Shani's GSE School Leadership Blog

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Find the Bright Spot

by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Quote: “…if you’re trying to change things, there are going to be bright spots in your field of view, and if you learn to recognize them and understand them, you will solve one of the fundamental mysteries of change: What exactly, needs to be done differently?”

Comment: I can certainly see using this tactic in my line of work. When students come to me unhappy, my first question can be about when they were happy and I can try and work from there. I like what the author says about the archeology of your childhood being “TBU, as Sternin would say: true but useless.” I think this would work well when students come with complaints about the school, teachers, or other students. It shouldn’t be to difficult to find out what is going well in one class as opposed to another. This could be particularly useful when talking to students about passing classes and summer school, which is something I am working on now.

Question: Why is it that “bad is stronger than good” in our society? What can we do about it in our schools before a student gets to the principals office?

The Pros and Cons of Performance-Based Compensation

By Lewis Solmon and Michael Podgursky

I am really interested to hear everyone’s opinions on this subject because I can truthfully say, I don’t know… I believe in theory, that teacher’s should be paid in a more performance-based way, I am just not sure how that can be done. For every possible solution there seems to be even more problems. Are people just afraid of change or is the fear founded? Would performance-based pay affect teacher relationships and collaboration?

If we were to transition to performance-based pay, it would be crucial that we are looking at multiple aspects of our profession. I do however believe that Education should be a factor in pay scale or at least be a starting place for teachers as they enter the profession. I believe that “course grades, the degree of learning achieved, or the relevance of the course to the teacher’s class subject may be more accurate measures of performance…” is extremely important as well and not something that we necessarily take in to account. We should be looking at schooling and experience in addition to performance. It would be interesting to look at the High Tech High Teacher document and put together specific ways that we could compensate teachers according to the document. What if we took a year to actually use the document as if we were using it to compensate teachers? Would it be accurate in the sense that teachers who are going above and beyond are being compensated for what they are doing?

The Book of Learning and Forgetting

by Frank Smith

Thoughts on School Reform

1. What do you see as the need for change in schools? I see High Tech High as a great model for schools. I love project-based learning and seeing students take responsibility for their learning. There are a few things that I see missing…

   Design Principles:

   1. Personalization
   2. Adult World Connection
   3. Common Intellectual Mission
   4. *Peer Social Interaction/ Consistent School Culture Building
   5. *Focus on Outdoor Education
2. How does your view of the need for change influence your practice? (i.e. how does it impact your thoughts and actions?) Something I am focusing on a lot this year is school culture. I believe that a collective focus on school culture can greatly impact not only the social environment at the school, but also that academic environment. A few weeks ago, I started a study group whose main focus is School Culture. When I originally started the group I thought that we would be talking about discipline and student behavior, advisory activities and overall student culture. What came out of the study group was more dynamic than that. We decided as a group that the “school culture” starts with staff and we needed to look at our overall behavior before we could even begin to look at student behavior. At High Tech High, one of our design principles is personalization. As adults, we try to identify with our students. It is so important for the adults at our school to have relationships with a mutual respect. We know that “we learn from the individuals or groups with whom we identify” (10). If our students do not identify with us, they may not learn effortlessly rather learning will be a struggle.

Action Plan

Teachers as Models

For our next professional development day, our study group is creating workshops dealing with the following:

• Start with EQ for professional development day (slash concerns and subjects to address):

• • • -Effect that teacher culture has on student culture?
    • -Responsibilities of a HTH teacher and how do they shape student culture?
    • -How do we manage student behaviors individually and how do we manage student behaviors collectively?
    • -How to strive for rigor and how does that affect school culture and student behavior?
    • -How to better incorporate 9th graders into our school culture?
      • • All 9^th grade mandatory SIG next year
        • Student Success Seminar
        • Oakbridge Retreat
        • Advisory
        • Team Builders

Leading Through our Students

Our Ambassador Program is something that I see making a difference at our school as far as students feeling like their voices are being heard and students taking ownership for their school. The Ambassador Program is now almost fully student led. We have a website where all of our information is kept. We have leaders taking on specific roles and leading bi-weekly meetings.

Some other noteworthy quotes:

“When some people complain that students don’t learn very much in school and blame lack of ability or effort on the part of the students or their teachers, what kind of learning are they talking about? Why do they focus so much on what students fail to learn, rather than on what they are learning in it’s place, which may have much more significance in the students’ lives?”

“You learn from the company you keep. You don’t learn by consciously modeling yourself on the company you keep, or deliberately imitating other people.”

The Way We Were

The Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement

by Richard Rothstein

Part 1: Social Promotion

Although there was no given answer to the predicament, I enjoyed reading about social promotion as it is something that I struggle with in Education.  Unfortunately, I do not claim to have an ideal answer.  After all, we are looking at a less-than-ideal situation to begin with.

Let me start with what the controversy seems to be.  If we socially promote students, we are in danger of graduating students who are not achieving. The question here is; achieving what? Something that we have to consider of course is the standard that all students are expected to reach in order to promote to the next grade level.

Beyond that, we are in danger of  raising young adults who do not understand that to achieve, we have to work for it.

“A 1950 Life magazine essay on schools’ “grievous faults” complained that public schools

promote all children at the end of each academic year regardless of whether their work has been good, bad or indifferent…. The common excuse … is that to withhold promotion creates in the incompetent a dangerous sense of inferiority…. [But] what could be better calculated to promote an unhealthy psychosis that to prepare a child for a world of struggle by wrapping his mind in the wooly illusion that achievement and negligence should receive the same reward.” (100)

As an educator who knows and loves her students, it is a challenge to know that a student will be affected socially and still argue against socially promoting a student.  When looking at individual students I have to be conscious of who that student is and what did they try to get our of their education.  Did that student put in a strong effort, self advocate, and work hard and still not pass?  Or did that student mess around all year and put in very little effort?  Chances are, if the student tried they will pass.  If they tried and still did not pass, there is some serious information that the student missed and retention may be the best answer.

We are dealing with people and so there are exceptions to that norm.  What if the student has a learning disability and did not get the support they needed?  What if the student is bright and a hard worker and they suffered  from the loss of a family member?  What if a student looses their home in that year and had to take care of the family?… I think I know the answer to this and that is that the student still did not get the information they need to move to the next grade…

Last year, I believe that we retained 9 students.  2 left the school. 3 left this year due to disciplinary issues and the remaining 4 are doing well and are on track for promoting this year.  The remaining 4 are socially adjusted and doing better academically.  With my students in mind, I see socially promoting as being detrimental to the individual in most cases.  I see summer school playing an important role in student achievement, but it is not the answer for students who have not passed the majority of the year.

Part 2:  Neighborhood Schools vs The Nation

Education Week

The ‘Master’s Pay Bump’

Why Ending it Shouldn’t Frighten Ed. Schools

By Patricia Wasley and Marguerite Roza

“…the near universal practice of compensating teachers for earning a master’s degree should be phased out… research demonstrating that “on average, master’s degrees in education bear no relation to student achievement.’”

I agree with this in theory.   Of course we should be seeking out master’s degrees that help us achieve more successfully in the classroom. However, if we start compensating teachers based on “outcomes for students” who is to say what those outcomes are.  Are they based on testing?  Are they based on how much the administrators, students and parents like an individual teacher?  I would love it if we started basing teacher salaries on how much the students are learning in a class, but who determines that?  What one school sees as an ideal student outcome, may be different from what another school’s idea of effective teaching and student outcome is.

I agree with the article that “it is OK to question the current teacher-compensation structure– one that fuels the market for all master’s programs, including those that hold little or no promise for improving instruction.”  It is always a good idea to question current structures.  We could question why we have master’s degrees that do not hold promise for improving instruction?  We could start by looking in to ways to hold the master’s programs more accountable.

I think that if we are going to question teacher compensation, this is not root of the problem.  The root of the problem is the value that society puts on educators.  I also believe that many master’s programs do help to improve instruction and so teachers should be compensated for that.  Teachers are under-paid to begin with and if they choose to get a “cheaper” degree it is probably because they can not afford a more expensive degree.  And cheaper does not always mean less effective.  When I look back at my graduate program, I know that I got a lot out of it.  I got great feedback from my teachers, I worked hard and the knowledge that I took from that program has stayed with me. I am in debt though, so I am glad that I have been compensated for the time and money spent in the program and I feel that it is a fair compensation.

I believe that I am a good teacher, but as an art teacher, I am not sure how my student’s achievements would be measured fairly?

Data Wise

A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning

“For many schools, the decision about where to begin data analysis amid the mountains of data available in the school can seem overwhelming.” (84)

As stated in chapter 4, I believe that we should be looking at a single data source and finding one that is of interest to the faculty. For example, two major topics of concern come up at our school around data. The first one, is a parent concern about physics scores. The most recent one, is a concern about PSAT scores. I would like to focus on this one. Keeping in mind that the data that looks at our school in comparison to other schools will not be out until January. What is most important to me, is wether these students are learning. A concern is that these student will be applying to college soon and need to have solid SAT scores to get in to some schools. I am curious to see how we are doing on PSAT’s in comparison to other schools in the area. I wonder how much schools are looking at SATs now and will be following up with our college advisor on that question tomorrow. I am also interested in exploring what is being done in classes to help students get ready to take these test and what can we do to help?

An important thing to consider is that, “a student’s response on an assessment is just the end product of his or her thinking. In analyzing data to identify a student learning problem, it is critical to look not just at the end product of the work, but at the path a student took to get there.” This is the same concept we use when teaching projects. We break the project down, we have benchmarks, we look at process as well as product.” (86) Why should it be any different with testing? What data is available for teachers in order to analyze student needs? How do we start?

Management of the Absurd

Paradoxes in Leadership

by Richard Farson

Quote: I both parenthood and management, it’s not so much what we do as what we are that counts… People learn – and respond to – what we are. When you stop to think about it, perhaps that is the way it should be. When you stop to think about it, perhaps that is the way it should be. What a dreadful world it would be if we actually did possess the skill to convey other than what we really are.” (34)

Comment: This was major struggle for me when I first became Dean of Students. I had a hard time coming in to the position half way through the year when I felt like I had to be someone that I wasn’t. I also really struggled with the actions that I had to take in this position. Suspensions and expulsions were something that made me very uncomfortable. I came to terms with it this year when I realized that I could still be myself. I could still be caring and sensitive with the kids, and that the consequences were not who I was, they were only what I was doing.

Question: Sometimes it is difficult to not “feel” the action that you have to take. How do we make that separation?

Quote: “Praising people does not motivate them” (65).

Comment: Praising can be a form of motivation. Sometimes it helps people recognize something that they have done well, and it also shows that others recognize them for doing so. This however, is not the only reason to praise someone. Praise can be used authentically to share with someone that you have been thinking about them because of something they are doing well. I love recognizing and praising students for little things and they appreciate it.

Question: How do we ensure that we are recognizing our students authentically without “establishing that fact that you are in a position to sit in judgement”? (65)

• Things I have tried:

• Bully Prevention Team

• Ambassador Program

• Weekly check ins

• 1 minute praisings

• Behavior Contracts

Goals and things I am working on:

• Anti defamation league

• Bully Prevention Team

• Peer mentoring

• Mentoring Middle School Students

• LGBT

My goal as a school leader is to do everything I can to create a safe and tolerant learning environment for our school. I believe that the key to this is to be proactive in dealing with our students. This means being in the loop, knowing what the students are up to, staying connected to challenging students as well as our “rock star” students.

One way that I am proactive with challenging students is by constantly communicating with them before issues come up. I have student generated weekly checkins with all students repeating the grade, re-entering the HTH community, and students struggling with behavior or on contracts. I also do check in meetings with random students every week. This week I met with a student who works with me in the Ambassador Program, a student having relationship issues, and one that I had not seen much yet this year. I have been trying to meet with different students every week.

Another way I have been trying to stay proactive with our student is to make sure they feel valued and cared about here. In the GSE School Leadership class we read a book called The One Minute Manager, it talks about managing people and the benefit of people feeling appreciated in their work environment. I love the idea, but in my job, I am mainly working with students. I know that if our students are happy and proud of the school, I will have fewer negative behavior problems. With this in mind, I have been experimenting with conducting 1 minute praisings. I pull students and have a quick 1 minute conversation or recognition with student who I hear positive things about throughout the course of the week. This week, I spoke to three students who had done well in their student led conferences and one student who has been taking on leadership roles in ASB. Student know that I care about them and know what is going on in their lives and they tend to stop by my office more just to say hi or let me know how they are doing, if they I know I am also coming to find them Every once in awhile.

I also have conversations with students who tend to be behavior challenges. I want them to know that I enjoy talking to them when they are not in trouble, so I encourage them stopping by when they can. If they do happen to come to me for behavior issues, I like to put in place behavior contracts. I focus on using the student’s wording as well as consequences that they come up with.

Another way that I try and stay connected with our students is through our Ambassador Program. This has been a big project for me and one that I really enjoy. I feel that this is one way that I have made a difference at our school. It is a program that keeps me connected with our kids, it gives them ownership and pride, students are taking on leadership roles and they are helping build a strong student run culture. This year, we have about 75 students hand in applications to be student ambassadors and we have about 40 who made it through the application process. Like other student ambassadors these are students that identify themselves as school leaders. Some responsibilities are that they give tours to outside groups, help support our hiring bonanzas, and help support at school events.

Last year, I worked with some of the ambassadors to start creating a Bully Prevention Team. We worked to put together a survey and figure out what our needs were. The survey went out to the entire school. The kids did a wonderful job presenting the issue. We basically came away with an understanding that bullying is happening, but it is happening less here than it was in their middle schools. I plan to follow up with this by working with another teacher at our school to create a peer leadership program. This is still in the making and I am looking forward to meeting with other teachers about the best ways to do this. We are going to start this semester, by offering to have some of our ambassadors assist in our academic coaching program. We will also do some training around peer mentoring. I have also been talking with Susan Battistuz about having our ambassadors work with her middle school ambassadors.

In the future, I hope to work with the Anti defamation league of San Diego and our ambassadors to help them build confidence in dealing with issues of diversity and tolerance. I am also interested in starting a LGBT group at our school. I will start small, by putting up a safe space sticker in my office and offering the stickers to our teachers. My hope is that some students will feel safe enough to come to us and talk freely about what they are going through. I am also interested in bringing in some guest speakers.