Education Leadership

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership

Learning from successful learning: A look at the new NCLB

**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 Brian Aull

Congress is now ironing out a revision of the No Child Left Behind Act.   This 2001 law mandated yearly testing with the goal of holding federally funded public schools accountable to yearly improvements on the scores.  The current bill gives states more latitude in determining learning goals and deciding what to do about schools that are failing by standard measures.

The renewed debate on the role of government brings to mind Onora O’Neill’s insight:  “Instead of working towards intelligent accountability based on good governance, independent inspection and careful reporting, we are galloping towards central planning by performance indicators, reinforced by obsessions with blame and compensation.”  This is an opportunity to reflect about how we judge success in education.   What does a good teacher or a healthy public school community look like?   Perhaps the answers come not from test score statistics but from the kind of anecdotal evidence that gives insight into what happens on the ground to make a school succeed.

In late June we said farewell to a giant in the field of elementary education. Marva Collins was a teacher in the Chicago public schools in the 1960’s.  Frustrated by bureaucracy and teacher apathy, she left the system and started a one-room schoolhouse in her attic.  She emptied her pension fund to pay for the needed construction work. She recruited a small group of students that the public schools had given up on.   After one year, these pupils’ test scores had improved by at least five grade levels.  60 Minutes aired a story about her remarkable classroom.  When Ronald Reagan became president, he unsuccessfully tried to convince her to be his Secretary of Education.

It’s instructive to look at the secrets of her success.  Rather than teaching students to regurgitate facts for a test, she taught them how to think critically, how to ask meaningful questions.   Her pupils would read Plato’s Republic, for example, and talk about the meaning of justice.  She viewed her work as nourishing the children’s souls as well as their minds.  She said that scholarship divorced from moral concerns is dangerous.   She created a genuine community in the classroom where the pupils learned from mistakes without fear of ridicule and applauded each other’s successes.  At the core of her motivation was love.   “There is no magic here,” she said. “I do not walk on water.  I do not part the sea.  I just love children.”

Marva Collins had the luxury of being both teacher and principal.   One might say that her success is a rare exception and could not be widely replicated in public schools.   But there are many success stories from which we might learn. One 2007 study highlighted Fraser Academy (a pseudonym), a failing elementary school in a high-poverty district of Buffalo, New York.   In 1997 a new principle came on board.   In a few years, Fraser changed from a place parents wanted to avoid enrolling their children to a place with a waiting list.

What did this new principal do?  Her work was about transforming the culture of the school, making it a genuine community that included parents, teachers, and students.   She encouraged strong patterns of parent involvement.  She had an “open door” policy, and listened to the concerns of all members of the school community.  She believed that the children could learn and set a clear expectation that they had a right to a school that served that purpose.  She supported the professional development of the teachers and staff, and encouraged them to experiment and to be active learners themselves.  She never expected the teachers to do things that she was unwilling to do herself.   The culture of the school reflected virtues of service, dedication to learning, and building community.  While her leadership was a big factor in this, there were material resources that also made a big difference; she was hired as part of a partnership with a bank that provided $500,000 a year in supplemental funds to improve the school.  It was an arrangement that gave her substantial autonomy to put her vision into practice.

What are the lessons to be learned from such success stories?  No Child Left Behind focused on standardized testing as the measure of school improvement, and punished schools that did not measure up.  This created powerful incentives to reduce the classroom to a test prep center, manipulate tests, lower standards, and otherwise game the system.

Most importantly, the law’s emphasis on “scientific” and quantifiable performance measures conceals the stories that tell us why schools succeed or fail.   “Teaching to the test” was the last thing on Marva Collins’ mind. Fraser Academy created a culture in which the school community worked collaboratively to evaluate its own success using measures that everyone agreed made sense.   When the school was working well, you could sense it within seconds of walking in the door.

Fresh thinking is needed about the role of both state and federal governments.  How can government be a resource rather than a regulator, facilitating the spread of best practices and providing funding to enable struggling school communities to adopt them?

_____________

Brian Aull is research scientist at MIT and the author of The Triad: Three Civic Virtues That Could Save American Democracy. His blog on civic renewal can be found at
http://www.AwakenDemocracy.com

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

4 Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence for Students

Emotional intelligence is different from general or common intelligence. It’s the ability of an individual to monitor their own emotions, to monitor the emotions of others, to understand the differences between them, and to use all of this information in order to guide their actions. This is about accurately understanding the emotions of oneself and others, as well as expressing emotions in a way that’s accessible.

A high level of emotional intelligence is an essential aspect of learning. The ability to develop the skill of emotional understanding is a driver not only in the realm of relationships but also in the realm of education. The following four dimensions of emotional intelligence can help teachers and administrators to better understand and support student learning.

  1. Understanding

This is the foundation of emotional intelligence, understanding one’s own emotions. Understanding is the beginning point of any emotional process, and in fact of any endeavor at all. In order for students to be able to focus on their academic work, they have to be able to see where their emotions even are. Often children don’t have the self awareness to know what they’re feeling, and don’t see the drivers of their actions. It takes time and practice to take apart the emotions and to learn to make sense of what one is feeling, particularly during adolescence when emotional lives are especially complex.

This first step of understanding their own emotions is what allows all of the other dimensions to be built upon. Discerning what they’re feeling steps them onto the right path for emotional growth and development, which will lead to better behavior, more focus, and better academic outcomes. Kids have to learn that emotions come and go like the waves of the ocean, and that they can observe this ebb and flow just by stepping back from it.

  1. Management

The next dimension is a much more difficult one to come to terms with, particularly for students who have never had the skill of emotional management fostered. It’s this learning how to manage one’s own emotions will allow students to not only see the ebb and flow of their emotions, but to alter their reactions to it. Management of emotions is tied closely to self control, in which a child learns to delay their own gratification in support of their future success. Emotional management is challenging for all of us, not just for children. But the waves of emotion can be, if not controlled completely, then at least tamed.

The ability to manage emotions is essential for classroom success, where students must learn how to interact reasonably within the academic environment while focusing on learning. Students with low emotional control react in a negative toward proposed changes, as they are not equipped to deal effectively with emotionally stressful events, like testing or projects. On the other hand, students who are able to effectively manage their emotions tend to be optimistic and to take the initiative, reframing their understanding of stressful events as exciting.

  1. Empathy

Perhaps the key to happiness and to lifelong success is understanding others’ emotions, or empathy. The application of empathy in the educational environment is tremendous. Empathy extends to an understanding of history and literature, music and art, and even science and math. That ability to put oneself into the emotional body of another person is how children can become excited about the possibility of making a new discovery in science, or why a historical figure did the things that they did. This is particularly applicable for children who come from a disadvantaged background, and need to learn the skill of empathy in order to become emotionally driven toward success.

Empathy can be built through the observation of others, then thinking deeply about why people behave and react in the ways that they do, and finally identifying the behaviors that are either helpful or detrimental in challenging situations. The ability to understand other people’s emotions, persuasions, motivation, conflict resolution mechanisms, and reasons for cooperation are probably the skills most essential for success in education and in the life that will come beyond the classroom.

  1. Relationships

There are so many dimensions to relationships in the school environment. Once a child develops the skill of empathy, they then need to channel that into positive relationships with other students, with teachers, with administrators, with parents and finally with themselves. Trust is an essential component of healthy relationships, as it allows students to see where they can improve without becoming self-critical or defensive. Trust fosters smooth and productive relationships with teachers and with peers. Emotional elements are the driving forces behind so much of the modern educational environment, and the role of relationships should be considered when creating policies, process and procedures within the school environment. Relationship building enables schools to boost their performance and is essential to making schools work.

The positive reinforcement of an emotionally intelligent environment enhances the school environment, helping students to find not only academic success, but also life success outside of the classroom.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Teachers

The trendy classroom management strategy you should never use

**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 post by Michael Linsin

There is a lot of bad classroom management information out there.

Now more than ever.

Not a month goes by that we don’t hear of another irresponsible method being promoted.

We hope to list our top ten worst strategies in a future article, but today we’d like to cover one in particular that is gaining considerable traction.

It’s a strategy that both surprises us here at SCM and leaves us dismayed anyone would think it’s a good idea.

Yet, it’s actually being encouraged in many school districts.

It’s a close cousin of the “caught being good” strategy, which we also don’t recommend, but is far more damaging to the targeted student.

The way it works, in a nutshell, is that when you notice a student misbehaving, you would first approach them so they’re aware of your presence. Then, instead of confronting them directly, you would . . .

Praise the students around them.

That’s right. You wouldn’t say a word to the offending student, but instead gushingly tell the students near them how well they’re doing.

“Wow, I love how you’re working, Ana!”

“You too, Javier. Way to go!”

“Emily is also working beautifully.”

You would give the students within proximity of the misbehaving student an enthusiastic pat on the back for not misbehaving.

The idea, in theory, is that the targeted student would see their tablemates receiving praise, and thus they too would begin behaving properly.

They too would desire your praise. They too would seek to be recognized for doingwhat they’re supposed to do.

Setting aside the troubling and bar-lowering message you’re sending to the entire class by offering false praise—which you can read about in Dream Class—the strategy attempts to manipulate or fool the offending student into better behavior.

It’s the classroom management version of a magician’s sleight of hand. But it’s cruel and dishonest and doesn’t help the student actually change their behavior.

It offers no helpful feedback, no meaningful lesson, and no opportunity to reflect on their misbehavior.

Although it may work in the moment—which is why proponents of the strategy are quick to cite its “research based” credentials—it will quickly weaken over time and train every student in the class to become extrinsically motivated.

It will make difficult students less inclined to get back on track in the future and turn your classroom into a petri dish of neediness, dependency, and underachievement.

So what should you do instead?

Well, first imagine yourself on the receiving end of such a strategy. How would it make you feel? How would you feel about a teacher effusively praising everyone around you while you’re being ignored?

Is this someone you would trust or admire? Of course not.

Like your students, you too appreciate a straight shooter. You too appreciate a teacher who tells the truth rather than tries to manipulate you, toy with your emotions, or underhandedly bend you to their will.

Being a leader students look up to and want to behave for isn’t so difficult. Have a classroom management plan that clearly lays out the rules and consequences of the class.

Hold all students equally accountable by letting them know exactly how they’re misbehaving (feedback) and what the consequence is.

Follow through. Be a person of your word. Do what you say you will.

Sadly, most difficult students have been on the receiving end of an endless procession of strategies that attempt to appease, manipulate, and deceive them into better behavior—which only makes them worse.

What they really need is your honesty. They need your truth and forgiveness. They need your accountability, your leadership, and your consistency.

They need your praise based on genuine achievement. The kind of praise that is real and heartfelt. The kind of praise that uplifts and informs.

That stirs internal motivational engines.

That matters now and forever.

PS – If you’re a principal and would like to improve recess behavior, click here.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

This post originally appeared on smarclassroommanagement.com, and was republished with permission

_____________

Michael Linsin is the founder of Smart Classroom Management, the top classroom management blog in the world with more than 60,000 subscribers.He has taught every grade level from kindergarten to eighth grade over the past 24 years, and is the author of three bestselling books about classroom management. He holds teaching credentials in Elementary Education, English, and Physical Education.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch, Uncategorized

34 Points on Strategic Leadership in Schools

Modern educational leadership is complex and demanding. Challenges include reestablishing novel national visions, crafting new educational aims for schools, restructuring education systems at different levels, privatization, and diversifying school education, all at the macro-level, and being proactive in facing up to these contextual challenges using various strategies. Strategic leadership is strongly linked to the organization’s vision. Here are 34 points about strategic leadership in the school environment to prompt school administrators to action.

Vision is an essential part of strategic leadership. Without it, school staff and personnel aren’t working towards the same goal and therefore will find themselves at odds, slowing progress and impeding success. The following four points are essential for incorporating leadership vision in the school environment.

  1. Outstanding leaders must have a vision for their organizations.
  2. A school’s vision should be communicated in a way that secures commitment from other members of the organization.
  3. Communication of the vision requires communication of its meaning.
  4. Focus should be given to the institutionalizing of the vision if leadership is to be successful.

The development of strategic direction involves a process in which we don’t just look forward from the present, but we also establish a picture of what we want the school to look like in the future and set guidelines and frameworks on how to move forward to that position. As we have seen above, from the conversations with strategic leaders, there must a clear understanding of the direction the school is headed in. What strategic leaders need to do can be summarized by the strategic leadership points 5-8.

  1. Strategic leaders set the direction of the school.
  2. Strategic leaders challenge and question – they are dissatisfied with the present.
  3. Strategic leaders translate strategy into action.
  4. Strategic leaders prioritize their own strategic thinking and learning by building new mental models to frame their understanding and that of others.

One key characteristic of strategic leaders is their ability to envision the different ways their organization might perform in future. They always have a desire to challenge the status quo and improve for the future. This means that strategic leaders have to deal constantly with their dissatisfaction with present arrangements, while facing the challenge that they are not able to change things as quickly as they might want. Leaders, as change agents in their organizations, constantly ask questions such as:

  1. What are the things taught that have been clearly successful or unsuccessful in the past?
  2. What accounted for the success or failure?
  3. What do we need to do differently in the future?
  4. Which relationships between the school and students, parents, or the wider community have been successful or unsuccessful, and why?
  5. What can be done to change things for the better?
  6. How can we assess what we do to challenge the current understanding and operations?
  7. As a school, are we cruising and strolling or are we challenging and creating?

Wisdom in the context of strategic leadership is defined as the ability to take the right action at the right time. Strategic leaders need this kind of wisdom to successful foster school growth. Here are ten abilities that are central to using wisdom in strategic leadership.

  1. Creative ability to come up with ideas
  2. Analytical ability to decide whether the ideas are good.
  3. Practical ability to make their ideas functional and convince their followers that their ideas are valuable.
  4. To balance the impact of the ideas on themselves, others, and their institutions in the short and long run.
  5. Successful intelligence to adapt to varying situations and challenges.
  6. To balance the interests of various stakeholders in the school setting.
  7. To balance timeframes in a way that allows for optimal work to get done.
  8. To infuse values in a mindful way throughout the school environment.
  9. To align responses to the environment appropriately.
  10. To apply knowledge for the common good.

Strategic leadership is a powerful tool for school reform. These final nine points regarding strategic leadership deal with school reform, and specifically how administrators can create meaningful change within their school environment.

  1. Strategic leaders have a vision of the reformed system and how to achieve it.
  2. Strategic leaders create a broad understanding and support for the reform vision at the highest levels.
  3. Strategic leaders bring commitment of school and district leadership to the reform vision and its implementation.
  4. Strategic leaders rely on the use of interventions to translate the reform vision into practice.
  5. Strategic leaders recognize that, for reform to be achieved, one has to start small, refine activities as needed, and provide evidence that interventions lead to desired outcomes.
  6. Strategic leaders develop system capability and capacity to scale up reform with quality.
  7. Strategic leaders enhance and facilitate development of formal policies that provide guidance and incentives for reform.
  8. Strategic leaders avoid controversy.
  9. Strategic leaders develop capabilities for the next generation of reform leaders.

Strategic leadership consists not only of the vision element in leadership ability, but also encompasses other wide-ranging factors. The question thus remains how we can develop a coherent model that informs us about what strategic leadership truly entails. These 34 points offer administrators a powerful place to start exploring strategic leadership, or to deepen their practice of it in an effort to continue to improve their school’s ability to success.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership

Applied Behavioral Analysis and Autism

**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 Dr. Domonique Randall

As parents, there seems to be an endless list of things to worry about when it comes to our children. Those concerns start the day a baby is born, with parents constantly tracking their child’s developmental path, concerned whether or not they are hitting their age-appropriate milestones.

A major developmental concern amongst parents is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by social impairment, communication difficulties and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2014 Community Report on Autism, the new estimate of autism prevalence is 1 in 68 children.

That can be a scary statistic for parents, but there is hope through early detection and proven evidence-based approaches, including applied behavior analysis (ABA).

ABA, which is the recommended treatment for ASD by several federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Surgeon General, is an evidence-based treatment approach. ABA is focused on understanding how behavior is affected by the environment. The scientific principles of learning are applied to behavioral deficiencies and excesses associated with ASD.  

The sooner a parent or physician can identify the signs of ASD, the better!  Some research has identified risk factors for ASD as early as a child’s first birthday.  Early intervention yields the best outcomes as far as developmental gains are concerned and increased IQ.  Studies show early intensive intervention, such as ABA, improves learning, communication and social skills.

The following early detection signs may indicate that your child is at risk for ASD. If your child exhibits any of these signs, please do not hesitate to contact your pediatrician.  Appropriate screening can determine whether a child is at risk for autism.

  • No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
  • No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions by nine months
  • No babbling by 12 months
  • No back-and-forth gestures such as pointing, reaching or waving by 12 months
  • No words by 16 months
  • No meaningful, two-word phrases (not including imitating or repeating) by 24 months
  • Any loss of speech, babbling or social skills at any age

Once a parent is faced with an autism diagnosis, so many questions run through their head – one of them being, “What do we do now?” While there is currently no single known cause or cure for autism, there is a way to improve the everyday struggles, but time is of the essence. Choosing the best treatment and getting started early is critical.

First, make a commitment to choose only evidence-based treatments, such as ABA. It can be overwhelming when you search the Internet, so a good starting place is the First 100 Day Kit available on www.AustimSpeaks.org.

Next, be sure you have a support system in place with family and friends that will support you in your efforts to start and maintain ABA treatment. Often times the focus of ABA treatment will require that you, family and friends change your responses to the child’s behavior to support his or her learning.

Third, find quality ABA treatment programs that will focus on your child’s needs as well as your family’s needs.

Here are some key components of quality programs:

  1. Qualified Professionals – this includes Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Behavior Technicians
  2. Data-driven treatment decisions
  3. Individualized assessment and treatment based on your child’s strengths and weaknesses
  4. Several forms of teaching to promote acquisition and generalization of skills- naturalist training, structured teaching, and social learning opportunities
  5. Parent training and support in ABA principles and techniques
  6. Teaches replacement behavior through the use of positive reinforcement

Finally, consider the commitment in terms of resources and time. Intensive ABA often consists of 30 plus hours per week for multiple years. A total of 38 states now require some coverage for diagnosis and treatment for autism. To learn more about this mandate, visit. www.AutismSpeaks.org.

Being your child’s advocate is important. Just remember, early detection and intervention is key. The sooner the signs of autism are identified and evidence-based treatment, such as ABA can begin, the better the outcome for your child.

_____________

Dr. Domonique Randall, BCBA-D, is the founder and CEO of The Shape of Behavior, an ABA clinic for individuals with ASD and other disabilities. She has over 17 years of experience in autism treatment. To learn more about The Shape of Behavior and its services, visit www.shapeofbehavior.com.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

4 Major Types of Educational Leadership

There are four major styles of leadership which apply well in the educational setting. While each of these styles has its good points, there is a wide berth of variation, and in fact, transformational leadership is truly an amalgamation of the best attributes of the other three. Let’s explore how servant leadership, transactional leadership, and emotional leadership compare to transformational leadership.

1.   Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership takes the focus from the end goal to the people who are being led. There is no sense of self-interest on the part of the leader, who steps back and supports only the interests of the followers. Guidance, empowerment and a culture of trust are hallmarks of this style of leadership. A servant leader puts complete trust in the process and in his or her followers, assuming that those within the organization will align with its goal.

The primary issue with servant leadership is that it’s not viable on an organizational level, in large part because it does not keep its eye on the prize. With the focus being so entirely upon the needs of the people within the organization, the goal of the organization is nearly completely lost and therefore not attained. Education happens in the real world, where unfortunately people have shortcomings and quite often need guidance in order to get things going in the right direction. Transformational Leadership offers that same focus on the individual, while building an investment in the end goal of the organization and thereby creating a momentum to achieve it. Transformational Leadership takes Service Leadership to the next level.

2. Transactional Leadership

Give and take is the hallmark of transactional leadership – it is indeed modeled just like a business transaction. Of course the employer/employee relationship is largely transactional as is. Employers need work done and employees do that work in exchange for money. That “quid pro quo” (“something for something”) is the heart of the workplace, and everyone is generally happy with this arrangement, but it only works if everyone involved sees it that way. In education, there is often more at stake for employees who quite often understand their jobs to be more than just a simple exchange of services for money, but rather see their higher purpose. Money is therefore not the motivating factor.

This is where transformational leadership can step in to compliment transactional leadership, taking the whole process as step further by building upon other forms of motivation outside of simply the exchange of goods and services for money. However transformational leadership only really works of the leader is able to keep up the charisma and interpersonal relationships which are required for it to work. When transformational leadership fails, the last resort is quite often transactional leadership, which is easy and straightforward, if less than effective in the long term.

Perhaps the biggest contrast between transformational and transactional leadership is that the latter is laissez faire, in which the leader allows employees to do as they like, whereas the former is completely hands on and intrusive in its nature.

3. Emotional Leadership

Where transactional leadership was concerned primarily with the exchange of goods and services, emotional leadership is concerned with the feelings and motivations of followers. It takes the focus completely to the other side of the spectrum – demanding that leaders be emotionally intelligent themselves and then to motivate through the use of that emotional intelligence.

Emotional leadership and transformational leadership have a great deal in common with each other. With emotional leadership, the leader taps into their emotional center in order to find the path to guiding their followers. People sometimes argue that transformational leadership requires that same level of influence over emotions, however there is a fundamental difference in the two in that transformational leadership is by necessity a rational process rather than an emotional one.

4. Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership takes from each of the other kinds of leadership its best qualities and then uses those, along with a deep sense of shared purpose, to motivate subordinates. While the other forms of leadership focus on one singular aspect or another, transformational leadership takes a broad view of the issues surrounding leadership and then uses those as a driving force for meeting the overall goals of the organization. For education in particular, transformational leadership offers the best of everything – from tapping into the emotions of workers to offering the compensatory core that is the case for all forms of business, to guiding from a place of support.

However since transformational leadership is informed by all of these various types of leadership, it’s always a good idea for leaders to learn more about these other styles so as to offer a deeper understanding of these forms so as to offer those in whose service they are the best support and guidance possible.

References

Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership that was developed by James Burns (1978), and has been written about by many other scholars since then. To read more of James Burns’ work on transformational leadership and other topics, click here to visit his Amazon.com page.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, list, Matthew Lynch

5 Studies That Will Blow Your Mind

Just when it seems like most trends are predictable, you find a few that just run against common knowledge and intuition.

Read on to discover five study results that might shock you.

  1. Too much homework makes students poor.

Seriously.

This is a finding from Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Gerald K. LeTendre, an education professor at Pennsylvania State University, explains how homework can be economically stressful.

“If we step back from the heated debates about homework and look at how homework is used around the world, we find the highest homework loads are associated with countries that have lower incomes and higher social inequality.”

The study also found that homework has no correlation to “high academic success.” So just because a teacher assigns it, and the students follow the assignment through to completion, does not automatically indicate that a student will do well.

Staying with that theme, the study shows that if kids receive too much homework, they become sleep deprived and stressed out.

What makes that information worse is that many of the students who may fall under that umbrella are just in elementary school.

  1. More college students are getting high—every day.

A new survey released by the University of Michigan shows that marijuana use with college students is on the rise.

“Daily or near-daily marijuana use was reported by 5.9 percent of college students in 2014 — the highest rate since 1980, the first year that complete data was available in the study. This rate of use is up from 3.5 percent in 2007.”

Even for students who only use it socially or just occasionally, there has been an uptick in the numbers.

“The percent of students using marijuana once or more in the prior 30 days rose from 17 percent in 2006 to 21 percent in 2014.”

If this seems like bad news, there is a silver lining attached. College students no longer smoke as many cigarettes as they used to. Just 13 percent of college students said that they smoked a cigarette in the last thirty days.

  1. For-profit institutions are the major offender when it comes to student loan debt.

A new report by the Brookings Institute asserts that a good chunk of student loan debt is held by students who attend for-profit institutions.

“The so-called student loan crisis in the U.S. is largely concentrated among non-traditional borrowers attending for-profit schools and other non-selective institutions, who have relatively weak educational outcomes and difficulty finding jobs after starting to repay their loans.”

That’s a fairly significant finding.

Students who attend non-profit private schools or public universities do not face the same debt issue because their job prospects are much higher upon graduation.

“[T]the median borrower from a for-profit institution who left school in 2011 and found a job in 2013 earned about $20,900—but over one in five (21 percent) were not employed; comparable community college borrowers earned $23,900 and almost one in six (17 percent) were not employed.”

The report also finds that students who attend the University of Phoenix hold the most debt. In 2014, students there held over $35 billion dollars in student loan debt.

  1. 11 states spend more on prisons than on higher education

According to a new report  by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 11 states spend more money on correctional facilities than public research universities.

Higher education spending didn’t start to fall once the recession started. Funding for higher education in many states begin toppling back in 1990 from 14.6 percent to just 9.4 percent in 2014.

Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Connecticut all failed to make the cut. Each state has a higher budget for jails and prisons than public research universities.

Adjusted for inflation, spending on corrections increased over 140 percent between 1986 and 2013.

Oregon seems to be the worst offender. Less than 5 percent of general fund expenditures are dedicated to higher education but the state spends nearly 15 percent of that money on correctional facilities.

  1. Teaching observations performed by submitting a video might be as effective as the traditional in-person observations.

An interesting study released by the Best Foot Forward Project, a part of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, examines how effective classroom observations may be if conducted by video.

400 teachers from California, Colorado, Delaware, and Georgia participated in a two-year project to analyze if “video technology can make the classroom observation process easier to implement, less costly, and more valid and reliable.”

This has had positive results. After reviewing the video, teachers were more “self-critical” and “rated their own instruction lower than comparison teachers, particularly in terms of time management and their ability to assess student mastery during class.”

But maybe two of the biggest wins from the study were found in the interaction between teachers and their supervisors as well as teachers finding ways to improve.

The study found that “63 percent [of teachers] reported that video was ‘quite helpful’ or ‘extremely helpful’ in identifying areas where they need to improve.”

Regarding teachers and supervisor interaction, the project found that there were “fewer disagreements on the ratings they received and were more likely to describe a specific change in their practice resulting from their post-observation conference.”

Overall, this study was loaded with good and useful information regarding how teachers are observed and the wins received when video is used instead of an in-person observation.

Did any of these results surprise you? What do you think these findings mean for the state of education in our country?

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership

4 Ways School Administrators Can Discover Their Unique Leadership Style

Each administrator has his own unique personality traits. So as can be expected, some leadership models will appeal more to some administrators than others. The natural differences in personality among various leaders lead to preferences that run below the leader’s awareness.

What often happens due to these personality traits is that a leader develops judgments, and responds to his or her environment by focusing on certain leadership aspects more than others.

Variations caused by factors such as age, upbringing, and gender have been shown to affect the way personality is developed and expressed. Practices are also influenced by the interaction between personality and contextual aspects associated with the workplace. Examples of these contextual aspects include the perceived nature of work, the leadership experience, the school level, and the leader’s position.

So which is the best way forward? What can school administrators do to find the leadership style that simply clicks for them and leads to unbridled success? Here are a few tips.

1. School leaders and administrators should first acknowledge their inborn, natural tendencies toward some practices over others. They should then reflect on whether these preferences affect their leadership practices. Honesty and transparency in admitting personality differences would motivate the leaders to consider ways to satisfy the various needs of their schools. Self-awareness is a necessary step before leaders can really engage in effective team-building.

2. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Many researchers consider delegation vital for leadership success. Research has shown that delegation is dependent on personality preferences, which translate to foregone conclusions in leadership behavior and in competence. The leader’s preferences are heavily influenced by what is natural, comfortable, and enjoyable for the leader.
Delegation allows the leader and team members to do what they do best.

3. School leaders need to consider the administrator’s preferences when it comes to shaping school leadership responsibilities. They will end up attempting more modest efforts, which sounds counterintuitive—but the success of this practice is actually based on sound research. While this may be more supportive of a differentiated rather than instructional leadership style, the importance of including varying differences of opinion is vital for any leadership model.

4. School leaders should embrace their differences as assets when working together. As schools seek to redefine themselves as learning communities, its members must work together in a friendly, cooperative fashion, by challenging and engaging with each other. Jungian theory finds that diversity generates synergy and innovation. Most leadership researchers and theorists have noted that human differences provide the creative tension needed in the forward movement and growth of any institution. Models of leadership that ignore the nature of leaders tend to be far less effective.
As school principals work to close the achievement gap in learning, they should strive to build a conscious understanding of their own natural preferences, in relation to instructional leadership.

Human differences are often depicted as weaknesses, and are quickly pushed aside. Seeking to address them in a meaningful way, instead of dismissing them, can be a seed for success in educational leadership.

Do you think that leaders need to be aware of and develop their unique leadership qualities to be successful at school? Why (or why not)? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Teachers

Can Superstar Teachers Save Failing Schools?

By Matthew Lynch

An interesting phenomenon in many public, private and charter schools is the adoption of accountability standards that read more like a white paper on business efficiency than suggestions for actually teaching human beings. The problem with these standards, of course, is that with stringent, subjective targets for learning, schools are able to “game” the system to make it work in their favor. In other words, these schools are looking for ways to meet a specific, narrow goal – think of it like a salesperson closing a deal – and then they are rewarded for that piece of shallow success.

The flip side of this is that the schools that do not manage to meet these standards are then punished, in true NCLB style, even if the details of their teaching methods actually have some merit. Teachers and administrators at schools that are deemed “failures” or even just mediocre by the established system then must bow to the pressure in order to stay relevant and away from the target range when it comes to adding “competitive” school choices.  This is the most unattractive face of school reform.

Whose fault is it?

So, are the teachers to blame?  I think it is unfair to count on, or to blame, teachers solely for the performance of their students. Yes, they play a role in shaping the young minds in their classrooms and yes, they should be held accountable for that. It seems to me that the root of issues in classrooms that tend to cause the most problems for students (like poverty and ill-equipped or uninvolved parents) should be the target of any true reform. Teachers come and go, moving from school to school or on to different careers. Strong programs that address equality in education and focus on social issues at the root of learning challenges are what will truly make an impact on what students learn and retain, and whether those students succeed.

But what about the “superstar teachers”?  You are probably familiar with the concept, particularly since it is perpetuated in popular culture through movies like the classic Edward James Olmos film “Stand and Deliver” and 2012’s “Won’t Back Down.” The idea is that with the right teacher – a committed, bright, in-tune, talented teacher – P-12 problems like the achievement gap and high dropout rates will cease to exist. If only every student had a standout teacher like the ones portrayed in these shows, the very P-12 system as we know it would be transformed for the better.

I do believe in the power of teachers, both positive and negative, on their students. I train educators for a living and have written books about following “the calling” to become a teacher. I do think that teachers make a difference – but I cannot put all of my faith in these “superstar teachers” to reform the education system the way that is truly needed.

For one thing, the schools that desperately need some sort of superstar saviors are often unable to attract them. In a study on urban schools and poverty released by the National Center for Education Statistics, urban administrators said that they had difficulty attracting and retaining high-quality teachers. This observation, coupled with the fact that schools with higher percentages of students living in poverty had less resources available for teaching, is a recipe for disaster when it comes to counting on these “superstars” to close the achievement gap, lift standardized test scores and increase graduation rates. These urban schools are the very places that need all of those factors to happen to improve student achievement and the long-term overall quality of life in those communities. So if the answer falls solely on strong teachers, these places are in a lot of trouble.

What do you think?  Are teachers the answer to fixing the problem with many of the attempts at school reform, or does the problem run much deeper?

 

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

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Teachers

What You Need to Know as an Educator: How to Deal with a Difficult Principal

As a teacher you may find it very difficult to work with your principal. Therefore this article provides tips for surviving the work place as you continue to invest in the lives of students.

Being a teacher was hands down one of the most difficult things that I have ever done in my life. It was also, however, the most rewarding. I had excellent relationships with my colleagues and my building principals, who served as a support system during times of uncertainty and difficulty. I hope that you will have a similar experience, but I also want you to be prepared if you do not.

Your school principal serves as an immediate supervisor and has direct authority over the day-to-day management of the school. A principal can be an invaluable ally in your pursuit to educate students or can be a nuisance and make your life a living hell. Here are some strategies that you can use to deal with a difficult principal.

  1. Take steps to open the lines of communication, and build a healthy reciprocal relationship with your principal. There is nothing wrong with appeasing your principal, and even “kissing up.” Your objective is to coexist with him or her and be the best teacher that you can be. Document every interaction between you and your building principal. If there is a problem down the line, you will have a detailed record of your interactions. Also, if your colleagues witnessed important interactions between you and your principal, be sure to record their names and other pertinent information.
  2. If you feel as though your principal is bullying or persecuting you, try to stay calm and remain professional. Give the principal the benefit of the doubt at first, but if he or she crosses the line, it may be time to seek help. This is especially true if you feel that you have done all that you can to solve the problem.
  3. If you do decide to seek outside help or advice, your union representative will be your first line of defense. The representative will inform you of your rights and help you devise a plan for dealing with the situation. If your principal is exhibiting bullying behaviors toward you, odds are that he or she has also bullied others. There is a possibility that your union representative has fielded complaints about this principal in the past.

If the problem does not subside with time, I would either transfer to another school in the district or simply leave. If you are not satisfied with this course of action, perhaps you should report the principal’s actions to someone further up the chain of command, but make sure you have done your part by having a heart-to-heart with your principal. Remember, it’s not your fault, and everyone, even principals, must face the consequences of their actions.

We would like to think that principals are all altruistic people who treat everyone fairly and have our best interests at heart, but in the end they are human just like us. I have seen strong relationships between teachers and principals devolve into toxic ones within the blink of an eye. The funny thing is that it was usually over some petty matter or a product of miscommunication.

There may come a time when you have to deal with a difficult principal, and I just want you to be prepared. If you implement these strategies, you should have no problem standing up for yourself. Remember why you love to teach and use these tips to deal with your principal.

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