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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew LynchOctober 9, 2015

Empowering Leadership Behavior in Schools: Lessons Learned from the Business Sector

Empowering leadership behavior includes encouraging of self-reward systems, self-leadership, opportunity awareness, participation in goal setting, and independent behavior by followers and group members. In other words, it’s all about helping followers take ownership of their positions, toward the greater good of the organization. And, as studies have shown, the effects are often positive and far-reaching

Empowering leaders, through positive emotional support and encouragement, increases motivation and confidence among subordinates as they set out to accomplish their individual and organizational goals. Therefore, empowering leadership can be quite useful, particularly as a behavioral tactic for entrepreneurs, who must gain commitment from those they work with in order to compete against bigger, more established, and resource-rich enterprises.

Additionally, empowering leadership behavior in entrepreneurs is crucial in dynamic environments. Entrepreneurs attempting to lead their ventures toward higher growth while operating in ever-changing conditions can benefit from adopting an empowering leadership style. It is an effective way to distribute leadership throughout the management team. This enhances the shaping of emerging strategy, which harnesses the individual talents of each team member that are most relevant to the current situation.

However, there are some negative effects that come with empowering leadership, which are often left out of leadership literature. One of the disadvantages of empowering diverse teams is that it can be counterproductive. Empowering leadership can cause incompatibility among certain innovative enterprises.

In addition, empowered management teams tend to seek out too much information before making decisions. They may also attempt to follow too many opportunities, without refining a single business concept to establish a solid basis in the market. These challenges more often occur in experienced firms with diverse top management teams.

Diverse teams can be quite effective at considering multiple alternatives and making sense of challenging situations, but they are much slower to reach agreement on decisions. Different perspectives within top management teams can produce conflict, slowing the decision-making process.

We can conclude that empowering management teams can provide greater opportunity for conflicts to emerge. Conflicts among team members are likely to be particularly damaging to ventures operating in dynamic environments, where decision-making must be speedy in order to take advantage of the brief windows of opportunity . Entrepreneurs should be cautious about when and where to empower their management teams.

In fast-changing environments, empowerment reduces the new enterprise’s performance, causing the relationship between the management team’s diversity and the new venture’s performance to become increasingly negative. In more stable industry environments, this kind of empowerment leadership behavior is more likely to have a positive effect on the performance of new ventures with non-uniform top management teams . This is because the information available is clearer and there is more time available for planning.

Stable environments allow the empowered top management teams to spend more time considering what alternative strategies are available, and exploring the potential for various innovative activities, since total agreement is not urgent. As a result, there is generally less conflict within empowered diverse teams operating in stable environments.

School leaders seeking effectiveness should learn from entrepreneurs, and particularly those from start-ups in fast-moving industries, which tend to be highly creative. They should strive to create environments in which positive ideas are encouraged, and in which there is ample opportunity for those ideas to be put in place.

Matthew Lynch published in Education LeadershipOctober 8, 2015

How to Motivate Your K-12 Students to Pursue College Early

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest column by Anica Oaks

Both parents and teachers know just how difficult it can be to motivate children to do anything that they don’t want to do, and this includes aggressively pursuing their education. The average child would rather spend time with their friends instead of tackling additional schoolwork, but a little extra work while they are younger could positively impact their lives forever. Parents that would like their child to enter into college early will need to find effective methods for creating a motivated and driven student.

Give Them Tangible Benefits

It is difficult for younger child to grasp exactly why higher education is so important, and even teenagers might not understand how entering into college early will benefit them. Parents need to get creative and find ways to show their child exactly what their hard work will do. This might include speaking with a specialist in an interesting field or visiting local college campuses.

Start When They Are Younger

Parents that start this process early will find that there is much less stress on their family. Children that grow up assuming they will be entering into college at a younger age will not be shocked by a larger workload as they continue to thrive.

Find the Right Environment

The average public school does not have the resources to push advanced and gifted children very far. This is why it is important to seek out a school that actually inspires children with classes and programs that they might not have access to otherwise. College prep schools like the International School of MNare unique in the fact that they train children to start thinking like university students.

Encourage Diverse Activities

STEM schools and careers are more important than ever, but children must have a diverse background if they would like to enter into college early. At a very young age, children should be encouraged to explore any subject that they find interesting. From musical instruments to poetry, these subjects will create a well-rounded student.

Find the Right Friends

Parents will never have full control over who their child is friends with, but it is important that peer pressure is not holding your child back. Peer pressure does have the benefit of motivating students to an extent, but it rarely inspires greatness. Finding like-minded families will promote excellence in and out of the classroom.

Every parent wants what is best for their child, and this is why it is so important to promote autonomous students who want to be successful for the right reasons.

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Anica is a professional content and copywriter who graduated from the University of San Francisco. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. She was raised in a big family, so she’s used to putting things to a vote. Also, cartwheels are her specialty. You can connect with Anica here.Anica writes on behalf of the International School of MN, with education opportunities for students from early childhood through high school.

Matthew Lynch published in HBCU'sOctober 8, 2015

Will a degree from an HBCU cover student loan debt?

According to a new report, the starting salary for a new college graduate from an HBCU may not be enough to cover student loan debt.

By way of an article on Chron.com, the class of 2015 is projected to have about $35,000 in student loan debt upon graduation. That’s $7,000 more than what the class of 2013 will owe.

Of course in order to pay back the loan, students have to have jobs that will afford them that opportunity.

So to look at how debt and income will factor into the financial success that students may have post graduation, Edsmart.org found that some students who attend HBCU’s may struggle economically. It is a recipe for disaster when students can’t afford college when they start, OR afford to pay it back when they graduate.

The report shows that the average starting salary for new graduates out of Bethune-Cookman University comes in at just $38,700. That’s just $3,000 more than the average debt that students may carry, but the in-state tuition and fees for BCU is a reasonable $14,410.

It gets even better if students attend Florida A&M University. Tuition for in-state students is just $5,785, $17,725 for out-of-state, and students project to make a little over $42,300 after graduation.

Other schools where students can expect to earn more include Xavier University, Howard University, Hampton University, and Tennessee State University.

While the salaries vary, and so will the debt per student, knowing that your earning potential fresh out of college may hover around $50,000 per year may take the sting away form having to pay the government back for your education.

Read all of our posts about HBCUs by clicking here.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, Matthew LynchOctober 5, 2015

Higher Accountability for College Dropout Rates

There are a lot of metrics in place that gauge the effectiveness of P-12 schooling in the U.S. and shine a particularly bright light on public schools, particularly when they are failing students. Dropout rates are just one of the factors taken into account when these numbers are calculated and tend to weigh heavily on the schools and districts who have low percentages. The same does not seem to be true once the high school years pass though. Compared to P-12 institutions, colleges and universities seemingly get a pass when it comes to college dropout rates – perhaps because in the past, higher education was considered more of a privilege and less of a right. A college dropout was simply walking away from the assumed higher quality of life that came with the degree, but still had opportunity to excel without it.

That’s not the case anymore. As of 2013, 17.5 million students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities. More than ever, colleges and universities have a responsibility to not simply admit students, but ensure they are guided properly to graduation. In other words, institutions of higher education should not be able to just take their student’s money and say “good luck.” They should provide the tools necessary for students to successfully achieve a college education and anticipate the issues that could prevent that.

Authors Ben Miller and Phuong Ly discussed the issue of the U.S. colleges with the worst graduation rates in their book College Dropout Factories. Within the pages, the authors encouraged educators at all levels to acknowledge that colleges and universities should share responsibility for successful or failing graduation rates, and that the institutions with the worst rates should be shut down. Perhaps the most terrifying suggestion in the book (for colleges and universities) was that public institutions with low graduation rates would be subjected to reduced state funding.

The book was written based on findings from Washington Monthly that ranked the U.S. schools with the lowest six-year graduation rates among colleges and universities, including public ones like the University of the District of Columbia (8%), Haskell Indian Nations University (9%), Oglala Lakota College (11%), Texas Southern University (13%) and Chicago State University (13%). These stats were published in 2010 so they are not the most current available but a quick scan of the University of the District Columbia’s official page shows graduation rate numbers through the end of the 2003 – 2004 school year. The past nine years are nowhere to be found. The school boasts 51.2 percent underrepresented minorities in the study body, including 47 percent that are Black – but what good are those numbers if these students are not actually benefitting from their time in college because they receive no degree?

In the case of Chicago State University, the latest statistics show some improvement from the 2010 ones. The six-year graduation rate is up to 21 percent – but the transfer-out rate is nearly 30 percent. The school has 92 percent underrepresented minorities that attend – 86 percent who are black and 70 percent who are female – but again, what good does any of that do if these traditionally disadvantaged students are not graduating?

In all cases of college dropout factories, the P-12 institutions chalk up a victory on their end. They graduated the students and also saw them accepted into a college. What happens after that is between the students and their higher education choices.

This, to me, is a problem. The accountability for student success extends beyond the years that they are in P-12 classrooms. Graduation from high school, and acceptance into college, should never be the final goal of P-12 educators. That is not a victory. That is only halftime.

As far as the colleges and universities are concerned, higher accountability should be demanded from educators, students, parents and really any Americans that want the best economy and highest-educated population. Public institutions, in particular, should be subject to restructuring or take over if dropout rates are too high. The lack of delivery on the college degree dream at many of these schools is appalling, frankly, and has gone on long enough.

What do you think an accountability system for colleges should look like when it comes to dropout rates?

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, Matthew LynchOctober 3, 2015

Diverse Conversations: 5 Questions For Securing the Perfect Internship

You may think that the cold of winter is too early to start thinking about summer internships, but the competition for placement is already heating up. Companies have already begun accepting applications for summer, and as a result, students vying for top spots need to start preparing now. This can be easier said than done, as students have more choices, but also greater competition.

For this week’s installment of “Diverse Conversations,” I interviewed L.J. Brock, Vice President, Talent Acquisition and People Infrastructure at Red Hat. L.J. and I discussed Red Hat’s internship program and the 5 questions he says all interns should ask to increase their options and make sure they secure the best opportunity to drive their future.

Q: How has today’s young workforce changed from the workforce of, for example, 10 years ago?

A: The workforce of today, as a whole, has the same attitude that the startup workforce had 10 years ago. There’s a lot of confidence and willingness to take chances. People want to make their marks at a company and be recognized for the amount of work they put in and I think jobseekers are looking for a job they care about, doing work that excites them, at a company whose mission they can believe in. It’s really competitive, especially in the technology industry. The stigma of moving from job to job is gone and people don’t feel they have to pay their dues in order to move up. Everyone is looking for, and finding, what they want, now.

Q: Is there any particular type of environment that college graduates expect when they enter the workforce? For example, do they expect companies to be open to their ideas, or is it just a matter of “come in and do your job?”

A: The main things that attract people, including college graduates, to Red Hat are our environment and culture. The ability to make an impact and see that impact on day one is paramount and I think a lot of these jobseekers are over the idea of “just doing a job” and going home. They want to influence. They want to be recognized. And they want to do this on a grand scale, no matter their title and time in the job. Red Hat has always operated as a meritocracy – your ideas really matter here and the best ideas will rise to the top. It’s how we work in developing software and it’s how our company moves forward– through our people, their hard work, and their ideas.

Q: What should the ultimate goal of the internship be? Gain knowledge? Get a better idea of what the working world is like? Get a job at the company you’re interning at?

A: When it comes to our internship program, we treat these students as peers. We’ve been operating this program for over 10 years and while the size and scope has certainly grown, the idea of how it works has stayed the same. The goal, of course, is to find young talent and get them in the door. We show them the opportunities that Red Hat offers and they’re given the chance to come in and experience our culture and to work on projects that matter. There’s no benefit in having these intelligent people come in and work on imaginary problems or push papers around– we want them solving real problems and getting real experience they can use no matter where they end up. We want them to make an impact. The ultimate goal is to have them continue on with Red Hat, but it takes a lot of initiative, a cultural fit, and the ability to adapt to change. We love the idea of hiring interns because they already understand our mission and what it takes to succeed at Red Hat.

Q: Can you provide some background on Red Hat’s internship program?

A: Our internship program has been around for over 10 years and keeps growing in size and to new geographies. We work to identify the best and brightest college students, usually in their junior or senior years, and bring them in to work on various teams across Red Hat. We’ve had interns in engineering, finance, human resources, marketing, legal, design, and customer support in the past, and we work to expose them to other areas of the organization for a multi-disciplinary look into what it is to be a Red Hatter. They get hands-on meetings with our executives and participate in many activities geared toward giving them the full Red Hat experience in just a few short months.

Q: Why is it important for applicants to start applying to internships so early in the year? And, how has this process changed over the past several years?

A: There’s not just a huge amount of competition out there for talent, but also for jobs and internships. Students should get the earliest possible jump on an internship to give themselves the longest period of time to find the right fit. The job they may want will not be there forever, so getting in early is key. We’re looking to fill these open jobs and if we don’t know about the candidate and their abilities, there’s no guarantee. Job fairs also take place early in the school year and that’s another great way to find out about what is offered and for the students to, in some cases, meet the person hiring for specific roles. This has changed somewhat over the years as internships are no longer an add-on for a company’s strategy. It’s become an integral key in how they find and hire talent.

Q: In a past interview I conducted with Dr. Lynn C. Owens, Associate Professor of Communication, William Peace University, Raleigh, NC, she reported that research shows students are not as prepared as they should be for the workforce. How can initiatives like Red Hat’s internship program help shift those statistics?

A: Knowledge is power, but experience is what gets you hired. Red Hat believes that the key to having a young workforce succeed is to get them the experience they need as soon as possible. And that’s real-world experience. Internships should be all about learning how to take your knowledge and apply it in a professional setting. Internships are also about making yourself an asset to employers, so we hope that as internships as a whole become more serious and focused, we will see some of these statistics around preparedness improve.

Q: So, you mention there are 5 questions all intern applicants should consider if they make it to an in-person interview. What are those questions and why are they important?

A: Always remember that you’re not the only one being questioned. The employer is also being interviewed by you, so find out as much about the job as they are finding out about you:

1) What kinds of projects would I be working on? Make sure this internship aligns with your career goals and builds on the knowledge and skills you’ve already gained. If there’s not a clear set of goals for your time at the company, that may be a red flag that you should look elsewhere.

2) What would a typical day look like? This will help you decide whether the environment and work is for you. Internships run the gamut from major learning opportunities to extreme grunt work. Know what you’re getting into.

3) Are there regular activities for the interns outside of normal work? Many companies, including Red Hat, have a full-fledged intern program that include activities such as volunteering, seminars, ballgames, cook-outs, and the like. These can be valuable in meeting new people, executives, and other hiring managers from around the company.

4) What do you like most about working here? Learning about the company’s culture and work experience can help you determine whether it’s a good fit for you.

5) Have you stayed in contact with previous interns? Ideally, the employer can reference past interns that now work there full time. In addition, it’s a good sign if that individual can think of interns who have moved on to interesting roles within the company or in other highly regarded companies.

We would like to thank L.J. Brock for taking the time to speak to us.

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & InnovationOctober 3, 2015

Moving Beyond the “Cool” Factor in Mobile Learning

Note: The following post comes to us courtesy of Mike Broderick, Co-Founder & CEO, Turning Technologies.

According to a Pew Internet surveyon mobile device use, 35% of Americans age 16 and up own a tablet. K-12 districts, universities and corporate learning programs are also driving the tablet trend, with some purchasing iPads and other tablets to replace textbooks and expand education capabilities with the hardware students already use to communicate and access entertainment. But the experiment doesn’t always proceed as planned.

A plan to distribute iPads to more than 30,000 Los Angeles students hit a speed bump last year when students figured out how to disable security features that were supposed to keep them off social media sites. A school official observed that problems were inevitable because the iPad program was “rushed” and “ill thought out.” And that seems to be a common theme: Too many educators are rushing to join the tablet trend because such programs are considered “cool” or “cutting edge,” when what they should really aim for is measurable benefits.

Fortunately, there are strategic ways to use mobile technology in the education space – it just requires a focus on using technology to drive positive outcomes rather than fixating on the hardware. Educators – whether in K-12, higher education or the corporate training space – need to ask the right question: Does the use of this technologyimprove outcomes?

To get the best results with an iPad, educators can pair the hardware with software that has a proven track record of success in deepening learner engagement. For example, interactive software that is currently on the market can enable teachers to embed questions directly into presentations, poll students in real time and instantly chart responses. This enables teachers to gauge students’ grasp of the material in the classroom, letting educators know when it’s okay to move on to the next topic and when more time is needed to go over the material.

Software solutions can also enable students to replicate virtually any action they can produce on paper on a touchscreen, such as labeling display items, moving featured graphics around and responding to essay questions. But with a tablet, students’ work can be instantly uploaded, stored and viewed, giving it a key advantage over paper. With the right software solutions, educators can significantly expand capabilities while increasing student engagement.

Better student engagement and expanded capabilities are reason enough for educators to look for the right software package, but data is another important factor to keep in mind. By generating and analyzing data – both in the context of a particular classroom session or assignment as well as aggregate data across the wider program – educators can identify what’s working and what’s not and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Tablets are quickly becoming an essential part of the everyday life and a prominent feature on the education landscape. But to make mobile devices an effective part of the learning process, educators must ensure that they pair their new hardware with effective software assets. By finding the right combination, educators can achieve greater levels of student engagement, significantly expand capabilities and generate incredibly valuable data. And that’s truly cool.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher EducationOctober 1, 2015

Growing the Next Generation of Data Scientists

Note: Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy of Sriram Mohan, an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Ind.

Data, more than ever before is the lifeblood of every organization. From media companies to retail stores, data allows organizations to differentiate themselves from the competition. Whether used in market research or in cost reduction efforts, organizations must leverage data to be competitive, and for the most part, they now enjoy access to all the data anyone could ever need.

What most organizations today don’t have ready access to are data scientists who are trained to turn all of their data into actionable insights. Gartner predicts that by 2015, about 4.4 million data science jobs will be available, and only a third of them will be filled. Is there a shortage of people with the requisite combination of programming, data management skills and statistical and mathematical ability?

Yes. Can we in academia develop more of those people? Absolutely. But we are going to need the help of industry to accomplish that.

As universities nationwide define and create new undergraduates and graduate data science programs, industry can help to make our programs more interesting and relevant for students. We will also benefit from greater access to industry data sets and the latest Big Data technologies.

Data science, by its nature, is abstract, making it difficult to attract initial student interest. But in the real world, data science is applied in many concrete, exciting ways that we can bring into our classrooms. The perceived gap between academia and industry is why I took a sabbatical this past year to work with Avalon Consulting, a Big Data consultancy headquartered near Dallas.

The experience has proved invaluable, however, most, if not all, of what I learned came through hands-on experience in developing solutions. To make data science concepts more interesting and tangible for students, we should provide them with similar hands-on opportunities. To that end, companies should organize contests for students that allow them to work on actual problems with real industry data sets (similar to the Netflix Prize). My university offers students a capstone project that challenges them to solve real-world problems provided through organizations such as Avalon and the U.S. Armed Forces. Such Partnerships are a good start, but to educate data scientists, we need to do more.

Academia needs to stay up to date with the latest Big Data tool chains. Those ecosystems are evolving rapidly, but most of the development happens on the industry side – so much so that academia often finds itself left behind. If we want our students to be aware of the latest changes when they graduate, we must foster a better exchange of technological knowledge between academics and industry.

Industry typically uses summer internships to expose students to the latest technologies. Such experiences could be extended to faculty as well. My colleagues at Rose-Hulman used industry experiences in the past to stay current in technologies such as Google web frameworks, Android development and other programming languages.

Longer- term experiences, such as my training sabbatical, should also be considered. My experience led directly to development of new courses in Hadoop and modern database paradigms. The time I spent working in the ever-changing world of Hadoop and NoSQL databases at Avalon was critical to those courses’ development. Given the rapid pace at which Big Data technologies are now advancing, it is imperative that academia and industry find additional ways to collaborate to better prepare our students for the workplace.

Once our students enjoy greater access to industry data sets and the latest Big Data technologies, we can bring more real-world problems, solutions and stories into the classroom and generate greater interest in data science. The future for these students is bright, but industry collaboration is required to fully meet its demands.

Matthew Lynch published in list, Matthew Lynch, Policy & ReformSeptember 30, 2015

3 Developments on No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind expired in 2007 after lawmakers couldn’t come to a compromise over its renewal. Fifteen years have blown by since the last time No Child Left Behind was updated. That’s a significant period of time when we are talking about the treatment of our students in every school of the nation.

But just because No Child Left Behind has not been updated does not mean that it has been forgotten. In fact, there are some relatively recent developments. Let’s take a look at three of them.

“No Child” Waivers extended to 2018. The Department of Education has released a letter stating the new guidance for securing waivers from No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s education reform law, for three or even four more years. The waivers stop states from being tied to the rigorous expectations of Bush-led Adequate Yearly Progress, but in turn, each state must adhere to education reforms encouraged by the Obama administration.

The DOE informed chief state school officers that they would be eligible to apply to renew their waivers through the 2017-2018 school year.

The Bush-era law has been due an update since 2007. In 2012, the administration began granting waivers to state if they met certain requirement such as adopting college- and career ready standards and developing teacher and principal evaluation systems based largely on how much students learn.

Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia have received waivers from No Child Left Behind, which allow them to forego certain accountability requirements law in exchange for implementing education reforms backed by the Obama administration.

Some education advocacy groups were pleased with the emphasis placed on ensuring states have a plan to improve student achievement for all groups of students — including students with disabilities, those from low-income homes and English language learners — and prohibiting states from giving schools high scores on state accountability reports if they have large achievement gaps.

The requirements also sparked some widespread criticism across the political spectrum.

The Senate attempted to rewrite NCLB. According to The Washington Post, No Child Left Behind faced a 600-page rewrite. The Senate HELP committee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) worked on adjusting language and amendments that would seriously alter the bill’s impact.

Some of the revisions include a pivot towards allowing states to assume control over how teachers are evaluated and would drop the federal definition “of a highly qualified teacher.”

The bill also gives additional support for charter schools by providing “incentives for states to adopt stronger charter school authorizing practices.”

No Child Left Behind expired in 2007 after lawmakers couldn’t come to a compromise over its renewal. But this time seems to be different. The bill has a bipartisan tone and any amendment that did not have support from Democrats and Republicans was withdrawn during the bill’s mark up.

Yet those amendments will likely appear again when the full Senate has an opportunity to vote on the measure. Republican Senator Tim Scott has an idea to funnel federal money meant to help poor students into a voucher system that any child attending a high-poverty school may use to transfer into a new school district.

His amendment failed in committee but he will reintroduce on the Senate floor.

Other inclusions and provisions included are an update to federal testing requirements, the peer review process, and an alteration to funding for early childhood learning programs.

The Senate approved the changes to the law in July, a move that finally sets up negotiations with the U.S. House on updating the federal law on education.

“The Senate-passed measure would prohibit the federal government from setting performance targets or requiring specific standards such as the Common Core curriculum. It would make states responsible for establishing systems of accountability, including how much weight should be put on testing to determine whether schools are succeeding.”

According to ReviewJournal.com, the bill faces critics that believe it doesn’t reach far enough to help “minorities and low-income students.”

It is highly unlikely that the Senate’s bill will end up being passed as the final version as there is too much wrangling left to do with the House.

But besides that point, what may catch the eye of educators as they follow along with the progress of No Child Left Behind is how heavily it leans on allowing states the make final decisions on education.

Instead of receiving direction from the federal government, each state may end up having the ability to create policy surrounding how it decides to approach education. If you think about it, that is a scary prospect and would go completely against the idea of national standards.

Even that, though, is sure to change before the final version actually passes.

What do you think of the changes being made to No Child Left Behind?

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Policy & ReformSeptember 29, 2015

Public schools last frontier to equality?

A guest column by Constance Evelyn

America’s landmark legislative actions illuminate a core mission of providing a free and appropriate education for all students attending public schools. The common thread among these legal precedents is the objective to ensure equitable access to high quality instruction cementing literacy as the most basic human rights principle. Inherently, is the notion that the sanctity of childhood is precious and should be protected. These virtues are essentially upheld in Brown vs. Board of Education, PL94-142, and The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) as indicators that as a country we value the future of all children. Indeed that we understand the very fate of our democratic nation depends on a passionate dedication that public education is possibly the last bastion in ensuring equal access to becoming learned.

Philosophically, I’m aware that my perspective is based in my life experience as perhaps many others may attest. Bias is personal; and mine is partly borne from being the only mixed race, foster child attending our local elementary school. I should say that graduating as the valedictorian did not help an already tenuous situation. Flagrantly displaying intelligence in my neighborhood was not necessarily smart. And fortunately, I learned this rather quickly. However, achieving at the highest levels was a non negotiable in my household, and therefore, my grades, demeanor, and in particular the preferential treatment I received by teachers told the true story. I was mercilessly bullied, chased home from school, and called hurtful names. The most frequent tag was ‘white girl’. I often recounted to my mother that this part of the verbal attacks was particularly painful because she taught me that it communicated more about the ignorance of my offenders than any other intentions they may have had. After years of this harassment and the school’s suggested remedy of having me skip a grade as solution for my being young, black, and gifted, my mother came up with a new plan. At eleven years old, I was enlisted in a clandestine scheme that would forever change the trajectory of my life. Mom decided that a better response to challenge my intellect was sending me across town to the high performing intermediate school. It took me almost two hours in one direction to access high quality education in 6th grade. There was no ‘skipping’ except for the three bus transfers involved in my travels.

Many things astounded me within a week’s time at my new school. When I walked into sixth grade, the students said out loud, ‘Who’s that black girl?’ Secondly, I was the only African-American student in this class and the other two tracks that had been devoted to high performing students. Soon there were many other observations I made, but the most startling of my discoveries happened on my ride home from school on the ‘special’ bus. There actually were other African-American students in the sixth grade attending this school! As I mingled with them, I realized that many of them were in the same class, 6-8. When they asked what class I was in, I changed the subject. I was even ‘smarter’ by now, and I knew that I should let them get to know me, before I let them identify what kind of student I was.

As public school educators, we must regard our charge as both a moral imperative and obligation. This commitment will foster a clear understanding of what we have come to believe is our purpose for serving students. Our decisions about this are usually equal to our assets. Essentially, the pledge is straightforward. High-quality educators have a mindset that warily recognizes the menacing nature of mediocrity and the sustenance of low expectations. A good teacher approaches her work with a sincere faithfulness in response to the pledge that, all children should have a right to a sound education. In turn, our confidence in all students’ ability to achieve at the highest levels emanates from this respect.

And then there is the case of leadership. Great leadership should propel the work of removing barriers and creating multiple pathways for all children to achieve success. No child should have to leave her neighborhood to access a rigorous education. Nor should his education be denigrated by tracks that lead to an erroneous certificate of completion. It is unconscionable that any young person would necessarily travel four hours a day to forge their entitlement to good teachers, appropriate curricular resources, and coursework enabling them to open doors that would have otherwise been unapproachable. And no American, should have to know the shame and guilt of never learning to read. This is the fundamental promise of public education.

As a Superintendent, I am one of hundreds of school leaders faced with the many challenges presented by capped budgets and, notwithstanding, the most economically and racially segregated public school systems we’ve been charged to manage in recent history. Simply put, doing more with less has never been this harsh. The urgency of this status is magnified in the knowledge that sixty years after Brown vs. Board of Education, resource allocation formulas remain broken and, at least in New York State, the hardened perpetuation of outcomes for underprivileged students is grossly predictable.

The challenge for everyone involved in the education of children is commitment. Unwavering support for the idea that we must all contribute to a common value system that conveys high standards for student and educator achievement, organizational and individual growth, and the underlying truth, that a ‘good’ school can always be better.

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Constance Evelyn has a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the College of Staten Island, a Masters of Science degree in Special Education PreK-12, and Supervision and Administrative degree from Long Island University. She currently serves as Superintendent of Schools in Auburn, NY.

Matthew Lynch published in Parental InvolvementSeptember 28, 2015

Are parents missing from schools or are they being pushed out?

A guest column by Regina Paul

Dr. Matthew Lynch’s “Parents: The Missing Ingredient in K–12 Success”in the September 24 issue of The Edvocateis insightful as far as it goes, though that is not far enough. Dr. Lynch writes, “As K-12 academic standards become more rigorous, parents are becoming an even more integral piece of a student’s success.” Yes, most of us policymakers and advocates would agree that parents should understand what their children are expected to learn in school and should be engaged in helping them learn it. That goes for parents with college educations, parents with high school educations, and parents with grade school educations. That goes for parents with great jobs, parents with not-great jobs, and parents with no jobs. In fact, as we prove time and again, all parents can help teach their children.

Some three decades ago when the Cleveland Public Schools were the subject of a long Court-ordered desegregation case, we worked on behalf of the Federal District Court to establish new reading curriculum objectives for grades 1 through 9 and to develop new districtwide tests to see whether children were learning the new objectives. It sounds so old-fashioned now, but it worked. Reading improved, but not just because of what teachers did in the classroom.

Reading improved because we sent the new reading objectives home to every family of every child in those nine grades—the actual objectives that teachers taught every day. On the back of the Reading Skills Checklist(there was one for each grade), we had an important tagline—Remember: The schools cannot do it all alone. We followed up the parent checklists with Reading at Home: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children Read(there was one for each grade), which explained each objective, gave some easy-to-do activities for parents to use to teach it, and gave a sample test question from the districtwide test. We sent a parent handbook to every family of every child in those nine grades.

Many people told us that parents in Cleveland were way too busy to help their children learn to read. Many people told us that parents in Cleveland wouldn’t be able to help their children learn to read even if they wanted to. Many people were wrong on both counts.

When we did the same thing a few years later in the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools—this time with parent checklists and parent handbooks for language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and health objectives for each marking period—we got the same pushback. People told us that the parents who still had children in the public schools after desegregation were just not able to do what we imagined. They told us we were wasting the district’s money. They were wrong again.

When the school district was late sending out Savannah’s parent checklists at the beginning of the next school year, the principals said their phones were ringing off the hook, with parents calling to say, “Where is my checklist? How do you expect me to help my child this year when you haven’t sent me my checklist?” Standardized test scores improved so much that the testing company rescored the tests; gains like that were never seen, the testing company said.

So, I know that parents can make a big difference—maybe all the difference. But here is a problem I have run into in some of the hundred school districts I have worked with: Some schools and school districts are staffed with professionals who would rather that parents just stayed out of the way. They are willing for parents to come to back-to-school night in the fall, to take part in fundraisers, to sign homework before it is turned in or tests after they are graded, and to attend twice-yearly parent-teacher conferences. But are they willing to give parents any power, any say about how things are done?

Are they willing to let parents have a voice in the curriculum, for example? Not long ago, I attended a statewide PTA convention. The Common Core and its matching statewide tests were all most people were talking about. Yet, there was not one workshop session about the Common Core, the tests, or any curriculum topic. The sessions were about how to get more PTA members, how to conduct meetings, and how to raise money—all useful topics, but far less important than what kids are being taught. The exhibit hall was full of parents with misinformation about the Common Core and the tests being used to measure them, but there was not a workshop to be found. Who was benefitting from the parents’ confusion?

My question is this: Are the parents missing or are they being pushed out? Do they even realize that they are often being held at arm’s length? Could they do more if they were invited in? Would schools be better if parents had a real voice in more school decisions, if they wielded real power and not just a rubber stamp?

One clear path to increased parent power is for parents to run for local school boards. As someone who has worked with and trained literally thousands of school board members nationwide, I can honestly say that I think there is no nobler calling. I continue to be amazed at how smart and perceptive most school boards are when their members are working together to improve schools. Parents, if you haven’t attended a school board meeting lately—or ever—it is time. Watch the way the board handles its power.

And when you go, ask the board to discuss its policies on parent involvement. Look at how parents in your school district are encouraged and expected to engage with teachers and administrators. Are there structures in place that put any power in the hands of parents and that give parents a real voice in important decisions? If there are policies that call for real engagement, then you are lucky. Make sure you take advantage of them—in the best possible way.

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Regina H. Paul is president of Policy Studies in Education (PSE), a nonprofit organization with more than 40 years of experience in working with schools, local and state boards of education, state and federal education agencies, foundations, professional associations, and colleges to improve education. Ms. Paul is the co-host of NYCollegeChat, a weekly podcast for parents about negotiating the world of college, and the co-author of a new book, How To Find the Right College: A Workbook for Parents of High School Students. She blogs regularly at ParentChatwithRegina.org.

Matthew Lynch published in list, Matthew Lynch, Policy & ReformSeptember 27, 2015

These 3 Studies on Education Results May Shock You

Studies are a dime a dozen these days, but there are still plenty that force you to pay attention. Let’s talk about three education related ones that just might surprise you.

Being uneducated is more dangerous than chain smoking. According to thePost’s review of a study published in PLOS ONE, “more than 145,000 deaths could have been prevented in 2010 if adults who did not finish high school had earned a GED or high school diploma – comparable to the mortality rates of smoking.”

That’s staggering considering smoking and education aren’t necessarily congruent.

For decades Americans have been warned about the horrors of smoking because of the adverse effects that it has on one’s health. While having an education has always been synonymous with success, not sure if anyone, or any study for that matter, has ever gone this far to connect poor health, or death related to poor health, to lacking a proper education.

The study, according to the Post, doesn’t directly correlate poor education with death. Rather it counts death as “an estimate of education’s impact on mortality, and do not indicate direct causality.”

While this study doesn’t directly state that failure to attain an education will result in death, it does portend that death is a consequence of one’s failure to gain an education. Make sense?

This type of information is multi-faceted because of how far it stretches. Personal responsibility plays a role; the government has an act in this play; the private sector and many other areas are also complicit.

How we move along with the information posted from this story will be interesting as well. Because, maybe more than anything, this shows just how stark the consequences are for our society if we fail to properly educate our children.

The results may be death.

The Ivy Leagues may not be worth it. Saving a year’s worth of salary for one year of higher education at Harvard may yield great career results for some but that may not be true for all.

According to U.S. News and World Report, a recent Brookings Study shows that “other schools may either not cost as much and yield a similar salary and success of loan repayment, or they may cost about the same but generate higher earnings potential.”

Harvard is a small sample size and represents a limited portion of the zenith of college costs. But, in essence, the study shows that one may earn just as much for the duration of their career by attending a college with cheaper tuition.

That’s not a knock against Harvard as students, and their parents, are free to choose any school that matches with their educational goals.

This is an alternative that students have always taken. Take Ronald Nelson, a student who wasaccepted to all eight Ivy League schools.

Instead of choosing a prestigious Ivy League school, and the tuition that came along with it, Nelson went with the University of Alabama.

He said that Alabama “offered him a full scholarship and admittance into their selective honors program.” Nelson also wants to save for medical school and states that going to an Ivy League higher education institution would not allow him that luxury.

Still–students and parents have to make the decision that’s best for them. Rising costs of higher education will likely force more students to choose cheaper schools over ones with higher tuition rates.

Closing the achievement gap would increase the GDP by $10 trillion by 2050.

Talk about boosting the economy.

One study after another has shown a wide educational achievement gap between the poorest and wealthiest children in the United States. This prompted researchers at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a group focused on narrowing inequality, to study and conclude that if America could improve education performance for the average student, everyone would benefit.

The U.S. ranks behind more than 33 advanced industrialized countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development when it comes to math and science scores. The study used scores from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, a test used around the world to measure and compare achievement.

America ranks behind countries such as Korea, Poland and Slovenia in the 24th spot.

Elimination of the achievement gap in the U.S. will boost the economy — but this requires raising the country’s average score to 1,080. The average combined score for the U.S. is 978, and the O.E.C.D average is 995.

If the U.S. could move up a few notches to number 19 – so the average American score would match the O.E.C.D. average – it would add 1.7 percent to the nation’s gross domestic product over the next 35 years, according to estimates by the Washington Center. This could lead to approximately $900 billion in higher government revenue.

If the U.S. scores matched Canada, number 7 of the O.E.C.D. scale, America’s gross domestic product would increase by 6.7 percent. After taking inflation into account, this is a cumulative increase of $10 trillion by 2050.

The achievement gap in America is a pressing issue, and it is certainly something we have to hone in on to eliminate. I hope to see our country’s O.E.C.D. ranking improve in the near future so we can narrow, and eventually close, the achievement gap and benefit from the boost in the economy too.

What do you think of these bizarre study results? Do any of these statistics surprise you?

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew LynchSeptember 25, 2015

The Principal’s Role in Improving Student Learning

Increased attention at both the local and national levels on improving student learning has resulted in a growing expectation in some states and districts for principals to be effective instructional leaders. Consider these statistics: nearly 7,000 students drop out of U.S. high schools every day and, every year approximately 1.2 million teenagers leave the public school system without a diploma or an adequate education. There are 2,000 high schools in America in which less than 60% of students graduate within four years after entering ninth grade.

The situation is not much brighter for students who do earn a high school diploma, and enter a two –year or four-year institutions. In community colleges, approximately 40% of freshmen (and approximately 20% in public, four-year institutions) are in need of basic instruction in reading, writing, or mathematics before they can perform in college-level courses. It is vital that principals advocate for these students and provide leadership to reverse this appalling educational outcome.

The failure of many public school districts to provide the working conditions that well-trained principals need to prosper is often a central reason for these ongoing graduation and future preparation issues. By having access to resources and being committed to school reform, principals are able to work with teachers to create school environments that facilitate excellence in learning.

The issues that principals need to work on with teachers include aligning instruction with a standards-based curriculum to provide a good measure of achievement, and improving both student learning and classroom instruction by effectively organizing resources. Principals must use sound hiring practices, ensure professional development is available at their schools, and keep abreast of issues that may influence the quality of teaching in schools.

While having good leaders in place is crucial, it is not always enough. If principals don’t have supportive work environments for their improvement efforts, then even the most talented and best-trained individuals may be discouraged by the challenges they face on a daily basis. Districts where no major high school improvements have been made don’t have a cohesive agenda for improvement. Such an agenda would specify clear goals, research-based practices, improvement-focused accountability, and strategies to support implementation. In practice, schools without such an agenda can often be characterized by disjointed actions. Many of the principals in such schools report that they are not involved in defining existing instructional issues in their schools.

The district (or state) makes these decisions , meaning that principals have little ownership of their problems or the proposed solutions to them. They also report having little support or motivation to find solutions, and that they do not feel there is a well-designed system of improvement. Rather, they feel that “improvements” are undertaken in a series of random acts.

When decision-making is shared, leadership roles are redefined at all levels. Principals are supported by district staff members, not blocked by them. District staff members make frequent visits to schools to provide coaching, technical assistance, and staff development. Teachers benefit from continuous professional development;principals have sufficient autonomy and resources to engage and develop staff. Professional development may target groups or individual teachers, and the teachers are given opportunities to work together on curriculum and instruction.

In contrast, many districts focus on educational management instead of educational leadership. The support provided to improve instruction in these districts is not grounded in research on effective teaching. In addition, these districts lack a systemic approach to improvement and fail to provide principals with the guidance and support they require to reform processes and put effective instructional practices into place.

Many principals spend much of their time finding ways to work around the district office, rather than with them. To obtain the support they need, they often decide to avoid hiring protocols and develop “underground” relationships with individual staff in the district office. Supportive district leaders understand the challenging work principals must do, as in many cases they have been successful principals themselves.

These district leaders support principals’ focus on instruction and acknowledge that priority by publicly focusing on curriculum and instruction in school board and superintendents’ meetings. Rather than micromanaging staff, they routinely involve school and teacher-leaders in developing and using tools such as walk-throughs, pacing guides, and research-based instructional practices.

The best districts have developed a collaborative “lattice” approach between the central office and the school. This entails districts providing good principals with the support they need to enable their schools to succeed. When given the space by the district to focus on improving their schools, principals can then support their teachers to do the same. The focus of districts must be on raising standards and achievement, and improving instruction by supporting and enabling principals to develop their ability as instructional leaders.

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