda tabloidish (the I-gave-birth-to-Bigfoot's-baby type thing). I do understand the drunk jokester taking an uncoordinated splash, and the angry spouse with the well timed push, but a fall of an innocent cruise line guest sounds unlikely. However, when I look over the railing, with the sunlight glinting off the water, the boundless horizon, it is all fully mesmerizing...
The voice that whispers, just do it, combined with the surreal nature of being on the ship is very discombobulating. I have empathy for Odysseus and understand why he had to lash himself to the mast to resist the temptations of the Sirens. I believe that I now have a better appreciation for the student, who for no apparent reason, pulls some irrational bone-headed stunt. He or she can not resist the urge.
Not that I'm blaming Walt Disney for being the impetus for juvenile delinquency, but checkout these lyrics from The Little Mermaid song "Under the Sea" (since they promote the promise of the counter culture):
The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?
~
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles
Under the sea...
Please find a way to lash these students to your school, lest they make that mad leap and sink to the bottom.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Photo credit: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/41xx/416x/4163_Man_Made_Worlds_Largest_Cruise_Ship-4_05320299.JPG
PSS. Lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/underthesea.htm
Monday, June 28, 2010
fear of the known
In the classic black and white horror and science fiction movies of the 1950’s, there is always the scene of a terrified shrieking woman running away from the monster in the film, but she is so terrorized that she trips and falls, allowing her to be captured by the fiend. What is it in education that we fear the most? Is it the fear of failure that traumatizes us? Or is it the concept of change that is the most intimidating?
From an administrator’s perspective, the fear of failure is trumped by the fear that he or she will be unable to rectify the problem. From a teacher’s viewpoint, the fear of failure is the Siamese twin of the trepidation associated with change. The co-joined fears are that any proposed change in practice does not guarantee results. The persistent obstacle to reform is the fear that we will suffer through the hardship of change and not achieve success.
The antonym of failure is success. If you work in an underperforming school, the concept of success is sometimes mollified and progress is considered synonymous to success. But even progress portends a journey into the unknown. But since it is associated with success, the fear is ameliorated. Frank Herbert offers this perspective, “The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.”
The fear of change can be paralyzing. Roland Barth’s article on school leadership states that people’s inherent resistance to change makes reform initiatives futile. (Futile is a pretty strong word choice!) He states that some patterns of behavior and instruction are so entrenched in the culture of the schools that it is taboo to even discuss the possibility of changing them. Any attempt to engage the topic will have disastrous results. Barth offers a powerfully descriptive analogy, that these types of taboos are the “third rail of school leadership” p. 8. Sometimes the emotions associated with a traditional practice are so strong that even the softest attempt at a engaging in rational argument results in argument, not rational thinking. Ayn Rand describes this type of dilemma in her book, The Fountainhead (p.163) in this manner:
“There is always the incalculable human element of emotion. We can’t fight that with cold logic."
School leaders will often hesitate to challenge the traditional patterns of behavior; this is the fear of the known. So, what path is open for a leader to explore? Barth states that engaging in cultural change requires courage. Even the Cowardly Lion understood this component of leadership: “What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or dusky dusk?…courage!”
While I can not offer any strategies to enhance courage, I will share this calming mantra found in Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune: “Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Barth, R. S. (2002). The culture builder. Educational Leadership, 59(8), 6-11.
PSS. Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Company [Progress, p. 321, Fear, p. 8]
PSSS. Rand, A. (1943). The fountainhead. New York: Signet.
PSSSS. Cowardly Lion’s speech audio clip: http://americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechthewizardofozlioncourage.mp3
PSSSSS. The original Mummy movies trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8ruJ0kEB4&feature=related
From an administrator’s perspective, the fear of failure is trumped by the fear that he or she will be unable to rectify the problem. From a teacher’s viewpoint, the fear of failure is the Siamese twin of the trepidation associated with change. The co-joined fears are that any proposed change in practice does not guarantee results. The persistent obstacle to reform is the fear that we will suffer through the hardship of change and not achieve success.
The antonym of failure is success. If you work in an underperforming school, the concept of success is sometimes mollified and progress is considered synonymous to success. But even progress portends a journey into the unknown. But since it is associated with success, the fear is ameliorated. Frank Herbert offers this perspective, “The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.”
The fear of change can be paralyzing. Roland Barth’s article on school leadership states that people’s inherent resistance to change makes reform initiatives futile. (Futile is a pretty strong word choice!) He states that some patterns of behavior and instruction are so entrenched in the culture of the schools that it is taboo to even discuss the possibility of changing them. Any attempt to engage the topic will have disastrous results. Barth offers a powerfully descriptive analogy, that these types of taboos are the “third rail of school leadership” p. 8. Sometimes the emotions associated with a traditional practice are so strong that even the softest attempt at a engaging in rational argument results in argument, not rational thinking. Ayn Rand describes this type of dilemma in her book, The Fountainhead (p.163) in this manner:
“There is always the incalculable human element of emotion. We can’t fight that with cold logic."
School leaders will often hesitate to challenge the traditional patterns of behavior; this is the fear of the known. So, what path is open for a leader to explore? Barth states that engaging in cultural change requires courage. Even the Cowardly Lion understood this component of leadership: “What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or dusky dusk?…courage!”
While I can not offer any strategies to enhance courage, I will share this calming mantra found in Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune: “Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Barth, R. S. (2002). The culture builder. Educational Leadership, 59(8), 6-11.
PSS. Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Company [Progress, p. 321, Fear, p. 8]
PSSS. Rand, A. (1943). The fountainhead. New York: Signet.
PSSSS. Cowardly Lion’s speech audio clip: http://americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechthewizardofozlioncourage.mp3
PSSSSS. The original Mummy movies trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8ruJ0kEB4&feature=related
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
optimism
"Some problems are best solved with an optimistic approach. Optimism shines a light on alternatives that are otherwise not visible."
Herbert, B. & Anderson, K. J. (2007). Sandworms of dune. New York: Tom Doherty Associates LCC (p.468)
Herbert, B. & Anderson, K. J. (2007). Sandworms of dune. New York: Tom Doherty Associates LCC (p.468)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
15-second rule
We are all familiar with the 5-second rule: You accidentally drop a cookie on the floor, but if you pick it up within 5 seconds then you have successfully rescued it before it could absorb a lethal dose of pathogens.
The 15-second rule is a little different.
And since this is the time of the year for interviews, it is an appropriate point for exploration. You may have heard the advice that first impressions are very important. My dad, who spent much of his career as a recruiter at colleges for one of the Big Eight accounting firms shares his perspective; he said that he knew within the first 30 seconds of an interview if he wanted to hire the person, and then spent the next 30 minutes trying verify it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, cites research by Frank Bernieri that suggests that it is the first 15 seconds of a job interview that dictates the outcome. The study rated candidates on nine criteria based on a 30 minute interview. A second set of evaluators were only shown a 15-second video clip of the candidates and their rankings were compared to the rankings from that of the full interview and … the rankings matched up! 15 seconds equals 30 minutes. One conjecture offered to explain this phenomenon is that this is an instinctual response that has enabled humans to successfully ascertain friend from foe when we existed in a less civilized state.
K. J. Maher’s 1995 study, The Role of Cognitive Load in Supervisor Attributions of Subordinate Behavior, finds that leaders will classify employees based on initial stereotyping. The leader’s initial classification gains permanence due to the limited interaction between the supervisor and the staff. Another reason the stereotyping remains stable is that the leaders tend to suffer from high cognitive load (which is a fancy way of saying that they are too busy to reconsider the first impression).
Attribution Theory involves the manner in which people seek to divine a reason for the success or failures of others (Martinko, 1995). The four rationales typically used to make this determination are based on a presumption of a persons’ ability, an assumption of the level of effort required to gain success, the complexity of the task, and luck. These beliefs then influence subsequent behaviors, which then perpetuate the initial belief. So contrary to Popeye’s adage, “ I am what I am”; you are what I think you are.
So, how can the interview process be structured to lesson the effects of the 15-second rule? The first thing to do is to confront the issue head on and inform the members of the committee. Personally, I distribute pages 380-387 from Gladwell’s book and make it a point of conversation. But since it is so instinctual, wariness must be reinforced with some frequency. Being cognizant of the impact of first impressions is important to maintaining validity of your committees’ interview protocols. In Denis Phillips’ work on subjectivity and objectivity, he advocates that researchers must show that they have examined their bias and predictions about the outcome of their study.
Examine your predictions.
One of the perks of being an adult is the ability to go ahead and eat a cookie that has fallen to the floor without being scolded (Unless you count your mother’s voice in your head that says, no, you shouldn’t be doing this). If we want to, we can ignore the 5-second rule. We may also wish to ignore the 15-second rule. In fact, if it is indeed an instinctual response honed over the ages to meet the demands of a potentially savage world, then perhaps we should embrace the 15-second rule.
In the context of embracing the 15-second rule, an interview might just consist of sharing a pitcher of milk and cookies and using the vibe of a social setting to ascertain the compatibility of the candidate. If that sounds too casual, then there is another way to structure an interview that provides time for socializing and at the same time avoids some of the flaws inherent to committee work (for details see my January, 2010 blog, Committee Work?); try a round robin one-on-one interview. Each committee member is housed in a separate room with their own set of questions and they rotate in a new candidate every 15 minutes. It may only take 10 minutes to complete the questions, allowing 5 minutes of social inquiry that can help repudiate or reinforce the first impression. Before the committee reconvenes, each member independently ranks the candidates and then the opinions are aggregated before a discussion of relative merits occurs. A bonus to this process is the rotation allows you to complete four separate hour-long interviews in one hour!
The 15 second Rule; embrace it or try to eviscerate it, but the minimum is to acknowledge that it has potential to permanently influence decisions about the people you will hire to teach our children for the next 35 years. 15 seconds = 35 years, that stat alone should be enough to scare you into changing your ways. How does the 5-second rule for food fallen to the filthy pet-hair-covered-stinky-bare-foot-walked-on-germ-infested kitchen floor influence your decision making? Go ahead, eat that cookie...
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Gladwell, M. (2009). What the dog saw: And other adventures. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSS. Maher, K. J. (1995). The role of cognitive load in supervisor Attributions of subordinate behavior. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press.
PSSS. Martinko, M. J. (1995). The nature and function of attribution theory within organizational sciences. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press. Google books: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_J1rdq_lKH8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA193&dq=%22k+j+maher%22+role+of+cognitive+load&ots=DWQEs3cy3x&sig=AoiN3VRTRRv7QgxmErM7ZHuaJHk#v=onepage&q&f=false
PSSSS. Phillips, D.C. (1990). Subjectivity and objectivity: An objective inquiry. In Eisner and Pushkin (Eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The continuing debate.
PSSSSS. Popeye: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/12/09/popeye
The 15-second rule is a little different.
And since this is the time of the year for interviews, it is an appropriate point for exploration. You may have heard the advice that first impressions are very important. My dad, who spent much of his career as a recruiter at colleges for one of the Big Eight accounting firms shares his perspective; he said that he knew within the first 30 seconds of an interview if he wanted to hire the person, and then spent the next 30 minutes trying verify it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, cites research by Frank Bernieri that suggests that it is the first 15 seconds of a job interview that dictates the outcome. The study rated candidates on nine criteria based on a 30 minute interview. A second set of evaluators were only shown a 15-second video clip of the candidates and their rankings were compared to the rankings from that of the full interview and … the rankings matched up! 15 seconds equals 30 minutes. One conjecture offered to explain this phenomenon is that this is an instinctual response that has enabled humans to successfully ascertain friend from foe when we existed in a less civilized state.
K. J. Maher’s 1995 study, The Role of Cognitive Load in Supervisor Attributions of Subordinate Behavior, finds that leaders will classify employees based on initial stereotyping. The leader’s initial classification gains permanence due to the limited interaction between the supervisor and the staff. Another reason the stereotyping remains stable is that the leaders tend to suffer from high cognitive load (which is a fancy way of saying that they are too busy to reconsider the first impression).
Attribution Theory involves the manner in which people seek to divine a reason for the success or failures of others (Martinko, 1995). The four rationales typically used to make this determination are based on a presumption of a persons’ ability, an assumption of the level of effort required to gain success, the complexity of the task, and luck. These beliefs then influence subsequent behaviors, which then perpetuate the initial belief. So contrary to Popeye’s adage, “ I am what I am”; you are what I think you are.
So, how can the interview process be structured to lesson the effects of the 15-second rule? The first thing to do is to confront the issue head on and inform the members of the committee. Personally, I distribute pages 380-387 from Gladwell’s book and make it a point of conversation. But since it is so instinctual, wariness must be reinforced with some frequency. Being cognizant of the impact of first impressions is important to maintaining validity of your committees’ interview protocols. In Denis Phillips’ work on subjectivity and objectivity, he advocates that researchers must show that they have examined their bias and predictions about the outcome of their study.
Examine your predictions.
One of the perks of being an adult is the ability to go ahead and eat a cookie that has fallen to the floor without being scolded (Unless you count your mother’s voice in your head that says, no, you shouldn’t be doing this). If we want to, we can ignore the 5-second rule. We may also wish to ignore the 15-second rule. In fact, if it is indeed an instinctual response honed over the ages to meet the demands of a potentially savage world, then perhaps we should embrace the 15-second rule.
In the context of embracing the 15-second rule, an interview might just consist of sharing a pitcher of milk and cookies and using the vibe of a social setting to ascertain the compatibility of the candidate. If that sounds too casual, then there is another way to structure an interview that provides time for socializing and at the same time avoids some of the flaws inherent to committee work (for details see my January, 2010 blog, Committee Work?); try a round robin one-on-one interview. Each committee member is housed in a separate room with their own set of questions and they rotate in a new candidate every 15 minutes. It may only take 10 minutes to complete the questions, allowing 5 minutes of social inquiry that can help repudiate or reinforce the first impression. Before the committee reconvenes, each member independently ranks the candidates and then the opinions are aggregated before a discussion of relative merits occurs. A bonus to this process is the rotation allows you to complete four separate hour-long interviews in one hour!
The 15 second Rule; embrace it or try to eviscerate it, but the minimum is to acknowledge that it has potential to permanently influence decisions about the people you will hire to teach our children for the next 35 years. 15 seconds = 35 years, that stat alone should be enough to scare you into changing your ways. How does the 5-second rule for food fallen to the filthy pet-hair-covered-stinky-bare-foot-walked-on-germ-infested kitchen floor influence your decision making? Go ahead, eat that cookie...
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Gladwell, M. (2009). What the dog saw: And other adventures. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSS. Maher, K. J. (1995). The role of cognitive load in supervisor Attributions of subordinate behavior. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press.
PSSS. Martinko, M. J. (1995). The nature and function of attribution theory within organizational sciences. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press. Google books: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_J1rdq_lKH8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA193&dq=%22k+j+maher%22+role+of+cognitive+load&ots=DWQEs3cy3x&sig=AoiN3VRTRRv7QgxmErM7ZHuaJHk#v=onepage&q&f=false
PSSSS. Phillips, D.C. (1990). Subjectivity and objectivity: An objective inquiry. In Eisner and Pushkin (Eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The continuing debate.
PSSSSS. Popeye: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/12/09/popeye
Sunday, February 28, 2010
olympic glory
Success!
My favorite Olympic moment…watching a former student, Erin Pac, win the bronze medal in the woman’s bobsled.
It was not easy. Erin was suffering from a hamstring injury, her relationship with her brakeman over the last couple of years vacillated between cohesive to periods of non-communication and separation, and Erin readily acknowledged the fear factor of careening 90 miles per hour down the track at Whistler.
The 50-50 turn. The 50-50 turn at the Whistler bobsled track got its nickname because it seemed that half of the riders crashed at that junction. What serves as the 50-50 metaphor in your school system?
During the interview after winning the bronze medal, the brakeman Elana Meyers was asked what she was thinking before the final run; “We just tried to stay relaxed and have a little fun.” Combine that outlook with years of dedicated hard work and truly wonderful things can happen.
Dedication, faith and perseverance, the willingness to endure pain and face your fear, AND maintaining the perspective of having fun. A great winning combination for all of us to consider and celebrate.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Erin Pac’s website:
http://pacusabobsled.com/
PSS. Video of last 2 runs and post-race interview:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=22c4baa2-d326-475e-8729-7ceae6b4f475.html#day+u+s+women+grab+bobsled+bronze
PSSS. Nice news story and interview:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=448453.html
PSSSS. Photo credit: http://media.masslive.com/republican/photo/-909559927122a80f_large.jpg
Sunday, January 31, 2010
committee work?
Last Tuesday, I am on the highway driving home from work during rush hour and yabadabadoo three cars go barreling past me. The speed limit is 55 mph, the traffic is flowing at 65 mph, and these three cretins must have been going at least 85, zooming in and out of traffic lanes like it was a video game slalom race. The only thing worse than yahoos like that is the slowpoke driver in the center lane, plodding along, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are being passed on the left and the right. According to an article on traffic flow, the major cause for traffic jams is due to people passing other cars. Passing cars cause slowdowns because people will invariably press on their brakes when someone passes them in tight quarters, causing a cascade of brake lights throughout the pack of cars which results in slower traffic flow.
Some drivers are fast, some slow, some suffer road rage, some are asleep at the wheel, while others are only casually involved because they are busy talking on their cell phone…while the ideal situation is everyone moving at the same pace with a vigilant, high-level of attention. Fat chance.
Have you ever worked on a committee that suffered from a traffic jam driven by conflicting personalities or opposing agendas? Or worse yet, spent copious amounts of time on a committee that yielded a product that resembled an accident more than the outcome from a logically considered strategic analysis? Committees are supposed to collect the insight from a range of stakeholders and arrive at a solution that surpasses the ability of an individual working alone.
Unfortunately, collaboration has no philosophical heritage in Western Civilization (Miles & Miles, 1999).
Given that statement, the implementation of the Professional Learning Community paradigm needs very careful consideration (but that is a tangent to be explored at a later date). Committees characterized by collaboration and consensus is in conflict with our philosophical heritage. Malcolm Gladwell, refers to research by a psychologist working for IBM’s Human Resources department, Geert Hofstede, that supports this conclusion. One of the “Hofstede Dimensions” is individualism vs. collectivism and data shows that Americans score the highest on the character trait of individualism when compared to other countries.
A positive spin on that is that if your committee has an individual with expertise, then that should produce quality decisions. Unfortunately, Libby, Trotman and Zimmer (1987) find that the inability of the groups to recognize expertise in group members results in the failure to capitalize on the expert knowledge. Often the extrovert controls the conversation and not the expert. If the collaboration occurs at the direction of whomever happens to initially gain control of the conversation, then it takes a socially courageous individual to buck the trend. Think Henry Fonda in the Twelve Angry Men.
There are many flaws that can interfere with the success of group work. Bernard Bass’s study on leadership finds that successful collaboration may be hindered by social loafing and groupthink. James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds, investigates the problems inherent in group work. He defines groupthink as a consensus reached without the benefit of an articulated debate of ideas and options. Surowiecki states that conformity can result from social momentum or it may occur because alternative ideas are not available; “imitation is a kind of rationale response to our own cognitive limits” (p. 54). Throw in "confirmation bias", which is when we unconsciously only seek the information that conforms to our underlying intuitions, and we have the scenario for a pretty limited decision.
An “information cascade” is another problem inherent to group work. We have all experienced the situation where a grand idea is introduced and other members of the committee respond in unison with information in support of the idea. There is a primitive delight in this manner of escalation, similar to adding more wood to a campfire until there is a huge blazing bonfire. Surowiecki states that during an information cascade people will ignore their individual insight in order to join the herd, contributing to a sequence of uninformed choices. What happened to the beautiful blending of expert opinions?
All that sounds pretty gloomy, but there is hope; after all Surowiecki’s book is titled the Wisdom of the Crowds. He refers to research on small group dynamics (p. 176) that shows success is achieved when there is a clear agenda, all members give input, and attention is given to the nuances of each members‘ personal insight. Surowiecki states that the best strategy to maximize the insight of each group member is to have each person offer judgments independently and simultaneously (as in write down your top three candidates for the new position), and then aggregate the responses. A discussion or debate then can begin with each member having their own opinion to work from. This helps avoid an information cascade along one line of reasoning.
A divergent opinion can only be value-added if it is expressed. A great example of this phenomenon is provide by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. Commercial aircraft are designed so that it takes more than one pilot to run the plane. The strategy being that the second pilot can inform the captain of any malfunctions or errors. However, this only works if there is open communication. The data of airplane crashes around the world shows that most airplane crashes occur when the captain is flying and the second pilot does not convey clearly the pending trouble or is intimidated and fails to explicating inform the captain of the pending disaster.
“In small groups, diversity of opinion is the single best guarantee that the group will reap the benefits from face-to-face discussion” (Surowiecki, p. 183).
Face-to-face discussion is the forum that supports the formation of a committee in the first place. If you don’t need face-to-face real-time discussion (where people can readily sense the emotional impact of their ideas/opinions), then just solicit ideas via an email or some form of web-based document editing process. Diversity of opinion is good. “One of the real dangers that small groups face is emphasizing consensus over dissent” (p. 180). Consensus without consideration of conflicting opinions can result in a sheltered forum which produces a decision that can not withstand the harsh realities of implementation in a diverse workplace. It is much better to have an idea fail to withstand scrutiny in a committee than fail in its implementation. Surowiecki does caution about “group polarization” where dissent radicalizes points of view rather than moderating them (Again, think of the movie, Twelve Angry Men and the last holdout in the debate).
Committee work may suffer from road rage, backseat drivers, or incompetent navigation. But Surowiecki offers hope that with a clear agenda/roadmap and an intentional inspection of independent viewpoints, then small group decision-making can be a successful journey. Have a nice trip.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
PSS. Gladwell, M. ((2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSSS. Libby, R. Trotman, K. & Zimmer, I. (1987). Member variation, recognition of expertise, and group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 81-87.
PSSSS. Miles, R. & Miles, G. (1999). Leadership and collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
PSSSSS. Surowiecki, J (2004) The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economics, societies, and nations. New York: Doubleday.
PSSSSSS. Clip of Fred Flintstone’s commute:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8
PSSSSSSS: Twelve Angry Men trailer:http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=95851
Some drivers are fast, some slow, some suffer road rage, some are asleep at the wheel, while others are only casually involved because they are busy talking on their cell phone…while the ideal situation is everyone moving at the same pace with a vigilant, high-level of attention. Fat chance.
Have you ever worked on a committee that suffered from a traffic jam driven by conflicting personalities or opposing agendas? Or worse yet, spent copious amounts of time on a committee that yielded a product that resembled an accident more than the outcome from a logically considered strategic analysis? Committees are supposed to collect the insight from a range of stakeholders and arrive at a solution that surpasses the ability of an individual working alone.
Unfortunately, collaboration has no philosophical heritage in Western Civilization (Miles & Miles, 1999).
Given that statement, the implementation of the Professional Learning Community paradigm needs very careful consideration (but that is a tangent to be explored at a later date). Committees characterized by collaboration and consensus is in conflict with our philosophical heritage. Malcolm Gladwell, refers to research by a psychologist working for IBM’s Human Resources department, Geert Hofstede, that supports this conclusion. One of the “Hofstede Dimensions” is individualism vs. collectivism and data shows that Americans score the highest on the character trait of individualism when compared to other countries.
A positive spin on that is that if your committee has an individual with expertise, then that should produce quality decisions. Unfortunately, Libby, Trotman and Zimmer (1987) find that the inability of the groups to recognize expertise in group members results in the failure to capitalize on the expert knowledge. Often the extrovert controls the conversation and not the expert. If the collaboration occurs at the direction of whomever happens to initially gain control of the conversation, then it takes a socially courageous individual to buck the trend. Think Henry Fonda in the Twelve Angry Men.
There are many flaws that can interfere with the success of group work. Bernard Bass’s study on leadership finds that successful collaboration may be hindered by social loafing and groupthink. James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds, investigates the problems inherent in group work. He defines groupthink as a consensus reached without the benefit of an articulated debate of ideas and options. Surowiecki states that conformity can result from social momentum or it may occur because alternative ideas are not available; “imitation is a kind of rationale response to our own cognitive limits” (p. 54). Throw in "confirmation bias", which is when we unconsciously only seek the information that conforms to our underlying intuitions, and we have the scenario for a pretty limited decision.
An “information cascade” is another problem inherent to group work. We have all experienced the situation where a grand idea is introduced and other members of the committee respond in unison with information in support of the idea. There is a primitive delight in this manner of escalation, similar to adding more wood to a campfire until there is a huge blazing bonfire. Surowiecki states that during an information cascade people will ignore their individual insight in order to join the herd, contributing to a sequence of uninformed choices. What happened to the beautiful blending of expert opinions?
All that sounds pretty gloomy, but there is hope; after all Surowiecki’s book is titled the Wisdom of the Crowds. He refers to research on small group dynamics (p. 176) that shows success is achieved when there is a clear agenda, all members give input, and attention is given to the nuances of each members‘ personal insight. Surowiecki states that the best strategy to maximize the insight of each group member is to have each person offer judgments independently and simultaneously (as in write down your top three candidates for the new position), and then aggregate the responses. A discussion or debate then can begin with each member having their own opinion to work from. This helps avoid an information cascade along one line of reasoning.
A divergent opinion can only be value-added if it is expressed. A great example of this phenomenon is provide by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. Commercial aircraft are designed so that it takes more than one pilot to run the plane. The strategy being that the second pilot can inform the captain of any malfunctions or errors. However, this only works if there is open communication. The data of airplane crashes around the world shows that most airplane crashes occur when the captain is flying and the second pilot does not convey clearly the pending trouble or is intimidated and fails to explicating inform the captain of the pending disaster.
“In small groups, diversity of opinion is the single best guarantee that the group will reap the benefits from face-to-face discussion” (Surowiecki, p. 183).
Face-to-face discussion is the forum that supports the formation of a committee in the first place. If you don’t need face-to-face real-time discussion (where people can readily sense the emotional impact of their ideas/opinions), then just solicit ideas via an email or some form of web-based document editing process. Diversity of opinion is good. “One of the real dangers that small groups face is emphasizing consensus over dissent” (p. 180). Consensus without consideration of conflicting opinions can result in a sheltered forum which produces a decision that can not withstand the harsh realities of implementation in a diverse workplace. It is much better to have an idea fail to withstand scrutiny in a committee than fail in its implementation. Surowiecki does caution about “group polarization” where dissent radicalizes points of view rather than moderating them (Again, think of the movie, Twelve Angry Men and the last holdout in the debate).
Committee work may suffer from road rage, backseat drivers, or incompetent navigation. But Surowiecki offers hope that with a clear agenda/roadmap and an intentional inspection of independent viewpoints, then small group decision-making can be a successful journey. Have a nice trip.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
PSS. Gladwell, M. ((2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSSS. Libby, R. Trotman, K. & Zimmer, I. (1987). Member variation, recognition of expertise, and group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 81-87.
PSSSS. Miles, R. & Miles, G. (1999). Leadership and collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
PSSSSS. Surowiecki, J (2004) The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economics, societies, and nations. New York: Doubleday.
PSSSSSS. Clip of Fred Flintstone’s commute:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8
PSSSSSSS: Twelve Angry Men trailer:http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=95851
Thursday, December 31, 2009
data as music
“Information without understanding is not information. It is merely noise.”
William Sanders
Data. What to do with data? What data should we collect? What is the purpose of a particular set of data? What are the means and what is the end? Will the analysis be targeted to meet a need and increase instructional and/or organizational efficiencies that result in improved student performance outcomes?
Many districts have adopted the mantra that their decisions are data-driven, but will this be another initiative that flounders due to a lack of protocols or suffer from an unarticulated purpose? With all the reform initiatives flooding schools, will people consider data as a sign that a particular problem needs attention?
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
You may recognize the chorus from the song Signs, by The Five Man Electrical Band. The analogy being that too much data, without a common purpose, becomes an intrusion rather than an sign of what needs attention. If a person can not interpret the signs, then the natural tendency may be to ignore the data.
Ignoring data and having teachers and administrators pursue their own personal initiatives without consideration of their context within the rest of the school community is the type of isolation sought by a hermit. The Greek word “idiot” means hermit (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Allow me to connect the dots: A person working in isolation without consideration of how data provides a context for his or her work is acting as a hermit, therefore this person is an… (My parents raised me to be polite so I will not connect the final dot).
The refusal to examine data is one form of ignorance. Robert Root-Berstein’s work on problem-solving and innovation explores the concept of ignorance. Nepistemology is the study of how ignorance is manifested. He cites the work of Witt (1988) that offers a typology of six types of ignorance; 1) known unknowns, 2) unknown unknowns, 3) misknowns, 4) unknown knowns, 5) taboos, and 6) refusal to look at answers. These six forms of ignorance need to be considered when crafting a data plan and when conclusions are drawn from data sets.
Perhaps a specific example will prove useful. William Sanders created an algorithm (the Tennessee Value-added Assessment System) to track the growth of individual students based on variables such as the student’s teacher and learning environment. His research suggests that when students change buildings, there is a loss in academic gains of 15-30 percent. Based on this data, how might a district evaluate a plan to re-structure the grade configuration of its schools to reduce the number of transitions? Based on Witt’s six levels of ignorance: 1) People knew there were other options but did not have relevant information about them, 2) People were unaware of any tangible benefits to reconfiguration, 3) People thought the current structure was the best format, 4) People may have sensed that building transitions were difficult, but may have attributed the problem to other causes, 5) & 6) Or is it a taboo in the community to even consider the redistricting which may occur if the configuration of the elementary, intermediate, or middle schools is changed? Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
The public clamor to improve student achievement on standardized tests has escalated the attention to data. The question becomes, will data contribute to the noise, or will data become accepted as a sign that changes need to take place?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Sanders, W. (1998). Value-added assessment. The School Administrator, 55 (11) p. 24-27. Retrieved from https://www.boarddocs.com/mo/sdclay/Board.nsf/a8f91a9c9696786e8725731b0060d1e7/cb4491fc57ec27df852570d1007c9f7e/$FILE/ValueAddedAssmnt.pdf
PSS. Root-Berstein, R. (2003). Problem generation and innovation. In L.V. Shavinina (ed.), The International Handbook on Innovation (pp. 170-179). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science LTD.
PSSS. Official website of the Five Man Electrical band; a soundclip via Google; and the full song with a photo montage on YouTube;
PSSS. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books.
William Sanders
Data. What to do with data? What data should we collect? What is the purpose of a particular set of data? What are the means and what is the end? Will the analysis be targeted to meet a need and increase instructional and/or organizational efficiencies that result in improved student performance outcomes?
Many districts have adopted the mantra that their decisions are data-driven, but will this be another initiative that flounders due to a lack of protocols or suffer from an unarticulated purpose? With all the reform initiatives flooding schools, will people consider data as a sign that a particular problem needs attention?
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
You may recognize the chorus from the song Signs, by The Five Man Electrical Band. The analogy being that too much data, without a common purpose, becomes an intrusion rather than an sign of what needs attention. If a person can not interpret the signs, then the natural tendency may be to ignore the data.
Ignoring data and having teachers and administrators pursue their own personal initiatives without consideration of their context within the rest of the school community is the type of isolation sought by a hermit. The Greek word “idiot” means hermit (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Allow me to connect the dots: A person working in isolation without consideration of how data provides a context for his or her work is acting as a hermit, therefore this person is an… (My parents raised me to be polite so I will not connect the final dot).
The refusal to examine data is one form of ignorance. Robert Root-Berstein’s work on problem-solving and innovation explores the concept of ignorance. Nepistemology is the study of how ignorance is manifested. He cites the work of Witt (1988) that offers a typology of six types of ignorance; 1) known unknowns, 2) unknown unknowns, 3) misknowns, 4) unknown knowns, 5) taboos, and 6) refusal to look at answers. These six forms of ignorance need to be considered when crafting a data plan and when conclusions are drawn from data sets.
Perhaps a specific example will prove useful. William Sanders created an algorithm (the Tennessee Value-added Assessment System) to track the growth of individual students based on variables such as the student’s teacher and learning environment. His research suggests that when students change buildings, there is a loss in academic gains of 15-30 percent. Based on this data, how might a district evaluate a plan to re-structure the grade configuration of its schools to reduce the number of transitions? Based on Witt’s six levels of ignorance: 1) People knew there were other options but did not have relevant information about them, 2) People were unaware of any tangible benefits to reconfiguration, 3) People thought the current structure was the best format, 4) People may have sensed that building transitions were difficult, but may have attributed the problem to other causes, 5) & 6) Or is it a taboo in the community to even consider the redistricting which may occur if the configuration of the elementary, intermediate, or middle schools is changed? Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
The public clamor to improve student achievement on standardized tests has escalated the attention to data. The question becomes, will data contribute to the noise, or will data become accepted as a sign that changes need to take place?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Sanders, W. (1998). Value-added assessment. The School Administrator, 55 (11) p. 24-27. Retrieved from https://www.boarddocs.com/mo/sdclay/Board.nsf/a8f91a9c9696786e8725731b0060d1e7/cb4491fc57ec27df852570d1007c9f7e/$FILE/ValueAddedAssmnt.pdf
PSS. Root-Berstein, R. (2003). Problem generation and innovation. In L.V. Shavinina (ed.), The International Handbook on Innovation (pp. 170-179). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science LTD.
PSSS. Official website of the Five Man Electrical band; a soundclip via Google; and the full song with a photo montage on YouTube;
PSSS. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books.
Monday, November 30, 2009
black friday vs cyber monday
I do not like to shop. As a kid I remember being dragged to various stores to shop for new clothes that were starchy, itchy, and never as comfortable as the ones I was presently wearing. I had no interest, zero, none. The only way my two brothers and I could manage any joy on these ventures was to stand next to the mannequins and mimic their statuesque poses. Actually, I may have been the only one to do that, much to the deep embarrassment of my brothers (bonus points for that in my book) and to the consternation of my mother (sorry mom). With a dislike for shopping ingrained since my youth, then why was I going to venture out last week on Black Friday at 5:30 in the morning to join the mad crush at the stores and retail outlets? Simple answer…technology. I wanted a new 21 inch monitor and a sporty little Netbook. It is the 21st century and it is all about what gadget you got (I apologize for the grammar, it is just that I have an affection for alliterations).
In his book, The New Basics: Education and the Future of Work in the Telematic Age,
The Connecticut State Board of Education (2004) has a position paper promoting technology and they have created extensive sets of technology standards for students, teachers, and administrative leaders. However, and this is a big however, as in HOWEVER, there is limited connection between the standards and the expectation of school leaders to focus on them. The School Leadership Categories for the Connecticut Administrator Test lists 88 standards, but there is only one vague reference to technology (Category 2, curriculum standard #5). One out of 88! To make matters worse (although how much worse can you get compared to one out of 88?!) The Educational Leadership Self Inventory, which is based on the Connecticut State Board of Education Standards for School Leaders, lists 69 statements describing qualities of leadership; yet not one (not one as in zero) of the standard mentions technology. Clearly there is a need to operationalize the technology standards.
The youth of America certainly have operationalized technology.
So, how valid is technology to education? An exhaustive review of the research funded by the
So it seems like the students are the experts, most teachers are lackadaisical in enthusiasm or have low rates of competency, and administrative leadership standards are phantom objectives. Not a real positive outlook. The good news is that expertise in technology can be acquired independent of the formal education system. Students can procure the expertise on their own. There are always a few teachers with local expertise. In addition, I have worked in two separate school systems and both have had very able and personable technology staff, eager to share the wonders of technology. Therefore, tap into the talents of these outliers and you can find a rich resource base to help build a technology-rich program and culture.
And for me, next year I will skip
Make a good day
Tod
PS. Evel Knievel’s jump at Caesar’s Palace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTGGCVE2IKY
PSS. References
Fouts, J. T. (2000). Research on computers and education: Past, present and future. Retrieved (n.d.) from www.esd189.org/tlp/images/TotalReport3.pdf
Pearson, P. D., Ferdig, R. E., Blomeyer, R. L., & Moran, J. (2005). The effects of technology on reading performance in the middle grades: A meta-analysis with recommendations for policy. Retrieved
Thornburg, D. (2002). The new basics: Education and the future of work in the telematic age.
Waxman, H., Lin, M., Michko, G. (2003). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes. Retrieved
PSSS.
PSSSS.
Friday, October 2, 2009
King Kong?
Have you ever felt like this? Isolated and under attack? Outnumbered, yet making a brave stand. What events lead to this type of predicament?
Lets take a look at the sequence of events that got King Kong in trouble.
A quick recap; King Kong was living serenely on Skull Island, doing what gargantuan gorillas are expected to do: every year he comes down to the village, receives his accustomed remuneration, all which allows everyone to peacefully coexist. But not this time…when he follows the routine and retrieves his token, he is harassed, pursued relentlessly, and then bombarded into submission. After being held hostage by events he can not understand, in addition to being publicly humiliated, he desperately resorts to what he knows has worked in the past (taking possession of what is rightfully his and retreating to the highest point available to him), but alas it is to no avail as he continues to be assaulted by his adversaries.
In the end he is a tragic figure, suffering defeat while proudly protecting his responsibility. Tears well up in my one good eye as the final scene concludes with the fall of the 8th Wonder of the World. But upon further reflection, Kong should have known that something was amiss very early on. I’m pretty sure the girl was the first blond-haired human sacrifice he was ever offered. And he could have better appreciated the protestations of the posse, acknowledged that they had a legitimate claim on her and set her free. But as Steve Martin used to say, “but noooo…” he relies on past practices that are inadequate to handle the present crisis.
The crux of the problem is the failure to understand the change in the make-up of the stakeholders. His lack of appreciation resulted in a power play that he lost. Sebring and Bryk’s study of leadership in Chicago schools concludes that one of the key issues for effective school leadership is promoting ties with stakeholders. Failure to acknowledge a shift in the composition of the stakeholders combined with reliance on past practices that are unfamiliar to the new stakeholders will lead to the leader's downfall.
Routines only work when all parties are cognizant of what they are and what their role is in them.
So, did the recent November elections result in any changes in the stakeholders in your school district? Any new school board members? Have the demographics of your local community been shifting? Do any of your routine responses need to be re-evaluated? Routines and the reluctance to recognize the impact of new stakeholders can lead to failure. If it it can happen to King Kong, it can happen to you.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Sebring, P. B. & Bryk, A. S. (2000, Feb.). School leadership and the bottom line in Chicago. Phi Delta Kappan, 440-443.
PSS. Kong Kong graphic: http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/2006/v3i1/images/king_kong.jpg
PSSS. The trailer for the original 1933 classic: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2418737162064831292#
PSSS. Steve Martin: couldn't find a clip of his comedy routine that included the "but nooo" line, instead I found this piece showcasing his sweet banjo skills http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l31MSpojWTA
Friday, September 4, 2009
act globally, think locally
I know, you think that I have that backwards. Be patient.
Think globally, act locally…that is the idealist view. The organization creates a lofty vision statement and an equally esoteric mission statement, providing evidence of some highfalutin thinking. Committees are created that include every imaginable stakeholder, perhaps a consultant is hired to facilitate the process, the resulting documents are trumpeted on the website and letterhead, and plaques are placed throughout building attesting to the energy that went into creating it (sometimes, coincidentally of course, this all happens immediately prior to an accreditation visit). With all the energy directed to the global thinking, the hope is that the actual daily interactions support the ideals.
The question is: Do the daily actions within an organization support the grandiose ideals? The classic example; a school’s Statement of Beliefs includes the phrase “high expectations for ALL students”. But what if the reality is different, if the casual off-the-record conversations of teachers do not echo that sentiment? What if the local actions do not mirror the global beliefs? The discontinuity exposes global thinking as impotent, there is no action.
If teachers reason that the cause of students’ low grades is the result of “lack of homework completion” or “lack of parental involvement”, and the teachers offer that statement in a manner that suggests that those issues fall outside the bounds of their control, then minimal energy will be directed to solving the problem of low grades. The “high expectations” have been downsized by the rationalization of extraneous factors. If enough teachers voice this sentiment, then it becomes part of the norm…a culture of low expectations that is created to deal with the high frustration.
Successful schools establish a system of global-level actions, designing systemic responses to recurrent problems. The intervention needs to be premeditated and automatically engaged. The action needs to be implemented at the organizational (read that as global) level. For example, a student’s performance on a state level exam automatically places them in a class. Bingo, done deal. Why wait for someone to notice poor performance, bring it to the student support team, complete the paperwork, conduct some testing, convene another meeting, and then maybe two months later put a program in place? If you know that every year a certain segment of your student population will need additional academic or behavioral interventions, then the school needs to have a systemic response that is immediately implemented.
You don’t reinvent the wheel for every time you have a flat tire, you just put on the spare that you have readily available.
The lack of established protocols to respond to students with low performance outcomes may indicate that the majority of the teachers have divorced themselves from accepting responsibility. The systemic response will indicate baseline attitudes/thinking. Global thinking is an indicator of local actions. If a strong systemic set of protocols is lacking, then the prerequisite for action is contingent on a one person taking the initiative to instigate the process.
Local actions are contingent on the actions of an individual.
Local actions are contingent on the actions of an individual. This is the problem: local actions rely on the efforts of individuals. Depending on the culture and climate of the building, local actions may require a Herculean level of energy and perseverance by that individual to choreograph a response (if there is no global action that serves as an efficient conduit). If the grass roots culture is pessimistic, then it becomes another hurdle that impedes the individual from acting on behalf of the student.
Steve Johnson’s book, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, provides multiple examples of what rules of operation emerge from within organizations. My favorite excerpt from the book concerns the foraging of ants. You may have noticed that ants often appear to be following an invisible trail. This is because ants emit chemicals that ala Hansel and Gretel outline their trail. Other ants can then trace the chemicals to the food source. The successful outcome is all premised on a simple thought, more chemicals equals more food. This simple rule compels even more ants to follow the trail, further enhancing the path to success. What emerges from this local rule, ant senses chemical so ant follows chemical trail to food, is a system that supports the success of the colony.
The take-away from all this is that the amount of organizational energy put into creating a mission or vision needs to replicated in creating a set of protocols that establish automatic global actions triggered by student performance data. As Steve Johnson states, global-level behavior of a dynamic self-organized system is predicted by the type of low level rules. Go back, re-read that sentence again. Or allow me to translate: Global-level actions are determined by local-level thinking (rules)…so act global, think local.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Johnson, S. (2001). Emergence: The connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software. New York: Touchstone. His Amazon Books website: http://www.amazon.com/Steven-R.-Johnson/e/B000APC0M6/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Think globally, act locally…that is the idealist view. The organization creates a lofty vision statement and an equally esoteric mission statement, providing evidence of some highfalutin thinking. Committees are created that include every imaginable stakeholder, perhaps a consultant is hired to facilitate the process, the resulting documents are trumpeted on the website and letterhead, and plaques are placed throughout building attesting to the energy that went into creating it (sometimes, coincidentally of course, this all happens immediately prior to an accreditation visit). With all the energy directed to the global thinking, the hope is that the actual daily interactions support the ideals.
The question is: Do the daily actions within an organization support the grandiose ideals? The classic example; a school’s Statement of Beliefs includes the phrase “high expectations for ALL students”. But what if the reality is different, if the casual off-the-record conversations of teachers do not echo that sentiment? What if the local actions do not mirror the global beliefs? The discontinuity exposes global thinking as impotent, there is no action.
If teachers reason that the cause of students’ low grades is the result of “lack of homework completion” or “lack of parental involvement”, and the teachers offer that statement in a manner that suggests that those issues fall outside the bounds of their control, then minimal energy will be directed to solving the problem of low grades. The “high expectations” have been downsized by the rationalization of extraneous factors. If enough teachers voice this sentiment, then it becomes part of the norm…a culture of low expectations that is created to deal with the high frustration.
Successful schools establish a system of global-level actions, designing systemic responses to recurrent problems. The intervention needs to be premeditated and automatically engaged. The action needs to be implemented at the organizational (read that as global) level. For example, a student’s performance on a state level exam automatically places them in a class. Bingo, done deal. Why wait for someone to notice poor performance, bring it to the student support team, complete the paperwork, conduct some testing, convene another meeting, and then maybe two months later put a program in place? If you know that every year a certain segment of your student population will need additional academic or behavioral interventions, then the school needs to have a systemic response that is immediately implemented.
You don’t reinvent the wheel for every time you have a flat tire, you just put on the spare that you have readily available.
The lack of established protocols to respond to students with low performance outcomes may indicate that the majority of the teachers have divorced themselves from accepting responsibility. The systemic response will indicate baseline attitudes/thinking. Global thinking is an indicator of local actions. If a strong systemic set of protocols is lacking, then the prerequisite for action is contingent on a one person taking the initiative to instigate the process.
Local actions are contingent on the actions of an individual.
Local actions are contingent on the actions of an individual. This is the problem: local actions rely on the efforts of individuals. Depending on the culture and climate of the building, local actions may require a Herculean level of energy and perseverance by that individual to choreograph a response (if there is no global action that serves as an efficient conduit). If the grass roots culture is pessimistic, then it becomes another hurdle that impedes the individual from acting on behalf of the student.
Steve Johnson’s book, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, provides multiple examples of what rules of operation emerge from within organizations. My favorite excerpt from the book concerns the foraging of ants. You may have noticed that ants often appear to be following an invisible trail. This is because ants emit chemicals that ala Hansel and Gretel outline their trail. Other ants can then trace the chemicals to the food source. The successful outcome is all premised on a simple thought, more chemicals equals more food. This simple rule compels even more ants to follow the trail, further enhancing the path to success. What emerges from this local rule, ant senses chemical so ant follows chemical trail to food, is a system that supports the success of the colony.
The take-away from all this is that the amount of organizational energy put into creating a mission or vision needs to replicated in creating a set of protocols that establish automatic global actions triggered by student performance data. As Steve Johnson states, global-level behavior of a dynamic self-organized system is predicted by the type of low level rules. Go back, re-read that sentence again. Or allow me to translate: Global-level actions are determined by local-level thinking (rules)…so act global, think local.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Johnson, S. (2001). Emergence: The connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software. New York: Touchstone. His Amazon Books website: http://www.amazon.com/Steven-R.-Johnson/e/B000APC0M6/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Friday, August 28, 2009
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."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.
Frank Herbert
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.
Friday, August 21, 2009
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
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
Friday, August 7, 2009
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
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